Walking the Picket Line in a Blackout

Something's very different on the picket line.

Since Thanksgiving, the energy on the picket lines has fallen off. One picketer was even seen reading a book while he walked the picket line.

It seems like only yesterday that we were chanting to stop trucks from crossing the picket line or "2-4-6-8, Why won't they negotiate." The turnout and the energy paid off. The AMPTP rejoined us at the negotiating table and that was great.

But now....we wait....in a news blackout.

Getting the agreement to restart the negotiations felt climactic, because so much energy had to be expended to get the AMPTP to do the right thing, but "restarting" the talks didn't mean "concluding" them.

Monday Nikki Finke raised our hopes: a deal's been worked out. Tuesday she lowered our expectations: time at the table didn't mean moving forward.

Nikki, like everyone else, is trying to read the tea leaves. And we want something to happen. We'd like to think it's all been worked out; they're just withholding the good news so they can surprise us for the holidays.

On the picket lines, the dark stuff comes out.

"The AMPTP didn't want to restart the negotiations. Their bad polling numbers forced them to sit down again. They aren't really serious about the negotiations. All they're really doing is running out the clock, stalling until all the force majeure money drops into their pockets."

And that leads to the really dark stuff.

"The 'news blackout' and then the hopeful press about a deal's-already-done sucks off the good energy we had going before Thanksgiving. The AMPTP doesn't want us to get daily updates because then we'll see how they aren't willing to give us a fair deal. Flip it the other way: if we think we already have a deal--that's really Machiavellian--why fight when you think you've already won?"

A lot of tea leaf-reading.

But there's no question that we know a couple of things, for sure. We all want a deal, because we'd rather go back to work. But there isn't a deal yet. And, most importantly, we haven't won so we have to keep doing what we've been doing.

We're still in a fight. That's the only news flash we'll get in a news blackout.

So now what?

If you were picketing or blogging or posting videos on YouTube or talking with fans or working with other unions, you have to keep doing it--all that is part of the process, just as much as the work our negotiating committee does in rooms in unnamed hotels.

And they can't do their work if we don't do ours.

We need to be on the picket lines with as many people as possible, with as much energy as before, making it clear that the strike is important, that we know we're fighting for our future, that it's not over yet, that we'll do whatever we have to, and that "We Matter".