Striking

I’m generally of the view that ownership, or management, or capital, or whatever should almost never be listened to or taken seriously during times of labor strife, and that in such times you should listen to the striking workers. Not working is always the last choice, for obvious reasons, and when it gets to that point, things are generally well and truly bad.

Writer Mark Evanier has been one of my go-to sources for the ongoing Writers Strike in America’s teevee and film industry. This post is a good example of why:

This includes putting up with the most maddening part of it: Hearing some guy who gets paid a zillion dollars a week tell us that the business is hurting and there’s simply no money to give to us. When I hear this — and we always hear this — I always think, “Your only responsibility is to make as much money as possible for your company. If it’s doing that badly, shouldn’t you be fired?”

While we’re toughing it out, it would help to think about preparing for the next one. If we take a terrible deal this time, the next one will come sooner and be a whole lot worse.

If the last few years haven’t driven home the degree to which labor is getting short-changed their share of the spoils from record profits, I don’t know what kind of economy will.