Stuff You Should Know - How Labor Strikes Work

Episode Date: April 7, 2016

Labor strikes are the last resort of a workforce frustrated with low pay or dangerous working conditions. A big part of winning a wage war is having the public in your side. Learn all about strikes in today's episode. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On the podcast, Hey Dude, the 90s called, David Lasher and Christine Taylor, stars of the cult classic show, Hey Dude, bring you back to the days of slip dresses and choker necklaces. We're gonna use Hey Dude as our jumping off point, but we are going to unpack and dive back into the decade of the 90s.

We lived it, and now we're calling on all of our friends to come back and relive it. Listen to Hey Dude, the 90s called on the iHeart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, I'm Lance Bass, host of the new iHeart podcast, Frosted Tips with Lance Bass. Do you ever think to yourself, what advice would Lance Bass

and my favorite boy bands give me in this situation? If you do, you've come to the right place because I'm here to help. And a different hot, sexy teen crush boy bander each week to guide you through life. Tell everybody, ya everybody, about my new podcast and make sure to listen so we'll never, ever have to say. Bye, bye, bye.

Listen to Frosted Tips with Lance Bass on the iHeart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to podcasts. Tour, tour, tour, tour, live shows, live shows. Ta-da, ta-da, ta-da, tour. It's baseball season. Yeah, that's right, it is. That means we're going on tour.

Right? Josh, Seattle and Portland are sold out. I know, we'll see you guys there. Denver, Colorado, you are very close to selling out. Yeah, Colorado, Denver is like right there, right? And then Houston, Houston's doing okay. It's respectable, but it's definitely, Denver was like, give us those tickets.

Yeah, and I gotta say, Houston, we really stuck our neck out for you after Dallas and Austin, we heard from a lot of Houstonites about how big your city is, so prove it. Oh, so they called them the gauntlet, Josh. And we have two more shows to announce. Is that correct, sir? That's right, we are doing Night One and Night Two

at the Bell House in New York City. That's right, in Brooklyn, New York, Bell House has been our home there for many years. Yeah, coming back home. Yeah, these are very special shows, because they're smaller than places we've been playing. And we love it there, and I think it's gonna be pretty great. Yeah, so that's June 29th and June 30th,

and tickets go on sale Friday, this Friday. That is correct, and we will have links at our Squarespace website, sysklive.com. Make sure you buy tickets to the correct night that you wanna go. Oh, yeah, and it's gonna be the same show both nights, right? Be the same show both nights, and now all I need are tickets from Lin-Manuel Miranda

to go see Hamilton on Broadway. Oh, yeah, sure, sign me up for those as well, please. It's a pretty tough ticket to get. So if you're a listener, sir, you can come to our show. Yeah, oh yeah, totally. Even though it conflicts with the Hamilton performance. Skip it. Yeah, that's what I said.

Yeah, so like we said, sysklive.com, powered by Squarespace, so you can find all the tour deeds. Yeah. We'll see you soon, Brooklyn. Welcome to Stuff You Should Know from HowStuffWorks.com. Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark, and there's Charles W. Chuck Bryant,

and there's Jerry over there. I can hear, and this is Stuff You Should Know. We're working, and that means we're not on strike. That's right. Strike, strike, strike. Remember the Flintstones? No. Betty and Romney used to wander around shouting strike.

Why, because they were tired of being subjugated housewives. No recollection of that, I just remember seeing them like pumping their hands in the air, shouting strike. Interesting. So as a little background, if you want to go listen first to our show from May 2012, how labor unions work. Good one.

Might be a good little precursor to this. Yeah. Because they are tied together like ham and cheese. Yeah, because you really can't have a strike without a union. You can. You can, but you're probably in trouble if you do. Yeah.

For the most part. I mean, technically, we could all at HowStuffWorks decide to go on strike. We're not in a union. Yeah. Like we could all walk out and say, we want free lunch or we're not podcasting anymore. Free lunch would be great.

So technically you could do it, but I don't know about the legalities of stuff like that. Well, that's the thing. Okay, so we could do it. You're absolutely right. But we wouldn't be afforded the same legal protections that strikers who are striking under a labor union are. Yeah.

Plus our boss would probably say, well, let me see if we can work out free lunch. We'd be like, man, we burned a strike on that. All right. It would be a problem if we burned a strike on that because strikes are the, they're the last, they're basically the last resort of any labor union. Yeah, labor union doesn't say,

you know, I wish we were paid more. Let's go on strike tomorrow. Yeah, no, it doesn't happen like that. No, you try to work it out with your employer first. Right. Sit down at the negotiating table. Yeah. Well, we're jumping ahead here.

Oh, okay. Let's get to some history. You want to talk about the history of strikes? Yeah. Not a lot is known about the very first strike, but they do know that the word was used in the 1700s and it probably means, because I kind of wondered what does that mean?

It probably means came from like to strike a blow. Yeah, like a punch in the mouth. Yeah, like to strike someone. From labor to capital. That's right. They're saying, hey man, you can't push this around. And it's a really important right to be able to strike or it was for a very long time

because back in the day, if you worked in a town in Massachusetts or something like that in the late 18th century, there was probably one company in that town. And so therefore that company had what's called the monopsony, meaning that they were the only employer around so they could decide what they paid you and what were you gonna do?

