When I first posted last week on the crossing of the Writers Guild of America’s picket lines by two labor-related academics, most of the focus was on Ron "Strikebreaker" Seeber–perhaps mainly because Strikebreaker Seeber’s actions elicited a howl of protest from some of his colleagues. A bit more unnoticed were the actions by Richard Freeman, who, as I noted, is a long-time labor academic.

    I wrote Richard and he responded over the weekend:

Hi Jonathan

  Sorry this upset you.  I hope this explains my thinking.

Richard

 

To Concerned Persons  

         Last week I appeared on the Colbert Comedy Connection Show to speak in support of American unions.  I did not see a picket line nor cross a line, though of course I was aware of the strike by the Writers’ Guild.   I considered beforehand whether it was a good idea to make a positive statement about unions before a young intellectual audience with little knowledge of unions or to turn down a chance to influence this group.   I decided that the best action was to speak as an economist who is not a union member about the desire of American workers for unions and the importance of unions in the US economy.   I think it is important that people understand that outside objective analysts see unions as a positive force.  I appreciate that some people think I should have decided otherwise.   But this should not become a distraction from the issue in the dispute –the writers demands for a fairer share of the profits for their work – nor of the broader issue of gaining union protection and real wage increases for more American workers. 

Richard Freeman

    Well, I’m glad he explained–but it still is not a particularly persuasive justification and feels more like after-the-deed rationalization. It seems actually pretty tortured, Richard. You didn’t actually see the picket line though you were "aware" of the strike? C’mon, if you went on the show as an expert, you had to have done a lot of research and reading and you had to know quite well that the WGA’s strike strategy was, in part, to ask people not to cross the picket lines to appear at shows. And how exactly is crossing a picket line a "distraction" from the issue in dispute–when precisely crossing a picket line undermines the broader attempt, as you point out, to gain union protection and real wage increases?

   As you know, Richard, one of the main reasons we don’t have broader union protection and real wage increase is because the right to strike is effectively dead. Crossing picket lines helps kill that power. You get it?