Sub Employees: To Scab or Not to Scab

As many of you who have read my work know by now, I am a substitute teacher. That is the main way I make my living. I live in a state where a certain governor passed a law a number of years ago that makes it illegal to strike---at all. But let's say that I lived and subbed in a state where there was no such law. In spite of the most valiant efforts to resolve a certain impasse--school was cancelled for several weeks, as did happen in Detroit in 1973. That year, Labour Day was September 3rd. The district teachers and the administration were fighting over pay, or something like that. Making a long story short, my entry into 2nd grade that year was delayed until Thursday, October 18. That ended up being a one day week for me, for my appointment for my yearly physical was scheduled for Friday the 19th. So my first week of school was not until the week starting the following Monday, October 22. To make up for all lost time, school stayed in session until Friday, July 12, 1974, and there was no Easter break. We ended up being off for Good Friday, April 12, but that was about it. And there was even talk of making kids go to school on Saturdays for half day (that never happened).

But the one thing I don't remember about that whole year, a bizarre one indeed--is that there was never talk about crossing a picket line, or scabbing. They were a united front, and, evidently, they got the job done. Did they get all that they were asking for? I'm not too sure, but they had to be satisfied. They were out a long time.

Our teachers work hard. Their pay is lousy. Therefore, they deserve a modicum of respect. Thus, if the districts I chose to work for chose to strike, I would have to say that as a substitute I would never cross a picket line. Sure the money would look good, and I would not doubt that, as a man who has a wife he dearly loves, it would not be tempting. But I would be ashamed of myself in the end. I would realise that I worked against the very principles my mother, a union steward herself, taught me as a child growing up.

The first reason not to cross picket lines as a scab, then, is that it is disrespectful to the workers who are striking. You are only thinking of your own pocketbook. These people have families too. They have obligations, they have rent that needs to be paid, food that needs to be kept on shelves and in refrigerators for survival. As a substitute employee, if you disrespect the regular employees by scabbing against them, it could come back to bite you in the butt. You will find a lot of teachers, or regular employees, regardless of the field--angry at you because you chose sides in a dispute that didn't really concern you.

The second reason not to go there is you are playing a role in undermining a union that, at one day, one point in your professional life, that you might need. You are playing into the same mentality that Ronald Reagan used when he fired all of those Air Traffic Controllers who were on strike on August 3, 1981. The late President said, "You were not fired...you quit." In so doing, Reagan wrote off thousands of people as unimportant, as well as the labour union movement as a whole. The more people who show a willingness to work as a scab, the less seriously management will take the union movement.

On a personal level, why should I scab in the district that's striking? I have four other districts to pick from. That's the beauty of a computer dispatch system, and of being a multidistrict substitute. I can go where I am wanted, and avoid the riffraff altogether.

Unions work for you, the rank-and file employee. Let's say you get into trouble over something you know you didn't do. Let's say your union steward is not there, for the union that could have protected you and acted as your advocate, was no longer in existence. You would be handed your butt that day if management decided they didn't like you. You could be fired, in fact, because they didn't like the colour of your skin, or because you breathed too loudly. So one thing unions do is to give you a crack at a fair trial. Under union law, if your boss decides to discipline you, you can ask for your steward to be right by your side, as a lawyer in a courtroom.

Now because of the nature of the economy, unions have had to agree to take massive pay cuts, but they still have the power to keep your wages from falling too unreasonably low. Did you know that where companies are unionised, they cannot pay you below a certain amount?

Also, everybody needs vacation time every now and then. Did you know that without unions, they can strip you of vacations, making you work all year long, or as much as they deemed necessary?

I could go on. But this Labour Day season, I urge you to show the proper respect for those who, in the 30s, died trying to establish unions in Detroit, especially in the riots at Ford Motors company. They died for you. They died fighting for better working conditions, for better pay, and the like. Remember that the next time you decide to take advantage of striking teacher employees, nurses, automakers, coal miners, police officers, or screenwriters who work hard at writing the shows that entertain us. Let's remember people like the late Penny Singleton ("Blondie") who fought at getting an actors guild going.