You can't take a horse 50 miles to work every day to the next town. So to counteract this monopsony of the employer, the ability for the workers to get together and say, hey, we are going to not work and you will not have the product that we make for you unless we come to some agreement over these labor conditions and wages

and all sorts of stuff. Yeah, that's where they came from. One of the first strikes was in 1786 when some printers in Philadelphia said, you know what, we wanna raise. And the company said, no. No, thank you. We'll pay you just like you're paid.

They said, all right, well, you know what, we're not gonna print anything. And it worked. They quit working and they ended up getting their raise. Right, the owner was like, I hadn't expected this outcome. I'll dare you. So because it worked over the next few decades,

other people said the same thing. If we're all in the same profession, let's band together and say we wanna be treated more fairly. We're making this company a ton of money. They're paying a squat, it's not safe. We're working too long. Oh yeah, little kids are working here. Yeah, child labor's going on.

So this is, we're powerless as an individual to walk in and say, you know, I want more paid because they will say you're fired. But if we band together, we actually have some bargaining power. Exactly, and that's what a union is. It's an assemblage of workers who share some sort of commonality.

Either they work for the same company. Usually they work in the same trade. Sure. So like electrical workers in a company plant will all belong to one union and the pollsters will belong to another union and so on and so forth, right? Yeah.

So you have a bunch of different unions in the same plant for working for a same company. Right. But so usually the thing that binds workers in a union is their trade, right? And when they get together and they say, no more, we're not working anymore until you guys do something, that is power and that's the strike.

But again, there's supposed to be bargaining that comes before this. Yeah, strikes are a bit of a double-edged sword. Your company is going to very quickly cease to make money because things aren't being produced. A lot of money, which is a big deal, but you as strikers are also not making money. Right.

You might have what's called a war chest built up when your union has set aside money in case of a strike, but it's not gonna carry you through a prolonged strike and it's not gonna be your regular paycheck. So a war chest is not gonna solve your problem ultimately if it becomes a battle of wills. Yeah. Both sides are dug in for months and even years.

And apparently, so Europe's very well known for strikes. Like it seems like France was striking like every couple of weeks for a while there, right? Yeah. But it turns out that the US has struck, gone on strike, how about that? Sure. About as often as Europe has.

Oh yeah. From something like I think the 1880s till the 1970s. And has actually had bloodier strikes and longer strikes so that the mean number of days a strike lasts in the United States or did between 1881 and 1974 was 20 days. Wow. So yeah, if you're like a wage laborer, that's three weeks paid that you're losing out on.

That's the mean, it could go longer than that. Yeah, and that's exactly what is going on in the boardroom for the company. Is there, how long can we wait them out? How long can they wait us out? It's a game of chess in a lot of ways. And like you said, it is a last resort. A union can't just call a strike.

A union leader or the upper management of the union can't just say we're going on strike. You gotta put it to a vote and it's not like 51%. Like generally it's 80% or up. People have to be behind it. And which is what you want because if your labor pool isn't strong and your union isn't strong, then you're gonna lose.

Exactly. They're gonna start crossing that picket line. We'll get to all that of course. But even beyond that, the union leadership has to be smart enough to say guys, like we know that 80% of you are voting first and that's the gender neutral guys. Stop your email now.

But this is a terrible time to go on strike. Like we don't have public sympathy. The economics are against us. The brand recognition and brand loyalty of the company we work for is through the roof. It's a terrible time to strike. So if that happens and the workers are disaffected enough, they may say, no, we're going on strike anyway

without the blessing of the union. That's what's called a wild cat strike. Yes. And also, I think the name of a Blackfoot album. Who's Blackfoot? What? Are they newish? No.

Are they from the 70s? 80s. They were a Southern rock band. Oh, Atlanta Rhythms section. No, I used to love them too. Blackfoot? Yeah, they were, I think like either two thirds or three quarters of the band were Native American.

And so they were Blackfoot. And the lead singer was in a very early incarnation of Leonard Skinnerd and is now with Leonard Skinnerd again. I see. Ricky Medlock. Wow. Oh yeah, I've never heard of Blackfoot. Yeah, they're great.

I'm sorry for that Blackfoot, guys. They're a hard rock Southern rock band. Cool. It sounds like something I'd like. Yeah. Go listen to the Blackfoot song, Good Morning. Okay, Good Morning. Good Morning, different song.

If you want to not strike, one of the first things you might do if you have a disagreement is file a grievance. And like I said, when it comes time to sit down, hopefully you can both work things out at the old bargaining table. Well, in the bargaining table, this is like a, this is a very important point. Strikes occur almost across the board

during contract negotiations. Yeah. They don't happen during contracts or else you're in a major violation usually of the contract itself. Right. This is our contracts coming up. And we've been thinking, we really don't want mandatory tonselectomies.

We want that removed from this past contract. Yeah. And the employer says, no, tonselectomies for everybody. And then you have a problem. There's an issue right here. It's at the bargaining table. It's contract related. And it can conceivably lead to a strike.

So there's different kinds of strikes. There are a few that precede the full on no one's come into work strike. Kind of like a warning shot strike is you can have a sick out or sick in. And that is when you're just sort of saying, here's what could happen, company owner, factory owner. We're all calling in sick today.

And this is what it's gonna be like. Imagine this for days and days in a row. Yeah, you'd hate it, factory owner. But we're all not feeling well. Yeah. And there's actually some professions that legally give up the right to strike. Sure.

