Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with strike

Tips for crossing the picket line

Anonymous — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 11:01:50 -0800

I work in an office that is union-organized and my job is a union title. Our contract renewal is being bargained right now. I want to be prepared to cross the line if we go on strike. I do not personally belong to the union, although I pay dues because my state is not "right to work". The last time the contract was being renewed, I found out that the union can penalize you financially if you cross the picket line while still a member. I think I should be able to make my own decision, so I resigned from the union. I've never asked for a refund of any dues.

If we go on strike, I will cross the line if I feel the company is being reasonable in their offers. I do not need advice on whether to cross or not.

What I need advice on is how to prepare for crossing, what to expect after crossing and how to deal with problems it may cause. I already plan to take the train to work instead of driving so there is no car around to be vandalized (not thinking the union itself would do anything, but we have some overzealous coworkers). Any contact info they may have for me is out of date by several years. There are a few people I work with that I am friends with. Some of those relationships may be hurt, but I am prepared to deal with that. I've talked with some of them about this.

Based on the reactions I got when I resigned and the way some people have treated me since, I assume some people will be rude to me and I'll be harassed when leaving work from time to time. That is fine, too.

Again, I do not need advice on whether to cross or not.

If you want to email me privately, write me at helpcrossing at gmail.com please. Thanks

Counter-strike without steam access?

StephenMeldalFoged — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 06:41:46 -0800

Can I (we) play the retail version of counter-strike: source on a local network (at work) where we don't have access to steam Here at work we like to play games during breaks and after work.
We all have our personal steam account and various games and we play them at home.

The problem is that steam is blocked here at work, so we can't sign in and play our games.

If we buy the retail version (one for each player) of counter-strike: source, witch comes on a DVD can we play against each other without signing in to steam?

We are not interested in any illegal hacks, cracks or no-cd-patches.

strike protocol

Anonymous — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 11:46:12 -0800

My co-workers are on strike. Should I go to work? I work at a state university. My co-workers are on strike. I'm in a different union than the workers that are on strike. In the years I've worked for the university I've never heard a peep from my union so I don't think that they're an organization I'll look to for guidance.

I'm not sure if going to work is crossing a picket line. I'm not even sure whether the striking union intends the picket to discourage other workers from coming to work. We work for the state so actions are designed to influence the political process more than they're designed to inflict economic pain. The strike is time-limited. If the union intended for the strike to have any bite they would have chosen a different time of year.

So am I crossing a picket line if I go to work? What was the protocol for something like this back when unions were strong? I know that the Teamsters would sometimes refuse to deliver to struck companies but that was a decision taken by the union rather than an individual worker.
Just to be clear I'm not asking about whether I should cross a picket line. If there a clear picket line in a traditional strike, there's no way I would cross it.
You can use picketquestion@gmail.com for follow-ups.

No agent, no pride

Ziggurat — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 21:11:07 -0800

Question for pro screenwriters...since the strike is on right now, would this be an abnormally good time, or an abnormally bad time, to try to get an agent? My writing partner and I have been at it for a long time, and we just now (finally) have a script that is very good. I'm pretty cynical (pragmatic) about my own work, but I'm positive the script we've just finished is great, it's very commercial (not in a bad way), very funny, original, has a great story, all that stuff.
We've had brief dalliances with representation before, and we actually did a rewrite of a script that will hopefully be produced this year, for a few million dollars (meaning it was "professional" work). But we're not represented right now, and we want to be.
It seems to me that with the strike on right now, agents might be twiddling their thumbs a bit, and thus be a bit more receptive to looking at spec scripts. But is that assumption wrong? And, even more importantly, are we even allowed to seek representation right now, without being scabs? (I've tried to research that fact, but haven't found a definitive answer.) We're not WGA, but we don't want to break any rules or do anything dodgy r.e. the union.
Thanks a lot!

How are Stewart and Colbert back on the air when the strike is still on? (derail follow-up)

paddingtonb — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 16:07:07 -0800

Piggybacking on the derail in this question, and solipsophistocracy's question therein, why are the Daily Show and Colbert Report making new episodes with the writer's strike still going on? I heard that both Stewart and Colbert are members of the WGA and all the repeated references to the strike during their first shows back on the air lead me to believe that they are both completely sympathetic to the strike. What is going on here? Is it correct to say that they are not violating the strike because they aren't writing anything? How does the Daily Show/Colbert situation differ from the Letterman situation?

