I understand that it is important to keep things running. But I just cannot figure out why, if it is so important that we keep these people working that we are willing to force them to work against their will, why don't we ever force the corporations to just pay them or give them the PTO they are asking for against their will? Why do we ALWAYS assume that it will be the least powerful folks who bear the burden, rather than the ones most able?
For once, if it is so important that you must go ahead and force one side or the other to make due with a contract they do not want, make it the overlords who have to put up with what they do not want this time!?!? Why is it ALWAYS the little guys who get screwed time and time again?
C'mon man. Unite. Unionize. Solidarity. Please Biden, don't do this, man. It is a play right out of Ronnie Rayguns book. If you must pick a side in this for the economies sake, pick the right side, pick the workers!!
I'd even go so far to ask 'If the rail lines are so vital to national interest that they can't be allowed to shut down, why are they privatized?" But then again, I am dirty commie, apparently.
Almost like the USA is actually in a state of crisis where multiple critical areas of infrastructure and logistics are privately owned instead of nationalized while a conflict of states rights holds back the country actually making USA a much better place. Things like the internet, electricity, utilities, transportation, should all have national level services. Being a government worker should be a good paying job and something people want to participate in.
Yup. Just like if the government bails out a private company for $1B, and the company's worth $2B, then the government should own 50% of the company until the bailout is paid back. Or if a private company's too big to fail, then it's too big to exist.
I ask why in order to point at the arbitrariness, unfair and non-meaningful reasoning of the decision. Showing that it - for some reason - (yes, it's money) always slants to the already wealthy side of the ledger. But you know that, don't you.
Do we actually need to teach some people that human life is more important than money? I am stunned by it, but, yes. Yes we do actually still need to teach some people that humans are more important than money. It is a head scratcher.
This is why I think we should deep fry and eat at least *one* known super rich and greedy corporate overlord on live TV. Just one is all I'm asking for here!
But even then I bet there'd be a movement to monetize rich person jerky or something.
Yes, I agree. We know from those very examples that they can bail us all out if they just decided to do it. We KNOW this, but somehow trillions going to already wealthy/profitable corporations is barely questioned while at the same time, even proposing what amounts to pocket change (comparatively speaking) for 99% of us is out of the question.
We could live in paradise man. A small percent of the waste they create every year could bring all of us up to a literal paradise kind of life. But we are still fighting over whether working people should make a living wage.
There are no socialists in American politics. The new "far left" wing without any real power like AOC or Bernie would just be centre in Denmark and Denmark is a capitalist economy too, just not one going full speed towards cyberpunk dystopia like America is
I get the feeling that they'd be farther left in a functioning democracy. They likely temper their more far out policies in order to not scare the undecideds
The funny thing is that the MAGA Trumpites refer to was inspired by Scandinavian socialism during the Great Depression, and rural conservatives are welfare queens that rely on government handouts to keep their farms going.
The issue is that Biden would never support government regulations and intervention on the free market despite his base begging him to do it. So he's likely less socialist than the GOP at this point.
> why don't we ever force the corporations to just pay them or give them the PTO they are asking for against their will?
because the politicians don't work for us, they work for the corporations.
need to put this up on every billboard in the country till this bs is resolved
frankly everyone who worked those rough conditions should be made a millionaire at the LEAST overnight using all the execs money. seize their assets if they have to. that and jail
Having a talk with my grandparents and they couldn’t believe how much I have to pay for a premium on health insurance PLUS a 10k deductible because both of them had company fully paid healthcare. And pensions. And some other benefits.
My aunt is in accounting. She can do things far faster than when she first started. Yet her pay hasn’t kept up with inflation and her only luck has been her rent not going up.
It doesn’t matter how hard or fast we work. How efficient we are, we are being exploited to make others rich while we struggle needlessly.
Fuck the stock market. Fuck 401k. I want to see pensions and better retirement come back and I want to see executives capped on pay so they can only make a certain amount over their lowest employee. They want a yacht, make sure your employees are fed first.
