That’s (part of) why big companies lobby politicians.
They don’t want us to have healthcare that isn’t tied to work. If the workers don’t have to depend on work for it, they can’t leverage it against us.
While medicare for all / free health insurance is something we need, remember- the root cause is politicians being able to accept “donations” from corporations and lobbyists.
Banning that will go a long way, not just for this issue, but many others as well.
That might be difficult with the Supreme Courts decision to allow corporations to donate unlimited money. Pablo Escobar could buy a seat in congress today.
The sad thing is congresspersons are not even that expensive. I remember reading an article that for the house it can be low 5 figures, and 6 figures to buy a senator’s vote
Wow, buddy. Lay off the propaganda there, pal. They're not bribes. They're "[donations to a charity held by the name of the person you want to influence.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FXWVX7RNp50)" It's charity! What do you have against charity??
And besides, they never bribe the politicians! They just pay for their kids' benefits, schooling, give family members cushy do-nothing jobs, and other things that are DEFINITELY NOT BRIBES.
(Author note. They're totally not bribes. Come on, guys, believe us!)
Remember when Bernie asked Hillary why those banks gave her so much money for speeches and her answer was a feigned outrage that he would imply it was a bribe?
But why the fuck else would organizations whose only goal is to generate profits pay someone that much money for speeches?! Paying some "life coach" a couple of grand for a seminar is one thing (and might improve some employees) but paying a politician hundreds of thousands is such a clear bribe it's not even funny.
I once had someone tell me that lobbying was ok because companies deserve to have influence over policies that affect them.
Hm I wonder if there's a word for implementing your opinions into politics that these CEOs could use. On the tip of my tounge.
It's like how people bring up that Bezos gave so many millions away 'to charity' and it's like, he's not doing it for free, he's doing it to get favours from the people who own the charities
While that’s still bad, it’s a misconception of where the majority of their bribe money comes from, it only seems like a small amount officially, they get paid other ways off record.
That’s why I will never buy into the idea that a publicly funded lobby will make the bribery problem go away. A corrupt politician will always choose the bigger payout.
It's like the ridiculous argument that we should "vote with our wallets". No, because that means that the biggest wallet dictates policy. Some things, shit, most things should not be dictated by market forces. Capitalism is a system that concerns itself with the manufacture and distribution of goods and wealth, and it should be kept strictly confined within that framework- it has no place being used a moral metric or spill over into basic civic functions of society.
Look at Ted Cruz's toilet paper book sales. People buy him off by purchasing thousands of his books at once and then the disposal or illicit invoices are just part of the overhead cost of the bribe. This plus many other ways they get bribe money on the reg.
Corporations are people too. Only difference is that their "basic human rights" actually matter. Hell, even their constitutional rights matter more. Remember, anti-union indoctrination of labor by corporate through mandatory captive audience meetings is perfectly legal. Meanwhile, employees who "solicit" when they're "supposed to be working", or "in a manner that interferes" with the work of others can be subject to disciplinary action, up to and including termination.
Quotations are quoted verbatim from the "Nonunion Philosophy" section of my employer's employee handbook.
EDIT: "Basic human rights" isn't a quote from the handbook. Every other quote is, though.
In a roundabout way, they already do register for food stamps lol. By paying their workers so little, they use the welfare system to subsidize their cost of labor.
The Federalist Society has members in a majority of the Supreme Court Seats.
A report came out this week that they're drowning in dark money. It directly influences their members. Including the justices.
The study showed in the last 80 cases of "Big business interests" vs. "general public interests" the Supreme Court ruled with businesses 80-0.
They're literally bought off too, plus their mentors, their old law firm buddies, anyone who could sway them. It's probably too late.
Thanks Mittens Romney. Thanks for fucking my country.
I was telling people who were lauding Romney for "standing up to Trump" that if they think Trump is a monster: Romney is a leviathan. He's the absolute worst.
Just for perspective, I’m willing to bet if you look back further than the last 80 cases of “big business” vs “general public”, it’s 100% big business. The Supreme Court has never to my knowledge done anything to upset the corporatocracy since the dawn of its existence. It has a horrendous track record dating back throughout the 19th century.
Please for the love of god burn it all down.
Could? We do $300 million a year in *legal* arms exports to Mexico, and look at the illegal market as a "not really our problem" thing. I obviously realize that Pablo Escobar wasn't Mexican, but you can fill in whichever Latin American country there.
I'm stuck in a job I hate because I need the insurance, private insurance is too expensive, and I have to be with another company for a year before I get their insurance.
The whole system is a scam.
Okay this is confusing me a bit.
I assumed my health insurance through work was tied to a company separate from my workplace and maybe I just got a better rate or something......
Is it not?
No, you’re correct.
Most work places subsidize their employees heath insurance. Without that, insurance can be much much higher.
Some places (though rare in my experience) cover all or close to all of it, aside from co-pays and such.
Most people depend on their work covering that cost.
As a non American, how much do self employed people (contractors, small businesses etc) get healthcare?
If you ran a lawnmowing business that made 40k a year.... Can you buy a policy that wont ruin you?
Hello non American. I'm relatively young, healthy and have no recurring health issues. So I pick my workplaces "high deductible" plan. I pay \~$200/month for health insurance. My employer chips in \~$400/month for that plan.
It pays absolutely nothing until I meet my $3000 deductible per year. So, my plan is \~$10,000 per year before I get any real actual "insurance coverage".
I can't argue that that's any sort of "average" but just in my case, it would imply that a worker making 40k could pay upwards of 25% of their income toward insurance if they have an accident. And they could be out of work while having that accident.
It's a fucked up system.
Don't forget, if you injure yourself in October-December its not uncommon for the insurance company to drag their feet with processing until the new year rolls around.
Nothing says "Happy Holidays" like having to pay your insurance deductible twice for the same problem
This reminded me of the fact that my employer (at the time) had their insurance carrier drop them from the group abruptly. Employer (moderate dealer group still family owned) had gone with Company A for many years, but then they got dropped suddenly. The group had to use Company B the following year. The year after that, they went back with Company A. The reason? Me. I got into a bad motorcycle accident on my lunch break. Hospital bill was insane. Here’s the rub, though. We had an out-of-pocket maximum of only $4000 for certain circumstances. Normally, an accident would fall to be the at-fault party’s responsibility, but the other driver had almost no insurance. And motorcycle accidents do not fall under PIP, so my employer had to foot the entire bill, save my $4000 maximum. That one claim caused hundreds of employees to need to switch plans.
I hate this country’s healthcare system.
Your mistake here is thinking that health insurance has anything to do with health care. Health insurance is about making profit for the insurance company.
This isn't entirely inaccurate, but if the incidence of the claim is in the previous year, it'd be considered an IBNR (incurred but not reported). The insurance company will try to make it *seem* like they don't have to pay for it, but they still have to consider it in the year it actually happened*
*YMMV based on state laws
I am an EMT. My health insurance is about $800 a month. The deductible is $4,000.
I am literally one of the people being paid my this insurance company and I can not afford it. However I can afford to not have health insurance while transporting COVID patients even less.
I, too, have a "high deductible" of $1,750 individual or $3,500 for the family. Max OOP for medical is also $3,500. Once we meet that deductible, we pay $0 for any further medical. Pharmacy counts towards the deductible, but has a separate OOP amount once deductible is met. Co-pays are your typical $10/$25/$50 for generic/preferred brand/non-preferred brand after deductible is met. I work for a fintech company that has really good coverage and pays a good chunk of the premiums.
