Emotional autoworkers cross striking janitors' picket lines in Flint

[elocs]

17. The sad & simple truth is that we are living in the twilight of unionism in America.

From the Bureau of Labor Statistics: https://www.bls.gov/news.release/union2.nr0.htm

Just 10.5% of workers are union members. Just over 1/3 of public sector workers are union members compared to 6.4% of private sector workers.
These days, when it comes to strikes or slow downs, unions are not going to get much sympathy from the general public unless they have some personal connection to unions or a strong political belief about them.
That gets even worse if the public perceives striking workers as already being well paid and having good benefits in comparison to them.

As a retired union worker who is collecting a Teamsters retirement benefit, any prolonged strike hurts everyone--particularly the workers for whom it will take a long time for them to financially get back to where they were before the strike.
Plus, any kind of violence by union members as a result of those crossing the picket lines will be a PR nightmare for the union in the eyes of the public.

Reality may suck, but it is what it is.