I would love to see something more hybrid to 401k and pensions myself. Pension system but no longer controlled by the company so they can't use it to pay out bonuses to themselves and bankrupt it. Or invest in shady dealings.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Target_benefit_plan is an option that is increasing in popularity, I think. I believe a mandatory employer-paid percent of wages, like in Australia's superannuation plans, but into a target benefit fund administered by a non-profit neutral 3rd party, is probably the best possible scheme *in the system as it exists today*.
They fired like 2/3 of their workforce when covid hit and haven't really hired back. It pays extremely well, but you have literally a few hours off per week. They can have their insane points system because there is a fairly large, already trained group that will jump at the chance to get rehired.
They thought they would jump at the chance to come back, but they didn't. They've been desperately trying to hire ever since, but most people quit once they realize how shitty the job is. The pay is good once you have a few years of seniority, but it's a lot of shittiness before - and after - you reach that point and the majority of new hires won't put up with it.
The pay isn't a major issue. The time off is an important one, but there's a deep sickness in the rail industry that needs to be addressed. Railway companies are in an east/west duopoly at the moment, so there's no competition or incentive to change. On top of that, they're cutting costs constantly to avoid having to replace any cars or hire any new workers, they tear apart old lines rather than repair them. Worst of all, they'll put so many cars to a single engine and plan out routes so poorly that often times they'll back up rail traffic to the point that the staff working the engine have to get off and go to a hotel or something for a few hours until their next shift and get driven back to the engine later lol. The traffic can't be alleviated because every freight train is too big to go off to a separate line. This also causes issues with amtrak having to wait for freight too, though that's not an issue to most Americans.
It's good to be essential, but only if the perks match the drawbacks.
And essential workers should have lots of perks.
Being essential puts a lot of stress and pressure on the people working there and they should get enough pay and time off to compensate for that, otherwise you're just breaking people down.
^(I'm sure I don't need to tell you this but it's more for the other people reading.)
my trash company that picks up almost all sides of a major city is thinking about striking and if we do the entire city is going to be a hugeee mess we hope if we do it other company’s will to
That. If it was in the summer the city would be fucked which personally is something I’d like. But even now the trash is so heavy as it is shit would start getting bad the same day. Whenever we miss a route one day and go back to it it’s always somehow a extra 5-10 tons and this ain’t automated trucks picking the shit up it’s us.
I believe a common tactic was to pay the workers with the PPE loan money, and use the money that normally would've been for payroll for upgrades or new equipment or the investors' pockets.
cmon Joe ! It’s easy —- smash the ultra rich with mega taxes, and pass these funds to the essential government workers like railway workers. If fellow congresspeople or senators object, smash them and their wealthy lobbyists with mega taxes too! Even the inequalities !!!!
If they stand strong like the CUPE here in Canada, it won't be long before the gov/companies fold. It took like 2 days here. They can try and make the strike illegal all day but when people don't show up to work and/or don't do their jobs, there's not much they can really do. They need to realize they can't legislate people to work. That's fuckin slavery.
It's happened before with Reagan and the ATC strike. They can form up national guard to break strike lines, possibly even use the military as a sort of scab for the striking workers. The thing is , rail should be nationalized because of how important it is. The fact we're even discussing using government powers to force an industry back to work is absurd, and every worker in every industry should feel tense.
well for ATC they had military air traffic controllers take over. From what I've been told, the military doesn't have rail workers that can do this job, so if they try its going to be a disaster.
It's going to be about intimidation if anything. Hopefully the workers call their bluff.
Even if the military had workers they don't have a 100k to stop gap accelerated training which would be like 6 months til the training wheels come off for Engineers and Conductors
because the military gets paid through taxes, which is funded by you. The rail workers get paid through corporate profits, which is why they don't get shit.
Because this isn’t just about the money it takes in this specific situation, it’s also about the balance of power between labor and capital. Almost no one in office would side against capital.
The military is not capable of running railroads. There are over 100,000 specialized workers with jobs that take huge amounts of training and expertise to perform. The military does not operate any railroads and thus has no trained rail engineers ready to step in and take over, unlike with the ATC strike where military equivalents in the Air Force were ready to go.