But could still conceivably do this. So like cops sometimes come down with what's called blue flu, which is a structured sick out among cops. And it's still following the letter because each cop is saying I'm taking a sick day, which I am legally afforded. But all of them are taking it at the same time.

So it's a problem. Yeah, a lot of times like if it's a public service that people really count on, firemen, cops. Yeah, they can't take, they can't go on strike. Yeah, it's in a contract. But they can't sick out. We can't strike, but we can sick out or we generally is what we've done is in our contract,

we've agreed to arbitration as a means to settle disputes. Right. But we can all- Do a sick out of blue flu. Yeah, blue flu. There's also a slowdown too, which I mean- This is the most passive aggressive I think. It really is.

It's like, oh, let me make sure that that bolt is on again. Where was that bolt? Hmm, where was that wrench? Where did I put that? All right, it's where everybody goes to work, but they do their work very slowly. And again, they're able to get away with this because they're following the rules.

So if you look at the rule book or handbook of an employee at, say, any kind of manufacturing plant, their job is probably on paper way more detailed and structured than the actual job they carry out is just a practical matter, right? Hmm. If they started to do their job strictly by the book, the amount of time it takes them to make a widget

would slow down dramatically as compared to when they cut the corners that they normally cut and the company is like, yeah, cut those corners because we want to get more widgets out the door. So is that what they're doing during a slowdown? Is there technically following everything to the letter? That's what the Grabster says. This is a Grabster joint, by the way.

That's right, the great Ed Grabinowski. Yeah, the Grabster suggests that that is the case for a slowdown usually. Although you could also just do your job slower, but if you're doing it by the book, when your boss comes over and is like, you better speed up, say, hey, I'm making sure that we're following all the safety precautions.

Yeah, and then finally you can have a sit down. Well, there's a couple more. You can have a sit down strike. That is, that may be the most aggressive. That's when you actually go to work and you don't work and you don't leave. Right. Like you have people bring you food and water

and you're like, I'm gonna sit on my stool so no one else can sit on it and do that job. Your stool, not your stool. Good point. I think that's the most aggressive. I have hardest core and then an arrow pointing at sit down strike here on my notes, right? Yeah.

But it also doesn't just, it's not just the most aggressive. It actually affords some additional protections to the worker on strike, right? So one, nobody else can come in and do that work because they're on the way, they're on the stool. Number two, it prevents them from violence in a lot of ways or it protects them from violence

because they're hanging around very expensive company machinery. Sure. So it'd be pretty stupid to come at somebody like that with a lead pipe because if they duck, you just broke the company's machine. Yeah, and if that sounds crazy, we will go in over the myriad examples of violence

and strikes and strike busters. It's just disgusting. Yeah, so if you think, what do you mean no one would come after them violently? Yeah, listen, Pollyanna, just wait. Wake up. So it also keeps the person away from the elements. Like you're not outpicketing in the rainy weather.

Of Flint, Michigan. Right, you're just sitting there in the nice plant. That's right. There can be sympathy strikes. That's when you either directly or just they decide to call on your brothers and sisters and other unions, maybe in the same industry that feel your pain and they know it's good for them ultimately as well.

So they will also go on strike to kind of help your cause. Right, exactly. And some company may call the other company and be like, dude, they're killing me over here. Give them those concessions, please. Or else I'm not gonna be able to make dues this month at the Billionaires Club. Right.

Buffy will kill me. Or it might also be sympathy strikes in a, remember I said in the same plant, you might have an upholsterer's union, an electrician's union, a plumber's union. At the same company, other non-affiliated unions may go on strike as well. And that will really put some pressure on that company.

Cause they can be like, well, we'll catch up with our backlog of upholstery work while these guys are striking. Nope, sorry, we're on strike too. The company always just like, oh my God, I hate Mondays. Well, and we're gonna get into the very infamous 1980s air traffic controller strike in great detail later.

But one of the big reasons it didn't work out is because they failed to get anyone else on board like the pilots and the flight attendants and baggage handlers, none of them jumped on board with a sympathy strike, which did not help the air traffic controllers. Then you've got a general strike, which is not usually directed at a company itself.

It's more directed at like a government because that means basically everybody who works in a country goes on strike. Yeah, like we want minimum wage raise for everybody. And that's one reason why it seems like France is always striking. It's because when they go on strike, they go on strike. They typically have general strikes when they do.

I don't want to say typically, but they do undertake general strikes, which is basically unheard of here in the United States. And it makes big news when it happens. Yeah, for sure. So there's just some type of strikes. Yeah, should we take a break? Let's.

All right, but we're coming back. We're not going on strike, don't worry. Strike, stuff you should know. On the podcast, Hey Dude, the 90s called David Lasher and Christine Taylor, stars of the cult classic show, Hey Dude, bring you back to the days of slip dresses and choker necklaces.

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or wherever you listen to podcasts. So, Chuck, we talked about different kinds of strikes, right? We did. One of the things that you think of when you go on strike, or when you think of strike, is people picketing. Yeah. Like, you'll very frequently see people around Atlanta, especially it seems like a lot of construction companies

have aggrieved employees. Oh, really? Yeah. And so the people will just be marching out in front of the building that's going up. Headquarters, maybe, or a construction site, and they'll say, shame on whoever for employing non-union workers or whatever.

