Could not agree more. As management, I have a lot of sympathy for the unions' basic premise -- we want good jobs with fair wages and we want to be treated with respect. It hurts me to watch a lot of honest, hard-working people and (more importantly) their families suffer. As other folks have documented, the union leaders seem to have fallen under the swoon of the spotlight and promised more than they could ever deliver and have now painted themselves into a corner.
Compounding that, SOME of the union members have really undermined their cause with management like me with by engaging in what most of us would agree is really vile and deplorable behavior. I witnessed strikes as far back as the 80s and union members didn't act like this.
At some level, I know the union members don't care, but they really should. This nasty behavior toward the EWAs and retained management makes it really easy for folks like me to ignore the legitimate points the union is trying to make and instead view the unions as the enemy. We say to ourselves, if this is who we are trying to woo back, maybe Lowell and Stratton are right and we are better off without the unions, which makes us work harder and feel better about doing it.
If the unions were smart, they would realize that the EWAs and retained management are your natural allies -- we all want the strike over as soon as possible, maybe even more than you do. It's sad.