To cross a picket line, the union and company must have been at an impass. They were.

They must have gone through arbitration/mediation and been released to self help....

they never got to do any of that....

management didn't waste any time waiting for a strike, they basically fired them, and hired an outside subcontractor. Call it furlough, layoff, fired, terminated, whatevery you want...

so, it is basically the same thing... in either case you are taking another union members job.

When the term first originated, nobody expected or thought of this type of situation. We were all used to a strike, and management hiring replacement workers... nobody thought of them bypassing hiring their own employees and just contracting an outside company to do it for them.

It's the same result.

One last thought, with all the money being "loaned" to Midwest by RAH, in return for extended contracts, at what point do merger and other kickback laws kick in.... sounds like a corporate end run around the law, just like they did an end run around the labor laws...