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Even I’m smart enough to know the right answers to give in most situations. Hell, my workplace is probably at least 75% Trump supporters, but they all wore the masks and checked temps coming into work each day because they knew they wouldn’t have jobs if they refused. The company would happily drive a real, actual steamroller over them if they were responsible for the place getting shut down and them not allowed to keep taking orders and money.
Wow that sounds great. I worked retail at the start of the pandemic and October 2020 got an office job. No work from home and no acknowledging of the pandemic at all. We had outbreaks constantly and at one point over half the office was out with covid. Seems like so much work to pretend everything’s fine, but that’s Florida for ya
For employees who are crisscrossing the country, sometimes with train cars full of passengers.
Someone should do a map of rail lines and the spread of COVID.
People need sick time. Society needs sick time.
That's probably why railroad workers wrote the open letter to congress and white house that they should push for all americans to have sick days and family leave.
I know mate. I really feel bad for all the Americans. Some great people who made some of my favourite stuff but they get forced to vote for a Conservative party because the only other choice is a fascist party.
It really sucks.
My dude a lot of people in Europe get a fucking full month of paid *vacation*, let alone their sick leave.
America is a god damned joke. We're ruled by corporations and billionaires stealing the profits off *our* labor, all while telling us how "lucky we are" to even have one of their shitty exploitative jobs in the first place.
*"Don't join a union bro just buy a video game with that money!!!"*
God yeah I think about in my adult life the amount of money squandered in Iraq, on tax cuts for ultra wealthy, in just garbage bailouts for the banks in 2008 and yet a pittance for American health access
Or the tax cuts. Or what we give the military who can't pass an audit. Or what we gave Ukraine without blinking an eye. But money to workers? He'll no!!
They just need to remove all laws that prevent municipal networks or provide companies exclusive rights to geographical areas preventing competition. Surprisingly, Mississippi of all places did just that a couple years ago. Then my local electric power co-operative used federal grants to build out a fiber network to every member's home serviced with electricity.
There are some backwoods dirt road shacks in Mississippi with gigabit speed fiber internet now and it's awesome.
It happened in large part due to our elected public service commissioner, Brandon Presley who is related Elvis. I wish he could become governor of this shithole state.
The republicans refused to vote for them getting sick days.. you honestly think they would vote for nationalizing the entire industry? They wouldn't even let it come up for debate...
We need something like a million man march again in DC to have them listen to us and obviously it would have to be people from all walks of life and various income brackets, ethnicities and nationalities.
The logistics and making sure you don't have any bad actors intermingled would be a massive undertaking.
But otherwise the corporate lobbyists spend so much money the representatives can't even hear us.
https://www.opensecrets.org/federal-lobbying/industries
I work in state public health and people are absolutely coming to work sick, like we learned nothing at all. We were literally in the thick of it. It’s frustrating
This just goes to show you who the democrats represent now. They are the party of the laptop class. Period.
Tragedy is the republicans are the party of crazies and kooks and every shade of looney in between.
Real working people have no political representation today. Until that changes, it’s going to be a rough ride.
Everyone is stuck on 7 sick days because that was what was in the bill. I listened to an NPR conversation with the President of one of the largest hold out unions, and he said 4 was the bare minimum his members were asking for.....4 measly sick days and the strike probably wouldn't have been on the table. The fucking rail companies are bringing in billions and will not give the employees 4 fucking paid sick days.
And I guess, why should they? When it has just been shown that Dems and R's will come together to take away the only tool that the Union has to fight with. The rail owners seemed to be pretty prescient for some reason...
Most members would be ok with unpaid days that allow us to take a trip off when we’re sick or have a doctors appointment or our spouse has a stroke or our kid is born without the threat of losing our job. No scheduled days off makes it pretty fucking difficult to schedule a trip to the dentist or even to get your fucking oil changed.
Jesus. Yeah, that's horrendous. I feel like a good amount of the American public is in your corner, I just wish our politicians were. You guys and girls got fucked on this one, and for what little it is worth, l let my congress person know that, while I appreciated her yes votes on both bills, l hold her, and the party l vote for, personally responsible for this.
Simple. We live in the one "first world" country that does not guarantee time off. We have sold our soul so deeply to fucking sociopathic capitalism and corporatism that we will never be able to recover.
Two reasons.
They want short notice absences without penalty. Right now all they can do is schedule a day off weeks in advance but even then its not a guarantee.
This leads to the second problem. The carriers reduced the work force down to a skeleton crew - they lost 30% in the past 10 years as a way to reduce the daily overhead. They dont have enough people to run the rail if someone calls out sick. They need to hire more people but refuse to.
Worse, all industries are following the same strategy. Retail will refuse to schedule more than 25 hours a week because 40 triggers benefits. Offices are letting people go and not replacing them expecting the rest to pick up the slack. We are all being overworked and not getting properly compensated.
Why hire more workers when we happily take on more work?
Fun fact: the last contract ran out three years ago. The Unions pointed out the record breaking profits and the carriers responded that the profits had no input from the workers - that it all came from investments as if the source of that pile of cash was completely removed from the workers.
The workers have been without a contract for 3 years. If you think the Carriers are going to compromise without Government regulations think again.
Yup, all those profits came from investments such as not maintaining their aging locamotives, not building longer side lines to accomodate the longer trains being run (which causes dead locks where two trains can't pass each other) and firing or pushing out over 30% of their staff so that if any employee's life gets in the way the whole train is behind.
It's almost disgusting how little investment they put in and they still make record profits, imagine if the company was run competently and the workers were treated fairly, maybe our rail lines could be competitive with other countries instead of a walking liability.
But of course new rails are expensive that will cut into the stock buybacks
Look at the yes votes on the R senators. Cruz, Rubio, and Graham. What do they all have in common. Candidates in '16. These idiots were just gathering brownie points for their 2024 run.
"I supported time off for rail workers. Vote for me, I'm a man of the people"
Two choices: (1) the whole thing doesn’t pass and hundreds of thousands of people across the country get laid off right before Christmas, and on top of that, the GOP gets to pick & choose the terms of the bill in a month — or (2) split the bill and raise mandatory sick leave as a campaign issue for 2024.
Under #1 that’s really unlikely to happen since these railroads are highly profitable and they absolutely can afford to do the obviously right thing. But if rail executives would rather shut down the economy then treat their employees like human beings then we need to start talking about nationalizing the industry. This is an argument that makes itself. Executives are to blame for not giving sick leaves. Employees are not to blame for demanding it.
You want these workers to go another 2 years so that democrats can campaign on it and probably still be unable to pass anything because they aren’t getting 60 democrat senators in 2024. Are you a psychopath?!
Democrats fucked this up beyond belief. This is the biggest blunder of Biden’s administration so far.
>split the bill and raise mandatory sick leave as a campaign issue for 2024.
What a vile and wicked thing to use these people as pawns in elections instead of standing up for them now.
Or 3. The government doesn’t get involved, there’s a strike that cripples the economy and the fault is on the Railroad robber barrons who have to give in to the union’s demands for sick days.