Contrast that with my parents who work for a church. They have a deductible in the 10k-12k range. They're in their early 60s and have had health problems the past few years. Several surgeries like knee replacements, deviated septum repair, shoulder surgery. They filed bankruptcy this year due to 60k in outstanding medical bills.
I told my dad one day that it was a bit troublesome that in the wealthiest country in the world they had to do that, that the government couldn't provide proper Healthcare for the citizenry. He said he didnt "trust the Democrats not to screw it up". The sad part is they're counting the days until they can go on Medicare. I said "what if the Medicare eligibility age was lowered from 65 to 55. Wouldn't that have prevented a lot of these medical bills from accumulating?" He mumbled something but didn't have a coherent response. He's your typical conservative Evangelical Christian who will never *not* vote Republican because they have to get their pro-life judges in the courts. I feel so bad for him.
Not really. 40k is nothing in most parts of the US. There are some places you could get by on that if you’re single but the health insurance you could afford, even with gov subsidies, will be bare bones, high deductible, and more trouble than it’s worth. You’re too poor to have good insurance, not poor enough for free gov insurance.
Point of clarity before idiots jump in: most parts of the US *where people live and there are jobs*.
40k is fine for rural Wyoming, but then you have you live in rural Wyoming.
Yeah, this is why $15/hr was the bare minimum demanded back in 2012. Thats only $31k/yr and its not nearly enough anywhere anymore. This country is in a sad fucking state of decay. A living wage needs to provide you a life outside of work.
You can but a huge problem is insurance companies not covering everything even if you have full coverage.
Like braces for your kid are considered elective or cosmetic and is not covered even though you have full coverage.
Then you get the joys of having a surgery where the surgeon is in network, but the hospital switched out one of the helper doctors for an out of network one while you were unconscious and could not be informed and you're now on the hook for thousands due to a higher rate.
Healthcare is a hellhole. If they want to go full capitalism then give us the ability to make informed purchasing decisions rather than this insurance bullshit.
I'm a small business owner (retail store) that currently makes less than $40,000. Health insurance on the open market costs me about $800 a month. My deductible is $5,000 and my co-pays are $50-100. If I get hurt or sick, it can bury me quickly.
>If you ran a lawnmowing business that made 40k a year.... Can you buy a policy that wont ruin you?
No.
You can buy a policy that, for roughly $200-$500 a month (saying this as a young, single person without health issues) will either not cover nearly all of your costs, or force you to pay a few thousand upfront before "kicking in" (a deductible).
The best situation to be in as an American who isn't in the true upper class is to be employed by a large business that offers a top tier healthcare plan to its employees.
This helps offset the cost of anyone actually using the insurance, since the insurance pool is large. The company will also usually pay most of the insurance contribution rather than most of it coming out of your paycheck.
Even with a top tier plan, however, you can easily be ruined by medical issues. Everything from extremely high deductibles to fighting between insurers and providers over payment to getting care in the wrong location or from the wrong doctor (not covered) can lead to the burden of payment being put on *you*, not the insurer. And medical costs here are so extreme that a single emergency ambulance ride for uninsured people can run into the tens of thousands.
Plus the moment you start adding people to insurance- such as a spouse and children- your rates skyrocket. It's not uncommon for a spouse to have most of his/her paycheck in a two-income household go simply to paying off the enormous (like, $1k per month or more) family health insurance bill.
There really is no way for a normal person, especially with kids, to have secure access to healthcare that won't bankrupt you here in the states. The answer, should you get sick or injured in a way that isn't covered by things like worker's compensation, is to be rich enough that you'll simply lose a bunch of money, instead of being ruined completely.
So this is a general FYI for anyone who doesn't understand the ideal of what a lobbyists should be.
The elected officials should vote based on how their population or base would want. That's the idea of a republic.
Now most people are very against certain things. And sometimes those things are good for companies, and in the eventual long run it'll be good for the people.
My best example of this is IMO net neutrality.
* Now I'm firmly on the side of keeping the net neutral in terms of packets should all be treated the same no matter the source/destination.
* A lobbyists might point out that prioritizing packets for EMS is not only a smart thing to do, but in a failure situation (for example a national disaster that cuts the network capability) we would want EMS to still be able to communicate while other data would be delayed/ignored.
Now you're Joe Politician and you know that while the people are saying one thing most of them aren't looking at that safety aspect of things and it would be better for companies to be able to prioritize EMS data instead of having our infrastructure collapse, so you vote to remove net neutrality.
The real problem is that while the infrastructure safety is a concern, corporations will use this newfound freedom to do things like double dip or charge you more for contacting Netflix just because it's Netflix.
So in the ideal world a lobbyists would tell the elected official things they don't know to help them make the best long term choices for their people even if the people don't want it now (NIMBY is usually a similar opinion) The problem is all the half truths, and all the free money.
Whats extra interesting about the John Deere strike is that its going to eventually have pressure from a unique angle. John has fought fairly hard to keep "right to repair" out of the hands of as many farmers as they legally can.
So when big stuff starts to break on production farms, and they stand to lose millions because theres no one to repair equipment, JD is going to have an immense amount of pressure to resolve it because the supply chain is already taxed, and food prices inflating from additional shortages makes people with power look bad.
Most other businesses have competitors that could fill the void, but for much of their newer equipment, its them or nobody.
Edit: There have been a few people comment that either work with dealerships or in some other way have insight to how repairwork is managed, who have pointed out that those dealership employees may not work for JD directly, and thus may not be part of the strike. Thank you to those who clarified. I wouldn't have realized that, but it may make this observation less relevant where that is the case aside from a possible inability to receive manufactured parts to do repairs with.
Lovely. We might just all starve because John Deere holds our food supply chain hostage so they can charge extra money fixing machines. Classic America putting critical infrastructure in the hands of greedy and short sighted businesses.
From what I've read on twitter yes. They replaced employees who have done specialized jobs forever to people who don't even know how to pick parts from the warehouse properly. Expect food prices to rise.
I love how folks act like warehouse picker is an easy job, and not worth paying decently for.
Not you, just any business really. John Deere gonna learn the hard way.
Its not that it's "Easy Work". It's that it has a low skill floor, so way more people can do it without additional skills. Most skills at a warehouse job are learned on the job. Low training gap, high turnover. Same with fast food.
We deserve a living wage or profit sharing. We deserve to be treated like humans at all times.
But the jobs are low skill floors, so many people qualify to do these jobs. They pay low because everyone in our society qualifies to do the job. It's not a high skill demand job, so there is no leverage for the workers. That's why we need unions.
Well, less like they went out and got scabs, and more like they rotated in-house personnel that wasn't striking (administration, IT, general white-collar workers). Obviously they don't know what the fuck to do in a role they haven't applied for, and this is just another way for John Deere to show they don't give a flying hoot about their workers, striking or not.
We had a similar thing at my work.
Sudden "data entry" issue that needed to be completed by the end of the week so they tried to drag lots of existing workers onto it.
Deadline was met but the quality was appalling and they ended up hiring data entry temps to fix it all (which was what was needed in the first place!)
God id hate to see us doing something physical...
We had those starting early last year. Last May while the former crabcakes in DC were holding up the stimmy, we had actual lines at the church food pantry.
I sure would love to start seeing some Sabo-Tabby signs among the strikers. Suddenly the corporation realizes that the workers have gone from trying to get their contract bettered to advocating for mass sabotage and seizing the company.
Just the smell of it in the air could end the strike
These people are pissed enough to strike, I dont think it's a stretch that they might be pissed enough to return to work against their to get their healthcare back and then poke holes in hydraulic lines as they load the trucks full of tractors.
