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Union members cross hotel-worker picket line

Boston Magazine reports that the Yankees, up here for their first ALDS game, didn't let a picket line stop them from checking into the Ritz Carlton today, even though the players, at least, are all themselves union members.

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Comments

Yankees suck, etc.

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If you "organize" people who wouldn't ordinarily be thought of as belonging to labor unions...white collar types, medical doctors, university professors, graduate students, and pro athletes, then that's more people you can shame for not going along with any given labor dispute.

Even better if the organizing happens in closed shop states like Massachusetts. Then there's no opting out of the tithes---I mean dues---jeez between that and the gay frogs I keep slipping up (which is all the more impressive in writing)---anyway...no opting out of the dues or the shaming.

Very democratic. Power to the people!

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Did you miss the part where the Yankees aren't from Massachusetts?

Also the "slipped up" in writing thing has been done one or two times before, you facile idiot.

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you know what is really democratic? the factory town. lets go back to those days, and the 80 hour work week and child labor...

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Get professional help. You are out of your tiny narrow blinkered little mind.

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Someone got fired.

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Do people really not think of pro athletes as being union members? I'm struggling to think of a more famous union these days, really - you hear the players unions mentioned in coverage of pretty much every major sport (and there's a lot of sports coverage out there), and there's been strikes or lockouts in 3 of the "Big 4" leagues in the last 10 years. Anyway, it seems like unionizing has been great for the players, except maybe in the NFL (which again, receives a lot of coverage for having a notably weak union) -- if anything, they're a great example of how groups of people with specialized skills should be unionizing in order to receive fair and equitable treatment from management.

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who for all intents and purposes get to write their own ticket anywhere they please. Same as I think of just about all six and seven figure plus people.

I do not place them in the same category as hourly workers who are largely interchangeable and have nothing but collective bargaining on their side.

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who for all intents and purposes get to write their own ticket anywhere they please

Not in the old days. Reserve Clause, remember?

I will agree, though, that they have come a long way financially since those days of reserve clause, guys having to have off-season jobs to make ends meet, a lot of them not eligible for a pension, a short working career, being easily replaced, etc...

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Thanks to the union.

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What about the upcoming holiday?

Do you really think those came from the largesse of industry?

Perhaps some history is in order.

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The Yankees are working. They're on a business trip, what did the union people expect them to do?

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It's not that small. We do have other hotels.

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Small enough that a strike barely a week old happening here and a couple of other small cities and a couple of big cities - but not happening in NY - wouldn't have gotten much advance notice in NYC.

Also, the team books the hotel, not the union.

I expect it's one of the hotels they regularly use for Boston visits.

Doubtless the Players' Association rep will issue a statement of dismay at team front office insensitivity, regret at the PA oversight in not catching it, and solidarity with the working people (and stretch that enough to cover the two nights the team would be in town)

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An association may claim to be but is not a "union".

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It's a union under federal law. Can't get much more "union" than that.

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Can't get more christian than he.

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Honest question - what's the distinction?

The MLBPA has always been regarded as the strongest players' union of the four major US sports. They're responsible for free agency.

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They are the collective bargaining organization of the employees of the franchises of Major League Baseball. They are responsible for the enforcement of the terms of the CBA between the owners and the players.

Kind of like how UNITE is the collective bargaining organization of the employees of Marriott.

I hope that clarifies things.

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OLMS however it is my observation that professional athletes have very little in common with working people. In addition some public sector "associations" offer political and financial support to people that work against other unions. Look no further than Wisconsin where public safety unions were exempt from right to work laws and pension reform while private sector and non public safety union members rights were gutted.

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We are talking about a group of employees that are collectively bargained. A union, an association, a guild. They are all doing the same thing.

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representing the interests of working people.

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If the game was being held in the Bronx, and the Red Sox crossed a picket line of hotel workers in Manhattan, would people in Boston be just as upset towards the Sox as they currently are towards the Yankees?

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All people who believe in ethics should refuse to cross a picket line wherever it is. All workers deserve fair wages, reasonable schedules, safe working conditions, and freedom from harassment.

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And one would hope the Red Sox players would respect a picket line. But, and call me cynical, I can't see that response from the average Sox fan if the Sox players were to cross a picket line in NYC when they were there to play the Yankees.

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