http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/artic.../601250336/1001 The national carpenters union evidently hires homeless people to do their picketing because their union members are too busy with, well, carpentry jobs. The job pays a little above minimum wage and there aren't any benefits, and, well, the homeless are still homeless but AFL-CIO president John Sweeney says "The fact that the people demonstrating were not members of the union doesn't make much difference." What a great idea, give the homeless people jobs, take the burden off the union members to man the picket lines themselves. I wonder if the UAW will adopt this new way of striking.
Hahaha, I heard about something having to do with that the other day! In one instance the homeless men were paid $10-20 each to picket for a company/union for a few hours to make it look like a huge demonstration was going on. When the news media started interviewing them and asking them what they were picketing against, the men had no idea why they were picketing and it was then that they were found to be paid picketers.
Same thing when Vons was striking (some students maybe not homeless). That and the fact that one of them had their dog out there during the fires when the air was so bad that the strikers wore masks but left the poor pooch exposed to all the ash and smoke left me with very little sympathy. Some of them make more than I do as Registered Nurse.
At first blush, it sounded like a total lack of commitment by the union. Upon reflection, many homeless people are limited in job skills, and can always use money, so if someone other than a carpenter was going to do it, not a bad idea. Overall, in view of media exposure, a disaster.