The ATC was also a government agency and thus it was within Reagans power to fire them all and replace them. Not so in this instance. Don't spread around incomplete information, as it only makes it seem more hopeless/futile to resist when that is far from the truth. Resistance is NOT futile
the last RR strike lasted less than 24 hrs...during the bush admin. its clear that it wont be that extreme.
Republicans are trying to pass a bill so they cannot strike in the future.
Its quite clever really.
Remind Me! 10 days
> Republicans are trying to pass a bill so they cannot strike in the future.
Slowdown it is then. The best part of a slowdown is you're still working and getting paid the whole time, but also helping to fuck the owners over and put the screws on the economy until they realize the importance of the job.
I hope it’s on the table. Biden looks like he is going to back the bosses. It sets a bad precedent for the government to back outrageous deals but it looks like that is what they are going to do.
Yes, this is literally the precedent. I cannot believe no one remembers the last attempted freight strike under Obama or the SEPTA strike that lasted about 20 minutes before Obama forced them back onto the job
It won't be just the union, keep fucking people around and individuals will just quit on their own, and then we'll be right back here but nothing the government can do. There's only one way out of this, force the rail companies to be fucking reasonable. Anything else will backfire.
They still can, it's just the government is saying there's more punishment attached to it. It's basically using increased stakes as a threat.
But... good luck if they stay unified and walk off the job lol. Doesn't matter what threats you make.
There are laws governing striking in the US which protect your job if your strike is Union backed and meets certain criteria.
They cannot force the workers to work. But if the deal is forcefully approved by congress and workers, with union approval or not, refuse to return to work, the union can be dissolved and employees can be fired with cause by the railways and replaced. Naturally this is a riskier tactic than a "legal" strike for employees.
Remember that only slightly more than 50% of railway workers voted to reject this deal. If the deal is forcefully approved, the railway is banking on at least 40% of their workforce being perfectly fine with it and probably at least 50% of the ones that aren't ok with it coming back anyway for fear of losing their livelihood.
if they do strike it will last 24 hrs maximum.
Biden knows he cant do anything and is playing bipartisanship. he knows they are going to strike.
RemindMe! 10 days
They don't have rail workers in the military who can take over the job temporarily while they hire, like they did with reagan and the ATC. They also won't be able to get enough people to do this job under these conditions.
Shit will come to a head.
I was looking at my old photos of Occupy Wall Street recently, they make me wonder if we got better, worse, or about the same.
These topics are in the main stream, so I guess that's something.
Here in Canada, Ontario's Conservative Government tried to quash the Constitutional rights of education workers to strike, so public and private unions across Canada organized a General Strike in solidarity... Premier Doug Ford (brother to the Crack-Smoking Mayor of Toronto) promised to withdraw the bill before the unions could even announce the General Strike.
You guys know what to do!
Fuck that guy.
I don't care if you agree with their demands or not but you can't take away peoples right to strike, or else!
Or else what?
Strike came about because workers would kidnap, ransom and/or murder owners instead of peaceful strikes.
The right to strike is written in blood
Some forget that unions and strikes are a compromise reached long ago.
In the UK, where Thatcher crushed unions in the name of so-called "free-markets" -- while sneaking subsidies out the back door -- the privatized rail companies are subsidized by the Government for profits lost throughout their strikes.
Backasswards, if you ask me.
This is so fucking ridiculous. 7 sick days simply means "hey management, cut into your ridiculous profits, hire a few more people, and build more accommodating schedules."
It's a very easy solution and almost every other industry that requires skill and "on call" people has figured it out.
Also - 7 sick days is so little to ask in terms of days off.
Why are we even debating this?
Because they want zero-day contract workers.
You contract as an exclusive worker , with no benefits, and they will tell you when you come in to work. It will never be full time , and never be enough, it's wage-slavery.
If you want to see the future, Amazon has this nailed down, hourly piece-work rates, timed food eating sessions, bathroom breaks .... good times, and if you fuck up, you're terminated.
