By PhillyLabor.com
– Too many times people pass by a job site and see our old friend “Scabby The Rat” sitting out front accompanied by union workers picketing/demonstrating and holding signs and they automatically create a stereotype that the union members are making a spectacle or bullying an innocent employer.
Usually the general public responds in one of two ways to these types of scenarios: 1) they honk in support or 2) they yell obscenities or even insults at the union workers as if they are doing something wrong. The thing is that many people, who do not understand unions, make rash judgements without really knowing the full grasp of the situation. They just see the big rat and they react.
Having said that, it’s important for everyone to realize that, although not pretty, “Scabby The Rat” actually serves a deeper and bigger purpose than just creating a scene or a negative connotation. It is often a symbol that workers rights, standards and/or wages are being violated and, as shocking as it may appear, the public needs to be brought to attention and has a right to know about potential abuses that are going on in their community!
Thus, the next time you pass by a job site or establishment where there is a picket line or demonstration of this nature going on, there are 5 things you should consider when you see Scabby the Rat in the vicinity:
1) “Scabby the Rat” Appears at a location “ONLY” as a last resort after a true effort has been made by union representatives to negotiate a fair deal in good faith.
2) Many times there is a predatory employer taking advantage of and/or paying non-union employees sub standard wages on that job site
3) Often the wages paid out by predatory employers to their non-union workers on these job sites are so low that the workers themselves can not even afford to live in the community or city for which they are working.
4) The non-union workers, who are often working for less on these job sites, are also lowering and jeopardizing area working standards and conditions .
5) The union men and women who are walking the picket line and demonstrating next to Scabby are “NOT THUGS”. They are good, hard working, decent people who are simply standing up for workers rights and fair wages and standards that have been earned by generations of working men and women. THEY DESERVE YOUR SUPPORT, RESPECT AND ENCOURAGEMENT because they are not just out there for themselves, they are out there for all middle class Americans who deserve a fair shot at the American Dream!