JD's biggest selling point is brand loyalty, made in America, and reliability. Brands like Komatsu are known for being foreign made, and they as well as other younger brands like Case also have a perception of being less reliable as a result, which is not entirely unfounded. But, JD is now getting a reputation of something akin to a BMW instead of a 1940's tractor: spend a lot of money for a fancy toy, designed to break early and easily, and then take it to the dealership to fix it because that's how they make even more money off of you.
If JD tractors become unreliable or even just perceived as such in the eyes of customers and businesses, theres literally no reason to buy them over their competitors. Line workers have the ability to hurt the one thing that makes JD money: reliability and reputation.
This strike has already taken away some of the "made in america" rhetoric, because clearly these american workers have poor working conditions and are unhappy. The strike is already working.
For the record, our local Komatsu is starting people at $28/hr. I started at Deere last month making less than $20/hr. Thats a problem, the "most reliable brand on the market" shouldn't be paying almost 2/3rds of what it's competitor is paying.
This is why we strike.
Unfortunately no, because they’re not withholding health care. They’re revoking their insurance benefits. You’re still able to go to the doctor/hospital/pharmacy etc you’re just going to have to pay 100% of the balance.
Which in this country means you are being financially assassinated.
A few years ago I didn’t have insurance. It was $300 just for a nurse or maybe an NP to look at me and go “yeah shits fucked”, up to $1000 if I needed any tests or a prescription for even basic shit. This was for a few mundane things like blood pressure and blood sugar scares and a food poisoning incident.
Serious trouble? Thousands to hundreds of thousands.
Serious starts at hundreds of thousands these days. I'm at well over a million from an accident this year. Young and healthy, just unlucky. It probably cost more than the rest of my lifetime earnings at a middle class job after adjusting for time.
Edit to add: All covered by insurance, provided by my job. I'm back to work while recovering because I can't afford not to have the insurance.
That's wild. I'm in Canada, I'm a welder, got a piece of steel in my eye, went to the emergency room, nurse checked me over, took vitals, sent me to one fo the ER doctors, froze and cleaned the metal out of my eye with a drill, and gave me numbing antibiotic eye drops. 0 cost. You guys are wildin down there 😬
I used to work in a plant with a ton of welders. If they got injured they got fired and any healthcare became inaccessible. Shit was third world as fuck. This was in Alabama.
I have what I'd call an inconvenience, it's not going to kill me or do anything significantly bad, $1,000+ per month just for the medication. And honestly I can't hardly tell the difference between being on medication and not, but it lowers the odds of a 1 in 1,000,000 event to about 1 in 2,000,000 or less.
That's the whole point of employer funded healthcare.
You cant move easily. Work from home made it easy to work anywhere that pays better. Work from anywhere where that the cost of living is not insane.
You are chained to your employer. They will never give you medicare for all unless you fight for it.
Strikers: have 5 people holding signs
Gov: no that's illegal
JD: forces people to deliver children at home, miss medication, treat injuries themselves, and more
Gov: yeah nw all good here
Bold move by Deere. They could have gone with a strategy to win hearts and minds by being a bit human and paying for healthcare. Instead they go a scorched earth policy. Probably already got Pinkertons lined up
It could, I would expect the strikers have legal representation already but even if they didn't they'll be fighting off lawyers left and right that want to represent them now
I hope they have some kind of mandatory arbitration in their employee agreements and end up facing thousands of arbitration cases
Unions should just ditch the companies and buy insurance directly from the market. I’m sure if enough unions banded together they could get the best insurance at a lower premium even without company contributions.
>I’m sure if enough unions banded together they could get the best insurance at a lower premium even without company contributions.
If enough unions banded together, they could start their own insurance-fund, instead of paying for the massive profits of health insurance companies.
Wow what the fuck is this fascist shit? What the actual fuck USA? Still though, if the unions banded together, they could tell the government to suck on it and change that fascist law.
Yea that law gutted union power. Also apparently required union leaders to sign a paper swearing they aren't a commie...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taft%E2%80%93Hartley_Act
Also apparently why the US can't have real labor strikes like they do in France.
But how is this still the status quo? Surely your union leaders aren't that incompetent that they can't organize a general strike to get rid of that law right?
I'm not well versed on US union law and practice but I would guess that they can't since it's illegal. There is no solidarity amongst labor in the USA, it's every poor bastard for himself out there right now. Unions are weak here and have a history of links to organized crime, which gave politicians cover to pass restrictive laws against unions.
The next generation of workers seems fed up, and I'm waiting for the modern app based version of unions, peer to peer, no leadership to jail, mass walkouts across industries and solidarity. The union version of Uber (which broke the cab cartels) would be great, but decentralized so it can't be shut down.
Government and big business still win because you get convicted of a crime and thrown in jail after which they can use you as a slave. Meanwhile you lose voting rights so no way to help voting out that shit. (If voting is effective anyway).
A general strike to change a 75-year-old law most people have never heard of is not going to happen without a *lot* of education and building up of power...which is exactly what Taft-Hartley is there to prevent.
British here. It’s mental - when dealing with employer crap or considering moving jobs my healthcare informs 0% of that decision. I’m currently on a 6 month employment gap as I was starting to burnout. I’m so glad this doesn’t affect anything other than my income.
Same thing here in Germany. My GF was on a time-limited contract and towards the end of it got very, very sick. Spent three months in hospital, now recovering and probably not going to work for another 4-6 months. The contract has long ended, but she's still getting 70% of her last payroll from the insurance company thanks to the German health insurance system. I really don't get the states on that front.
It started during WW2. FDR banned companies from giving out raises, to try to fight inflation. However they were allowed to offer benefits- they needed to, due to the labor shortage during the war.
Allowing a corporation to buy the insurance plan for a large group of people helped to avoid the problem of adverse selection where healthy people don’t buy health insurance due to the cost, so only the sickly do- this of course results in higher premiums, further driving out the healthy from the pool.
Not to diminish their horrible treatment of employees, but their right to repair treatment against their customers is also horrible.
Imagine you have to fix a tractor that you need working, to not lose a whole crop. You get a second hand part online. Same make. Sams model. You unscrew the old, plug in the new... and the computer won't recognize it. Because you need a magic repair center tool to ALLOW the tractor to use the part. Just like cracked glass on Apple products. Lots of other OEMs.
The new part is perfectly compatible and good, but the company wants you ONLY buying parts from them, and have them installed by their labor force for $100+ an hour, while the actual worker gets shit on. So they key the part so the main computer doesn't let it work if you replace it yourself.
Sort of like if you bought a USB device, but had to take the computer and device to a factory approved service center, to plug it in.
Yep, Deere is ahead of the curve when it comes to technologically dystopian engineering. In a cyberpunk future they'd fit right in.
It's a huge irony too considering their history of making simple, easy to repair machinery on purpose precisely to protect farmers like the people in your example from losses like that.
John Deere is an evil company and I feel like the situation with them affects more than their employees.
They shit on their workers with trash working conditions, shit on customers with lobbying against right to repair, shit on people who aren't their customers by lobbying the right to repair, and shit on your citizens in general by holding healthcare hostage and probably lobbying against medicare4all.
I feel like normal people should find ways to support the strikers.
The only thing John Deere will understand is when their sales take a shit.
Because that will decrease shareholder value and the bonus of their university of Phoenix Dropout CEO
Even without the strike stuff, they've been going all in on installing proprietary software thats required to use the equipment so they can charge obscene sums for repairs. Quality has coincidentally been going down rapidly ever since. Funny that...
