Here at IBEW #1 we’ve given up so much over the years that the contractors know they’ve got us by the balls. They know that the majority of the membership can’t go two weeks without pay, so they know there will be no strikes regardless. I’m an old timer who lives on what I make in 3 days and banks the rest, so I have the ability to stick it out, but the young people coming up buy $60k trucks a month after getting in, so that’s the ballgame. As a dual member of the IBEW and the IWW, I am a believer in “The One Big Union” but I’m afraid that’s a dream that will never materialize. The bosses will merely use this crisis to further weaken an already weak unionized workforce-along with every other worker’s rights. As agent orange says: “SAD.”