Transit Strikes, Then and Now

This article about the Philadelphia transit strike caught my attention because it is so similar to the strikes we talked about in class in the 1890's. The first interesting historical topic to mention is that of Unions. The union that went on strike is said to be the city transit system's largest union. I find it interesting that a transit system union is still so large and has power today. A transit union is not made up of people with a specific specialty or specific skill. We see an example of what happens when this kind of a union goes on strike through the street car system strike in Salt Lake City in the 1890's. These unskilled strikers were simply replaced with an entire new workforce when they shut down their street cars. It was a simple and easy solution that left many workers jobless. Perhaps this same outcome will happen in Philadelphia over the transit system strike.
At the time of the Homestead strike and the streetcar strike in Salt Lake (around the 1890's) the government took a neutral approach to the formation of Labor Unions. The government didn't encourage or discourage labor unions and the workers were free to strike regardless of the economic effect the strike had on the employer or whether or not the employer had even accepted the labor union.
Currently the labor law adopted by the federal government falls under the National Labor Relations Act. Mr. Robert P. Hunter states (http://www.mackinac.org/article.aspx?ID=2304), " Under the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA), private-sector unions are granted special legal powers and privileges, including the privilege of exclusive representation and the power to extract dues and fees from all workers in a bargaining unit if the employer agrees to it." This approach on labor laws adds more benefits to forming a strong union in the workplace. However, today there are far fewer unions then were present in the 1890's. This may stand true because of the fact that in the 1890's an employer didn't have to accept a union for that Union to exist. Today, the benefits of a union only exist if the employer agrees to the formation of that union.
The other interesting historical topic in this article is that of strikes and who holds the power in them. Unfortunately, unlike the strike at Homestead in 1892, the Governor and Mayor of Philadelphia both stand on the side of the Transit system. With the Mayor on the side of the workers who were involved in the Homestead strike, they were able to take a further stand against their employers for their rights. It seems that this strike may be one that either ends in a compromise or in a direct loss for the workers judging by the outcome of strikes in the past. It will be interesting to see what happens as the strike plays on.

Source:
http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/u/ian_urbina/index.html?inline=nyt-per