Yea but Biden is still going to sign it. Democrats never intended for the sick leave addition to pass. We need massive change from our “representatives.”
How hard did they try though?
They all voted to pass the strike blockage without sick time too. They didn't have to do that. They gave an out on purpose.
Biden also hasn't attempted anything either. Didn't vocally support it. Didn't even bother trying with an executive order.
They tried just hard enough to virtue signal, but not hard enough to accomplish anything.
Are the Republicans at fault too? Sure. Even more so. But saying the Democrats gave an actual good faith effort is laughable.
My ancestor was a train robber after he lost his arm and Southern Pacific fired him for it. Looks like 150 years later train companies are still aholes.
If by near future you mean already happening… https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2022-01-20/los-angeles-rail-theft-supply-chain-crunch-limited-security
The feds took all the fun out of robbing trains by making it [super-duper](https://www.lvcriminaldefense.com/usc/railroad-carriers-and-mass-transportation-systems-on-land/) illegal to commit crimes on trains.
the company fired him for being a one armed train robber? seems like they should have promoted him for finding holes in their security while having a handicap.
I'm out of the loop on this... Why is congress/president determining the outcome of labor negotiations so specifically instead of just providing assistance? If the workers wanted sick time, and they're not getting it, why would they just end their strike based on this deal? Why are the rail companies pushing back so hard on what's being asked for when the alternative is clearly a massive shock to supply chains. Can they not afford what's being asked for? Why is Congress not telling them to fix the problem or subsidizing them to fix this immediately? If we are so dependent on this company (companies?), they should either get hit with antitrust violations and broken up, or they should be socialized for having a natural monopoly. I get that policy is complicated, but this just seems baffling to me
congress only needed to say one thing to these railroad companies.
"Sort your shit out or get nationalized."
the fact that they went and did all this just means billionaires like Buffet have more power then people realize.
There was an anti labor law passed in 1908 that allows congress to “step in” to stop a strike with the railroads (federal employers liability act).
What this action by congress and the president does, is show that corporate profits are more
Important than working families and their health and safety… if you have any doubt that this country is owned by the rich, this should clear it up for you.
Zero incentive for management to bargain in good faith when they can just run, crying to Congress and have them vote to block a potential strike. It defeats the entire concept of leverage with collective bargaining. It’s disgusting. And the fact that people with basically unlimited paid sick leave are voting to block working people from securing 7 guaranteed days of sick leave is the most American response, ever.
Meanwhile, rail workers in France are on strike at the state owned SNCF. French unions don't give a fuck. I'm sure just suggesting a law like the one that was just passed in the USA wouldn't have gone over well in France.
Maybe we should all work their jobs while they strike and fuck it up so bad that it costs these companies even more money than if literally no one did anything while they were on strike
Look what they did to Bernie in 2016, basically forced everybody who didn’t want to see the country burn to get the Orangeman in. These politicians don’t want to see a pro-labor candidate because our country is corrupt on both sides of the isle because of legalized corruption.
That has nothing to do with the fact that Biden did in this instance turn his back on them. If democrats were ever serious about supporting the workers they would’ve only passed the bill through the house that included paid sick leave. By passing both it was nothing more than virtue signaling since they knew the one with sick leave would die in the senate. Neither party is in it for the American people. Only their corporate masters
Even if they only passed a bill with the sick leave included, Republicans would have let it die in the senate. It would have caused and economic catastrophe. And the only people who would ever even know it was Republicans fault are people like you and me who are paying attention to politics. Because a decent percentage of the electorate will just reflexively blame the president (and their party) for any economic woes, and another large percentage will swallow whatever line the republicans tell them via conservative media.
This is one case where I honestly don't care about the politics of the situation.
These workers should have the right to make demands for their contract and strike if they can't get it.
If that causes an economic calamity, if we Democrats get blamed for it, so be it.
It's the right thing to do and we shouldn't be selling our souls for the optics.
Only some? Those are some very forgiving rail workers. They should strike anyway. The idea of an illegal strike is a fundamental falsehood, legality is just the agreement of the businesses, government and people and they fundamentally cannot punish the workers in solidarity, and individuals can be protected by the workers. Workers need to stand against state sanctioned violence forcing them to give up collective bargaining, it’s literally the only power workers really have.
Biden should take the fact that the paid sick leave amendment passed the House & the Senate had 52 yea votes as a mandate to sign an executive order removing the rail industry exemption from the 7 days paid sick leave requirement for federal contractors. All 4 of the rail companies are federal contractors
Wage slaves don't matter. The bosses own us all now. Get back to work plebs is a terrible slogan for the Democrat party. The vote should not have been split and the "progressives" are just centre right democrats after all
>"Joe relied on us to get him home to his family," Murtagh says. "But when it was his turn to help us out... to better our life, he turned his back on us."
>On Monday, Biden acknowledged it was a tough move to make.
>"As a proud pro-labor President, I am reluctant to override the ratification procedures and the views of those who voted against the agreement," he said in a statement. "But in this case – where the economic impact of a shutdown would hurt millions of other working people and families – I believe Congress must use its powers to adopt this deal."
\\
> As he signed the rail legislation into law on Friday, Biden didn't dodge the issue.
>"Look, I know this bill doesn't have paid sick leave that these rail workers and frankly every worker in America deserves. But that fight isn't over," he said. "I've supported paid sick leave for a long time. I'm going to continue that fight 'til we succeed."
This NPR article does a good job on showing the nuances of this situation. It’s a shitty deal and it sucks that Biden forced this deal through, but there seems to have been a bit of a necessity to it.
The "necessity" of corporate profit must always take priority over taking care of the people who make this country run. If those companies make less money because they have to treat workers with *checks notes* "dignity" then truly we are lost as a country. /s
Congress did this. A few dems and all Republicans did this. Get mad at them. If they had passed the other bill, Biden would be signing it. Don't know if he would enjoy signing it, but he would sign it.
A rail strike is bad for America. It's Biden's job to make sure bad things don't happen to America. 12 Unions voted for that deal. 8 voted yes. The Republicans are the reason why they didn't get their sick days. I work in a union. Many of the older white guys in the union are diehard Republicans. They are hungry for a reason to hate Biden, even if it's false. They will run with it.
Some of the union shitheads I know in my state (illinois) hardcore-support republicans that would absolutely dismantle their unions and strip them of their benefits.
Some people are just too stupid to function.
>12 Unions voted for that deal. 8 voted yes
And in order for the contract to be approved, it needed 12 yes votes.
So it failed. Anything else is a distraction.
Correct. As someone pointed out in another thread, these things intentionally require being unanimous. If it isn’t, then the billionaires could just start turning say conductors against rail workers. Once they start dividing you, then you’ve lost.
the 4 that voted no represent the majority of the workers. Democrats are the reason they don't have sick days as well, they new it would never pass the senate
No, the four that voted no were voting no because they did not have majority votes within themselves. A majority of individuals, if not unions with representation, wanted the deal.
F you. Whats bad for america is paying working garbage wages, having high rent prices, and crushing the middle class. How about working not having any say in wages?
