http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/Art...s/International

 

I guess they need to work for Wal-Mart to get insurance now

 

You've heard the panhandler's common refrain, "Will work for food." How about: "Will picket for food?"

 

In Washington, Baltimore, Atlanta and elsewhere in the United States, union organizers are scouring shelters and recruiting homeless people to man their picket lines, paying just above minimum wage and failing to provide health benefits.

 

The United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners, which broke from the AFL-CIO four years ago in a dispute over organizing strategy and other issues, is hiring homeless people to protest at non-union construction sites.

 

"We're giving jobs to people who didn't have jobs, people who in some cases couldn't secure work," said George Eisner, head of the union's mid-Atlantic regional council in Baltimore.

 

The carpenters who belong to his union, Mr. Eisner explained, are already working. With homes and offices being built or renovated and real estate still booming in many urban areas, he said, the union carpenters are too busy to join the picket lines.

 

"Work is good, and our members are working," Mr. Eisner said. "This is just the best thing for us to do at this point."

 

But the new strategy of placing homeless people in picket lines disturbs some labour experts.

 

Neil Bernstein, a law professor at Washington University in St. Louis who specializes in labour law, said unions that use such a tactic are guilty of practising a double standard.

 

"They're basically doing what they're criticizing the employers for doing -- getting the cheapest people to do the job," he said.

And that made sense to someone

That is so wrong.

Organized labor has sunk to another new low.

Hypocrisy at its finest, unions are becoming a joke in this country.

The carpenters who belong to his union, Mr. Eisner explained, are already working. With homes and offices being built or renovated and real estate still booming in many urban areas, he said, the union carpenters are too busy to join the picket lines.

"Work is good, and our members are working," Mr. Eisner said. "This is just the best thing for us to do at this point."

So if the union guys are too busy to picket, wouldn't they also be too busy to take on new jobs? Should people needing work done be forced to wait until the union guys finished other projects BEFORE they could start their own? :banghead

So if the union guys are too busy to picket, wouldn't they also be too busy to take on new jobs?  Should people needing work done be forced to wait until the union guys finished other projects BEFORE they could start their own?  :banghead

Exactly!

So if the union guys are too busy to picket, wouldn't they also be too busy to take on new jobs?  Should people needing work done be forced to wait until the union guys finished other projects BEFORE they could start their own?  :banghead

 

If, and only if, they want want a high quality job done by skilled craftsmen. Otherwise, not so important.

If, and only if, they want want a high quality job done by skilled craftsmen.  Otherwise, not so important.

Did you mean for that to be green, or are you saying that only union craftsmen are skilled? I hope you meant green.

If, and only if, they want want a high quality job done by skilled craftsmen.  Otherwise, not so important.

 

Are you refering to the homeless being better picketers or the union carpenters being better skilled?

 

Either way, I agree with you. If you take all the Union guys in one group and everyone who claims to be a carpenter in the other, I'll take the average of the union group before the average of the non-union group. Evil, that's not to say that there aren't some very excellent carpenters and other tradesmen without a union card.

I'm suprised the Union didn't just pay them with a pint of Dimitri Vodka.

Are you refering to the homeless being better picketers or the union carpenters being better skilled?

 

Either way, I agree with you. If you take all the Union guys in one group and everyone who claims to be a carpenter in the other, I'll take the average of the union group before the average of the non-union group. Evil, that's not to say that there aren't some very excellent carpenters and other tradesmen without a union card.

 

That was exactly my point. Thank you.

I'm starting the Homeless, Indigent, Professional Picketing & Information Enterprise for these people. Starting next month HIPPIE will be out in force whenever and where ever we are needed. If you need someone to stand outside a job site and picket for days on end, call HIPPIE. We have nothing else to do. Too busy working to complain about the poor Bush economy? Call HIPPIE. To busy pulling that ski boat behind your SUV to protest high gas prices? Call HIPPIE! Tired of just sticking cause magnets on your car? Call HIPPIE. Let us do the picketing.

Additional charges may apply for hard to rhyme slogans, poor weather, weekends, or Republican causes.

I'm starting the Homeless, Indigent, Professional Picketing & Information Enterprise for these people. Starting next month HIPPIE will be out in force whenever and where ever we are needed. If you need someone to stand outside a job site and picket for days on end, call HIPPIE. We have nothing else to do. Too busy working to complain about the poor Bush economy? Call HIPPIE. To busy pulling that ski boat behind your SUV to protest high gas prices? Call HIPPIE! Tired of just sticking cause magnets on your car? Call HIPPIE. Let us do the picketing.

Additional charges may apply for hard to rhyme slogans, poor weather, weekends, or Republican causes.

 

I'm going to unionize your labor force.

I'm going to unionize your labor force.

 

That's part of my plan, we will be unionized. And if some other union uses non-union picketers, we will picket their picket line.

That's part of my plan, we will be unionized. And if some other union uses non-union picketers, we will picket their picket line.

Holy s***! You're going to tear a hole in the universe.

Holy s***! You're going to tear a hole in the universe.

 

No. Just a warp in the space-time continueum.