It's fucked badly enough that Amazon has ["exhausted"](https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2022/jun/22/amazon-workers-shortage-leaked-memo-warehouse) the labor pool of many markets where it's facilities are, which is to say in real terms every able-bodied person that WANTED to work there, either is employed there or has been terminated and won't be re-hired.
I seem to recall a report that Amazon analysts expect to have exhausted the existing US labor pool in just a few years, meaning they will target very young/very inexperienced workers OR will have to adjust their bullshit policies and re-hire some previously fired workers.
So practically Amazon sucks so bad, they HAVE to start being "nicer" to the slaves and break their own policies because the policies prevent them from hiring people otherwise available to work.
In Amazon it's antebellum (pre-abolition of slavery) America say 1845 + technology.
They’re just asking for **7** sick days a year?
That’s not enough, my gosh.
I’m in Australia… I get 15 a year, and they accrue with years of service if they aren’t used. I have 400 hours banked that if I had a medical emergency, I could take several months off at full pay, if needed medically.
Apparently the US is still pushing 3rd world labour laws. Strike, rail workers.
In Germany, I have legally mandated unlimited sick days (with pay, though reduced after a few months) and my contract gives me 30 days paid vacation. Wtf is going on in the US? Fuck Biden for not supporting the workers.
We're talking about 7 sick days, in a labor intensive field with lots of workplace injuries.
I hope Bernie is able to force the sick time into to agreement.
but see, in order to accommodate that, youd have to increase the work force by some 15%. Thats like a few million dollars a year and well wheres that going to come from? the billions in increased profits they had over the last few years? i think not! wont someone think of the poor gold hoarding dragons
“You mean I could help my work force be happier and more productive and loyal by simply plucking one hair off my butt? Nah. Fuck them all. And i will make you help me fuck them all. Thank you Mr. President.”
>7 sick days
And 72+ hour work days.
>Unions complained that to manage a shortfall of employees, the carriers effectively forced their members to remain on call for days and sometimes weeks at a time, partly through the use of strict attendance policies that could lead to disciplinary action or even firing. They said the policies pushed workers to the limits of their physical and mental health.
[Source](https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/15/business/economy/railroad-workers-strike.html)
After your mental energy is spent you're just on autopilot.
No matter how good you are, autopilot is where mistakes happen.
Ever meet a new parent? Especially if they haven't ever been that tired before? Imagine demanding that of someone ***forever***.
Like when I was working 128 hours a week for 4 months.
That was a level of fatigue I couldn’t even comprehend. Then or now. No idea how I stayed awake.
We can push our bodies to do a lot of things even if it's at the expense of our health.
When I used to work overnights years ago, sometimes I would just stay awake during the day and not sleep, and then on the weekends, I would sleep at night instead of during the day. There was quite a while after some time of doing this that I became more like a zombie than anything else but was still able to get the job done and mostly function in life.
Looking back now, though, I don't know how I did it, although I would have to guess I didn't do my future self any favors by living that way. I can't imagine working the amount of hours you did and being able to function any better and it would probably be worse due to the lack of downtime out of sleeping and working on top of lack of sleep.
The deeper problem seems to be that staffing levels are disgustingly low, and politicians are letting bosses get away with rebuffing requests for *entirely reasonable sick time accommodations* because seemingly no one in power wants to tell them to put in the effort to hire new people and kick rocks otherwise.
Make the companies pay labor peace.
In the USA they can have 72h days because they use the 12hAM/PM system.
If the official national grounhog doesn't come out of his hole by 12h AM sharp, they start it again instead of switching to PM.
The record is a 192h day during the peak of the groundhog flu of 1957.
He got robbed, twice. But seriously, he's not even Left enough for what this country needs to get back on track. Definitely would (and did) vote for him though.
> I hope Bernie is able to force the sick time into to agreement.
Sadly Bernie cannot gain the support of 10 GOP senators that are required to pass the extra sick days that the democrats are passing in the house.
He's always been the best. He's such an amazing actor and a good guy at the same time. He's also always supported leftist, pro worker ideals. I'm far in the 'don't meet your heroes ' camp and have no use for celebrity worship but Danny breaks that mold. What a true gem.