I've done a bit of googling, but everything I have come across is so piecemeal. I would love to hear some mefite perspectives on what is going on, especially from folks who are following the ongoing saga more closely then I am.

Should we attend The Daily Show while the strike's still going on?

These Premises Are Alarmed — Tue, 08 Jan 2008 12:02:39 -0800

Months ago, my wife and I got tickets for the Jan 17th episode of The Daily Show. She's unlikely to cross a picket line - is there likely to be one? Either way, should we go? We live in NYC and could go some other time when the strike is resolved, on the other hand her schedule is very busy and she has this afternoon free. It's also my birthday weekend, and we were going to use this to celebrate.

I'm personally ambivalent about labor economics in general (still resent the union dues I paid at the grocery store in High School) but am very sympathetic to the writer's point of view. On the other hand, it seems like TDS is doing all it can to help the writers.

Anyway, if there's going to be a picket line it may well be a moot point, I'm not going to drag her across it. Will there be?

BFD, Digidesign Strike, or some other Pro Tools MIDI drum solution?

The World Famous — Thu, 06 Dec 2007 11:43:10 -0800

Pro Tools drums: BFD, Digidesign Strike, or something else? I've been using BFD Lite, which came bundled with the MBox 2. I think it is fantastic, but I find myself wishing I had the full version with all the kits and functionality.

But Digidesign has a competitor to BFD, called Strike, which I have seen reviews of but have not used. And from what I have read, it looks like Strike might have some functionality that BFD can't match. But does Strike sound as good? Is it as usable?

When constructing drum tracks, I have, so far, used the following approaches, in addition to actually playing real drums:

1) Old-school drum machine programming before the days of Pro Tools. These days are over, but I am very adept at drum machine programming;

2) Constructing a beat by copying and pasting recorded drum sounds and files into separate audio tracks in Pro Tools. This is great for certain kinds of beats, but not so much if I want it to sound more real, particularly for stuff that's supposed to rock;

3) Midi drums, either programmed or played via USB keyboard controller. I have used BFD Lite, the sounds in Xpand! and whatever my buddy with a Logic system has.

#3 is the one that I'm wondering about BFD, Strike, or something else for. I like being able to play the beat out in real time on the keyboard, which I am quite good at. I would also like to be able to take a preset beat loop and edit where in the loop the various hits are. I have no use for drum loops in BFD or something like that if I cannot edit the loops themselves in MIDI form or some other form. I would like to be able to apply the humanization features, swing, and that sort of thing both to edited loops and to MIDI drum tracks that I create from scratch.

Has anyone here used BFD and Strike and anything else good? Can you make a specific recommendation as to which one, or neither, or a different one that I don't know of, would meet my needs?

While it will often be used in conjunction with other drum loops, percussion samples, and sounds on other tracks, I would like it to sound as good as possible on its own, as I do both the demos for my band on my system, with me playing all instruments, and also produce and record my own music of several styles for other projects and commercial use.

Thanks!

Oh, and in case it makes a difference, I'm running Pro Tools LE 3.[something] through an MBox 2 on an Intel-powered Mac Mini with 2GB of ram.

Does WWE employ union writers?

macdara — Wed, 07 Nov 2007 04:24:02 -0800

Has WWE programming been affected by the WGA writers' strike? I've read conflicting information about whether or not the writers employed to script promos and flesh out storylines on Raw and SmackDown! are members the Writers Guild.

Most of the news on wrestling 'news' sites is unconfirmed rumour, speculation or supposition, so I can't really trust their majority assertion that WWE's writers are non-union, even though many of the writers have a background in writing for soaps and other shows.

The content of Monday's Raw broadcast, to me, is strong evidence that the writers are indeed on the picket line. Over the course of 2 hours, only two main storylines were featured, which could easily have been handled by the wrestlers and bookers themselves (which was the done thing before writers were brought in a decade ago).

But that's just guesswork on my part. Can anyone here confirm either way?

Strike 4! No wait, ball 5! Err...

phaded — Mon, 06 Aug 2007 19:48:50 -0800

BaseballFilter: If a batter has a full count and then fouls off the next few pitches, do those pitches go as a ball or a strike in the pitcher's pitch count for the game?

Where to buy an electric door strike?

Sonic_Molson — Tue, 03 Apr 2007 10:45:42 -0800

Where can I buy an electric door strike near Burlington, Ontario? I'm looking for an electric door strike, but I have not had much luck locally. The best I found was at a lock store for $225 CAD.

Online I was able to find these as cheap as $25. I'm willing to pay a lot more than $25, but not quite ready to pay $225. The $100 CAD range would be perfect.

