Media Coverage of a Strike

[Gurdari]

Looking for experiences others may have had in this regard:

A strike is going on, and it gets covered on TV, newspaper/web, and the radio... and I hear all about the inconveniences the strike causes to regular people, and the amount of money that the city/company/etc. is losing, and that the union is being rigid, inflexible, etc. and/or the two sides are miles apart.

Sound familiar?

I also rarely hear the exact reasons/facts/issues of why the strike is taking place, what each side is 'demanding' and the context of this job action. Not that the media is somehow anti-labor, but it seems constant and I wondered if anyone else noticed this happen in their neck o fthe woods?

My most recent experience is in the greater Toronto area, with a strike by garbage workers and others.

I guess I assume if the facts are on your side in an argument, you do everything you can to ram them down your opponent's throat, not appeal to the emotions of the audience and avoid direct, clear reasoning.

 

[sealybobo]

Looking for experiences others may have had in this regard:

A strike is going on, and it gets covered on TV, newspaper/web, and the radio... and I hear all about the inconveniences the strike causes to regular people, and the amount of money that the city/company/etc. is losing, and that the union is being rigid, inflexible, etc. and/or the two sides are miles apart.

Sound familiar?

I also rarely hear the exact reasons/facts/issues of why the strike is taking place, what each side is 'demanding' and the context of this job action. Not that the media is somehow anti-labor, but it seems constant and I wondered if anyone else noticed this happen in their neck o fthe woods?

My most recent experience is in the greater Toronto area, with a strike by garbage workers and others.

I guess I assume if the facts are on your side in an argument, you do everything you can to ram them down your opponent's throat, not appeal to the emotions of the audience and avoid direct, clear reasoning.

Thank you so much for posting this. And they call it the liberal media. I keep telling them that the media has been purchased by the mega corps and they contol the content.

Also notice the news now mostly talks about stock markets, investors, blue chips, etc. They don't talk as much about labor, wages, unemployment as much as they use to.

Good eye.

 

[Citizen]

I can remember back in the sixties when a privately owned furniture company, Maxwell furniture I believe the name was, a non union factory, with the employees earning a higher wage than others in the same area, Cookeville, TN.

Because the furniture company delivered furniture in their own trucks interstate it was eligible for union membership. After being approached by union organizers, and due to the claims made by the union organizers about how much better off they would be with a union, the employees decided to vote for a union, but the companies owner told his employees that since he owned the company, he would not allow a union, but the employees, voted to join the union anyway.

To make a long story short, after voting in the union, and being on strike for a couple months, the owner closed his business, sold his delivery trucks, furniture making equipment, and rented out his buildings, leaving those employees without jobs, and no opportunity to get another job, in the same area, paying anything close to what they were making at the furniture plant.

In this case the union was the cause of those workers being unemployed.

 

[Anguille]

Looking for experiences others may have had in this regard:

A strike is going on, and it gets covered on TV, newspaper/web, and the radio... and I hear all about the inconveniences the strike causes to regular people, and the amount of money that the city/company/etc. is losing, and that the union is being rigid, inflexible, etc. and/or the two sides are miles apart.

Sound familiar?

I also rarely hear the exact reasons/facts/issues of why the strike is taking place, what each side is 'demanding' and the context of this job action. Not that the media is somehow anti-labor, but it seems constant and I wondered if anyone else noticed this happen in their neck o fthe woods?

My most recent experience is in the greater Toronto area, with a strike by garbage workers and others.

I guess I assume if the facts are on your side in an argument, you do everything you can to ram them down your opponent's throat, not appeal to the emotions of the audience and avoid direct, clear reasoning.

I think the media concentrates on reporting about the inconveniences the public is experiencing because they figure that's what most interests the public and they want to sell papers/airtime.
I have to say, having been inconvenienced innumerable times by transportation strikes in Europe, when it will end and what are the hours that service will be reduced is about all I care about too.

 

[Gurdari]

I think the media concentrates on reporting about the inconveniences the public is experiencing because they figure that's what most interests the public and they want to sell papers/airtime.
I have to say, having been inconvenienced innumerable times by transportation strikes in Europe, when it will end and what are the hours that service will be reduced is about all I care about too.

I would want to know what each side's position is so I can better make a decision whom I should support, and understand how likely it is to occur again and for what reasons.

As for that plant that closed - that's too bad. Though I would have to know more about the situation before I agreed it was all the Union's fault.

Some companies create excess capacity in order to shift work should a strike occur (or should workers get uppity) which is a clever and powerful tool to keep workers from raising their expectations of how they should be treated.


Personally, I think all companies should be transparent with their employees about how much money there is, it would put demands and arguments etc. into better perspective.

 

[Gurdari]

Thank you so much for posting this. And they call it the liberal media. I keep telling them that the media has been purchased by the mega corps and they contol the content.

Also notice the news now mostly talks about stock markets, investors, blue chips, etc. They don't talk as much about labor, wages, unemployment as much as they use to.

Good eye.

I think the media bias is reflected by the ownership of the media... when middle-class, left-wing labor activists run giant media conglomerates, well - we'd see a new bias likely.

Of course, most media ownership resides in one narrow part of the economic order... so no surprise that the shows/papers reflect this perspective.