In the places I grew up the unions were strong but the strikes, when they happened, were somewhat out of sight of our day-to-day lives. I mean, regular folks don’t have to worry about crossing a picket line at a Chevy truck plant or a coal mine when they’re just trying to go about their day. Upshot: I was never quite sure of the politics of picket lines.
I know you shouldn’t cross them if you’re sympathetic to the cause. But is that in all instances? Like, if they’re picketing at the grocery store is it enough to give them the thumbs up and shop anyway? If not, do you go to the next nearest store? What if it’s a non-union shop? There’s probably somewhere I can read about the etiquette on all of this, but I just don’t know how it works in practice.
And maybe Keith Hernandez doesn’t either. According to Ben Maller at Yahoo!'s The Postgame, it seems that Mex ate at a New York restaurant where the workers were on strike. When he left, picketers gave him an earful. The best nugget: “Mark Teixeira is a better fielder.” It’s funnier because it’s not true.
Anyway, Hernandez didn’t much care for it. I hope he didn’t undermine the union cause.