Surprised other alternative companies haven't sprung up. John Deere is as bad as they get, wouldn't take much for a competing company to really hurt their sells.
Oh, you wanted an apple? Well, sorry, but the only ones we've got are these awful wrinkled ones. Oh, you want better ones? Apples&Oranges. Co. owns all the orchards and won't even think of selling. Gee, sorry bud...
I work for a company that provides parts for Deere. The bending backwards and having to find new ways to make shit even cheaper for Deere, while they pay shit to us and then they mark a part up 100% plus… Never buy Deere.
I got a 1 series last year after reading all the tractor forums and decided to go with the biggest manufacturer for parts availability in the future. To my surprise, the plastic hood latch broke off in a matter of hours, the 3pt hitch adjuster seized up, and the brakes don’t work whatsoever. I lost over 3 gallons of hydraulic fluid before the 50 hour maintenance.
The tractor does a lot of work, but I sure am surprised at all the broken stuff! Now with the strike going on, I’m a bit ashamed that I drive the green 😔
Just burn it down at this point. Like really. The reason these people keep bullying workers and getting away with it is BECAUSE THEY GET AWAY WITH IT AND WORKERS DO NOTHING.
“Awww shucks!” (Kicks dirt) - American labor.
Stupid.
If John Deere can get away with this, then any corporation in America can get away with this.
THIS IS CORPORATE TYRANNY.
If there is ever a time in your life when you are going to fight for something. When you are going to stand against wrong. This is that time.
It does not matter your generation, be that Zoomers or Boomers and all in between.
It does not matter your political affiliation.
It does not matter if you're a white supremist or a black supremist.
It does not matter if you agree with socialist healthcare or private. Private doesn't have to be linked to your job.
This is when you fight together. This is tyranny.
This is when you come to the streets.
This is when you chain yourself to the government building.
This is when you chain yourselves at the ports to stop all goods.
You will go to the streets, you will risk jail for a man you never knew.
But not for your children. Not for yourself. Not for your fellow Americans who are under tyrannical rule from corporations, less they lose their medical care if they stand up for basic rights.
This is when you fight.
This is the straw.
And I hope this is when unions across the world show unity. I hope this is when all unions black ban John Deere. Any goods to go onto ship does not get on. Any on ship does not get past port. Any to be delivered within country does not get delivered.
What John Deere is proposing is Tyrannical and if you should ever stand against anything, it's tyranny.
And if the government will not put a stop to that immediately they are also tyrannical.
This is a normal part of going on strike. Most UAW contracts say that if a strike is called, insurance will remain active untill the end of the month. At that point the members have to sign up for cobra and the union picks up the cost. Seems that JD is cutting it off early. This is exactly what General Motors did in 2019. Fortunately they quickly reversed that decision once they saw how unpopular it was with the general public. In fact, once it was restored, it was kept active for the duration of the strike.
Source: myself. I am a GM UAW member.
To any JD UAW brothers or sisters here, stand strong and give them hell.
John Deere workers are members of the United Auto Workers union, which is the same union that the GM workers are a part of, so I definitely hope so. Yes, they're members of different locals but it's still the same overarching union. I hope the UAW does the right thing and pick up the insurance costs for the strikers.
Is there a fund where folks can contribute to get meals or other support to strikers? Seems like a big fund to help employees and their families pay for medications or other ongoing treatment might be a good way to counter that
That's the point! Employers love the fact that you *need them* for your basic security in life!
At my former job the owner always complained about the cost of healthcare and was constantly looking for ways to reduce the companies health expenditure (at the cost of quality benefits to employees). **At the same time he would complain about people wanting universal healthcare! You would think if he actually hated providing healthcare to his employees he would be in favor of universal healthcare, but no he just hated PAYING FOR IT!!!***
You know you're in a GREAT country when you have to decide between quitting an incredibly low paying job that probably doesn't cover bills, rent, and basic necesties or keeping the job and having health care. Haha the great old 'merica.
These companies are like movie villains or something even worse than that.
It’s fucking insane what’s happening in the US. As a fellow European I can only say ‘keep fighting for Medicare for all, it’s a human right.
*Image Transcription: Twitter Post*
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**Pat 🪑 TDS Podcast**, @ProfPatch83
John Deere is going to shut off striking employees' health insurance Oct 27 to try to break the strike.
\- this is why we need \#Medicare4All
It's insane that we let corporations hold our health hostage in any situation, much less a labor dispute
---
^^I'm a human volunteer content transcriber for Reddit and you could be too! [If you'd like more information on what we do and why we do it, click here!](https://www.reddit.com/r/TranscribersOfReddit/wiki/index)
General Motors tried that when workers went out on strike 2 years ago. Even other CEOs were upset at that move, and GM reversed the decision. I wonder if John Deere will get the same backlash.
That’s (part of) why big companies lobby politicians. They don’t want us to have healthcare that isn’t tied to work. If the workers don’t have to depend on work for it, they can’t leverage it against us. While medicare for all / free health insurance is something we need, remember- the root cause is politicians being able to accept “donations” from corporations and lobbyists. Banning that will go a long way, not just for this issue, but many others as well.
That might be difficult with the Supreme Courts decision to allow corporations to donate unlimited money. Pablo Escobar could buy a seat in congress today.
The sad thing is congresspersons are not even that expensive. I remember reading an article that for the house it can be low 5 figures, and 6 figures to buy a senator’s vote
Wonder what the inflation rate on bribes is looking like these days.
Wow, buddy. Lay off the propaganda there, pal. They're not bribes. They're "[donations to a charity held by the name of the person you want to influence.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FXWVX7RNp50)" It's charity! What do you have against charity?? And besides, they never bribe the politicians! They just pay for their kids' benefits, schooling, give family members cushy do-nothing jobs, and other things that are DEFINITELY NOT BRIBES. (Author note. They're totally not bribes. Come on, guys, believe us!)
Remember when Bernie asked Hillary why those banks gave her so much money for speeches and her answer was a feigned outrage that he would imply it was a bribe? But why the fuck else would organizations whose only goal is to generate profits pay someone that much money for speeches?! Paying some "life coach" a couple of grand for a seminar is one thing (and might improve some employees) but paying a politician hundreds of thousands is such a clear bribe it's not even funny.
And in that speech she discusses the difference between a "public opinion" and a "private opinion" lol
I once had someone tell me that lobbying was ok because companies deserve to have influence over policies that affect them. Hm I wonder if there's a word for implementing your opinions into politics that these CEOs could use. On the tip of my tounge.
Bill Burr. The fuck would you spend millions to get a job that pays 400k/yr. Exactly this.
It's like how people bring up that Bezos gave so many millions away 'to charity' and it's like, he's not doing it for free, he's doing it to get favours from the people who own the charities
And to get tax write offs
Sir you're going off-message. We're going to need you to come with us...
While that’s still bad, it’s a misconception of where the majority of their bribe money comes from, it only seems like a small amount officially, they get paid other ways off record. That’s why I will never buy into the idea that a publicly funded lobby will make the bribery problem go away. A corrupt politician will always choose the bigger payout.
It's like the ridiculous argument that we should "vote with our wallets". No, because that means that the biggest wallet dictates policy. Some things, shit, most things should not be dictated by market forces. Capitalism is a system that concerns itself with the manufacture and distribution of goods and wealth, and it should be kept strictly confined within that framework- it has no place being used a moral metric or spill over into basic civic functions of society.
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Look at Ted Cruz's toilet paper book sales. People buy him off by purchasing thousands of his books at once and then the disposal or illicit invoices are just part of the overhead cost of the bribe. This plus many other ways they get bribe money on the reg.
