Driving to the Long Beach Hilton yesterday for a convention, I saw a line of picketers in front. I was driving past to find the parking, but they seemed to be listless, and all the signs were professionally printed.<\/p>\n
Hired picketers, I thought. I was early, so I wanted to go speak to them to see what they could tell me about their cause. Not much, I figured, if they were temp workers hired by the union to hold signs.<\/p>\n
As sign holding gigs go, this one would be less taxing than the one where the guy has to hold the arrow ON SALE sign and dance while waving it around.<\/p>\n
But by the time I got to the picketers, they had turned up the volume. Literally. There was a bullhorn in use, and some marching that could be interpreted as angry. Now I felt too intimidated to go up and talk to them.<\/p>\n
Two people were standing in an alcove to take a better look so i joined them. The woman there said “What do those signs say? What are they protesting?”<\/p>\n
My thoughts exactly. “Unite!” I answered her, reading the signs. “But that doesn’t tell us anything. What’s the deal?”<\/p>\n
I looked over at the second person in our alcove, and saw he was a cop. He sighed, with his thumbs hooked into his belt.<\/p>\n
“The Union wanted the workers at this Hilton to unionize. They had a vote and the workers didn’t want it. Hilton doesn’t care; a lot of their hotels are union already. But they don’t think the workers should be forced to unionize if they don’t want to. And we are caught in the middle.”<\/p>\n
Didn’t expect that answer. “But…They are being pretty loud…Can they do that? I’m not feeling very peaceful. Perhaps they are disturbing my peace?”<\/p>\n
Policeman said, “That’s why I’m here. Caught in the middle.”<\/p>\n
Hmm. “Don’ t they have a red line? I mean, when I lived in an apartment, there was a limit to how high I could turn the volume up before I got in trouble.”<\/p>\n
Apparently the city of Long Beach does not have red line legislation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Driving to the Long Beach Hilton yesterday for a convention, I saw a line of picketers in front. I was driving past to find the parking, but they seemed to be listless, and all the signs were professionally printed. Hired … Continue reading