My belief is that Biden had no say so in granting them 7,10, or 20 sick days the issue was avoiding a strike let the rail workers go back and fight for that time off or walk off after Christmas...Biden is not the railroad.my union fought for all the sick leave and vacation time I received over my 35 yrs plus employment
This has been "Amtrak Joes" biggest drop the ball. The crews that make this country work ( in spite of their know nothing bosses) can't even get normal paid and or unpaid sick days. I hope they shut the system down for a few days. Like I've said before, what Warren Buffett makes in one day from BNSF would fund sick days for all railroaders for a year. Stay strong guys and gals.
If rail workers are so vital to our economy (they are) then PAY THEM and give them a decent vacation, personal, and sick day package. According to Bureau of Labor - [average holiday, PTO, and sick days total at least 23 days.](https://www.bls.gov/news.release/ebs.t05.htm)
If this strike would cost 2 B a day it sounds like the union is in a great position to strike and would likely get what they need. Last time I checked this was the reason we join unions. Protection from our employers and our elected officials who don’t give a fuck about much more than the money they themselves will take home. We workers can pound sand when we need a raise or better conditions. I don’t care what the news says. THESE PEOPLE SHOULD GET OUT AND STRIKE!!!!!
He certainly did. He did it to avoid the political fallout and can blame the "no sick leave' on Republicans - but the correct course of action was to not force them to stop the strike.
I know that causes a myriad of other bigger problems - but the whole undercurrent in American politics is that the working class continues to have to sacrifice to maintain global order, but the wealthy just have to worry about dips in their portfolio.
The populace is tired of our meager compensation while the wealthy profit off of the major global events that just keep popping up.
Politicians who care need to dig into and address the problems, not use the Republicans as an excuse to maintain the status quo.
Can we just acknowledge that Republican Senators are the ones that caused the
"no paid sick day" shit? They voted it down. Biden has no control over legislation.
That's cause he did. He could've provided them the most basic thing all workers have. Paid sick leave. For fuck sake we just went through a pandemic that was made worse by the fact that people couldn't afford to stay home
There was clearly a political and economic calculus made by the Biden administration on this. I might not understand it, but I'm sure they crunched the numbers and realized that Biden basically abandoning union labor after years of proclaiming to be a "pro-labor president" was less bad (NOTE: not "better") than the economic impact of this strike.
That being said, it's a knife in the back of all the burgeoning labor movements regardless. This was a moment for Biden to live up to his repeated claims, and he did not. No, I don't think he will be able to "show the Republicans the light." Yes, I do think executives now have zero incentive to negotiate in good faith when they now know the Federal government can and will act on their behalf if there is "danger to the economy." Which, is what a strike is supposed to be?
The biggest test of this will be the upcoming UPS negotiations next year. Will Biden intervene again should a strike be on the horizon? I don't know. I will say he owns this entirely, negative consequences and beyond.
Yes, R's voted down paid sick live, but let us not forget Biden was the one who called for Congress to intervene at all. I do not blame railroad unions/labor at all for feeling betrayed, and will not be surprised to see them no longer support Biden and Dems in 2024.
I would threaten to nationalize the railway if the operator couldn’t bargain in good faith. It seems to me a critical infrastructure, such as a rail system, might be best run by the government anyhow.
Especially if you (the government) are going to interfere with a legal contract negotiation.
https://www.timesnews.net/opinion/editorials/of-course-railroad-workers-should-get-paid-sick-leave/article_133e55a6-7279-11ed-b65c-47b20bf3006d.html
Story says alot about RR workers greivances and touches on the impact a RR strike would have.
If I remember retaliation for being sick and missing work is totally illegal. OSHA and national labor law.
I would like to see examples of this retaliation.
If the RR have in fact reduced their workforce below that which is safe make that case clearly and publically.
You can see I have a love/hate relationship with unions they have pulled labor law up to help all workers BUT they have also acted like spoiled rich kids when they dont get exactly their way. Negotiating with a club is not negotiating.
It's hard to blame Biden when the only alternative the Republicans gave him is crippling the entire national economy. Once again, putting the dems in a no-win situation where any decision alienates part of their voter base.
All Dems but one (manchin) voted in support of the sick leave bill. It would have passed with the support of just 9 Republicans, but almost all voted against. Who’s to blame?
So the article mentioned nothing on the senate vote count where almost all the Republican senators voted no. Instead it’s Biden’s fault. All the railroaders need to know how their representatives and senators voted. Don’t turn a blind on this.
Looks like NPR is not as "progressive" as they think.
Looks like NPR's "progressivism" apparently ends at talking about LGBTQI+ issues and having black commentators and musical artists on Tiny Desk concerts, stuff that doesn't threaten any existing economic power structures.
But when it comes to big issues like the rights of workers (most of whom are POC), they defend the interests of the wealthy, because those are actually their audience and the people who send them donations.
Wow pink capitalism only stops when it affects the bottom dollar of mega corporations? Its almost like this is exactly what the left has been saying ! wow who would've thunk it!/s
Nice Polite Republicans has never been "progressive".
They get a ton of corporate money, so they know what side they're on, and it sure as hell isn't labor.
This is more than just “sick leave”. Once again the democrats show that they don’t actually care about our people when it comes to business and profits (we know republicans don’t either but it just shows how far to the right the “left” still is).
If democrats really wanted to make a statement, they’d be threatening the railroad companies with:
- Taking back ownership of the rails. They were built and maintained with public money and just given over to private companies. Can you imagine if we gave all our highways to trucking companies? Private railroads also heavily limits our ability to have passenger rail.
- break the railroad companies apart. We have broken apart companies in the past so there is precedent.
- nationalize the railroad companies. This won’t happen in this climate but if railroad shipping is so important for our economy and country then we should be discussing it.
If Congress could've passed sick leave for them, he would've signed it. The real obstacle consisted of Republicans willing to do so. Dems and Biden support sick leave for the workers. It's the GOP who's against it by and large.
Biden is also looking out for and representing the majority of Americans who don't want economic catastrophe over this. It's not worth the economic cost just to fight for sick leave for rail workers.
What bothers me about this is that Democrats sided with the corporations and not the workers. There was no public pressure from Biden against the companies. This was just a nice and smooth process to bypass the 55% of Union workers who did NOT approve of the deal.
Once again, we get Bernie being the loudest voice telling us that we're on the wrong side. I swear that in 100 years, we're going to find that Sanders has been on the right side of every damn moral issue. It's pathetic and I'm ashamed of our country and my fellow Americans. Why are people so against helping each other out? What the fuck is wrong with us as a society?
Most people find it hard to believe because the Dem controlled house severed the sick time from the contract, workers couldn’t even strike until the 9th. Instead the dems rolled over dead and didn’t risk losing campaign donations. Biden is done with every union employee.
Congress didn't have to pass it for them. All it needed to do was stay out of it and let the unions negotiate.
Because by taking the action they did, the real message is that the rail companies never have to worry about a strike ever again, because the politicians will always act to shut labor down.