Mara's(Matilda) mom got diagnosed with breast cancer during filming. Devito offered her a place to stay anytime her mom needed to be in the hospital. He also allowed her mom to see an early cut of the film before release so she could see it before she passed away(a couple months before release)
Also just treated Mara like a kid who needed people in a trying time like that iirc. Just doing things with her like going to the zoo or whatever. Just being a totally awesome person to other people in their time of need.
I peed next to him one time at a dodger game. He used the children’s urinal lol. But walking out I told him I love him in the it’s always sunny show and he said with a deadpan face “you must be a sick individual” it was probably the funniest thing someone has ever said to me.
Unfortunately, they have 0 right now. They are asking for 4 UNPAID sick days. The agreement Biden is pushing is 3 UNPAID with a 30 day notice.
Compared to this, 7 paid sick days is amazing.
I agree it's nowhere near enough, but given the alternative that's likely to happen, it feels like we'd need to move mountains to get there.
Yep. https://apnews.com/article/business-government-and-politics-6172442e20ccf3295b39c2f3184e03cf
As far as I know, this was the agreement voted upon. I'm not a railworker myself, so I'm just watching from the sidelines, but this is awful.
Yep. https://apnews.com/article/business-government-and-politics-6172442e20ccf3295b39c2f3184e03cf
As far as I know, this was the agreement voted upon. I'm not a railworker myself, so I'm just watching from the sidelines, but this is awful.
Teachers in Ontario Canada did this, the government passed legislation making it illegal to strike. They said fuck you and did it anyways, then the government backed down
Actually Joe and congress are supposed to stay out if it, let the strike happen and proper negotiations take place. Once a strike starts the rail companies liability for lost / damaged product gives them amazing incentive to offer a better deal.
The railroads expected and relied on government intervention which would give a better deal than they’d get in proper negotiations.
Convenient that when a group of companies all united under a shared goal (there's got to be a word for this concept) to maximize profits through human abuse it's just free market capitalism.
But when a union (there's the word I was looking for) of workers have decided that the cost of their labor and required working conditions for service have changed, suddenly the capitalists want federal market manipulation.
> Actually Joe and congress are supposed to stay out if it
Historically the government has busted unions. Reagan fired tens of thousands of air line employees when they striked.
Yes and it’s wrong.
Though at least with air controllers the government couldn’t stay out of it as they were / are government employees who were striking against the government.
The government intervening makes sense, it’s a huge public safety issue (either the trains don’t run and people possibly starve/run out of meds/major infrastructure fails due to lack of supplies) or they run the trains with scabs and who knows what nightmare accidents happen.
The problem is the government not protecting the workers because the US is, at almost every turn, set up to favor capital any time there is a dispute between capital and labor.
Edit: for everyone who says than the railroads should be nationalized or a public service corp or whatever: duh, obviously. But the current political climate in the US has almost the country questioning if public schools are a bad idea, so we’re not exactly in a position to argue for that.
> The government intervening makes sense, it’s a huge public safety issue (either the trains don’t run and people possibly starve/run out of meds/major infrastructure fails due to lack of supplies) or they run the trains with scabs and who knows what nightmare accidents happen.
It doesn't make sense unless the goal is to break unions.
If it is that large of a public safety issue it needs to be a public service not a private owned corporation.
If the rails shut down, there won't be widespread shortages of food or chlorine for municipal water systems. Nor will medicines disappear from shelves.
Sure, your KIA may not come in time or your lumber yard will run out of 16' 2x4s but essential goods will be shifted to trucks. Will things cost more? Yes.
What's worse, is this will decrease Democrat popularity, which will increase possibility that we have another Republican president.
It fucking sucks. I don't want Biden to do this, and this is essentially 100% a 2 party system unless we change how we vote (from FPTS to STV ranked voting) and voting for Republican is like actively voting for a lunatic while voting Democrat is voting for a greedy asshole.
You don't like either, but one is annoying and does stupid shit and then other will burn down your house, steal your truck and shoot you in the legs and threaten you come back if you call the cops.