Because that's a big part of the ability to go on strike, is you need to have a solid union, right? Yeah. And one way, especially early on, back in the 18th and early 19th century, we were talking about New England, there was this idea that if you were not a part of the union, the union members would be like, I'm not working if that person's working here.

Right. Like, you have to fire that person. So if you didn't join a union, you had a hard time finding jobs. Yeah. And so if you're a union, one of your big tactics is you need to make sure your membership is almost complete across a company, or else you're not

going to be able to put real pressure on that company if half the workers can still show up to work, because they're not union members, so they are not going on strike. Yeah, good point. Picketing is one of the main reasons you pick it is to draw, like we mentioned earlier, get the public on your side.

It's a big part of it. And also to embarrass the company. Yeah. And this probably says a lot about who I am, but whenever I see that, I always think in my head, well, there's some employees that are clearly getting screwed by the man. Sure.

What do they have to say? Right. Which is exactly what they want. That's why they're out there with the picket signs. Sometimes they're chanting something or singing a song. And what? They do. It's true.

They sing songs. Like, you know, songs about the picket. They're not there singing. Oh, yeah. Starway to Heaven. Or like the Freddie Kruger nursery rhyme. What's that? Oh, one, two, Freddie.

Yeah. They should do that. That'd be the creepiest picket line ever. One, two, Stryker's coming for you. If you cross the picket line, you literally have to, that's why they stand out in front of the factory or the HQ, you have to walk through them and literally cross the picket line

to be what's known as a scab. Yeah. And you can be a, you can be part of that union and decide to go back to work. Or you can be just an outside person who says, I actually need work. And I'm not in your union. So I'm just going to, I don't know you guys.

Sorry, ladies, pardon me, I'm a scab. Or you might be a professional from another part of the country that the owner basically has shipped in to replace you, which we'll get into all the legalities of that later. But crossing a picket line is not a shining moment for anybody who's doing it. No.

And where does the word scab come from, my friend? Apparently it has to do with how people used to shun people with infectious diseases. The sentiment was that if you crossed the picket line, you would be treated in the exact same way as if you had the plague. Right. Everybody's going to keep you over there.

No one's going to talk to you. You're not going to be able to find a job. You're going to be cast out of society. You're scabbed. Yes. So it was shortened to scab, which is, I mean, like that amount of pressure is tremendous. Yeah.

And picketing doesn't always mean you're on strike. A lot of times it's another warning shot. It's called informational picketing when you threaten and say, hey, we're out here picketing. This does not look good for you. No. And that's a key thing. If you go on strike, you want the public to know

you're on strike. Because the public's like, why are you on strike? What's the problem? I want to know about that. And some groups have gotten a lot better at manipulating the media, using social media to get the message across like the fight for 15. I haven't heard that.

Where they're trying to raise the minimum wage to $15. They've been putting a tremendous amount of pressure on McDonald's. They've got a study released that found that just a ridiculous percentage of fast food workers, especially at McDonald's, but at other fast food restaurants in the US too, are reliant on welfare, on public assistance.

And that the way the study framed it and the way that the news reports framed it was that McDonald's was basically using your taxpayer dollars to supplement the meager income they were paying these people, rather than actually pay their employees a living wage. They were just being like, you handle it taxpayers. We're not going to pay them that much.

And it worked big time. Like it made all the news cycles. It really changed a lot of people's perspectives. And it went hand in hand with a strike, a general strike. Well, not a general strike, but a strike that was carried out, I think in April of last year, across the world. And it really put a lot of pressure on McDonald's. Didn't do anything, but it still put a lot of pressure

on McDonald's. And I think ultimately, probably will lead to a change in the minimum wage. Yeah, that's a tricky subject. Have we talked about that? No, we should do one on that. Because I'm a champion of the people. I think people should make a living wage, too.

But my wife is a small business owner, and it would put her out of business. So when you hear McDonald's, you think huge corporation, they can afford it. But what about when you're a small business that has eight employees and your cost of, what do you call it? Cost of business? Well, not cost of business, but your wages go up by 40%.

Sure, no, I agree. It's a very tough thing to say across the board. Everyone has to do this. So with Obamacare, and if anybody knows what some solutions are to that, we'd love to hear it. Because this fascinates me as well, and it feels very important. But it seemed like with Obamacare,

there was a concession made where employers with X number of employees or less weren't mandated to provide health care to their employees. Yeah, so maybe it would be like that. Right, or if your revenue is less than a certain threshold or whatever, then, you know. Yes, small business can mean a lot of things. Like, there's no reason that mama and McDonald's

should be in the same basket of considerations for just about anything that has to do with wages or taxes or anything like that. Agreed. You know, and it's just so disingenuous to be like, well, you know, what about small business? It's like, well, let the small businesses speak. You can't point to these guys.

Like, that doesn't matter to you international conglomerate. Yeah, plus McDonald's, they just raise the price on everything on their menu by one penny, and it probably covers it. I think I've heard a stat like that. I don't think it's just a penny, but it's something very meagre like that. Yeah, boy, that was side track, but good one.

