I will not cross a picket line. Well, that's not strictly true, but it's my personal philosophy on these things. At various points in time, myself and my two brothers were members of a union, as were a large number of my family members on my mom's side, including her father.
Now, if baseball players go on strike, screw them, I'm going to the game. So, the idea isn't that I hold all picket lines as sacrosanct, because I don't, but rather that I'm all about the ideals held by guys on picket lines. Namely, there's no reason that management figures should be getting $25,000 bonuses and at the same time, trying to cut employee benefits. And really, all the excuse I'll ever need to hold something of a soft spot in my heart for my union brothers comes down to the two years I spent working at Kroger's. I mean... it's not like I was making a lot of money by a long-shot but the pay was decent and the hours were good, and that's pretty much what the story was for everyone who worked there. Since then, I've moved to Texas and had several friends work for Wal-Mart. Just watching how Wal-Mart employees get treated and kicked around is bad enough to practically make me want to go help them organize. The comparison is maddening... and the real proof is just how had Wal-Mart is willing to try to prevent their stores from unionizing. After all, paying a fair wage and decent benefits costs the bottom line.
All that said, I'm a fairly conservative guy and not pro-labor by any stretch. I contend that most of the views held by the AFL-CIO and its ilk are boneheaded and backwards. But I won't cross a picket line.