-Yoshie >...Even union strike benefits aren't fat enough to compensate -for all sacrifices that workers make during strikes.
- Not always. I was on strike with 95% or so of the teachers covered -under the then expired NEA/OEA contract in the Oakland, Ca. USD back -in 1985 for 5 or 6 weeks. Strike benefits were over twice what daily -substitute teacher pay was then. I'll more than grant, of coarse, that -$125 a day strike benefits were less than a regular teacher would have -made.
Or to take a dramatic example, the six-year Frontier strike in Las Vegas, where the union double dues for all members in the city so they could guarantee strike benefits of $200 per week for all workers. This allowed the strikers to maintain the picket lines 24 hours a day, seven days a week for the duration of the 78-month-long strike.
While this wasn't full pay, the workers also had other jobs in most cases.
And the result after the longest successful strike in American history was a union contract, not only for those workers but a strengthening of the union throughout the city.
-- Nathan Newman