I have a minor ethical dilemma I'm trying to resolve, and I turn to Kossacks for at least some discussion.
The local carpenters' union has some kind of long-running dispute with a general contracting company, and has posted pickets at various commercial establishments where the company has done or is doing work.
I come from a union family and my initial instinct has always been solidarity. When I've approached the picketers, however, and talked to them to find out more about the dispute (which I do whenever I see a picket line), it became clear that they were not only not union members but paid picketers, but it seemed possible they were illegal immigrants. (more)
The pickets are up in multiple locations in our area. On two occasions I approached picketers at the shop that I had gone to before the picket line appeared. The first time, I was just genuinely interested in what was going on. The two pickets, however, didn't even respond to my friendly questions. I asked in Spanish, and one of them told me he was 'just working' and he didn't know what the dispute was about. The second time I approached the pickets (two different persons), I started out in Spanish and just made small talk, giving them bottles of water, and they were a bit friendlier at first. It became apparent from the conversation that followed that neither picket knew anything about the construction trade; one of them was hoping to get an apprentice's ticket, the other said she worked at a fast food place at night. They were both from Oaxaca; I asked them at one point if they had managed to get work permits and they both visibly stiffened and became a bit less talkative. I was trying to be respectful and polite, but it's possible the question came out the wrong way.
I called the local about this a few weeks later, identified myself as a consumer interested in the story behind the picket, was put on hold, and was cut off. I called back again, assuming somebody had just punched the wrong button, and was told curtly to stop calling.
At that point, feeling a bit unhappy, I felt I'd done what I could to find out about the nature of the dispute, and am wondering about what my responsibilities are as a union-supporting citizen. On the one hand, by default I wish to respect the picket line. On the other hand, if this isn't a genuine informational picket line manned by actual members of the local, but a form of intimidation in a dispute to which the parties seem unintereted in involving the public as informed persons, I rather feel it's my duty to keep supporting the local merchants who are affected by it. It's the kind of aggravating bullying that gives the movement a bad name.
I'd rather not go into more specific detail (1) in case I have this completely wrong, I don't want to fan any local fires or commit possible libel, and (2) to try to get a more general response to my ethical dilemma without being colored by local or regional politics. I will say this is in California.
For the time being I am honoring the picket line.
I'm more interested in reading your responses than in hearing my own opinions, so forgive me if I step back, but I would like to hear from you. Poll follows.