Commentary The reality of going on strike

[Omaha Steve]

Allowing striking workers to collect unemployment would even the playing field between workers and their employers, a union member says.

https://oregoncapitalchronicle.com/2025/03/17/the-reality-of-going-on-strike/

Donna Marks
March 17, 2025 5:30 am

Going on strike is no vacation. It’s likely the hardest thing a worker will ever have to do — I know it was for me.

In 2021, after 20 years of working at the Nabisco/Mondelez facility in Northeast Portland, my union, the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers, and Grain Millers International Union Local 364 (BCTGM), went on strike for 43 days.

Voting for the strike wasn’t easy for us, but we had no choice. After four years of working under an expired contract with no meaningful movement from the company, striking was the last chance we had to get Nabisco/Mondelez to sit down and bargain with us in good faith.
Not striking would have meant staying in an unsafe job, working days and weeks without a break or doing something unthinkable — quitting. Meanwhile, the company was making record-breaking profits off of our labor.

Going on strike meant losing income for a month and a half. It meant taking on second jobs to survive, all while maintaining a 24-hours-a-day strike line. I worked 60-hour weeks as a delivery driver to make ends meet, and many of my coworkers did the same. I was terrified that I would lose my healthcare, as my daughter lay in a hospital battling a chronic illness.

FULL story at link above.

[dutch777]

1. Has always been a peril for the average worker. Doubt extending unemployment benefits will get thru...

...anytime soon. And even years ago with a Dem Congress and Obama I think it would have been hard unless there were very set conditions like a lock out, overly lengthy, bad faith or no negotiations due to company/industry inaction or some other circumstance that gave workers no other option. What would be good to see today...is day long general strikes and certain industry wide slow downs where the workers can make their voices heard but with less pain and risk.

[ESM]

2. Unemployment Benefits for the Employed: A debate fit for the ward!

Last edited Sat Mar 29, 2025, 09:25 AM - Edit history (2)

Allowing employed citizens to claim unemployment benefit.
Do the other patients in the ward agree that makes sense.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

3. On the other hand, if you're laid off because some other employee group is on strike,

you get to collect unemployment.

[MichMan]

4. It would be advantageous if unemployment plus strike pay added up to full wages

Making going on one strike much more feasible