this post was submitted on 06 Oct 2023
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Work Reform

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CHICAGO HEIGHTS, Ill.—Across the country a wave of strikes has grown to tsunami proportions with some 300,000 workers now out on strike and walking the picket lines.

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[–] [email protected] 18 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (3 children)

And miss me with that "b.. but Biden came back and negotiated sick days for them!" Horseshit. He got them a pitiful FRACTION of the days they asked for, and didn't address any of their other demands whatsoever. Such as ending Precision Scheduled Railroading, which may have been a factor in the East Palestine disaster.

There's been a weird narrative going around even on Lemmy every time this is mentioned that somehow Biden was actually a genius in that and everyone won.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 year ago (1 children)

You wouldn't have support for the UAW, writer's, and Kaiser healthcare strikes, if the rail strike caused the general public to go without power and water. Blame the idiot people who favor their comfort over other people's lives, same as it ever was. But you absolutely would have seen the public turn against strikes, if that had happened.

And of course they walked away with only part of what they came in asking. That is how negotiations work.

The only thing I came away feeling from the whole situation is that if those rail services are so critical to the basic functioning of this country that we can't afford a strike and the government needs to step into negotiations, then we should be nationalizing this industry. Period. It should not be permitted to be in the hands of a corporation.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

They got what, 4 days out of 15 they asked for and nothing else? He's not a good negotiator.

Rail strikes are common in a lot of the world and they seem to do just fine.

And in any case, the strike doesn't have to be all or nothing. They can do limited and partial strikes. They could do some days on and off.

This "oh the economy would've imploded and thousands would die" narrative is probably partially coming from industry propaganda.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

The US is the third most populous and fourth largest country in geographic area in the world. We're genuinely far more dependent on rail freight for basic functioning than countries that have had rail strikes.

(Which is why we should nationalize the rail system.)

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Yeah, the neoliberal horde is coming. They've already mostly taken over the very instance this community is on 🫤

[–] GALM 3 points 1 year ago

It blows my mind that Biden/Congress didn't give the workers all of their completely reasonable demands if they were able to give them even SOME of their sick days. It is completely obvious how fucked those workers are treated and the disasters that can follow because of it and all we heard about was, "BuT mUh EcOnOmY!!!" Enjoy East Palestine you completely idiotic fucks, it'll keep happening.