To Protest Hiring of Nonunion Help, Union Hires Nonunion Pickets

[mahatmakanejeeves]

It's Friday; enjoy the irony.

To Protest Hiring of Nonunion Help, Union Hires Nonunion Pickets

PAGE ONE JULY 16, 2010
Jobless Recruits Get Minimum Wage 'To March Around and Sound Off'

By JENNIFER LEVITZ
WASHINGTON—Billy Raye, a 51-year-old unemployed bike courier, is looking for work.

Fortunately for him, the Mid-Atlantic Regional Council of Carpenters is seeking paid demonstrators to march and chant in its current picket line outside the McPherson Building, an office complex here where the council says work is being done with nonunion labor.

"For a lot of our members, it's really difficult to have them come out, either because of parking or something else," explains Vincente Garcia, a union representative who is supervising the picketing.

So instead, the union hires unemployed people at the minimum wage—$8.25 an hour—to walk picket lines. Mr. Raye says he's grateful for the work, even though he's not sure why he's doing it. "I could care less," he says. "I am being paid to march around and sound off."

Protest organizers and advocacy groups are reaping an unexpected benefit from continued high joblessness. With the national unemployment rate currently at 9.5%, an "endless supply" of the out-of-work, as well as retirees seeking extra income, are lining up to be paid demonstrators, says George Eisner, the union's director of organization. Extra feet help the union staff about 150 picket lines in the District of Columbia and Baltimore each day.

Online postings recruit paid activists for everything from stopping offshore drilling to defending the Constitution.
....

The union's Mr. Garcia sees no conflict in a union that insists on union labor hiring nonunion people to protest the hiring of nonunion labor.

He says the pickets are not only about "union issues" but also about fair wages and benefits for American workers. By hiring the unemployed, "we are also giving back to the community a bit," he says.

[MineralMan]

1. Now, there's a bad decision. More fodder for the anti-union

forces. Why do people do this kind of thing to themselves? Truly...

[guitar man]

2. the untold story is

depending on how long the strike has been going on, a lot of the union guys may have gone out and found other work. I remember when I was on strike many moons ago I wound up going out and subcontracting out some drywall work to get me by until the strike was over, it was either work or wind up homeless,

[Township75]

3. I just saw this story on TV.

F'en pathetic. The show said the unions did this during 2006 and 2007 stating that their members were too busy because of the booming economy to show-up. Now unemployment is very high, especially in construction, and they are still hiring non union people at minimum wage???

They just look awful in this, and they did it to themselves.