But as we'll learn, as well, it really is. As we'll learn, though, in this episode, the history of strikes and of labor laws and the treatment of employees and the government backing employers has been a history of huge, massive, radical acts. And then that changed everything. And then that side won. And then the other side bides its time and then, bam,

they strike, or they carry out some crazy action. And it changes everything. The history has been kind of seesawed like that. And it's pretty fascinating. Maybe that provides balance in some way. Overall, I guess. Should we talk about sports strikes? Yeah.

They often get way more attention than other kinds of strikes because there's so much money, and people in the United States love their sports. Yeah. They value sports over, say, electricians. Yeah. Of course they do. In 1987, the NFL, the football league,

went on strike over free agency, which, if you don't know anything about football, that means after your first contract is up, that means you're a free agent. And you can say, I want to go sign with any other team in the league. Yeah, I don't understand that. What were the, like, that makes total sense.

Like, how would that even be a term for agency? What were the teams wanting, the owners? They wanted, if you drafted a player for you to have the rights to control that player for as long as you wanted that player. Oh, god. All the sports leagues are so different in how they handle things, too.

It's really interesting. And I know not many. We don't have a ton of sports fans, because historically our sports episodes Terrible, terrible. Done poorly. Terrible. But we'll go over this real quick.

They struck in strike in 1987 in the middle of a seat, not in the middle, but the beginning. The players walked after two games into the 87 season. And for three games, the NFL said, you know what? We're going to bring in scab replacement players. Yeah. And it was a disaster. Keanu Reeves.

That's where they sued with the cigarettes. Yeah, I mean, people, some college players, some players and others, like the Canadian League, some dudes that were just like, hey, I used to play football. Like, we're literally out there, out of shape. I mean, ESPN is a great article on that season. Oh, really? How like, you know, the quarterbacks

from the huddle being like, we just want to be in the huddle as long as possible. Oh, I've got to check that out. Nobody can catch their breath, because this guy was a fat corporate cat, so he wanted to be an offensive lineman, scab player, because he played in college. So it was a disaster.

They paid him about $4,000 a game. And the quality play was terrible, as you would expect. Some high-profile players ended up crossing and being scabs, like Joe Montana. Oh, really? Tony Dorsett, Lawrence Taylor, Steve Largent. Wow. And it was a big deal.

And eventually, they returned to work and without any resolution, which happens a lot of times. Thanks to Joe Montana. Baseball, they've gone on strike a lot. In 1984, though, the MLB Players Association said. 84 and 94. 94. 94.

That's 84. Yeah. They said, we don't want a salary cap on our team, which if you don't know what that means, it means a team can only spend so much money on its players. Right. Players hate that, because they want as much money as possible. Owners love it, because they're like, oh, what am I

going to do with all this extra money? Exactly. And in 1994, in August, late in the season, they actually canceled the rest of the season. Yeah. And the World Series. We just stunk, because the Braves were, that was in the middle of their big run.

And they, oh, yeah, that's right. You know, like, we lost an opportunity to lose another World Series. We won that one, though, right? Yeah, won. So apparently, this contract dispute was still going on into spring training. And some players went and reported to spring training,

despite the strikes still going on. And those players were banned for life from the Players Union for life, which means that even after retirement, they weren't eligible for any royalties that you get from, like, your number being licensed or being on MLB 95 or whatever. Retirement edition.

Yeah. But I mean, you can make some checks, depending on how great a player you were and how big your legend was for many years after you retire. But if you crossed the picket lines and went to spring training, nope, you're out. I don't think I knew that. Hockey, National Hockey League, historically,

has only had one official strike, but they have been locked out, which we'll get to lockouts shortly. They've been locked out a couple of times. And the entire 2004 season was canceled. The whole thing. And Hockey and Major League Baseball had a much more difficult time recovering

from their canceled season and canceled World Series than the NFL from their scab issue. I've got a scab issue. And in 2012, the NFL referees were locked out. Oh, yeah. Remember that? They had replacement referees that were just terrible. Oh, yeah, that's right.

They were. They actually, I think. On the podcast, HeyDude, the 90s, called David Lasher and Christine Taylor, stars of the cult classic show, HeyDude, bring you back to the days of slip dresses and choker necklaces. We're going to use HeyDude as our jumping off point,

but we are going to unpack and dive back into the decade of the 90s. We lived it, and now we're calling on all of our friends to come back and relive it. It's a podcast packed with interviews, co-stars, friends, and nonstop references to the best decade ever. Do you remember going to Blockbuster? Do you remember Nintendo 64?

Do you remember getting Frosted Tips? Was that a cereal? No, it was hair. Do you remember AOL Instant Messenger and the dial-up sound like poltergeist? So leave a code on your best friend's beeper, because you'll want to be there when the nostalgia starts flowing.

Each episode will rival the feeling of taking out the cartridge from your Game Boy, blowing on it, and popping it back in as we take you back to the 90s. Listen to HeyDude, the 90s, called on the iHeart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, I'm Lance Bass, host of the new iHeart podcast, Frosted Tips with Lance Bass.

The hardest thing can be knowing who to turn to when questions arise or times get tough, or you're at the end of the road. Ah, OK, I see what you're doing. Do you ever think to yourself, what advice would Lance Bass and my favorite boy bands give me in this situation? If you do, you've come to the right place, because I'm here to help.

This, I promise you. Oh, god. Seriously, I swear. And you won't have to send an SOS, because I'll be there for you. Oh, man. And so will my husband, Michael. Um, hey, that's me.