I'd really prefer to find this somewhere in Burlington, or even Hamilton/Oakville. At last resort I would go buy this online if someone was able to recommend to me a site with a good reputation.

iPod abuse

Kiwi — Thu, 28 Dec 2006 10:35:43 -0800

Stop me hitting my iPod! My 4th gen iPod requires frequent slapping to encourage it to unfreeze (try Googling 'slap+ipod' to see what I mean). What does this particular 'fix' actually do? How do I fix my iPod in a more permanent way? It seems that since this slapping is often successful, there might be single problem that it is fixing? Loose HD connection or something?

Denver Public Transport Strike & A Lost Foreigner

divabat — Thu, 06 Apr 2006 05:00:53 -0800

Denver's public transport is on strike. I'm coming over from overseas this weekend and will need to rely on public transport to get around. Ack! What should I do? I'm coming over to Denver for a volunteer performance thing and this strike has really messed up my travel plans. I don't drive, I'm living with a host family, and I need to get my own transport - I had good plans, but then this strike comes in and I don't know what to do anymore.

My schedule looks something like this:

First Week:
1) Host mum drops me at Wagon RD PnR at 8 am
2) I take 2 buses to office at Broadway (near 16th Street); reach there by 9 am (120x bus to Market St, and one other bus that takes a minute)
3) Leave office to reach Auraria campus at 3 pm (I could go here with my colleagues, but just in case...)
4) Leave Auraria campus at 9-10 pm and head back to Wagon Rd

Last 3 Days:
Similar, except that instead of going to Auraria, I'll need to go to Teikyo Loretto Heights. Timing's similar, or full day there (so no office).

What I'm worried about are:

a) As far as I could tell, the routes I would need to get anywhere are still operational. However, I don't know if there would be buses with enough space, or if they would STILL be operational, or what.
b) Timing. My host mum will drop me off on her way to work; should we leave earlier? I'll be finishing late at night, how do I get home?
c) Money. Are the tickets more expensive now?

I've only been to Denver once before and didn't need public transport then, and I'm flying there this Saturday (two days from now) so am a bit worried! I've asked the people in our volunteer cast for ideas, but in the meantime, what else can I do?

Thank you!

AirplaneWorkersOnStrikeFilter

philulrich — Thu, 23 Mar 2006 07:56:43 -0800

A friend of mine is flying on Delta soon and wants to know: if they strike, will another airline honor her ticket? My friend lives in North Carolina and will be going home soon to Kentucky. She writes:

"Delta was the only airline that could get me home next weekend that was under $300, I had no choice. My flight in is on United, so I have no problem getting there but I might be stuck in Kentucky. It was ridiculous, *all* the other flights coming back here that day were expensive, WAY more than usual."

So basically: if Delta strikes, will she have to end up shelling out again for a more expensive ticket to get back to North Carolina?

Getting From NJ to JFK on Strike Day

brownpau — Tue, 20 Dec 2005 08:21:36 -0800

MeFiNewYork, I ask you this. Today, I need to make it from Union, NJ to JFK Airport via public transit. I need to be at JFK by 7pm. I am leaving Union at 1:38pm, taking NJT to Penn Station, and LIRR to the Jamaica-JFK Airtrain. I am doing this with 100 pounds of luggage in a large rolling suitcase about the size of another person. There is a strike going on. Am I doomed? (Addendum: There are no Virginia hams in my luggage this year.)

Comparitive analysis of Transit worker salaries.

purephase — Tue, 12 Apr 2005 21:14:05 -0800

Based on the recent contract negotiations for the Toronto Transit Commission (ATU 113) and the nearly averted strike, I was curious as to the average wage paid to other transit employees in countries that offer similar forms of public transit. First off, I grudgingly support the union initiative since I believe public transit is extremely important within any city environment.

However, the average TTC bus driver makes approximately $24.32 an hour. I realize that the importance of a public transit service within a major metropolitan area is paramount (and I use it every single day) however, some of the recent contract stipulations have peaked my curiosity around the supposed under-funding vs. the strangle-hold that the transit union has over the city.

So, I was curious if people knew what the average salary was for union or non-union transit workers in their respective cities and if public transit is an asset in your mode of transportation. If so, how do you feel about fare increases or service reduction in order to meet the union riders during contract negotiations?

Crossing out words in hypertext

semmi — Mon, 11 Oct 2004 19:26:00 -0800

How do you cross out words in Hypertext?