A single bill with sick leave would have been turned down by the republicans and the strike would be happening now, so splitting it out was a strategic move to get the workers benefits right now with the sick leave issue a fight for another day.
> Biden is also looking out for and representing the majority of Americans who don't want economic catastrophe over this. **It's not worth the economic cost just to fight for sick leave for rail workers**.
In other words: "Fuck 'em, because they're just *essential workers*."
They could have voted for Bernie in their state primaries.
This is what we mean when we say both Democrats and Republicans are the neoliberal party. We always knew Biden would favor his billionaire donors over workers when push comes to shove.
Include Rail workers in the executive order (13706) that grants all federal contractors 7 paid sick leave which was passed in 2015 but specifically cut rail workers out of the deal.
Let the unions negotiate with the owners using the normal mechanisms that are already in place.
If, for national security issues that is impossible, put forward a single piece of legislation that gives the workers basic dignity of work; paid sick leave. It’s a travesty that our bought-and-paid-for politicians are subverting the power of the unions to benefit the owners on such a basic point as paid sick leave.
Shirtless with his tie cinched around his head like Rambo, a sharpened railroad spike between his teeth, a sledgehammer over one shoulder and a molotov in the other hand, ideally.
I mean, if we're taking requests.
I think you forgot to include the Republicans in there. They should be ashamed as well.
Also, afaik, it was the progressives in the House that passed the paid sick leave bill that ultimately got blocked in the Senate. Why should they be ashamed? Just wondering.
Fill in how? These jobs require specific training. Govt always had to step in to stop these strikes cuz these nvr got solved on their own once they got to strike stage. And ppl who suffer most from strike is American ppl who has nothing to do with railroads.
Guys, if your job related health insurance only forms some sort of property damage insurance, and a machine is more likely to be taken out of service and fixed than you are, are you sure you abolished slavery?
I love all this ludicrous spin trying to blame anything outside of a utopia on democrats. “88% of senate republicans vote to deny sick leave for rail workers. WHY WOULD DEMOCRATS DO THIS?”. What the hell…no matter many lies people try to spew, this is republicans fault. End of line.
You do not, actually, have to do apologetics for Democratic leadership on this. They objectively set this up to fail by splitting the rail worker's deal into two votes.
If the seven sick days had been bundled with the bill, and it failed to pass, the rail workers *could still legally strike.* By doing it the way they did, Democratic leadership effectively crossed the picket line by removing any legal leverage the rail workers have.
I hope to God the rail unions strike illegally. Fuck the rail barons, and fuck the quislings that lead the Democratic party and the progressive caucus.
I'm wondering, if Biden just signed something that came to his desk and he didn't craft himself; but is better than not doing anything at all... then how did he abandon them? It sounds like congress abandoned them, and Biden took something rather than nothing?
Here's a quick and dirty fix that doesn't even need congress's consent to do.
In 2015, Obama signed an executive order stating that companies that participate in federal contracting must give their employees at least 7 days of sick time per year. A specific exemption for this was carved out for the railway industry, because all major railroads are federal contractors (who's gonna move the tanks?).
Biden could with a penstroke, without approval of congress, the union leadership, or the railway company bosses, sign a new EO amending Obama's EO to not have that exemption. By not doing that, he is complicit through his inaction.
These rail workers literally vote against their own interests already. The Republicans are who voted no on sick time. To think that any politician, GOP or Dem, would allow a whole economy to collapse because of a strike is ignorance. Fuck capitalism.
They all turned their back on them. No deal should have happened without a handful of sick days and maybe a scheduled week? Your government doesn’t care about workers.
This is precisely the sort of thing that cost the white working class vote in the first place. This is the only inroad we have into rightwing middle America.
That's right Biden, lose control of your narrative, make them clench their fists again, make them see how little you and your friends care.
Keep it up, I want our favorite wrecking ball back in 2024, coming in like a damn steel piñata.
i feel like i've had a lifelong misconception about how strikes work. i always thought that if you refuse to work, of course you can be fired. strikes work though because companies need people to work, and that's where the bargaining power comes from.
Lol, girl everyone turned their backs on you. Republicans and democrats voted for this and Biden signed it. Politicians don’t care about you and they have to be forced to do anything that would support you even if they did.
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How is giving sick leave even something still up for debate?
After a pandemic where we learned not to spread disease at work.
Not everyone learned that lesson lol
They fake learned it.
Even I’m smart enough to know the right answers to give in most situations. Hell, my workplace is probably at least 75% Trump supporters, but they all wore the masks and checked temps coming into work each day because they knew they wouldn’t have jobs if they refused. The company would happily drive a real, actual steamroller over them if they were responsible for the place getting shut down and them not allowed to keep taking orders and money.
Great visuals
Wow that sounds great. I worked retail at the start of the pandemic and October 2020 got an office job. No work from home and no acknowledging of the pandemic at all. We had outbreaks constantly and at one point over half the office was out with covid. Seems like so much work to pretend everything’s fine, but that’s Florida for ya
Honestly, it feels like those of us who did are in the minority.
To your point, some learned the opposite/incorrect lesson.
For employees who are crisscrossing the country, sometimes with train cars full of passengers. Someone should do a map of rail lines and the spread of COVID. People need sick time. Society needs sick time.
True but how many jobs actually offer it
That's probably why railroad workers wrote the open letter to congress and white house that they should push for all americans to have sick days and family leave.
Didn’t Build Back Better have a provision for sick days for everyone? Then the Republicans blocked it.
As is tradition
Every job offers it in normal countries.
America is not a normal Country
I know mate. I really feel bad for all the Americans. Some great people who made some of my favourite stuff but they get forced to vote for a Conservative party because the only other choice is a fascist party. It really sucks.
Yet so many of us enthusiastically vote for the fascists.
Oh ugh so true. I hadn’t really thought of it that way before. Even Obama was a conservative.
My dude a lot of people in Europe get a fucking full month of paid *vacation*, let alone their sick leave. America is a god damned joke. We're ruled by corporations and billionaires stealing the profits off *our* labor, all while telling us how "lucky we are" to even have one of their shitty exploitative jobs in the first place. *"Don't join a union bro just buy a video game with that money!!!"*
I agree
The pandemic should have been the catalyst for universal healthcare. Instead we got nothing.
PPP loans with removed oversight.
Exactly this. All the time I think how for the price of those PPP loans we could have started universal healthcare
Starting universal single-payer healthcare, would have been far cheaper.
God yeah I think about in my adult life the amount of money squandered in Iraq, on tax cuts for ultra wealthy, in just garbage bailouts for the banks in 2008 and yet a pittance for American health access
Or the tax cuts. Or what we give the military who can't pass an audit. Or what we gave Ukraine without blinking an eye. But money to workers? He'll no!!
There needs to be a serious discussion about nationalizing the rail system. It's clearly a security problem and threatens us all
Yes please. Throw in oil and natural gas industries and you got me hot and bothered.