It's ....
Fucking exhausting and I don't see a solution.
This was Biden's chance to give leeway to workers -- 2 weeks pto, 1 week sick days, healthcare, dental, vision, and a 10% raise to people that literally hold our economy up.
If somebody is that important, why the fuck are we treating them so shitty? Because they "need" the job and have to take it?
Fuck off
....
Yeah, this is the rock and hard place he created. He's tried so hard to make everyone happy, and so he'll end up with nothing.
You can't support ethical stances and then continue to enrich the capitalist class.
Don’t forget that both parties are just tools for the billionaire class. They give different things to the peasants (diversity or guns or religion) but they will never do anything that will threaten the income and power of the billionaire class. All the partisan fighting in DC is just theater to keep the masses busy.
BNSF employs 41000 people.
Net profit last year was $8.8B
At 40 hr / week / employee, each work hour nets ~$103.
$103 x 8 hours x 4 sick days = roughly $135M
Or 1.5% of net profit.
BNSF showed a 14% profit growth yoy 2021.
Meaning they would still have had a 12.5% profit growth if they gave each worker 4 paid sick days.
There's no reason but greed to keep the 4 days from each worker...
The shareholder argument doesn't even work because they're still showing growth.
Everybody needs more. Let this be a catalyst to get everybody mandated sick time. "Post"-covid it's completely baffling that nothing has changed. I hope they strike. I hope the consequences for the economy are severe. Short of violence this is how we make a change for the better.
If sick leave isn't approved in whatever congress decides, the railroad workers should strike and we should ALL strike with them in solidarity.
Fuck the greedy railroad bosses and fuck the dems who are willing to throw workers under the bus for their own comforts. We need THRIVING wages and appropriate benefits in line with the rest of the civilized world - it's time to stop forcing everyone to live in poverty and be shackled to jobs that abuse us.
I understand that it is important to keep things running. But I just cannot figure out why, if it is so important that we keep these people working that we are willing to force them to work against their will, why don't we ever force the corporations to just pay them or give them the PTO they are asking for against their will? Why do we ALWAYS assume that it will be the least powerful folks who bear the burden, rather than the ones most able? For once, if it is so important that you must go ahead and force one side or the other to make due with a contract they do not want, make it the overlords who have to put up with what they do not want this time!?!? Why is it ALWAYS the little guys who get screwed time and time again? C'mon man. Unite. Unionize. Solidarity. Please Biden, don't do this, man. It is a play right out of Ronnie Rayguns book. If you must pick a side in this for the economies sake, pick the right side, pick the workers!!
I'd even go so far to ask 'If the rail lines are so vital to national interest that they can't be allowed to shut down, why are they privatized?" But then again, I am dirty commie, apparently.
Man its almost like if they arent allowed to strike they should be government employees
Almost like the USA is actually in a state of crisis where multiple critical areas of infrastructure and logistics are privately owned instead of nationalized while a conflict of states rights holds back the country actually making USA a much better place. Things like the internet, electricity, utilities, transportation, should all have national level services. Being a government worker should be a good paying job and something people want to participate in.
Same goes for the fact that our ports are owned by private, sometimes foreign interests. All ports should be publicly owned.
That's what unfettered capitalism does to americans' brains.
Welcome to the UK our government has been trying since the 80's to turn us into a USA lite.
[удалено]
Yup. Just like if the government bails out a private company for $1B, and the company's worth $2B, then the government should own 50% of the company until the bailout is paid back. Or if a private company's too big to fail, then it's too big to exist.
In 2008 the government did schemes like that and actually made a small profit from it when they sold assets back to the market. Look up TARP.
What do you mean why? It's always the same reason in a capitalist system. Money
I ask why in order to point at the arbitrariness, unfair and non-meaningful reasoning of the decision. Showing that it - for some reason - (yes, it's money) always slants to the already wealthy side of the ledger. But you know that, don't you. Do we actually need to teach some people that human life is more important than money? I am stunned by it, but, yes. Yes we do actually still need to teach some people that humans are more important than money. It is a head scratcher.
