Well you can knock me over with a feather: Butte, America may be turning against the unions.

I just happened to be surfing the Montana Standard this evening and, after checking the obits, I casually clicked over to the Letters to the Editor. Imagine my shock and surprise when I counted five – yep f-i-v-e – separate missives in opposition to the School Administrators’ strike for bigger raises.

This is Butte – “the Gibraltar of Unionism”. Miners’ Local Number One. Hard core union members from way back. Any union. Every union. Solidarity with our union sisters and brothers. Back in the day the church was only slightly more sacred than the union.

What changed?

Might it be that – finally – the union bosses have gone too far in their demands for more when there is no more to be had? Could Jimmy Hoffa’s over-the-top attacks on the American taxpayers last week have struck a sour note even in the Mining City?

Who knows.

But I think I figured out who’s being called “sumabitches” in Butte these days.