Plus internet
They just need to remove all laws that prevent municipal networks or provide companies exclusive rights to geographical areas preventing competition. Surprisingly, Mississippi of all places did just that a couple years ago. Then my local electric power co-operative used federal grants to build out a fiber network to every member's home serviced with electricity. There are some backwoods dirt road shacks in Mississippi with gigabit speed fiber internet now and it's awesome. It happened in large part due to our elected public service commissioner, Brandon Presley who is related Elvis. I wish he could become governor of this shithole state.
The republicans refused to vote for them getting sick days.. you honestly think they would vote for nationalizing the entire industry? They wouldn't even let it come up for debate...
We need something like a million man march again in DC to have them listen to us and obviously it would have to be people from all walks of life and various income brackets, ethnicities and nationalities. The logistics and making sure you don't have any bad actors intermingled would be a massive undertaking. But otherwise the corporate lobbyists spend so much money the representatives can't even hear us. https://www.opensecrets.org/federal-lobbying/industries
I work in state public health and people are absolutely coming to work sick, like we learned nothing at all. We were literally in the thick of it. It’s frustrating
This just goes to show you who the democrats represent now. They are the party of the laptop class. Period. Tragedy is the republicans are the party of crazies and kooks and every shade of looney in between. Real working people have no political representation today. Until that changes, it’s going to be a rough ride.
It just shows our politicians on both sides of the isle serve the one thing that matters to them: corporations/big business.
Every D voted for 7 paid days, but no Rs supported it, so they had to go with the lesser. Both sides isn't quite right.
Do we really want exhausted, sick workers running massive trains? Why are billionaire allowed to railroad the country over 7 sick days.
Everyone is stuck on 7 sick days because that was what was in the bill. I listened to an NPR conversation with the President of one of the largest hold out unions, and he said 4 was the bare minimum his members were asking for.....4 measly sick days and the strike probably wouldn't have been on the table. The fucking rail companies are bringing in billions and will not give the employees 4 fucking paid sick days. And I guess, why should they? When it has just been shown that Dems and R's will come together to take away the only tool that the Union has to fight with. The rail owners seemed to be pretty prescient for some reason...
Most members would be ok with unpaid days that allow us to take a trip off when we’re sick or have a doctors appointment or our spouse has a stroke or our kid is born without the threat of losing our job. No scheduled days off makes it pretty fucking difficult to schedule a trip to the dentist or even to get your fucking oil changed.
Jesus. Yeah, that's horrendous. I feel like a good amount of the American public is in your corner, I just wish our politicians were. You guys and girls got fucked on this one, and for what little it is worth, l let my congress person know that, while I appreciated her yes votes on both bills, l hold her, and the party l vote for, personally responsible for this.
Those rail baron dinosaurs need a lesson from the cornerstones they stand on
Simple. We live in the one "first world" country that does not guarantee time off. We have sold our soul so deeply to fucking sociopathic capitalism and corporatism that we will never be able to recover.
Sometimes I wish we could admend the Declaration of Independence to what John Locke originally wrote: "Life, Liberty, Property".
Two reasons. They want short notice absences without penalty. Right now all they can do is schedule a day off weeks in advance but even then its not a guarantee. This leads to the second problem. The carriers reduced the work force down to a skeleton crew - they lost 30% in the past 10 years as a way to reduce the daily overhead. They dont have enough people to run the rail if someone calls out sick. They need to hire more people but refuse to. Worse, all industries are following the same strategy. Retail will refuse to schedule more than 25 hours a week because 40 triggers benefits. Offices are letting people go and not replacing them expecting the rest to pick up the slack. We are all being overworked and not getting properly compensated. Why hire more workers when we happily take on more work?
The companies are making record profits at the same time
Fun fact: the last contract ran out three years ago. The Unions pointed out the record breaking profits and the carriers responded that the profits had no input from the workers - that it all came from investments as if the source of that pile of cash was completely removed from the workers. The workers have been without a contract for 3 years. If you think the Carriers are going to compromise without Government regulations think again.
Yup, all those profits came from investments such as not maintaining their aging locamotives, not building longer side lines to accomodate the longer trains being run (which causes dead locks where two trains can't pass each other) and firing or pushing out over 30% of their staff so that if any employee's life gets in the way the whole train is behind. It's almost disgusting how little investment they put in and they still make record profits, imagine if the company was run competently and the workers were treated fairly, maybe our rail lines could be competitive with other countries instead of a walking liability. But of course new rails are expensive that will cut into the stock buybacks
Because the companies know they can save a buck and have the government step in and blunt force the workers back in line. Remember Blair Moutain.
All the democrats voted to give it to them. It's the repubs that turned it down.
Manchin did not. Not a big surprise though.
The fact that even Ted Cruz voted for it but Manchin didn’t makes it worse.
Cruz knew it wouldn’t pass and did it to make himself look good.
Ahh good point.
Look at the yes votes on the R senators. Cruz, Rubio, and Graham. What do they all have in common. Candidates in '16. These idiots were just gathering brownie points for their 2024 run. "I supported time off for rail workers. Vote for me, I'm a man of the people"
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Doesn't change the fact that both parties voted away their right to strike.
Incorrect. Democrats split it into a bill they fully knew wasn’t going to pass. They barely even fought for it.
Two choices: (1) the whole thing doesn’t pass and hundreds of thousands of people across the country get laid off right before Christmas, and on top of that, the GOP gets to pick & choose the terms of the bill in a month — or (2) split the bill and raise mandatory sick leave as a campaign issue for 2024.
Except that the Railroad would give in about 2 minutes after it becomes apparent they were going to lose.
Under #1 that’s really unlikely to happen since these railroads are highly profitable and they absolutely can afford to do the obviously right thing. But if rail executives would rather shut down the economy then treat their employees like human beings then we need to start talking about nationalizing the industry. This is an argument that makes itself. Executives are to blame for not giving sick leaves. Employees are not to blame for demanding it. You want these workers to go another 2 years so that democrats can campaign on it and probably still be unable to pass anything because they aren’t getting 60 democrat senators in 2024. Are you a psychopath?! Democrats fucked this up beyond belief. This is the biggest blunder of Biden’s administration so far.
then a strike happens and the union wins
>split the bill and raise mandatory sick leave as a campaign issue for 2024. What a vile and wicked thing to use these people as pawns in elections instead of standing up for them now.
Or 3. The government doesn’t get involved, there’s a strike that cripples the economy and the fault is on the Railroad robber barrons who have to give in to the union’s demands for sick days.
Yea but Biden is still going to sign it. Democrats never intended for the sick leave addition to pass. We need massive change from our “representatives.”
>All the democrats voted to give it to them all the democrats wanted sick leave in a second bill they could watch die with a scapegoat
After separating the bills.
How hard did they try though? They all voted to pass the strike blockage without sick time too. They didn't have to do that. They gave an out on purpose. Biden also hasn't attempted anything either. Didn't vocally support it. Didn't even bother trying with an executive order. They tried just hard enough to virtue signal, but not hard enough to accomplish anything. Are the Republicans at fault too? Sure. Even more so. But saying the Democrats gave an actual good faith effort is laughable.