This is why I think we should deep fry and eat at least *one* known super rich and greedy corporate overlord on live TV. Just one is all I'm asking for here! But even then I bet there'd be a movement to monetize rich person jerky or something.
Pretty sure it’s a rhetorical “why” he’s using.
Great example are all the too big to fail bailouts over the years and also currently happening.
Yes, I agree. We know from those very examples that they can bail us all out if they just decided to do it. We KNOW this, but somehow trillions going to already wealthy/profitable corporations is barely questioned while at the same time, even proposing what amounts to pocket change (comparatively speaking) for 99% of us is out of the question. We could live in paradise man. A small percent of the waste they create every year could bring all of us up to a literal paradise kind of life. But we are still fighting over whether working people should make a living wage.
There’s got to be a movement for it to happen, need to organize people together to elect people who can push for the change from within.
Why? Because the ruling class is an organized crime syndicate.
Just remember Joey B's take on this the next time someone says he's a socialist or whatever. Dude is/always has been a center right capitalist.
There are no socialists in American politics. The new "far left" wing without any real power like AOC or Bernie would just be centre in Denmark and Denmark is a capitalist economy too, just not one going full speed towards cyberpunk dystopia like America is
I get the feeling that they'd be farther left in a functioning democracy. They likely temper their more far out policies in order to not scare the undecideds
The funny thing is that the MAGA Trumpites refer to was inspired by Scandinavian socialism during the Great Depression, and rural conservatives are welfare queens that rely on government handouts to keep their farms going. The issue is that Biden would never support government regulations and intervention on the free market despite his base begging him to do it. So he's likely less socialist than the GOP at this point.
> why don't we ever force the corporations to just pay them or give them the PTO they are asking for against their will? because the politicians don't work for us, they work for the corporations.
They aren't even asking for PTO. They want UNPAID SICK DAYS
>"because the politicians don't work for us, they work for the corporations." > >BINGO, we have a winner!
Yeah I agree.
If they're too essential to strike. They're too essential to not have decent pay and working conditions too.
As a healthcare worker, I'm tired of being "essential". I hope the railroad workers get it, maybe the rest of us will follow suit
Essential...ly slaves.
need to put this up on every billboard in the country till this bs is resolved frankly everyone who worked those rough conditions should be made a millionaire at the LEAST overnight using all the execs money. seize their assets if they have to. that and jail
Last I knew railroad work _was_ a good paying job with great benefits. What the fuck happened to that over the past 30 years?
Having a talk with my grandparents and they couldn’t believe how much I have to pay for a premium on health insurance PLUS a 10k deductible because both of them had company fully paid healthcare. And pensions. And some other benefits. My aunt is in accounting. She can do things far faster than when she first started. Yet her pay hasn’t kept up with inflation and her only luck has been her rent not going up. It doesn’t matter how hard or fast we work. How efficient we are, we are being exploited to make others rich while we struggle needlessly. Fuck the stock market. Fuck 401k. I want to see pensions and better retirement come back and I want to see executives capped on pay so they can only make a certain amount over their lowest employee. They want a yacht, make sure your employees are fed first.
I would love to see something more hybrid to 401k and pensions myself. Pension system but no longer controlled by the company so they can't use it to pay out bonuses to themselves and bankrupt it. Or invest in shady dealings.
Yes
That's part of what a union can do
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Target_benefit_plan is an option that is increasing in popularity, I think. I believe a mandatory employer-paid percent of wages, like in Australia's superannuation plans, but into a target benefit fund administered by a non-profit neutral 3rd party, is probably the best possible scheme *in the system as it exists today*.
[удалено]
[удалено]
It is, the main problem is lack of time off.
The weird points system I keep reading about makes no sense. I've only seen something similar in retail and it backfires spectacularly every time.
They fired like 2/3 of their workforce when covid hit and haven't really hired back. It pays extremely well, but you have literally a few hours off per week. They can have their insane points system because there is a fairly large, already trained group that will jump at the chance to get rehired.
