Salon: Rise of the lockout: another sign of labor’s slide

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.salon.com/2012/09/28/rise_of_lockouts_another_sign_of_labors_slide/

Friday, Sep 28, 2012 12:24 PM CDT

NFL refs are back to work, but lots more American workers remain locked out
By Josh Eidelson



(Credit: AP/Seth Wenig)

Last night, three days after a blown call that had even Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker pleading to “#Returntherealrefs,” football’s union referees were back on the field. Just before midnight, management announced a deal had been reached on a new contract, ending a lockout marked by questionable calls and — worse – unsafe but unpunished hits. As the “replacement” refs depart the field, talk of lockouts will fade from the news — but they’ll remain a growing trend in labor struggles across the country.

The refs’ lockout was not a strike. In a lockout, union members are out of work not because they’ve walked off the job, but because management has refused to let them work. (Of course, plenty of bona fide strikes are intentionally provoked by management.) This distinction was lost on most national media outlets this week, as demonstrated by a string of corrections on articles that had originally referred to “striking” referees. CNN correspondent Jim Acosta even asked Mitt Romney what he would “do about those referees,” and whether he would “order them back to work.” Under U.S. labor law, when union contract negotiations break down, management can lock workers out until they reach an agreement. In other words, if you won’t give up as much as your boss wants at the bargaining table, he can put you out of work until you come around.

As workers lose ground to management, strikes are losing ground to lockouts. In the 1990s, just 4.1 percent of work stoppages were lockouts, according to Robert Combs of Bloomberg BNA; in the first quarter of this decade, 8.3 percent were. In the same period, the number of strikes has plummeted. In fact, as the New York Times reported in January, the ratio of lockouts to strikes hit an all-time high last year.

FULL story at link.

Josh Eidelson is a freelance journalist and a contributor at The American Prospect and In These Times. After receiving his MA in Political Science, he worked as a union organizer for five years.

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