In their increasingly militant strike against their employer, Verizon, union strikers have quickly bridged the gap between exercising their rights to criminal activity.

While wide-spread incidents of line-cutting and other forms of sabotage may be defined as ‘property damage,’ possible child endangerment and unlawful restraint or false imprisonment. Yesterday, in another example of union extremism, union militants in Pennsylvania used locks and chains to trap Verizon managers and replacement workers in a building.

Verizon employees looking to make a statement while on strike used chains and locks to prevent replacement workers from leaving a company office in Dormont on Wednesday.

Local police and fire crews had to be called to remove the bolts from the facility on Pioneer Avenue.

On Wednesday, Allegheny County Judge Michael E. McCarthy issued an injunction prohibiting striking Verizon workers from blocking the entrance to any company offices or job sites. The judge enjoined CWA strikers from “picketing, other than peacefully, and by no more than six pickets spaced, at any entrance to any Verizon facilities . . . or at any worksite of any Verizon employee or contractor performing company work.”

According to Channel 4 Action News, the CWA militancy was on full display outside Verizon’s Pittsburgh headquarters on Wednesday.

…one person was wearing a shirt with the slogan “It’s About To Get Ugly” and that the sentiment was apt. Channel 4 Action News cameras were there as a Verizon worker, who was not on strike, tried to walk past the jeering crowd and into the downtown offices.

“We have had some employees who have alleged that they have been kicked, been spit on, had things thrown at them, somebody’s been elbowed,” said Verizon spokesman Lee Gierczynski.

Ironically, union bosses from the CWA are trying to enlist their Democrat politicians in the dispute:

The Communications Workers of America, which represents 35,000 workers at Verizon Communications Inc. out on strike, appealed to Congress for support in the four-day-old labor dispute.

“We ask you to write Verizon President Lowell McAdam and urge him to respect collective bargaining rights and not to destroy middle-class jobs,” the union said in a letter sent yesterday to congressional offices in the northeast and mid- Atlantic regions, where about 45,000 workers began striking Aug. 7.

While individuals (union or non-union) have the right to withhold their labor if they so choose, there is no excuse, justification, or moral argument that can be made to permit the actions the unions are demonstrating in the Verizon strike.

For more articles on the Verizon strike go to: Ongoing Updates: Unions Strike Verizon…

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“I bring reason to your ears, and, in language as plain as ABC, hold up truth to your eyes.” Thomas Paine, December 23, 1776

Cross-posted