Yep, we know that, Michael. And a different hot, sexy teen crush boy bander each week to guide you through life step by step. Not another one. Kids, relationships, life in general can get messy. You may be thinking, this is the story of my life. Just stop now. If so, tell everybody, ya everybody, about my new podcast

and make sure to listen so we'll never, ever have to say bye, bye, bye. Listen to Frosted Tips with Lance Bass on the iHeart radio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you listen to podcasts. Must have won that concession for the regular referees, because it was that, that got so much bad press. Everybody was so mad. They were making so many bad calls.

I totally forgot about that. They're like high school referees out there. Yeah. We're bringing NFL games. Yeah. Should we take a break? I think so, man. All right, we'll talk about strike busting and more

right after this. Stop, stop, you should know. So, Chuckers, if you are an employer and your employee's going strike, you don't just go, oh, fiddle sticks. I guess I'll give them what they want. There are plenty of other things you can do. Some legal, some sub-legal, and some in between, right? And one of the first things that employers

did when they were faced with strikes early on was hire armed mercenaries to basically beat up and threaten and harass the striking workers. Yeah, notably the Pinkerton Detective Agency. They did a lot of detective work, but they were also notable for being strike breakers. And some of the things they do are legit, like guarding scabs as they go to work so they're not

harassed or protecting the building itself so it's not, you know, they're not throwing bricks through the windows. But there's also, you know, they're getting beaten up sometimes and intimidated. Well, not just that. They also may serve as agent provocateurs. Apparently the Haymarket riot, which

led to a bunch of cops dead in Chicago, it was set off by a bomb. And they think that a Pinkerton detective undercover set that bomb off to stir this protest into an angry, violent mob. So they basically do anything for money. Yeah. And apparently, I was reading that Pinkerton

was hired to investigate the Occupy Wall Street protesters in Ducati Park. Oh, really? Still at it. Wow. Yeah. And so Pinkerton, they deserve their own podcast episode, for sure.

But very early on, they were hired as basically armed thugs. Like you said, they did do protective services, but they also did a lot of violent and illegal stuff as well on the behalf of these factory owners. And there was one in particular where the factory owners, it was Andrew Carnegie, actually, in Homestead, Pennsylvania. There's a steel mill there. And at the steel mill, in, I think, 1884,

the workers went on strike. So Carnegie brought in some Hungarian and Slavic steel workers to replace them. And in 1892, the Hungarian and Slavic steel workers went on strike themselves. And more workers were brought in to replace them. And both times, Pinkerton detectives were there to escort the scabs across the picket line,

even when those scabs they escorted turned into the striking workers themselves. But it's kind of like one of those things where it's like, maybe the couple, second time, it might be you. The scabs you brought in go on strike, too. Yeah. Maybe we should pay them a little more. Right, exactly.

Well, I think it's safer. That's not what happened. There was basically what's called the Battle of Homestead. And it was a battle between the Pinkerton detectives and these striking workers. And in this case, actually, the Pinkertons suffered massive losses and casualties. They were beaten by the town's folk in Homestead.

Three of them died. And it actually turned public opinion against the strikers, in this case. But it also taught Pinkerton that it's probably not good business to send our boys off to die. So they actually stopped providing strike-breaking services over time. And it morphed and evolved into more arranging for spies

to attend union meetings and things like that. Yeah, there's still strike busting going on. It's just not as overt and physically violent. Right. Yeah, a little more surreptitious and sneaky. And then remember we said, wake up, Pollyanna, earlier. That's a good example of it. Another good example is the great strike of 1877,

which started in Martinsburg, West Virginia, and actually spread very quickly to towns like Baltimore and St. Louis. And it made its way to Pittsburgh, which was another, so the Homestead one was 1892. Just a few years earlier in 1877, there was another strike. And a bunch of towns, people were out supporting the strikers. And I think the State National Guard came in and opened fire

on the supporters of the strikers and killed 20 people, including a woman and three small children. So strikes have gotten very bloody, especially early on. And the fact that people were dying over these labor disputes really shaped public sentiment toward violence during strikes. And it helps straighten things up a lot more, I think, over time. Yeah, agreed. Well, I know we covered it in the unions podcast,

but we should talk a little bit about the Wagner Act and Taft-Hartley, because they play very heavily into strikes. The Wagner Act, a.k.a. the National Labor Relations Act, it was what officially said, you have a right, among other things, you have a right to strike. You can form unions, you can go on strike. It specifically says you have a right to strike. Yeah, you are legally allowed to do so.

And they didn't specify what kind of votes. That was all up to the union. Right, but it said you are allowed to settle labor disputes by striking. That's right. Explicitly. That is right. And then the Supreme Court came along and said, let's weaken that a little bit.

Yeah, 1938, the Supreme Court said, you know what? You can't fire people for joining union or going on strike. But what you can do is permanently replace them with another worker. Right. And if you want to know the difference, there isn't much. Technically, if you are permanently replaced, you can go back to that job if the person who replaced you quits or retires or aspires, and that position becomes available again.