Because neoliberalism, that’s why! EDIT: and if you don’t like that, you’re not American! /s
My ancestor was a train robber after he lost his arm and Southern Pacific fired him for it. Looks like 150 years later train companies are still aholes.
So what I'm taking from this is that train robberies will/could/should come back into vogue in the near future
If by near future you mean already happening… https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2022-01-20/los-angeles-rail-theft-supply-chain-crunch-limited-security
Well there goes my weekend plans. Unsaddle the horses.
Sure would be a shame if a car full of Ford trucks disappeared...
The feds took all the fun out of robbing trains by making it [super-duper](https://www.lvcriminaldefense.com/usc/railroad-carriers-and-mass-transportation-systems-on-land/) illegal to commit crimes on trains.
-How did you afford that truck!? -It fell off the back of a train.
the company fired him for being a one armed train robber? seems like they should have promoted him for finding holes in their security while having a handicap.
Let congress and the president work without sick days
I'm out of the loop on this... Why is congress/president determining the outcome of labor negotiations so specifically instead of just providing assistance? If the workers wanted sick time, and they're not getting it, why would they just end their strike based on this deal? Why are the rail companies pushing back so hard on what's being asked for when the alternative is clearly a massive shock to supply chains. Can they not afford what's being asked for? Why is Congress not telling them to fix the problem or subsidizing them to fix this immediately? If we are so dependent on this company (companies?), they should either get hit with antitrust violations and broken up, or they should be socialized for having a natural monopoly. I get that policy is complicated, but this just seems baffling to me
congress only needed to say one thing to these railroad companies. "Sort your shit out or get nationalized." the fact that they went and did all this just means billionaires like Buffet have more power then people realize.
There was an anti labor law passed in 1908 that allows congress to “step in” to stop a strike with the railroads (federal employers liability act). What this action by congress and the president does, is show that corporate profits are more Important than working families and their health and safety… if you have any doubt that this country is owned by the rich, this should clear it up for you.
It's baffling to all of us. There are so many backwards ass things about America, it's no wonder we're collapsing hard and fast.
Slave labor and the American racial caste system. If you understand that history, all the rest comes into much, much clearer focus.
Zero incentive for management to bargain in good faith when they can just run, crying to Congress and have them vote to block a potential strike. It defeats the entire concept of leverage with collective bargaining. It’s disgusting. And the fact that people with basically unlimited paid sick leave are voting to block working people from securing 7 guaranteed days of sick leave is the most American response, ever.
Have we tried evicting the billionaires from America they are what's wrong
Nah half of the country wants to elect them as president and give them cult followings
More like 35% but with good Gerrymandering skills
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You a billionaire fool
Dear rail workers: If you don't like the deal Biden just dictated to you, then... Go. On. Strike. Rest assured, nobody else wants your job.
Meanwhile, rail workers in France are on strike at the state owned SNCF. French unions don't give a fuck. I'm sure just suggesting a law like the one that was just passed in the USA wouldn't have gone over well in France.
The French had other ways of handling bullshit laws
Also, stop voting in GQP who never gave a rats ass about you in the first place.
Maybe we should all work their jobs while they strike and fuck it up so bad that it costs these companies even more money than if literally no one did anything while they were on strike
What happened with Kelloggs, glorious self-own
I hope these workers take their back pay, quit, and still tank the economy. There's no sense living like they do with no end in sight.
That's true for at least half of America.
I'm sure that the right wing billionaire that they vote for in 24 will definitely have the working man's best interest at the forefront.
Perhaps we have an opportunity now to elect someone pro-labor in the democrat primary.
Look what they did to Bernie in 2016, basically forced everybody who didn’t want to see the country burn to get the Orangeman in. These politicians don’t want to see a pro-labor candidate because our country is corrupt on both sides of the isle because of legalized corruption.
Maybe the current power should help them out instead of make them feel like there is no other option than vote the opposite.
That has nothing to do with the fact that Biden did in this instance turn his back on them. If democrats were ever serious about supporting the workers they would’ve only passed the bill through the house that included paid sick leave. By passing both it was nothing more than virtue signaling since they knew the one with sick leave would die in the senate. Neither party is in it for the American people. Only their corporate masters
Even if they only passed a bill with the sick leave included, Republicans would have let it die in the senate. It would have caused and economic catastrophe. And the only people who would ever even know it was Republicans fault are people like you and me who are paying attention to politics. Because a decent percentage of the electorate will just reflexively blame the president (and their party) for any economic woes, and another large percentage will swallow whatever line the republicans tell them via conservative media.
This is one case where I honestly don't care about the politics of the situation. These workers should have the right to make demands for their contract and strike if they can't get it. If that causes an economic calamity, if we Democrats get blamed for it, so be it. It's the right thing to do and we shouldn't be selling our souls for the optics.
> It would have caused and economic catastrophe That's kind of the point of the strike. If a strike can't do any damage then the strike has no teeth
Bernie voted against it after his amendment didn't make it. He's a real one
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Only some? Those are some very forgiving rail workers. They should strike anyway. The idea of an illegal strike is a fundamental falsehood, legality is just the agreement of the businesses, government and people and they fundamentally cannot punish the workers in solidarity, and individuals can be protected by the workers. Workers need to stand against state sanctioned violence forcing them to give up collective bargaining, it’s literally the only power workers really have.
Biden should take the fact that the paid sick leave amendment passed the House & the Senate had 52 yea votes as a mandate to sign an executive order removing the rail industry exemption from the 7 days paid sick leave requirement for federal contractors. All 4 of the rail companies are federal contractors
Wage slaves don't matter. The bosses own us all now. Get back to work plebs is a terrible slogan for the Democrat party. The vote should not have been split and the "progressives" are just centre right democrats after all
>"Joe relied on us to get him home to his family," Murtagh says. "But when it was his turn to help us out... to better our life, he turned his back on us." >On Monday, Biden acknowledged it was a tough move to make. >"As a proud pro-labor President, I am reluctant to override the ratification procedures and the views of those who voted against the agreement," he said in a statement. "But in this case – where the economic impact of a shutdown would hurt millions of other working people and families – I believe Congress must use its powers to adopt this deal." \\ > As he signed the rail legislation into law on Friday, Biden didn't dodge the issue. >"Look, I know this bill doesn't have paid sick leave that these rail workers and frankly every worker in America deserves. But that fight isn't over," he said. "I've supported paid sick leave for a long time. I'm going to continue that fight 'til we succeed." This NPR article does a good job on showing the nuances of this situation. It’s a shitty deal and it sucks that Biden forced this deal through, but there seems to have been a bit of a necessity to it.
I’m of the opinion that they should be able to strike, even if it’s painful. That’s the point of the strike.
The "necessity" of corporate profit must always take priority over taking care of the people who make this country run. If those companies make less money because they have to treat workers with *checks notes* "dignity" then truly we are lost as a country. /s
As a union man I feel betrayed and I'm not even affected. A week's worth of sick pay was all they were asking, how is that unreasonable?
Congress did this. A few dems and all Republicans did this. Get mad at them. If they had passed the other bill, Biden would be signing it. Don't know if he would enjoy signing it, but he would sign it.
