Ron Paul the strikebreaker

[a_european]

Just read this on lewrockwell.com :D

h*ttp://blog.aflcio.org/2007/12/05/ron-paul-crosses-writers-picket-line/
(broke the link, remove the star *)

Ron Paul crossed the picket line of the writers strike because he was at "The View".

1. You need writers for a talk-show?
2. Writers strike.. lol, these arent coal workers or something.

Thanks Ron for fighting coercion from any side!

[Edward]

Thanks Ron for fighting coercion from any side!I'm not sure that striking is "coercion".

[a_european]

I'm not sure that striking is "coercion".

If the Unions would have it their way, it would be (I don't know if writer-union members can refuse to strike, for example).

[Edward]

If the Unions would have it their way, it would be (I don't know if writer-union members can refuse to strike, for example).It may come with a price, but I'm certain someone could refuse to strike.

[planetaryjim]

Striking is conceptually a voluntary behavior consistent with free market principles. It is the basis, for example, of Ayn Rand's plot for the novel _Atlas Shrugged_ wherein all the productive people go on strike to "stop the motor at the center of the world," as it were.

However, there are states where collective bargaining has been made into a coercive thing. Closed shop states, which include New York, I believe, and pro-union states such as California (to the best of my understanding) make it difficult for people who choose to stay out of the union. There are closed shop states where you simply cannot get a job without a union card. And you cannot always get a union card without a job. Yes, Catch-22. Gotcha. Which means that in some professions, it is the "old boyz" network. And there are opportunities for graft and corruption, which we find in depth at the postal workers unions in many east coast cities (I gather NY and NJ post offices have been notorious for organized crime) and in places like Las Vegas (Culinary Workers Union has been involved in vote fraud there according to the 1992 Tamara Clark campaign, among others) and in national unions like the Teamsters. It is certainly possible that there are unions which are not coercive and not corrupt, and I know nothing about them.

Ron Paul is from Texas. Texas is a "right to work" state. That means that you don't have to join a union to get a job. Essentially all work in Texas is "at will" except for some classes of national government jobs there. So, you work as long as you will put up with it, and your bosses keep you employed as long as they will put up with you. At will means you can walk any time you please and at will means they can let you go any time they please. So, quite a lot more free market.

I gather that in Europe there is a lot of closed shop coercion involved with the unions.

Me, I'm glad that Ron crossed the picket lines. I think it is good for him to get on national shows to get exposed to audiences. They need to know he's there. We need to raise the money to make him go big, and we need to get ourselves and everyone we can reach to the voting booths this Winter and Spring.

I believe Ron Paul can win the national election. I believe it is possible, because I have seen campaigning and organizing and committing and volunteering and donating in this campaign unlike any other. I believe part of what makes it possible is "glasnost," the openness of the campaign about what it is doing and how much money is coming in. I think such openness is a breath of fresh air.

[a_european]

Thanks Edward for the information and planetaryjim for the long post.

I'm not arguing against the concept of unions, which just means organized workers. I have a problem when they start to harass non-members or membership is even required by law. And I think at least the first point is the case for the western writers-guild.

A strike is a lose-lose situation for everybody, and by default I blame both sides if it comes to this.

I just thought the story is funny, because somehow presidential candidates are required to choose sides and how the democratic candidates are heroes for showing "Solidarity".
Ron Paul is my hero for doing what he wants to do.

PS: Closed shop coercion with unions is a problem in Europe, mostly found in traditionally "socialist" businesses, like the metal industry.

[MN Patriot]

Striking is conceptually a voluntary behavior consistent with free market principles. It is the basis, for example, of Ayn Rand's plot for the novel _Atlas Shrugged_ wherein all the productive people go on strike to "stop the motor at the center of the world," as it were.

However, there are states where collective bargaining has been made into a coercive thing. ... It is certainly possible that there are unions which are not coercive and not corrupt, and I know nothing about them.

I was an aircraft mechanic at Northworst Airlines for many years, in the AFL-CIO backed IAM. The mechanics weren't satisfied, so they fought an extremely corrupt union and government agency, the NLRB, to join another union, AMFA.

I know one of the top leaders of AMFA pretty well, he calls himself a libertarian, supports capitalism, but also wants unions to represent workers so the behemouth corporations pay them a decent wage.

AMFA probably isn't perfect, still people grumbling about this and that, but much more open than the old communist IAM.

Talking about strikebreakers, many of the old IAM officials in the mechanic ranks actually crossed the picket line and became scabs. I know many liberals and Democrats who showed their true colors by stabbing their fellow strikers in the back. I don't know of any solid conservatives or libertarian types who crossed, they actually have principles and moved on to other careers.

I suppose Ron could have not gone on the View and justified is as not being a picket line crosser. His appearance on the show probably didn't help him too much, more publicity or whatever. I doubt too many people will make a big deal out of it. Most people are unconcerned about strikes, millions of people crossed our picket lines at NWA and still flew.

[noxagol]

Yeah, striking isn't coercive and Bush isn't an idiot. The idea of an actual strike isn't, that is, the workers refusing to work. However, they are allowed to do so much stuff and get away with so much stuff, it's stupid. Unions are basically mafia, if you piss them off, they plot to kill you. Scabs as they are called regularly get beat to a pulp for crossing or trying to cross picket lines. I saw a documentary on union violence and they showed two guys that were noting license plates of workers crossing picket lines and then they would find their homes and threaten them or beat them to a pulp at home. The mother of one of my friends' unions burnt down a couple of buildings in a nearby city over the course of a couple of year because they weren't built by a union.

Here is how a union works. Let's say Union A comes to your place of work and starts telling you how you are oppressed and how you should form or join their union so you have bargaining power! Well, you all take the official vote and let's say that 80% say yes and 20% say no. You would think that they could have the 80% join the union and the 20% stay independent of the union and the company could deal with the two groups seperately. Well, what really happens is those 20% better find another job if they don't want to be in the union because they will be forced to join it. Also, if the business tells the workers that when the workers want their raises and all their wonderful benefits that they will have to fire half of them in order to do it, they can't because this is an implied threat against the workers which was made illegal. So much for Congress shall write no law abridging the freedom of speech. Unions are evil evil things now and they work only to increase their own prosperity by any means necessary, through exclusion and artificially making the supply low, violence, and coercion. Now, not all unions are like this, as MN Patriot pointed out, and it is the workers right to form a union, but, as Dr. Paul said, they should not have special legislation and "rights" given to them. What about the business's rights?