It’s strange to see anyone surprised by Universal using a tactic as cruel as denying even shade to picket line members, in the heat-based hellscape that is Los Angeles. So let’s try to condense the explanation.
By and large, executives are people who already come from wealth and privilege, and have that wealth and privilege protected throughout their life as they’re escorted through whatever levels of education and then into employment.
Most of them have never received any kind of culture shock to make them aware of the struggles of ‘lessers’. Their parents and peers had a vested interest in keeping the then-children from mixing with 'those people’.
They are insulated enough from daily life that they no longer see anyone outside their immediate wealth and influence bracket as human.
So a strike, to them, is not “people who want enough money to live and work in health”, it’s “The machine that makes us money is broken, get those workers back into their jobs so we can keep making money.”
So the executives treat the strike like they would a broken machine or a disobedient pet. Hit it until it works, and replace it if it breaks.
And don’t doubt for one minute that this wasn’t at the advice of a Pinkerton or similar union-busting agency consultant. This is more than just petty; this is tactical cruely.
