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Comment by pathy | Hacker News Reader

I don't know exactly how it works in USA, but generally if the union decides to go on strike, you don't have much choice as an individual member.

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You have the choice to vote. The union voted to strike. Not everyone voted for it, but enough did to initiate the strike. It's usually a fairly unanimous thing.

Source: once upon a time, long, long ago, I was on the executive board of a union that may or may not have voted to strike.

The percentage of members of the two BART unions that voted for the strike is also public. It was not close.

   SEIU 98.5%
   ATU  99.9%

http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/BART-workers-vote-to-a...

Sounds like they have legit grievances then.

> The percentage of members of the two BART unions that voted for the strike is also public. It was not close.

Those numbers (upwards of 90%) look like the numbers won by dictators in rigged elections. Who monitors the union voting process?

Union ballots are well regulated and usually even put incredibly unfair restrictions on the unions. They achieve this result in a very simple way:

Their members want it.

> Union ballots are well regulated

Says who? The unions? What outside observers monitor the ballots?

But if the vote to strike is going to pass easily, then surely you don't want to be an outcast and vote against it, right? Retaliatory actions from your fellow union members has to be common.

The ballots are secret.

http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/BART-unions-rank-and-f...

Not nearly as common as retaliation from companies to unions. Ask Florida Daisy employees.

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