>If you're in a union, you follow the rules of that union and the most basic
>one is not to cross picket lines.
For three years, the bulk of my earnings came from work as an expert witness on behalf of union locals in dispute with other union locals precisely about what one of the most basic rules of unionism, seniority, was. These things are not as cut and dried as Newman! suggests. Unions are capable of "interpreting" the most basic rules to mean exactly the opposite of what they've meant for a hundred and fifty years and what they would mean to common sense.
There was also a union local around these parts that negotiated give-back contracts with the corporation that was taking over public services that were being privitized. The unionized, public sector employees were being dismissed and then the corporation would replace them with new workers hired at about one-half the former wage under the terms of the new "union contract". If the union itself is not following the most basic rules of unionism, one cannot assume that their picket line does. Part of the rule about picket lines is that they are there to defend bona fide worker rights and not simply arbitrary exercises of coercion. A union that uses a picket line for any non bona fide union purpose is, in essence, "crossing its own picket line" by undermining the legitimacy of the basic rules.
The Sandwichman