How the Rail Strike Breaking Once Again Reveals Americans as Brainwashed Dunderheads
How many times have you heard someone say something like “If min wage goes up the CEO of McDonalds might get a slightly smaller bonus this year.” Outside of the comments section of this blog and other salons of right thinking, I’d bet you hear that sentiment infrequently if ever.
But you’ve certainly heard some dummy say something like “If min wage goes up a Big Mac will be ten dollars!” There is a reason for that lopsided ratio.
Mainstream media let railroad companies off the hook for potential strike
Outlets are largely placing responsibility for the economic consequences of a shutdown on unions, despite rail corporations’ failure to meet workers’ demands
At an average net profit margin of 27.27% over the last 5 years, McDonalds has plenty of room to absorb higher labor costs.
Similarly, the rail companies are making plenty of money, but it is the greedy workers trying to get a few paid days off turned into he villains by the media (with some help from the leader of the Democratic Party).
One time there was a drug rep in the office and the nurses were upset she didn’t have more samples to offer. I assume it was diabetic medication as it’s the most important sample we give to our patients. Anyway I think it was Trulicity or Victoza, relatively common but expensive (perhaps not stupid expensive but expensive nonetheless for most people) drugs made by Eli Lilly — earnings and margins here: https://www.wsj.com/market-data/quotes/LLY/financials/annual/income-statement — and I said something not diiirrrrectly to the rep but towards her direction, like “this company makes over $20 billion every year in revenue but can’t give a small doctor’s office more diabetic meds.” The rep said nothing.
In retrospect the union made a tactical error not to force the issue before the midterms.
I think this article is a pretty evenhanded approach on the subject (by a labor historian)
https://www.lawyersgunsmoneyblog.com/2022/11/biden-asks-congress-to-implement-the-railway-labor-act
I’m certainly not a Biden apologist but it’s also important to remember that the rail workers got like a 25% raise here. Negotiations are all about give and take and the unions knew this was the likely result of rejecting the latest deal.
” Negotiations are all about give and take and the unions knew this was the likely result of rejecting the latest deal.”
And knowing that, certainly you see that the Rail Company Oligarchs had no need to give anything on the sick leave. I mean, 1 day paid sick leave per year? JESUS!
Anyway…The bigger picture is that we’ve all internalized the oligarchs as heroes and the workers as villains.
I’m not saying I disagree with you that the people who own the rail lines have more to give. Further, no one gets rich without being one kind of a son of a bitch or another
That being said, it’s pretty clear that a rail strike would be bad for a lot of people in this country and as pro-labor as Biden is (maybe the most pro-labor President we have ever had?) he’s still the President of the entire country and has to do what is best for the whole country
Maybe rail strike would be bad for a lot of people in this country, maybe the oligarchs would see the workers meant business?
But thanks for the comments. Perhaps another time we’ll take up why being “President of the entire country” is a standard is only ever applied to Democrats?
Like many old timey norms, Republicans always play offense and Dems always play defense
I certainly think that all Presidents shade stuff to their favorites, Biden certainly has by being pro-labor to the point of maybe raising prices around the margins for people but a rail strike would be on another level.
I will also point out that there’s a chance that Democrats have been rewarded for this attitude considering that they’ve lost the popular vote for President one time since 1992
The Unions were hoping that the President and Congress would stay out of it and allow collective bargaining to work the way it is supposed to work. Biden has been the most “Union friendly” President in decades and actually uses the term without choking and heaving like all the others who have pretended. There was an expectation that the membership(workers) would get to decide what they would accept. By most accounts, the biggest sticking point is sick days because they have never had them. Imagine a place where you have to schedule the time you are sick months in advance or suffer discipline up to termination. The membership said no more and now the Democratic Party has let them down again. The Union vote has been sliding more toward the R’s for years and this is an example why. Support of the Unions is in every State and federal platform for the party, but the first to be sold out for something else. You can’t keep supporting a group that doesn’t support you.
The rail companies have continued to violate Federal law and are not held accountable. For example: requirements for 2 locomotive engineers on each train OR automatic braking systems to allow a runaway train to be stopped. Both were passed about a decade ago and the companies never installed either procedure or equipment. Their response has been it is too costly. How are they able to violate the law because of cost while the average American would be jailed or fined?
I love this comment. ^ Even while I know that it is cold-hearted and fails to take “the economy” and the kids with Tickle Me Elmos stuck on a train into account.
They got a huge raise this time because they have virtually gone without raises for years that would be even close to cost of living. With every other administration, when they were close to the end of a negotiation and ready to strike, the government stepped in and imposed a “cooling off period” this happened numerous times and the companies all know it is coming. Why would you bargain in good faith if you know that there is never going to be a penalty? The answer is you wouldn’t which has been the case since at least Reagan (air traffic controllers). The Unions were hoping that the recent administration was different. They have created some executive orders and passed a few laws that made it tolerable to be a Union member again.