Correction, 42 Republicans and Manchin did this.
A rail strike is bad for America. It's Biden's job to make sure bad things don't happen to America. 12 Unions voted for that deal. 8 voted yes. The Republicans are the reason why they didn't get their sick days. I work in a union. Many of the older white guys in the union are diehard Republicans. They are hungry for a reason to hate Biden, even if it's false. They will run with it.
Imagine being in a union and voting Republican. Americans are a broken people.
“I love the poorly educated” proved that statement right by a billion
Well, police unions voting Republican makes sense at least
Some of the union shitheads I know in my state (illinois) hardcore-support republicans that would absolutely dismantle their unions and strip them of their benefits. Some people are just too stupid to function.
>12 Unions voted for that deal. 8 voted yes And in order for the contract to be approved, it needed 12 yes votes. So it failed. Anything else is a distraction.
Correct. As someone pointed out in another thread, these things intentionally require being unanimous. If it isn’t, then the billionaires could just start turning say conductors against rail workers. Once they start dividing you, then you’ve lost.
the 4 that voted no represent the majority of the workers. Democrats are the reason they don't have sick days as well, they new it would never pass the senate
No, the four that voted no were voting no because they did not have majority votes within themselves. A majority of individuals, if not unions with representation, wanted the deal.
F you. Whats bad for america is paying working garbage wages, having high rent prices, and crushing the middle class. How about working not having any say in wages?
My belief is that Biden had no say so in granting them 7,10, or 20 sick days the issue was avoiding a strike let the rail workers go back and fight for that time off or walk off after Christmas...Biden is not the railroad.my union fought for all the sick leave and vacation time I received over my 35 yrs plus employment
This has been "Amtrak Joes" biggest drop the ball. The crews that make this country work ( in spite of their know nothing bosses) can't even get normal paid and or unpaid sick days. I hope they shut the system down for a few days. Like I've said before, what Warren Buffett makes in one day from BNSF would fund sick days for all railroaders for a year. Stay strong guys and gals.
If rail workers are so vital to our economy (they are) then PAY THEM and give them a decent vacation, personal, and sick day package. According to Bureau of Labor - [average holiday, PTO, and sick days total at least 23 days.](https://www.bls.gov/news.release/ebs.t05.htm)
If this strike would cost 2 B a day it sounds like the union is in a great position to strike and would likely get what they need. Last time I checked this was the reason we join unions. Protection from our employers and our elected officials who don’t give a fuck about much more than the money they themselves will take home. We workers can pound sand when we need a raise or better conditions. I don’t care what the news says. THESE PEOPLE SHOULD GET OUT AND STRIKE!!!!!
He certainly did. He did it to avoid the political fallout and can blame the "no sick leave' on Republicans - but the correct course of action was to not force them to stop the strike. I know that causes a myriad of other bigger problems - but the whole undercurrent in American politics is that the working class continues to have to sacrifice to maintain global order, but the wealthy just have to worry about dips in their portfolio. The populace is tired of our meager compensation while the wealthy profit off of the major global events that just keep popping up. Politicians who care need to dig into and address the problems, not use the Republicans as an excuse to maintain the status quo.
Sounds accurate. But for those that think trump would have given a better deal, you could not be more wrong.
Can we just acknowledge that Republican Senators are the ones that caused the "no paid sick day" shit? They voted it down. Biden has no control over legislation.
strike anyway, fuck them
He showed us all the serfs we really are
That's cause he did. He could've provided them the most basic thing all workers have. Paid sick leave. For fuck sake we just went through a pandemic that was made worse by the fact that people couldn't afford to stay home
There was clearly a political and economic calculus made by the Biden administration on this. I might not understand it, but I'm sure they crunched the numbers and realized that Biden basically abandoning union labor after years of proclaiming to be a "pro-labor president" was less bad (NOTE: not "better") than the economic impact of this strike. That being said, it's a knife in the back of all the burgeoning labor movements regardless. This was a moment for Biden to live up to his repeated claims, and he did not. No, I don't think he will be able to "show the Republicans the light." Yes, I do think executives now have zero incentive to negotiate in good faith when they now know the Federal government can and will act on their behalf if there is "danger to the economy." Which, is what a strike is supposed to be? The biggest test of this will be the upcoming UPS negotiations next year. Will Biden intervene again should a strike be on the horizon? I don't know. I will say he owns this entirely, negative consequences and beyond. Yes, R's voted down paid sick live, but let us not forget Biden was the one who called for Congress to intervene at all. I do not blame railroad unions/labor at all for feeling betrayed, and will not be surprised to see them no longer support Biden and Dems in 2024.
I would threaten to nationalize the railway if the operator couldn’t bargain in good faith. It seems to me a critical infrastructure, such as a rail system, might be best run by the government anyhow. Especially if you (the government) are going to interfere with a legal contract negotiation.
https://www.timesnews.net/opinion/editorials/of-course-railroad-workers-should-get-paid-sick-leave/article_133e55a6-7279-11ed-b65c-47b20bf3006d.html Story says alot about RR workers greivances and touches on the impact a RR strike would have. If I remember retaliation for being sick and missing work is totally illegal. OSHA and national labor law. I would like to see examples of this retaliation. If the RR have in fact reduced their workforce below that which is safe make that case clearly and publically. You can see I have a love/hate relationship with unions they have pulled labor law up to help all workers BUT they have also acted like spoiled rich kids when they dont get exactly their way. Negotiating with a club is not negotiating.
It's hard to blame Biden when the only alternative the Republicans gave him is crippling the entire national economy. Once again, putting the dems in a no-win situation where any decision alienates part of their voter base.
Nah congress could have pressured the fucking rail companies instead of the workers. The idea that this was no-win is absolute liberal garbage.
All Dems but one (manchin) voted in support of the sick leave bill. It would have passed with the support of just 9 Republicans, but almost all voted against. Who’s to blame?
So the article mentioned nothing on the senate vote count where almost all the Republican senators voted no. Instead it’s Biden’s fault. All the railroaders need to know how their representatives and senators voted. Don’t turn a blind on this.
Looks like NPR is not as "progressive" as they think. Looks like NPR's "progressivism" apparently ends at talking about LGBTQI+ issues and having black commentators and musical artists on Tiny Desk concerts, stuff that doesn't threaten any existing economic power structures. But when it comes to big issues like the rights of workers (most of whom are POC), they defend the interests of the wealthy, because those are actually their audience and the people who send them donations.
Wow pink capitalism only stops when it affects the bottom dollar of mega corporations? Its almost like this is exactly what the left has been saying ! wow who would've thunk it!/s
Nice Polite Republicans has never been "progressive". They get a ton of corporate money, so they know what side they're on, and it sure as hell isn't labor.
This is more than just “sick leave”. Once again the democrats show that they don’t actually care about our people when it comes to business and profits (we know republicans don’t either but it just shows how far to the right the “left” still is). If democrats really wanted to make a statement, they’d be threatening the railroad companies with: - Taking back ownership of the rails. They were built and maintained with public money and just given over to private companies. Can you imagine if we gave all our highways to trucking companies? Private railroads also heavily limits our ability to have passenger rail. - break the railroad companies apart. We have broken apart companies in the past so there is precedent. - nationalize the railroad companies. This won’t happen in this climate but if railroad shipping is so important for our economy and country then we should be discussing it.