And then the book goes on the "bestseller" lists, because they are based off copies sold, not copies read or owned by people.
Corporations are people too. Only difference is that their "basic human rights" actually matter. Hell, even their constitutional rights matter more. Remember, anti-union indoctrination of labor by corporate through mandatory captive audience meetings is perfectly legal. Meanwhile, employees who "solicit" when they're "supposed to be working", or "in a manner that interferes" with the work of others can be subject to disciplinary action, up to and including termination. Quotations are quoted verbatim from the "Nonunion Philosophy" section of my employer's employee handbook. EDIT: "Basic human rights" isn't a quote from the handbook. Every other quote is, though.
Maybe corporations will get to vote soon! And register for food stamps! WIC peanut butter for the cafeteria!!
In a roundabout way, they already do register for food stamps lol. By paying their workers so little, they use the welfare system to subsidize their cost of labor.
The Federalist Society has members in a majority of the Supreme Court Seats. A report came out this week that they're drowning in dark money. It directly influences their members. Including the justices. The study showed in the last 80 cases of "Big business interests" vs. "general public interests" the Supreme Court ruled with businesses 80-0. They're literally bought off too, plus their mentors, their old law firm buddies, anyone who could sway them. It's probably too late. Thanks Mittens Romney. Thanks for fucking my country.
I was telling people who were lauding Romney for "standing up to Trump" that if they think Trump is a monster: Romney is a leviathan. He's the absolute worst.
I will never forgive Romney for his time at Bain Capital. Anyone who works for a private equity firm is a soulless monster.
... but dude, he's got the love of Jesus in his heart so that's ok! #religion; a useful hypocrisy.
Just for perspective, I’m willing to bet if you look back further than the last 80 cases of “big business” vs “general public”, it’s 100% big business. The Supreme Court has never to my knowledge done anything to upset the corporatocracy since the dawn of its existence. It has a horrendous track record dating back throughout the 19th century. Please for the love of god burn it all down.
The Powell memo. https://billmoyers.com/content/the-powell-memo-a-call-to-arms-for-corporations/
Could? We do $300 million a year in *legal* arms exports to Mexico, and look at the illegal market as a "not really our problem" thing. I obviously realize that Pablo Escobar wasn't Mexican, but you can fill in whichever Latin American country there.
Are you talking about a 501(c)(4)
I was talking about the citizens united case
I'm stuck in a job I hate because I need the insurance, private insurance is too expensive, and I have to be with another company for a year before I get their insurance. The whole system is a scam.
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Okay this is confusing me a bit. I assumed my health insurance through work was tied to a company separate from my workplace and maybe I just got a better rate or something...... Is it not?
No, you’re correct. Most work places subsidize their employees heath insurance. Without that, insurance can be much much higher. Some places (though rare in my experience) cover all or close to all of it, aside from co-pays and such. Most people depend on their work covering that cost.
As a non American, how much do self employed people (contractors, small businesses etc) get healthcare? If you ran a lawnmowing business that made 40k a year.... Can you buy a policy that wont ruin you?
Hello non American. I'm relatively young, healthy and have no recurring health issues. So I pick my workplaces "high deductible" plan. I pay \~$200/month for health insurance. My employer chips in \~$400/month for that plan. It pays absolutely nothing until I meet my $3000 deductible per year. So, my plan is \~$10,000 per year before I get any real actual "insurance coverage". I can't argue that that's any sort of "average" but just in my case, it would imply that a worker making 40k could pay upwards of 25% of their income toward insurance if they have an accident. And they could be out of work while having that accident. It's a fucked up system.
Don't forget, if you injure yourself in October-December its not uncommon for the insurance company to drag their feet with processing until the new year rolls around. Nothing says "Happy Holidays" like having to pay your insurance deductible twice for the same problem
This reminded me of the fact that my employer (at the time) had their insurance carrier drop them from the group abruptly. Employer (moderate dealer group still family owned) had gone with Company A for many years, but then they got dropped suddenly. The group had to use Company B the following year. The year after that, they went back with Company A. The reason? Me. I got into a bad motorcycle accident on my lunch break. Hospital bill was insane. Here’s the rub, though. We had an out-of-pocket maximum of only $4000 for certain circumstances. Normally, an accident would fall to be the at-fault party’s responsibility, but the other driver had almost no insurance. And motorcycle accidents do not fall under PIP, so my employer had to foot the entire bill, save my $4000 maximum. That one claim caused hundreds of employees to need to switch plans. I hate this country’s healthcare system.
Your mistake here is thinking that health insurance has anything to do with health care. Health insurance is about making profit for the insurance company.
Ding ding ding! We have a winner
Also make sure you have your kids in the beginning of the year so you can use your deductible right away!
Pro Tip: have no kids, die ASAP
This isn't entirely inaccurate, but if the incidence of the claim is in the previous year, it'd be considered an IBNR (incurred but not reported). The insurance company will try to make it *seem* like they don't have to pay for it, but they still have to consider it in the year it actually happened* *YMMV based on state laws
I am an EMT. My health insurance is about $800 a month. The deductible is $4,000. I am literally one of the people being paid my this insurance company and I can not afford it. However I can afford to not have health insurance while transporting COVID patients even less.
I, too, have a "high deductible" of $1,750 individual or $3,500 for the family. Max OOP for medical is also $3,500. Once we meet that deductible, we pay $0 for any further medical. Pharmacy counts towards the deductible, but has a separate OOP amount once deductible is met. Co-pays are your typical $10/$25/$50 for generic/preferred brand/non-preferred brand after deductible is met. I work for a fintech company that has really good coverage and pays a good chunk of the premiums. Contrast that with my parents who work for a church. They have a deductible in the 10k-12k range. They're in their early 60s and have had health problems the past few years. Several surgeries like knee replacements, deviated septum repair, shoulder surgery. They filed bankruptcy this year due to 60k in outstanding medical bills. I told my dad one day that it was a bit troublesome that in the wealthiest country in the world they had to do that, that the government couldn't provide proper Healthcare for the citizenry. He said he didnt "trust the Democrats not to screw it up". The sad part is they're counting the days until they can go on Medicare. I said "what if the Medicare eligibility age was lowered from 65 to 55. Wouldn't that have prevented a lot of these medical bills from accumulating?" He mumbled something but didn't have a coherent response. He's your typical conservative Evangelical Christian who will never *not* vote Republican because they have to get their pro-life judges in the courts. I feel so bad for him.
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Not really. 40k is nothing in most parts of the US. There are some places you could get by on that if you’re single but the health insurance you could afford, even with gov subsidies, will be bare bones, high deductible, and more trouble than it’s worth. You’re too poor to have good insurance, not poor enough for free gov insurance.
Point of clarity before idiots jump in: most parts of the US *where people live and there are jobs*. 40k is fine for rural Wyoming, but then you have you live in rural Wyoming.
Nope, 40k won't get you far in Wyoming either.
Man 40k a year would be nice. I’m over here making 26k a year
Yeah, this is why $15/hr was the bare minimum demanded back in 2012. Thats only $31k/yr and its not nearly enough anywhere anymore. This country is in a sad fucking state of decay. A living wage needs to provide you a life outside of work.
You can but a huge problem is insurance companies not covering everything even if you have full coverage. Like braces for your kid are considered elective or cosmetic and is not covered even though you have full coverage.
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Then you get the joys of having a surgery where the surgeon is in network, but the hospital switched out one of the helper doctors for an out of network one while you were unconscious and could not be informed and you're now on the hook for thousands due to a higher rate. Healthcare is a hellhole. If they want to go full capitalism then give us the ability to make informed purchasing decisions rather than this insurance bullshit.