You have the right to go back to that position. Yeah, and get your job. That could be 20 years from now. Or never. Right, like Kramer with the Begel strike. You remember? Yeah. And so it is legal to permanently replace somebody and when it comes down to a strike,

this weapon in the employer's arsenal is as good as being able to fire striking workers in a lot of cases. Yeah, absolutely. So that was a big one. And a lot of people, especially pro-labor people, point to this and say, what the heck Supreme Court, like Congress explicitly passed an act that says, overtly, you have a right to strike. There's nowhere in American law that says employers have a right to replace their striking

workers and yet the Supreme Court is aired on the side of employers' rights. Well, I think what the Supreme Court said was, sure, you can go on strike, but we're not going to say you can go on strike with no repercussions. Right. Taft Hartley amendment came around in 1947 and did a few things. It established a national labor review board, which is a body that hears grievances on strikes and unions, supposedly impartial, is what they're supposed to be. Sue them.

Oh, is that? Yeah. After that, all of the lawsuits or cases that have to do with strikes are all somebody versus the NLRB. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Good point. And the other thing it did was, it did weaken unions somewhat by saying, you can't have a

secondary boycott, which is when you strike against another related business in that industry that's targeted by the original strike. You can't have a closed shop, which is where you have to join a union as terms of your employment. Immediately. Yeah, like right away. But they did allow for what's known as a union shop, which means you have to join a union within a time period, 30 days of hire, although most states now have taken it into their own

hands. In some cases, not most, but to be a right to work state, which Georgia is, which means the union shop is irrelevant. Right. I wonder how many right to work states there are, actually. I meant to look that up. I don't know. Georgia, it's such a cynical way to put it, a right to work.

Like it's the workers right to not join a union, like that's not a pro employer law, you know? Yeah. So Chuck, another tool in the employer's toolbox, I guess, yeah, that makes sense, is the lockout. And it's apparently being used more and more these days. The lockout is like the reverse strike. It's where the employer says, you can't come to work. Yeah.

You want to. Even if you want to, stop striking. And there's rules and regulations surrounding lockouts as well. The Supreme Court or Teft Hartley, one of the two, said, you can, as an employer, lock your employees out once a contract is expired. So you can't do it during the contract. But if you're an employer and you're saying, I really, really, really want to shove my terms down your throat, you have to accept them.

And the union's saying, no, we're not going to accept that. You can sit there and negotiate, negotiate, negotiate, and then once that contract expires during negotiations, you can say, you're locked out. You can't come to work. And the Supreme Court also ruled that you are, as an employer, allowed to temporarily replace those workers that you've locked out, right? So like the scabs in the NFL. Very much so, right?

So you're allowed to replace them and continue on with your business as usual. And then if you're a union member, you're faced with three options. One, you can go find work at another company. Two, you can accept the terms. And then three, what's becoming an increasing tactic is you can vote to dissolve the union. That even when you come back and say, okay, we'll accept your terrible contract, the employer can go, you know what, I changed my mind. I actually don't want this union in my company any longer.

So I'll tell you what. If you guys vote to dissolve your union, then we will go with this contract and the lockout will be over. That happened very famously in Minnesota in August of 2011. The American Crystal Sugar Company found that their employees found that they were locked out and it went on, it's one of the longest labor disruptions, like major labor disruptions we've had. It went on for 22 months, 1300 employees were locked out.

By the time it was all over, only 400 of those original 1300 came back. Those almost two years later. And it took, basically Crystal Sugar kept saying, this is our only offer, this is our only offer. Every time they went back to negotiate, this is our final offer. So it took five votes over the course of almost two years until they eventually relented. And they accepted that same offer, like they never changed the offer. And supposedly there was, the CEO, Dave Berg, was caught on audio tape at a shareholder

conference saying, basically admitting that they were trying to bust the union. And comparing the union to a tumor that had to be removed. Yeah, he said, we have to treat the disease and that's what we're doing here. And then in three months into the lockout, he told shareholders, we mapped this out a long time ago at some point that tumors got to come out and that's what we're doing. And it worked. Yeah, it did. So then we should probably, we should end with the Reagan air traffic controller strike.

Boy, man, I remember this. Do you really? Oh yeah. So in 1981, that air traffic controllers went on strike because they felt that the FAA didn't value their work enough, that their work week was too long, that their pay was too low, and that their working conditions led to unsafe conditions for travelers. Yeah, all legit stuff. It wasn't all of them, 13,000 of the 17,500, and at the time they were the professional

air traffic controllers organization, PATCO. So we talked earlier about how a good labor union leadership will say, even though you guys want to go on strike, this is a terrible time to do it, well, PATCO did not do that. They went on strike at a time when the economy was not doing that well. When Reagan had about 100% approval, he'd just been shot and recovered, so he came back like a total hero, and he was riding high and felt pretty emboldened actually. And the reason why the union went on strike anyway was because they had supported Reagan. He had gotten their support through negotiations, and they didn't view him as somebody who was

an enemy. Yeah, they've mishandled and misjudged this in many, many, many ways. Supposedly, there's a 1955 law that says if you're a government agency, your union can't go on strike. The thing was, in practicality and actuality, there had been something like 22 strikes over the last few decades of government unions, and it was just kind of like an unsaid thing. Well, Reagan said no, this is illegal, and you guys are, if you don't return to work in 48 hours, you're all fired.

I'm going to arrest your union leaders for carrying out an illegal strike. Yeah, I'm going to arrest some of the controllers themselves. Right? I'm going to freeze the assets of the union, and then I'm going to get the union decertified, and he did all these things. Yeah, I'm going to put the FBI's getting involved. If you're a striker, you're going to be on their list. And this all came down to money, really.

