500 Coke employees lost their health insurance the day after they went on strike. The union has sued under ERISA, claiming the action was unlawful retaliation. Thats a difficult claim to make. When workers strike, an employer is free to discontinue wages and benefits. Once the worker witholds his services, the employer may discontinue compensation for those services.

45,000 Verizon employees on the east coast are on strike. Verizon intends to continue operations with management personnel and others.

As the Mott's strike enters its 10th week, the company has started advertising for replacement workers. To the company they are temporary workers with no benefits. To the strikers and the RWDSU they are scabs.

Say it ain't so Snooki, Situation, say it ain't so.

Now that our baseball league has concluded, its time to get back to serious, regular blogging. Today we start with conduct which may constitute a labor dispute. It seems cast members of "Jersey Shore" have instituted a "strike" for new contracts. Apparently they can make more money from personal appearances than they can filming the show. Better be careful here and make sure that conduct is collective and protected.

Joe Burns has a pro-labor comment posted at In These Times on the Boeing issue. His point, the opposition to the NLRB's issuance of a complaint is part of the continuing assault on labor's right to strike.

Motts' applesauce, et. al, whose employees have been on strike for a month, filed a trademark, triple damages suit against the UFCW for encouraging consumers to download stickers to put on Motts' products at the grocery. Yikes! This could get interesting.

There's something rotten at Motts' claim union activists. And the RWDSU has video. Company response: "There's just a few bad apples pushing the union's claim." Well, If I owned the company (and I don't) thats what I'd say.

Here is the UFCW/RWDSU's update on the Mott's strike. The unions explanation is the corporate greed story. Profits are up, the stock is up, and the company is demanding a $1.50 an hour wage cut. Our prior post is here.

We do not see a lot of lockouts in this part of the country. In the Temple nurses' labor dispute the fact of a lockout dramatically affected the cost of the labor dispute. Under Pennsylvania law strikers are not eligible for unemployment, but when the employer locks out the employees, the employees are eligible for unemployment. More details in this news article.

The plant that makes Mott's applesauce is on strike. Mott's is owned by The Doctor Pepper Snapple Group, Inc. Sadly, it is not, and was never owned by my Mott family.

Workers at Omnova's plant in Columbus, MS have been on strike for over a year. Now the replacement workers have filed a decertification petition with the NLRB. The union has indicated it will aggressively contest the decertification. Previous posts here.

Detroit Symphony contemplates its 5th strike since 1969. The big issue is paycuts affecting the average base salary of $104,650.

The cat and mouse jockeying between the NFL and the NFLPA turns to the players marking today (January 18) as #LETUSPLAY across social media. The players are trying to counter the accusation they favor a lockout, and more positively, perhaps build sentiment against owners employing a lockout strategy. The owners want new rules and a lockout is not the only way to get them. The owners could bargain to impasse and unilaterally impose the rules leaving the players the choice to either play under the new rules or strike. The latter option would seem unlikely given a #LETUSPLAY social media blitz.