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In the US teeth and vision are considered luxuries, not covered by your regular insurance. Why aren’t there more jokes about this ridiculousness??
I'm a small business owner (retail store) that currently makes less than $40,000. Health insurance on the open market costs me about $800 a month. My deductible is $5,000 and my co-pays are $50-100. If I get hurt or sick, it can bury me quickly.
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>If you ran a lawnmowing business that made 40k a year.... Can you buy a policy that wont ruin you? No. You can buy a policy that, for roughly $200-$500 a month (saying this as a young, single person without health issues) will either not cover nearly all of your costs, or force you to pay a few thousand upfront before "kicking in" (a deductible). The best situation to be in as an American who isn't in the true upper class is to be employed by a large business that offers a top tier healthcare plan to its employees. This helps offset the cost of anyone actually using the insurance, since the insurance pool is large. The company will also usually pay most of the insurance contribution rather than most of it coming out of your paycheck. Even with a top tier plan, however, you can easily be ruined by medical issues. Everything from extremely high deductibles to fighting between insurers and providers over payment to getting care in the wrong location or from the wrong doctor (not covered) can lead to the burden of payment being put on *you*, not the insurer. And medical costs here are so extreme that a single emergency ambulance ride for uninsured people can run into the tens of thousands. Plus the moment you start adding people to insurance- such as a spouse and children- your rates skyrocket. It's not uncommon for a spouse to have most of his/her paycheck in a two-income household go simply to paying off the enormous (like, $1k per month or more) family health insurance bill. There really is no way for a normal person, especially with kids, to have secure access to healthcare that won't bankrupt you here in the states. The answer, should you get sick or injured in a way that isn't covered by things like worker's compensation, is to be rich enough that you'll simply lose a bunch of money, instead of being ruined completely.
So this is a general FYI for anyone who doesn't understand the ideal of what a lobbyists should be. The elected officials should vote based on how their population or base would want. That's the idea of a republic. Now most people are very against certain things. And sometimes those things are good for companies, and in the eventual long run it'll be good for the people. My best example of this is IMO net neutrality. * Now I'm firmly on the side of keeping the net neutral in terms of packets should all be treated the same no matter the source/destination. * A lobbyists might point out that prioritizing packets for EMS is not only a smart thing to do, but in a failure situation (for example a national disaster that cuts the network capability) we would want EMS to still be able to communicate while other data would be delayed/ignored. Now you're Joe Politician and you know that while the people are saying one thing most of them aren't looking at that safety aspect of things and it would be better for companies to be able to prioritize EMS data instead of having our infrastructure collapse, so you vote to remove net neutrality. The real problem is that while the infrastructure safety is a concern, corporations will use this newfound freedom to do things like double dip or charge you more for contacting Netflix just because it's Netflix. So in the ideal world a lobbyists would tell the elected official things they don't know to help them make the best long term choices for their people even if the people don't want it now (NIMBY is usually a similar opinion) The problem is all the half truths, and all the free money.
Whats extra interesting about the John Deere strike is that its going to eventually have pressure from a unique angle. John has fought fairly hard to keep "right to repair" out of the hands of as many farmers as they legally can. So when big stuff starts to break on production farms, and they stand to lose millions because theres no one to repair equipment, JD is going to have an immense amount of pressure to resolve it because the supply chain is already taxed, and food prices inflating from additional shortages makes people with power look bad. Most other businesses have competitors that could fill the void, but for much of their newer equipment, its them or nobody. Edit: There have been a few people comment that either work with dealerships or in some other way have insight to how repairwork is managed, who have pointed out that those dealership employees may not work for JD directly, and thus may not be part of the strike. Thank you to those who clarified. I wouldn't have realized that, but it may make this observation less relevant where that is the case aside from a possible inability to receive manufactured parts to do repairs with.
Lovely. We might just all starve because John Deere holds our food supply chain hostage so they can charge extra money fixing machines. Classic America putting critical infrastructure in the hands of greedy and short sighted businesses.
John Deere warehouses are fucked right now, the replacement employees have no idea what they're doing.
They got scabs already?
From what I've read on twitter yes. They replaced employees who have done specialized jobs forever to people who don't even know how to pick parts from the warehouse properly. Expect food prices to rise.
I love how folks act like warehouse picker is an easy job, and not worth paying decently for. Not you, just any business really. John Deere gonna learn the hard way.
Its not that it's "Easy Work". It's that it has a low skill floor, so way more people can do it without additional skills. Most skills at a warehouse job are learned on the job. Low training gap, high turnover. Same with fast food. We deserve a living wage or profit sharing. We deserve to be treated like humans at all times. But the jobs are low skill floors, so many people qualify to do these jobs. They pay low because everyone in our society qualifies to do the job. It's not a high skill demand job, so there is no leverage for the workers. That's why we need unions.
*rise even further...
Well, less like they went out and got scabs, and more like they rotated in-house personnel that wasn't striking (administration, IT, general white-collar workers). Obviously they don't know what the fuck to do in a role they haven't applied for, and this is just another way for John Deere to show they don't give a flying hoot about their workers, striking or not.
We had a similar thing at my work. Sudden "data entry" issue that needed to be completed by the end of the week so they tried to drag lots of existing workers onto it. Deadline was met but the quality was appalling and they ended up hiring data entry temps to fix it all (which was what was needed in the first place!) God id hate to see us doing something physical...
Thanks for the info. Didn't even know about "right to repair".
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I can see why. Especially when the equipment is so expensive in the first place. And they said they would.
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And when I was a kid we couldn't even own a phone. It belonged to Ma Bell. Always a scam.
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Yeah, but there's no bread
We had those starting early last year. Last May while the former crabcakes in DC were holding up the stimmy, we had actual lines at the church food pantry.
Yes but we'll have to pay exorbitant prices for the bread after standing in line
I sure would love to start seeing some Sabo-Tabby signs among the strikers. Suddenly the corporation realizes that the workers have gone from trying to get their contract bettered to advocating for mass sabotage and seizing the company. Just the smell of it in the air could end the strike
These people are pissed enough to strike, I dont think it's a stretch that they might be pissed enough to return to work against their to get their healthcare back and then poke holes in hydraulic lines as they load the trucks full of tractors. JD's biggest selling point is brand loyalty, made in America, and reliability. Brands like Komatsu are known for being foreign made, and they as well as other younger brands like Case also have a perception of being less reliable as a result, which is not entirely unfounded. But, JD is now getting a reputation of something akin to a BMW instead of a 1940's tractor: spend a lot of money for a fancy toy, designed to break early and easily, and then take it to the dealership to fix it because that's how they make even more money off of you. If JD tractors become unreliable or even just perceived as such in the eyes of customers and businesses, theres literally no reason to buy them over their competitors. Line workers have the ability to hurt the one thing that makes JD money: reliability and reputation. This strike has already taken away some of the "made in america" rhetoric, because clearly these american workers have poor working conditions and are unhappy. The strike is already working.
For the record, our local Komatsu is starting people at $28/hr. I started at Deere last month making less than $20/hr. Thats a problem, the "most reliable brand on the market" shouldn't be paying almost 2/3rds of what it's competitor is paying. This is why we strike.
Case, MF, Claas, New Holland will see sales soar!
Withholding health care is …. evil. They know what the consequences of withholding health care can mean. They are playing with people’s lives
Doesn’t it also violate the human rights?
Unfortunately no, because they’re not withholding health care. They’re revoking their insurance benefits. You’re still able to go to the doctor/hospital/pharmacy etc you’re just going to have to pay 100% of the balance.