What they were after would have increased, it had a price tag of about $770 million. The FAA countered with a $40 million counteroffer, a little bit of a pay hike, a shorter work week, and Pat Coase said no. So when they went on strike, 6,000 flights were immediately canceled, and I think they just underestimated how hardcore the FAA and Reagan were going to be coming back at them, because they had a plan immediately. They said, you know what, we're going to have 50% of these flights back and running very soon because your supervisors are going to go to work.

We're going to rush through matriculation and training school. And military air traffic controllers? And then bring in these military folks to come in, and we don't need you. And I think within a few weeks, they had nearly 80% of the scheduled flights going, like prioritizing the most trafficked routes and what they considered high priority routes. Which is a terrible irony, because that is almost exactly what the air traffic controllers were looking for, was stretched out work that they felt was safer, and that's what Reagan got it to with their replacements.

Well, yeah, and it ended up costing them, I think, twice as much money as it would have cost them if they had just agreed to those terms. Right. A lot of people point to that, the fact that the FAA ended up changing to what the strikers wanted, and spending twice as much as what they would have just conceding to it, as Reagan changing the flow between employer and employees, and he did dramatically. After that, it became much more difficult to strike, and I think it struck fear into the hearts of workers throughout the country, like, oh man, the president himself feels

this way about striking, like, clearly he's going to back up the employers in any kind of strike, and it changed things for sure. Yeah, and I mean, not only did he say, you're all fired, he said, none of you can ever work for the government again, and then Bill Clinton came along and reversed that, and said, you guys can get a job again if you want. They said, well, half of us are dead. Yeah, well, that was 12 years later when that happened, so that's a good point. But eventually, the newly hired air traffic controllers formed a new union, NACA, National

Air Traffic Controllers Association, and I think Robert Poli from Patco said, ultimately, I think we sort of won because it ended up costing them more and we got the changes, but there were no winners, really, because they lost because all those people got fired. Capital won. Yeah, and that was a big one at the time. We talked about getting the public sympathy. They did not have it because air traffic controllers made more than the average person, and like you said, it was a bad time for the economy, and people's flights were getting canceled,

and they didn't have what do we call them, the sympathy strikers. So I don't think they thought it through. And they were very much surprised by Reagan, for sure. Like you said, what? We're all fired in two days? So that strikes. There's a lot more too. There's a crazy history that we haven't even touched on.

There's just so much stuff that's happened as far as strikes go. You should definitely, if this floats your boat at all, you should go look up the Flint Michigan sit-in strike of, I think, 1938. It was pretty amazing what happened. Yeah, and we might should do an entire show on the Homestead strike in battle. Yes. That was a big deal. Yes, it was.

Yeah. I think it's full enough for a show. Okay. Well, in the meantime, if you want to know more about strikes, you can type that word in the search bar at HowStuffWorks.com, and I said search bar, so it's time for Listener Mail. I'm going to call this Navy Lieutenant Reporting for Duty. Hey, guys.

I'm a Lieutenant in the Navy, and I've been listening to your show for a few years. Started listening while I was stationed in Japan and have not stopped. You asked about ship name prefixes. It's specifically USS, which indeed is United States ship. It should be noted that this specifically refers to warships of the U.S. Navy, and that prefixes for other ships of the U.S. government are legion. For instance, USCGC, United States Coast Guard Cutter, USNS, United States Naval Ship, non-warship, USAS, United States Army Ship, USAV, United States Army Vessel, and many more boutique

prefixes that are limited, that have limited use or no longer in use. Most navies around the world have their own prefixes, because like you said, HMS currently is Her Majesty's ship or Her Majesty's submarine, but when the monarch, the reigning monarch is a man, the king, would be His Majesty's ship, which makes sense? Yes. And how about these, Josh? HMCS. These are Her Majesty's Canadian ship, or HMAS, Australian ship, or HMNCS, His Majesty's

New Zealand ship. Civilian ships' vessels can have prefixes as well according to their construction and propulsion such as SS, I never knew that, like SS Minot, sailing ship, or steamship, or screw steamer, which is the dirtiest of all ships, MV or M slash V for motor vessel, and then my personal favorite, that is Chris speaking, NS for Nuclearship. The number of them is staggering, guys, very respectfully, Chris, Lieutenant, and the U.S. Navy. Well, hoi Chris, thanks a lot for that.

And if you want to get in touch with us like Chris and shine some light on some stuff we didn't really know about, we love that. So you can tweet to us at SYSK podcast, you can join us on facebook.com slash stuff you should know. And then it's an email to your stuff podcast at HowStuffWorks.com, and as always join us at our home on the web, StuffYouShouldKnow.com. For more on this and thousands of other topics, visit HowStuffWorks.com. On the podcast, Hey Dude, the 90's called, David Lasher and Christine Taylor, stars of

the cult classic show, Hey Dude, bring you back to the days of slip dresses and choker necklaces. We're going to use Hey Dude as our jumping off point, but we are going to unpack and dive back into the decade of the 90's. We lived it, and now we're calling on all of our friends to come back and relive it. Listen to Hey Dude, the 90's called on the iHeart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Listen to Frosted Tips with Lance Bass on the iHeart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever

you listen to podcasts.