Reply #41: And the sad thing is that many of the people who could most USE a union [View All]

have been brainwashed against them.

The grocery workers went on strike in Portland in the mid 1990s, protesting a decision by Fred Meyer, a formerly local corporation bought by out-of-town investors, to give formerly full-time employees "flexible" schedules against their wills. The result was a loss of benefits in some cases.

At the time, I was living in the Hawthorne District, which as any Portlander knows, is a lefty, New Age neighborhood bordering on working class areas.

Most local residents appeared to honor the picket line and bring the strikers food and beverages, but the working class people in junker cars walked right through the picket line without a sideways glance, and many worked as scabs (for wages higher than were paid to regular employees).

I heard that the right wing radio jocks were preaching that the Fred Meyer workers were "spoiled," and that they already had it better than the average worker.

So instead of being told to ask, "Why can't I have wages and benefits as good as the ones that Fred Meyer workers used to have?" radio listeners were being told to ask, "Why should the Fred Meyer workers have better wages and benefits than I have?"

I've seen that tactic used again and again, frequently against state and federal employees.