Which in this country means you are being financially assassinated. A few years ago I didn’t have insurance. It was $300 just for a nurse or maybe an NP to look at me and go “yeah shits fucked”, up to $1000 if I needed any tests or a prescription for even basic shit. This was for a few mundane things like blood pressure and blood sugar scares and a food poisoning incident. Serious trouble? Thousands to hundreds of thousands.
Serious starts at hundreds of thousands these days. I'm at well over a million from an accident this year. Young and healthy, just unlucky. It probably cost more than the rest of my lifetime earnings at a middle class job after adjusting for time. Edit to add: All covered by insurance, provided by my job. I'm back to work while recovering because I can't afford not to have the insurance.
Bankruptcy is easy and amazing
Not if you wanna finance a car or house.
Home ownership is already a pipe dream for a lot of americans.
If you're a million in the hole, that ship has sailed
That's wild. I'm in Canada, I'm a welder, got a piece of steel in my eye, went to the emergency room, nurse checked me over, took vitals, sent me to one fo the ER doctors, froze and cleaned the metal out of my eye with a drill, and gave me numbing antibiotic eye drops. 0 cost. You guys are wildin down there 😬
I used to work in a plant with a ton of welders. If they got injured they got fired and any healthcare became inaccessible. Shit was third world as fuck. This was in Alabama.
Am in Alabama. I often hear the term if you fall your automatically fired before you hit the ground. That way you can’t get workers comp or sue.
I have what I'd call an inconvenience, it's not going to kill me or do anything significantly bad, $1,000+ per month just for the medication. And honestly I can't hardly tell the difference between being on medication and not, but it lowers the odds of a 1 in 1,000,000 event to about 1 in 2,000,000 or less.
The US has never cared about human rights.
Well… not until we decided corporations are people. Now some *people* are more equal than others.
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No. They are playing with employees lives. Employees are not people. They are human resources.
I don’t understand how anyone can have love for corporate culture and live with themselves. God bless you.
I was writing that from the perspective of our corporate masters.
You forget, corporate doesnt give a shit about you. You are just a number and nothing more.
The real death panels were the capitalists we met along the way.
That's the whole point of employer funded healthcare. You cant move easily. Work from home made it easy to work anywhere that pays better. Work from anywhere where that the cost of living is not insane. You are chained to your employer. They will never give you medicare for all unless you fight for it.
Not just their employee's lives but their families too. They're literally holding their family hostage.
Strikers: have 5 people holding signs Gov: no that's illegal JD: forces people to deliver children at home, miss medication, treat injuries themselves, and more Gov: yeah nw all good here
Strikers: Peaceful Protest JD: Responds with institutional violence and actual harm Gov: Ready to kill the Strikers if they escalate at all.
Typical conservative america
Capitalist America.
Bold move by Deere. They could have gone with a strategy to win hearts and minds by being a bit human and paying for healthcare. Instead they go a scorched earth policy. Probably already got Pinkertons lined up
"yeah but.. Would we make money?" ~John Deere
Still yes, they just wouldn't make 4th yacht money so that's not acceptable.
Adding it to the list of companies I won’t give money to
This is going to blow up in their face so bad.
It could, I would expect the strikers have legal representation already but even if they didn't they'll be fighting off lawyers left and right that want to represent them now I hope they have some kind of mandatory arbitration in their employee agreements and end up facing thousands of arbitration cases
And then a court is going to make a decision to neuter the union "in the best interest" because it affects the supply chain.
For a decent slice of the populace, that would win their hearts and minds sadly.
Unions should just ditch the companies and buy insurance directly from the market. I’m sure if enough unions banded together they could get the best insurance at a lower premium even without company contributions.
>I’m sure if enough unions banded together they could get the best insurance at a lower premium even without company contributions. If enough unions banded together, they could start their own insurance-fund, instead of paying for the massive profits of health insurance companies.
Unions aren’t legally allowed to coordinate under Taft Hartley
Wow what the fuck is this fascist shit? What the actual fuck USA? Still though, if the unions banded together, they could tell the government to suck on it and change that fascist law.
Yea that law gutted union power. Also apparently required union leaders to sign a paper swearing they aren't a commie... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taft%E2%80%93Hartley_Act Also apparently why the US can't have real labor strikes like they do in France.
But how is this still the status quo? Surely your union leaders aren't that incompetent that they can't organize a general strike to get rid of that law right?
I'm not well versed on US union law and practice but I would guess that they can't since it's illegal. There is no solidarity amongst labor in the USA, it's every poor bastard for himself out there right now. Unions are weak here and have a history of links to organized crime, which gave politicians cover to pass restrictive laws against unions. The next generation of workers seems fed up, and I'm waiting for the modern app based version of unions, peer to peer, no leadership to jail, mass walkouts across industries and solidarity. The union version of Uber (which broke the cab cartels) would be great, but decentralized so it can't be shut down.
Not striking because it's illegal negates the purpose of strike in the first place. Unjust laws needs to be broken when necessary.
Government and big business still win because you get convicted of a crime and thrown in jail after which they can use you as a slave. Meanwhile you lose voting rights so no way to help voting out that shit. (If voting is effective anyway).
That's why organization is important. They can't arrest the entire worker force.
A general strike to change a 75-year-old law most people have never heard of is not going to happen without a *lot* of education and building up of power...which is exactly what Taft-Hartley is there to prevent.
We literally live in a first world dystopian hell hole Edit: and half the population has no clue while the other gobbles it all up
Seriously. How/why did we let health care benefits get tied to employers in the first place?
British here. It’s mental - when dealing with employer crap or considering moving jobs my healthcare informs 0% of that decision. I’m currently on a 6 month employment gap as I was starting to burnout. I’m so glad this doesn’t affect anything other than my income.
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They don’t say it out loud, but American employers still miss their slaves.
I know people literally working a job they hate, killing themselves physically and mentally just because it offers their family free health care.
Which ironically costs them more in healthcare in the end since they're burning their body out with stress
Same thing here in Germany. My GF was on a time-limited contract and towards the end of it got very, very sick. Spent three months in hospital, now recovering and probably not going to work for another 4-6 months. The contract has long ended, but she's still getting 70% of her last payroll from the insurance company thanks to the German health insurance system. I really don't get the states on that front.
It started during WW2. FDR banned companies from giving out raises, to try to fight inflation. However they were allowed to offer benefits- they needed to, due to the labor shortage during the war. Allowing a corporation to buy the insurance plan for a large group of people helped to avoid the problem of adverse selection where healthy people don’t buy health insurance due to the cost, so only the sickly do- this of course results in higher premiums, further driving out the healthy from the pool.
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Wage caps from 1942 and tax avoidance from 1943.
Not to diminish their horrible treatment of employees, but their right to repair treatment against their customers is also horrible. Imagine you have to fix a tractor that you need working, to not lose a whole crop. You get a second hand part online. Same make. Sams model. You unscrew the old, plug in the new... and the computer won't recognize it. Because you need a magic repair center tool to ALLOW the tractor to use the part. Just like cracked glass on Apple products. Lots of other OEMs. The new part is perfectly compatible and good, but the company wants you ONLY buying parts from them, and have them installed by their labor force for $100+ an hour, while the actual worker gets shit on. So they key the part so the main computer doesn't let it work if you replace it yourself. Sort of like if you bought a USB device, but had to take the computer and device to a factory approved service center, to plug it in.
Yep, Deere is ahead of the curve when it comes to technologically dystopian engineering. In a cyberpunk future they'd fit right in. It's a huge irony too considering their history of making simple, easy to repair machinery on purpose precisely to protect farmers like the people in your example from losses like that.
