this post was submitted on 07 Sep 2023
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Work Reform
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A place to discuss positive changes that can make work more equitable, and to vent about current practices. We are NOT against work; we just want the fruits of our labor to be recognized better.
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- All workers must be paid a living wage for their labor.
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- Higher wages for underpaid workers.
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Doesn't the broken-by-Congress railroad strike demonstrate that Biden, et al. have already chosen their side, and that it isn't labor?
For who didn't, it's worth it to read the whole article. It's this stuff that doesn't make the news.
Thank you for posting this. I'm so tired of the rhetoric surrounding the rail strike.
They didn't allow them to strike. It doesn't matter that they still helped the union negotiate. They kneecapped their bargaining power.
Libs are just as deaf to criticism of their party as conservatives are.
A successful rail strike would have emboldened the working class, whatever the administration did after doesn't negate the damage they did to the current labor movement by stopping it.
I'm not a Marxist (or a communist at all, for that matter), but if anyone needs the perfect example of the lumpenproletariat participating in their own oppression by believing the lies of their oppressors, this is it.
Also no. Biden didn't get them shit. He appointed better people than himself on the advice of better people than himself. Only thing he did personally was use his influence to take away their right to strike.
How do you take yourself seriously.
Because I learn from labor movements of the past and how to apply what worked for them to our current situation.
Says the guy who didn't learn from history what happens when workers lose their right to strike..
You a business owner?
It's wild you would think that's the intent. The whole point of a labor movement is to lift all boats.
Biden could have just as easily forced the contract the union members wanted instead he shut down their power to strike and gave them bread crumbs. Much of that was after the fallout of the East Palestine disaster, it was literally to save face. He didn't give them "everything" they wanted, as you said in a previous comment. They got 4 days sick leave, it's less than what I get from Seattle city law, fucking why? Businesses here can manage. Much of the reporting you see is doing its best to paint Biden in a good light. The democrats aren't on the side of labor. Hell even the New Deal was a fucking compromise when socialist parties were at their strongest, in a successful attempt to knee cap them. What I see, is we can only win ground by organizing outside of the democrat party. You can't tailcoat and expect change. You can't just take their word that they are on our side. You have to keep pressure on them.
I don't criticize Biden because I think you should suffer. I criticize him because you shouldn't be pitted against your fellow workers fighting against unfettered greed.
Are you open minded? I dunno man from everything you have written you're happy to lick Biden's boots for table scraps. Going so far as to reference dank Brandon memes as if he's dabbing on us critical of his policy.
Oh yeah dude I was calling you a boot licker tounge in cheek too.
Is there a different name you'd prefer?
Would have been much better off not just in the long run but more or less immediately. There's thousands of minor derailments every year and every expert is saying that it's only a matter of time before a major one happens again. All because the companies make it impossible for their workers to do the job properly with their short term profits obsessed thinking destroying the bodies and psyches of the people and causing faster deterioration of the materiel they're unable to properly maintain.
You're doing the same thing the rail corporations do. The continuation of the awful conditions is going to cost hundreds if not thousands of lives and many times more jobs than a strike would.
Is what happens by the letting them continuing to get away with their extremely abusive and irresponsible practices. Could you be any more myopic??
Take your own advice, you arrogant idiot.
Especially not when those people are as simple-minded and shortsighted as you.
This union didn't vote to strike. They were fine with the original agreement without sick days and didn't have anything taken away in the congressional strike breaking.
Its always IBEW
Source: union trying to spin a measly 4 sick days in an entire year as a complete victory while giving Biden oversized credit for merely APPOINTING the people who did all the work.
While he DOES deserve a little credit for appointing good pro-union people to the relevant posts, this wasn't his doing.
The only thing HE did personally was use his influence as president to effectively strip them of their hard won right to strike by forcing them to (provisionally, but still) accept a bad agreement from his owner donors in the corrupt rail industry.
Not a union that had and still has strike-worthy grievances, or a major union within the railroad industry. Has made a great pro-Biden press piece though.
Yep. I was hoping someone would comment this. He didn't want to take an economic hit right before the midterms, so broke the strike but also essentially made the reailroad give concessions.
Less than 50% of what they were seeking though, it’s a concession, not a victory. They got 4 whole days, wow, such good.
When people strike, they do not unyieldingly demand 100% of what they asked for initially. It is a negotiation. They negotiate. While 50% is not ideal, it is progress and pretty decent concessions.
Less than 50%, 28% to be precise. That’s just the sick days, if we include all the other things they were asking for, they got less than 10% of what they asked for.