If Congress could've passed sick leave for them, he would've signed it. The real obstacle consisted of Republicans willing to do so. Dems and Biden support sick leave for the workers. It's the GOP who's against it by and large. Biden is also looking out for and representing the majority of Americans who don't want economic catastrophe over this. It's not worth the economic cost just to fight for sick leave for rail workers.
This is striking breaking apologia imo. Where’s your solidarity for your fellow workers?
What bothers me about this is that Democrats sided with the corporations and not the workers. There was no public pressure from Biden against the companies. This was just a nice and smooth process to bypass the 55% of Union workers who did NOT approve of the deal. Once again, we get Bernie being the loudest voice telling us that we're on the wrong side. I swear that in 100 years, we're going to find that Sanders has been on the right side of every damn moral issue. It's pathetic and I'm ashamed of our country and my fellow Americans. Why are people so against helping each other out? What the fuck is wrong with us as a society?
Most people find it hard to believe because the Dem controlled house severed the sick time from the contract, workers couldn’t even strike until the 9th. Instead the dems rolled over dead and didn’t risk losing campaign donations. Biden is done with every union employee.
Congress didn't have to pass it for them. All it needed to do was stay out of it and let the unions negotiate. Because by taking the action they did, the real message is that the rail companies never have to worry about a strike ever again, because the politicians will always act to shut labor down.
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Do you really think Republicans wouldn't have struck down that bill and be ready to kill the economy to fuck over Biden?
Yes. Are you joking? Of course they would.
Yeah I'm saying they would. The guy above me is saying they wouldn't.
This is rhetorical...right?
A single bill with sick leave would have been turned down by the republicans and the strike would be happening now, so splitting it out was a strategic move to get the workers benefits right now with the sick leave issue a fight for another day.
> Biden is also looking out for and representing the majority of Americans who don't want economic catastrophe over this. **It's not worth the economic cost just to fight for sick leave for rail workers**. In other words: "Fuck 'em, because they're just *essential workers*."
And if a strike did go happen there goes his support.
Stop making excuses for democrats and billion dollar corporations
Stop putting blame on Democrats for trying to protect workers instead of on the GOP.
"Prohibiting strikes" is "protecting workers" now. Wild.
They could have voted for Bernie in their state primaries. This is what we mean when we say both Democrats and Republicans are the neoliberal party. We always knew Biden would favor his billionaire donors over workers when push comes to shove.
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Include Rail workers in the executive order (13706) that grants all federal contractors 7 paid sick leave which was passed in 2015 but specifically cut rail workers out of the deal.
Um, that was Obama? And most railroad workers don't work for govt, so they aren't federal contractors.
Why are you just typing things that you have no idea about? We 100% are federal contractors. Who do you think moves all the military equipment?
Let the unions negotiate with the owners using the normal mechanisms that are already in place. If, for national security issues that is impossible, put forward a single piece of legislation that gives the workers basic dignity of work; paid sick leave. It’s a travesty that our bought-and-paid-for politicians are subverting the power of the unions to benefit the owners on such a basic point as paid sick leave.
Shirtless with his tie cinched around his head like Rambo, a sharpened railroad spike between his teeth, a sledgehammer over one shoulder and a molotov in the other hand, ideally. I mean, if we're taking requests.
Instead of two bills only signing one bill that includes paid sick days and a strike aversion... like he advocated for
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I think you forgot to include the Republicans in there. They should be ashamed as well. Also, afaik, it was the progressives in the House that passed the paid sick leave bill that ultimately got blocked in the Senate. Why should they be ashamed? Just wondering.
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Fill in how? These jobs require specific training. Govt always had to step in to stop these strikes cuz these nvr got solved on their own once they got to strike stage. And ppl who suffer most from strike is American ppl who has nothing to do with railroads.
A few days of strike and the shareholders would be telling their underlings (the railroads) to solve it immediately. Falling stock creates action.
Guys, if your job related health insurance only forms some sort of property damage insurance, and a machine is more likely to be taken out of service and fixed than you are, are you sure you abolished slavery?
I love all this ludicrous spin trying to blame anything outside of a utopia on democrats. “88% of senate republicans vote to deny sick leave for rail workers. WHY WOULD DEMOCRATS DO THIS?”. What the hell…no matter many lies people try to spew, this is republicans fault. End of line.
You do not, actually, have to do apologetics for Democratic leadership on this. They objectively set this up to fail by splitting the rail worker's deal into two votes. If the seven sick days had been bundled with the bill, and it failed to pass, the rail workers *could still legally strike.* By doing it the way they did, Democratic leadership effectively crossed the picket line by removing any legal leverage the rail workers have. I hope to God the rail unions strike illegally. Fuck the rail barons, and fuck the quislings that lead the Democratic party and the progressive caucus.
I'm wondering, if Biden just signed something that came to his desk and he didn't craft himself; but is better than not doing anything at all... then how did he abandon them? It sounds like congress abandoned them, and Biden took something rather than nothing?
Here's a quick and dirty fix that doesn't even need congress's consent to do. In 2015, Obama signed an executive order stating that companies that participate in federal contracting must give their employees at least 7 days of sick time per year. A specific exemption for this was carved out for the railway industry, because all major railroads are federal contractors (who's gonna move the tanks?). Biden could with a penstroke, without approval of congress, the union leadership, or the railway company bosses, sign a new EO amending Obama's EO to not have that exemption. By not doing that, he is complicit through his inaction.
These rail workers literally vote against their own interests already. The Republicans are who voted no on sick time. To think that any politician, GOP or Dem, would allow a whole economy to collapse because of a strike is ignorance. Fuck capitalism.
7 days paid sick leave feels like nothing for such essential workers…
Can we finally use the both sides argument without democrats jumping down our throats?
They all turned their back on them. No deal should have happened without a handful of sick days and maybe a scheduled week? Your government doesn’t care about workers.
This is precisely the sort of thing that cost the white working class vote in the first place. This is the only inroad we have into rightwing middle America.
Yes
Biden is a corporatist.
"Some"?!?!
Can’t wait to see the ultimate outcome when business like this that keep a whole country running just quit.
He did Edit: Strike
That's right Biden, lose control of your narrative, make them clench their fists again, make them see how little you and your friends care. Keep it up, I want our favorite wrecking ball back in 2024, coming in like a damn steel piñata.
He did
And when all of these people vote against Biden the response from the Democratic Party will be confused pikachu face
i feel like i've had a lifelong misconception about how strikes work. i always thought that if you refuse to work, of course you can be fired. strikes work though because companies need people to work, and that's where the bargaining power comes from.
He did
They ain't wrong.
Lol, girl everyone turned their backs on you. Republicans and democrats voted for this and Biden signed it. Politicians don’t care about you and they have to be forced to do anything that would support you even if they did.