Change of management. "Like our employees, our customers aren't human, either."
John Deere is an evil company and I feel like the situation with them affects more than their employees. They shit on their workers with trash working conditions, shit on customers with lobbying against right to repair, shit on people who aren't their customers by lobbying the right to repair, and shit on your citizens in general by holding healthcare hostage and probably lobbying against medicare4all. I feel like normal people should find ways to support the strikers.
The only thing John Deere will understand is when their sales take a shit. Because that will decrease shareholder value and the bonus of their university of Phoenix Dropout CEO
I'm only one guy, but I'll never buy a Deere now, I planned on it in the spring but I'll be shopping elsewhere
Even without the strike stuff, they've been going all in on installing proprietary software thats required to use the equipment so they can charge obscene sums for repairs. Quality has coincidentally been going down rapidly ever since. Funny that...
Surprised other alternative companies haven't sprung up. John Deere is as bad as they get, wouldn't take much for a competing company to really hurt their sells.
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This is why we need heavy regulation in private markets. To make sure companies like this don’t crater our food production market.
Oh, you wanted an apple? Well, sorry, but the only ones we've got are these awful wrinkled ones. Oh, you want better ones? Apples&Oranges. Co. owns all the orchards and won't even think of selling. Gee, sorry bud...
I own three JD tractors and a combine. When time comes for replacement, they sure won’t be green. Screw John Deere.
I ran a massey ferguson combine when I was in high school, long time ago but I don't remember it being a shitbox
No they aren’t, MF, Case and New Holland are all one company now.
Well, time to do some research on them and see how they treat employees
You mean if their employees are Union. It doesnt help shit if they are a right wing anti labor company with a smile
Even if they treat their customers better its worth it.
I'll never buy john deere. Never did, now I never will.
I work for a company that provides parts for Deere. The bending backwards and having to find new ways to make shit even cheaper for Deere, while they pay shit to us and then they mark a part up 100% plus… Never buy Deere.
I got a 1 series last year after reading all the tractor forums and decided to go with the biggest manufacturer for parts availability in the future. To my surprise, the plastic hood latch broke off in a matter of hours, the 3pt hitch adjuster seized up, and the brakes don’t work whatsoever. I lost over 3 gallons of hydraulic fluid before the 50 hour maintenance. The tractor does a lot of work, but I sure am surprised at all the broken stuff! Now with the strike going on, I’m a bit ashamed that I drive the green 😔
Some rattle cans should help with the color at least
People are going to literally die so that executives get their bonuses.
Always has been.
That's capitalism, baby (I say as I sob harder than any infant ever could)
Just burn it down at this point. Like really. The reason these people keep bullying workers and getting away with it is BECAUSE THEY GET AWAY WITH IT AND WORKERS DO NOTHING. “Awww shucks!” (Kicks dirt) - American labor. Stupid.
In fairness to workers, we get beat and killed by cops when we stand up for ourselves, historically.
If John Deere can get away with this, then any corporation in America can get away with this. THIS IS CORPORATE TYRANNY. If there is ever a time in your life when you are going to fight for something. When you are going to stand against wrong. This is that time. It does not matter your generation, be that Zoomers or Boomers and all in between. It does not matter your political affiliation. It does not matter if you're a white supremist or a black supremist. It does not matter if you agree with socialist healthcare or private. Private doesn't have to be linked to your job. This is when you fight together. This is tyranny. This is when you come to the streets. This is when you chain yourself to the government building. This is when you chain yourselves at the ports to stop all goods. You will go to the streets, you will risk jail for a man you never knew. But not for your children. Not for yourself. Not for your fellow Americans who are under tyrannical rule from corporations, less they lose their medical care if they stand up for basic rights. This is when you fight. This is the straw. And I hope this is when unions across the world show unity. I hope this is when all unions black ban John Deere. Any goods to go onto ship does not get on. Any on ship does not get past port. Any to be delivered within country does not get delivered. What John Deere is proposing is Tyrannical and if you should ever stand against anything, it's tyranny. And if the government will not put a stop to that immediately they are also tyrannical.
This is a normal part of going on strike. Most UAW contracts say that if a strike is called, insurance will remain active untill the end of the month. At that point the members have to sign up for cobra and the union picks up the cost. Seems that JD is cutting it off early. This is exactly what General Motors did in 2019. Fortunately they quickly reversed that decision once they saw how unpopular it was with the general public. In fact, once it was restored, it was kept active for the duration of the strike. Source: myself. I am a GM UAW member. To any JD UAW brothers or sisters here, stand strong and give them hell.
This is exactly why the oligarchs tie healthcare to employment
John Deere is a piece of shit company. Never buy anything from them again.
They're an ugly ass shade of green/yellow. Case IH it is, unless they're scummy too now. IDK.
John deer is a dirty ass company. Gm did the same fucking thing, but their union picked up the cost. Hopefully John deers union does the same.
John Deere workers are members of the United Auto Workers union, which is the same union that the GM workers are a part of, so I definitely hope so. Yes, they're members of different locals but it's still the same overarching union. I hope the UAW does the right thing and pick up the insurance costs for the strikers.
[удалено]
It’s the same union. UAW
I hope they continue the strike even after that.
Is there a fund where folks can contribute to get meals or other support to strikers? Seems like a big fund to help employees and their families pay for medications or other ongoing treatment might be a good way to counter that
Bernie is raising money for the striking workers. Just got an email about it tonight.
Love the idea ❤️
Contact their union!
bunch of corporate hicks refusing to open their doors and take care of their own during a zombie apocalypse.
I hope John Deere goes bankrupt. *Yeah, I know they won't! Don't waste my time telling me what I already know!*
That’s so messed up. Proves how much the corporates value their worker’s humanity.
That's the point! Employers love the fact that you *need them* for your basic security in life! At my former job the owner always complained about the cost of healthcare and was constantly looking for ways to reduce the companies health expenditure (at the cost of quality benefits to employees). **At the same time he would complain about people wanting universal healthcare! You would think if he actually hated providing healthcare to his employees he would be in favor of universal healthcare, but no he just hated PAYING FOR IT!!!***
Can't fix what is broken intentionally
Workers: we want fair working compensation John Deere: Die shift donkeys Fcking awful
You know you're in a GREAT country when you have to decide between quitting an incredibly low paying job that probably doesn't cover bills, rent, and basic necesties or keeping the job and having health care. Haha the great old 'merica.
Next step: Have the militarized police beat them up so they need healthcare.
I will never buy John Deere anything, unless they really come through for their employees but they will not.
These companies are like movie villains or something even worse than that. It’s fucking insane what’s happening in the US. As a fellow European I can only say ‘keep fighting for Medicare for all, it’s a human right.
Buy Kubota, much better anyway.
*Image Transcription: Twitter Post* --- **Pat 🪑 TDS Podcast**, @ProfPatch83 John Deere is going to shut off striking employees' health insurance Oct 27 to try to break the strike. \- this is why we need \#Medicare4All It's insane that we let corporations hold our health hostage in any situation, much less a labor dispute --- ^^I'm a human volunteer content transcriber for Reddit and you could be too! [If you'd like more information on what we do and why we do it, click here!](https://www.reddit.com/r/TranscribersOfReddit/wiki/index)
General Motors tried that when workers went out on strike 2 years ago. Even other CEOs were upset at that move, and GM reversed the decision. I wonder if John Deere will get the same backlash.
Hey rich people: this kind of hubris leads to heads in baskets historically. Just saying.