Those striking railway workers eventually got their demands for sick leave met in their contracts with continued support from the Biden Administration AND our national economy didn’t grind to a halt
"We’re thankful that the Biden administration played the long game on sick days and stuck with us for months after Congress imposed our updated national agreement,” Russo said. “Without making a big show of it, Joe Biden and members of his administration in the Transportation and Labor departments have been working continuously to get guaranteed paid sick days for all railroad workers.
They got a fraction of what they were asking for and they weren’t even asking for much. Their working conditions are still so awful that it’s only a question of time before the next major derailment disaster like the one in Ohio happens.
Next time, it might happen in a major metropolitan area, in which case many will die and the economy will suffer a lot worse than not trampling on their rights would have.
And even the tiny concessions they DID get in spite of Biden convincing congress to make them fight oligarchic railway companies without their best weapon, strike actions, was due to NLRB efforts with no help from Corporate Joe.
The strike threat was about paid sick leave, it wasn’t about railroad safety. Safety is an important issue too, but every single source from the time, even directly from the unions, explicitly discussed only paid sick leave. In that sense they got their demand met completely
It was about sick leave and improving the working conditions that are so awful that they’re literally making workers sick and trains less safe.
every single source from the time, even directly from the unions, explicitly discussed only paid sick leave
That’s simply not true. That’s the MSM and party narrative, but it isn’t the truth. Outlets less intertwined with the political establishment such as The Intercept and The Nation could have informed you better, had you bothered to look beyond the bubble.
in that sense they got their demand met completely
You mean in that entirely fictional sense? To quote the Nation piece:
this was never just a conflict over the number of paid sick days. About 115,000 workers represented by 13 separate craft unions, who keep 40 percent of the nation’s freight moving, got screwed. The coalition of interests that did the screwing includes: the executive boards of the seven class-1 carriers, most of Congress, and the president.
That’s how Biden works! The corporate media is against Biden and it shows to those who can see. It’s tough getting the real news and that’s a massive problem for this country.
Yeah, I’m not really sure that’s the point. The fact that the only changes that are allowed to get through are what the president allows is disheartening. The fact is, these workers should have been able to strike on their own terms without being shut down. What happens with a more hostile leader? What Biden did was defang the Union in that instance. Threw them a bone afterward, sure, but he defanged them.
Those striking railway workers eventually got their demands for sick leave met in their contracts with continued support from the Biden Administration AND our national economy didn’t grind to a halt
Source: https://www.ibew.org/media-center/Articles/23Daily/2306/230620_IBEWandPaid
They got a fraction of what they were asking for and they weren’t even asking for much. Their working conditions are still so awful that it’s only a question of time before the next major derailment disaster like the one in Ohio happens.
Next time, it might happen in a major metropolitan area, in which case many will die and the economy will suffer a lot worse than not trampling on their rights would have.
And even the tiny concessions they DID get in spite of Biden convincing congress to make them fight oligarchic railway companies without their best weapon, strike actions, was due to NLRB efforts with no help from Corporate Joe.
The strike threat was about paid sick leave, it wasn’t about railroad safety. Safety is an important issue too, but every single source from the time, even directly from the unions, explicitly discussed only paid sick leave. In that sense they got their demand met completely
It was about sick leave and improving the working conditions that are so awful that they’re literally making workers sick and trains less safe.
That’s simply not true. That’s the MSM and party narrative, but it isn’t the truth. Outlets less intertwined with the political establishment such as The Intercept and The Nation could have informed you better, had you bothered to look beyond the bubble.
You mean in that entirely fictional sense? To quote the Nation piece:
That’s how Biden works! The corporate media is against Biden and it shows to those who can see. It’s tough getting the real news and that’s a massive problem for this country.
Yeah, I’m not really sure that’s the point. The fact that the only changes that are allowed to get through are what the president allows is disheartening. The fact is, these workers should have been able to strike on their own terms without being shut down. What happens with a more hostile leader? What Biden did was defang the Union in that instance. Threw them a bone afterward, sure, but he defanged them.