random blip

• Bumpers I have seen today:
  NCC1701D
  RED 40
  
  
• Our laundry room drain is semi-clogged; each load of laundry requires several trips up and down the stairs, turning it on and off, so that the tub has a chance to drain before more water is pumped into it.
  
  
• We are all out of children's clothing. The adults aren't doing so hot either, sartorially speaking.
  
  
• Today was Parents' Day at swimming class. Justin got a nosebleed partway through the class and had a freak-out because he had to stay out for the remainder, and fifteen minutes later Daniel used a hula hoop in an unsafe way and had a freak-out because he was told to stay out for the remainder of the class.
  
  
• I feel bleached. Because I am. I think the chlorine content in that pool could sanitize an outhouse.
  
  
• My assistants editors have finished their primary edits, and have passed the torch over to me, the secondary editor. I feel all seniorly.

Talkin' Union Blues

I'm reading too much labour law. It's rotting my brain. So I'm going to amuse myself at your expense by presenting a thinly disguised labour law fact situation:

King's University includes a very large system of student residences. They are administered by King's University Residence Services, and they employ a few management-type people, a bunch of secretaries, and residence dons, who are basically upper-year students who live in the residences and act as pseudo-parents/big siblings/counsellors/tutors/all-around helper-type people for King's University students who live in residence. They are required to attend ridiculously useless time-sucks staff meetings once a week, live in residence, be available for the students, and run a few educational & social programs. For this service, they are allowed to live rent-free in the residence and they get their meal plan (good for all meals except Sunday dinner) free. They are not unionized.

Students pay a hefty amount to King's for the privilege of living in a tiny room and receiving the services of the residence dons and all-you-can-eat swill from King's cafeterias.

The cafeterias are not run by King's. King's Residences contract them out to Marrynot, a huge food chain. Marrynot employees are paid in money, not room & board, and are unionized.

Marrynot employees state that they need higher wages and better job security. Marrynot disagrees. Yadda yadda, Marrynot employees go on strike and the cafeterias are staffed by management.

During the strike, King's Residences remind the students that they have the right to eat in the cafeterias if they want - after all, they've already paid for the food - and assure them that they will not be harmed if they cross the picket lines, which form in front of the cafeterias. King's has a staff meeting with its residence dons, reminds them that they too have a right to eat in the cafeterias - after all, caf food is their compensation for the job they do - and tells them that, in fact, they are required to cross the picket lines. Because their job is to provide support for the students, they will be required to eat at the cafeteria, to show the students that it's OK to do so. And if the strike goes on or there are any difficulties with the pickets, they will be assigned security duty at the picket lines during mealtimes.


So, I'm curious. What do y'all think about this? Ethically and/or legally, can King's Residences require residence dons to cross pickets? Can they assign them security duty? Ethically and/or legally, can/should the residence dons cross the pickets/refuse to cross the pickets? What about the dons who feel strongly for/against unionization? Should their personal beliefs influence what they should do in this situation?