Union Tactics

Ah, those Change to Winners, what will they think of next?

I believe we briefly discussed the wisdom of using outside agitators to help on picket lines and protests. At that time, I questioned the wisdom of relying on a group of "professional" organizers, as the community would see through this tactic and it made it seem like the union wasn't strong enough to win on it's own. I remember the reaction being that unions need to resort to tactics like this to fight huge corporations. Unstated, but there nonetheless, was the comparison of these tactic to say an AGEL "flying squad" (or, say the IWW flying squad), a tactic which I endorse.

Now, does anyone want to take a shot at defending hiring the homeless at $8 an hour to run "informational pickets" at non-union worksites? The Carpenters don't seemly terribly interested in defending themselves, but maybe because they could tell that the WaPo was doing a hit piece. But, again, this gets to the "don't do anything you wouldn't want made public" idea that I advocate.

Thoughts?