| English term or phrase: On the union banner | Hello everyone,
Subaru of Wichita, a new and used vehicle dealership in Kansas, created a wave of attention based on how they hugged their offstage haters.
It all started with some drywall. In 2014, the dealership spent | 112 | $1.5 million to refurbish their facility. Seeking to keep all project revenue in the local economy, the company employed a local con-tractor, used a local bank for funds, and sourced local suppliers. After the project was completed, the trouble began.
Protestors on behalf of Carpenters’ Union Local 201 appeared, setting up an enormous sign on the public easement in front of the dealership. ***The sign, approximately thirty feet long, read Shame on Subaru of Wichita, with smaller notations of “Labor Dispute” in the top corners***.
Evidently, a small portion of the remodeling project required new drywall. The local contractor and construction firm solicited several bids for the work from Wichita-area drywall professionals, and selected the lowest bid, which came from a nonunion business, trig-gering the protests. In addition to the sign, ***the union also posted a flyer on its website, taking the dealership to task***.
Subaru of Wichita didn’t agree that they were “desecrating the American way of life” (the union’s words), given that they had made every effort to use local suppliers. With that in mind, the business didn’t take it personally, but they did respond, first online by address-ing each of the union’s claims on the dealership website, and then offline.
Says media and marketing manager Aaron Wirtz, “Online or offline, we always want to respond in ways that are in keeping with who we are as a company. One of the tenets of our company is that we are a golden rule dealership. We do unto others as we would want them to do unto us. But it’s also a big part of who we are, to not just simply take whatever is thrown at us. ***On the union banner***, we acknowledge your right to say those things. However, since we disagree, we are going to respond in ways that are in keeping with who we are. So it’s not about attacking with nastiness or hostility. It’s about responding in ways that are in keeping with us.”
Does "On the union banner, we acknowledge your right to say those things" refer to
1). The sign, approximately thirty feet long, read Shame on Subaru of Wichita, with smaller notations of “Labor Dispute” in the top corners
or to
2) the union also posted a flyer on its website, taking the dealership to task
or to something else?
Thank you. |
| |
| the physical sign in the street | Explanation:
I think "banner" refers to the large sign the union hung opposite the dealership. A trade union's "banner" can be its own flag or standard, carried in processions on Labour Day, for example, but it often refers to a large sign like this. It's possible they're also referring metaphorically to the online flyer, but "banner" on the Internet has a different meaning, a form of advertising embedded in a web page. It would not be the right term to apply to the union's flyer on its website, which was clearly not a "banner" in this sense, so I don't think it's likely that they're referring to it.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_banner |
| Selected response from:
Charles Davis
Spain
Local time: 01:55
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peer agreement (net): +5