Senate Passes Bill to Avoid Rail Strike

[jc456]

Funny, I must have missed that little caveat in the 13th. Could you point it out? But wouldn't what congress is doing be union busting and against federal law? Oh, and after a bit more thought, the commerce clause allows congress to regulate the industry, not the employees.

.

Get these mother fkers out of our life

 

[Ray From Cleveland]

Doesn’t actually work like that

We haven’t had a major strike in decades
What we do have us employers unwilling to negotiate in good faith and workers stuck with stagnant pay and less benefits

Correct, there have been no major strikes in decades because outside of government, we got rid of unions.

How is a 24% increase in pay negotiable? Did the union offer 6%, 10%, 13%? No. They want 24% take it or leave it. You call that good faith?

And according to the link I posted, the rail workers in question are making well into the 6 figure range, and have always had a cost of living raise or better the last 10 years. Outside of sick pay, the benefits seem pretty generous as well.

 

[Ray From Cleveland]

In a perfect world, employers would negotiate in good faith and share profits with employees

But in the real world, they do nothing for employees without the threat of a work stoppage

Then why have my experiences been different working for non-union companies most of my life?

 

[Ray From Cleveland]

Why wages were stagnant for 20 years
Fear ruled

No, foreign made products ruled. If you owned a widget factory, how are you to pay your employees very well when China pays their workers next to nothing? Who do you think will buy your widgets at $10.00 each when China makes the exact same thing for $6.00 each.

 

[initforme]

No, foreign made products ruled. If you owned a widget factory, how are you to pay your employees very well when China pays their workers next to nothing? Who do you think will buy your widgets at $10.00 each when China makes the exact same thing for $6.00 each.

But americans couldn't survive on Chinese wages. So perhaps those jobs are better off over there.

 

[initforme]

Correct, there have been no major strikes in decades because outside of government, we got rid of unions.

How is a 24% increase in pay negotiable? Did the union offer 6%, 10%, 13%? No. They want 24% take it or leave it. You call that good faith?

And according to the link I posted, the rail workers in question are making well into the 6 figure range, and have always had a cost of living raise or better the last 10 years. Outside of sick pay, the benefits seem pretty generous as well.

It's a workers duty to get as much as they can. Otherwise they aren't very bright.

 

[Aldo Raine]

Never claimed to be a bad ass, only that at the time, I was more capable of handling myself than the other drivers. So where did you get three black belts from, a back of a matchbook cover? I can tell you're FOS just by the way you talk. Anybody in the arts understands the years of training it takes to earn one black belt yet alone three. You don't find them at the bottom of a cracker jack box.

While you may not have gotten violent with people crossing the picket line, others have. And even if nobody gets violent, it's the mere threat of violence that can close down a company. So the company only has two choices: give into union demands or close down completely. There is a third choice, and that is move the company away from the union workers and hire from scratch which many have done. We lost quite a few customers that way.

I have been studying martial arts of different forms since middle school. I will put my credentials up against a blowhard like you any time. Spent many hours in different dojos to learn their styles.

 

[rightwinger]

Then why have my experiences been different working for non-union companies most of my life?

Because you despise American workers
American workers are the most productive and receive the fewest benefits in the industrialized world.
Where else would workers be mocked for wanting paid sick days, maternity benefits and health benefits?

 

[Ray From Cleveland]

Because you despise American workers
American workers are the most productive and receive the fewest benefits in the industrialized world.
Where else would workers be mocked for wanting paid sick days, maternity benefits and health benefits?

What does that have to do with my personal work experiences?

 

[Ray From Cleveland]

I have been studying martial arts of different forms since middle school. I will put my credentials up against a blowhard like you any time. Spent many hours in different dojos to learn their styles.

Sure you did. I can tell by the way you talk.

 

[rightwinger]

Correct, there have been no major strikes in decades because outside of government, we got rid of unions.

How is a 24% increase in pay negotiable? Did the union offer 6%, 10%, 13%? No. They want 24% take it or leave it. You call that good faith?

And according to the link I posted, the rail workers in question are making well into the 6 figure range, and have always had a cost of living raise or better the last 10 years. Outside of sick pay, the benefits seem pretty generous as well.

You don’t realize that the 24 percent increase is not every year
With a four year contract, you are negotiating the last four years and the next four years before you get your next increase.

I have Social Security and we got 6 percent last year and 9 percent this year. That is a 15 percent increase in just two years.

 

[rightwinger]

What does that have to do with my personal work experiences?

You would have been much better off under the Teamsters
You wouldn’t be bragging about a $65,000 salary

 

[initforme]

Because you despise American workers
American workers are the most productive and receive the fewest benefits in the industrialized world.
Where else would workers be mocked for wanting paid sick days, maternity benefits and health benefits?

A person should not lose money because they are too ill to work. It's not safe for a very sick person to be at work and it's not fair to other workers having some sick person infecting the other people.

 

[Ray From Cleveland]

But americans couldn't survive on Chinese wages. So perhaps those jobs are better off over there.

Sure they are better off. It's us who suffer as our dependency on foreign made products increase. Don't you remember covid? All our PPE was made in China, and they're not about to take care of us first.

Of course we can't work for Chinese wages, but other factors are considered such as transportation costs and manufacturing close to your customer base. When the cost of making products here exceed the costs of making products overseas including shipping and warehousing, those products are then moved overseas.

So tell me, if everything we buy were made in China or another country, where would we Americans work?

 

[rightwinger]

A person should not lose money because they are too ill to work. It's not safe for a very sick person to be at work and it's not fair to other workers having some sick person infecting the other people.

The US lays a guilt trip on workers who are sick or injured and mocks them when they can’t pay their bills

 

[Ray From Cleveland]

You would have been much better off under the Teamsters
You wouldn’t be bragging about a $65,000 salary

If we were teamsters my employer would have had to shut the doors because there would have been no way to compete with non-union companies. That's the problem here.

 

[Ray From Cleveland]

You don’t realize that the 24 percent increase is not every year
With a four year contract, you are negotiating the last four years and the next four years before you get your next increase.

I have Social Security and we got 6 percent last year and 9 percent this year. That is a 15 percent increase in just two years.

Perhaps but if inflation does lower then they will be getting a larger than inflation increase for the next couple of years.

And to be honest if I were earning six figures doing a job, I wouldn't complain about anything. I (and most Americans) would be too happy to work for what they are working for today.

 

[gtopa1]

I said Democrats, but my understanding is that this was a bipartisan buttfuck of the rail workers.

Dems have control of all three levels of Gov. The shit is on THEM!!!

Greg

 

[Hutch Starskey]

Is that really an option? You mean if the union worker doesn't have their demands met, they will just walk off the job or get fired and a business have somebody replace them? I don't think so.

What we have is this: Pay me X amount of money with X benefits or we will shutdown your company. Like I said earlier, it's the exact same difference of me walking up to you and asking if you can give me a hundred dollars, and putting a gun to your chest and me telling you to give me a hundred dollars.

It’s not the same in any way.
It’s called leverage.
An individual worker has almost none. Collectively they can create change.

 

[rightwinger]

If we were teamsters my employer would have had to shut the doors because there would have been no way to compete with non-union companies. That's the problem here.

So you sold out to your employer because he doesn‘t want to pay a fair wage. You have already made it clear they fucked you over on healthcare.

Teamsters would have made sure you had a fair wage and health benefits to cover you when you got cancer