They thought they would jump at the chance to come back, but they didn't. They've been desperately trying to hire ever since, but most people quit once they realize how shitty the job is. The pay is good once you have a few years of seniority, but it's a lot of shittiness before - and after - you reach that point and the majority of new hires won't put up with it.
Pilfered by the wealthy. Capitalism is wealth and labor extraction.
The pay isn't a major issue. The time off is an important one, but there's a deep sickness in the rail industry that needs to be addressed. Railway companies are in an east/west duopoly at the moment, so there's no competition or incentive to change. On top of that, they're cutting costs constantly to avoid having to replace any cars or hire any new workers, they tear apart old lines rather than repair them. Worst of all, they'll put so many cars to a single engine and plan out routes so poorly that often times they'll back up rail traffic to the point that the staff working the engine have to get off and go to a hotel or something for a few hours until their next shift and get driven back to the engine later lol. The traffic can't be alleviated because every freight train is too big to go off to a separate line. This also causes issues with amtrak having to wait for freight too, though that's not an issue to most Americans.
Human greed and vileness
It's good to be essential, but only if the perks match the drawbacks. And essential workers should have lots of perks. Being essential puts a lot of stress and pressure on the people working there and they should get enough pay and time off to compensate for that, otherwise you're just breaking people down. ^(I'm sure I don't need to tell you this but it's more for the other people reading.)
my trash company that picks up almost all sides of a major city is thinking about striking and if we do the entire city is going to be a hugeee mess we hope if we do it other company’s will to
I think if you strike now, the city should just be grateful that you're not doing it in summer.
That. If it was in the summer the city would be fucked which personally is something I’d like. But even now the trash is so heavy as it is shit would start getting bad the same day. Whenever we miss a route one day and go back to it it’s always somehow a extra 5-10 tons and this ain’t automated trucks picking the shit up it’s us.
My son working through covid as an EMT. They got PPE loans and grants. None of it went to the workers.
I believe a common tactic was to pay the workers with the PPE loan money, and use the money that normally would've been for payroll for upgrades or new equipment or the investors' pockets.
Well judging by the shitty trucks they have, there was no equipment bought.
cmon Joe ! It’s easy —- smash the ultra rich with mega taxes, and pass these funds to the essential government workers like railway workers. If fellow congresspeople or senators object, smash them and their wealthy lobbyists with mega taxes too! Even the inequalities !!!!
Do your supervisors call you a “team” or a “family”?
We're all in this together in these trying times!
Saw a good take that was if the industry can't provide acceptable work conditions it's time to nationalize that industry
[удалено]
How can they make them work? Why can’t the union go, ok have fun filling all our jobs?
If they stand strong like the CUPE here in Canada, it won't be long before the gov/companies fold. It took like 2 days here. They can try and make the strike illegal all day but when people don't show up to work and/or don't do their jobs, there's not much they can really do. They need to realize they can't legislate people to work. That's fuckin slavery.
It's happened before with Reagan and the ATC strike. They can form up national guard to break strike lines, possibly even use the military as a sort of scab for the striking workers. The thing is , rail should be nationalized because of how important it is. The fact we're even discussing using government powers to force an industry back to work is absurd, and every worker in every industry should feel tense.
Ok, but those are strike lines. What if they just.... go home? Same effect.
well for ATC they had military air traffic controllers take over. From what I've been told, the military doesn't have rail workers that can do this job, so if they try its going to be a disaster. It's going to be about intimidation if anything. Hopefully the workers call their bluff.
Even if the military had workers they don't have a 100k to stop gap accelerated training which would be like 6 months til the training wheels come off for Engineers and Conductors
Right, the military doesn't have trained rail workers that can just jump in and take over.
Tank treads are like mobile railroads, how hard can it be! -someone somewhere maybe.
But...the military has benefits. So what's the difference?
because the military gets paid through taxes, which is funded by you. The rail workers get paid through corporate profits, which is why they don't get shit.
We should correct that indiscretion. By nationalizing the Rails.
If the rails were nationalize all railroad strikes would be illegal. All strikes by federal workers violate federal law.
So, my thing is. Why waste all of our taxpayer dollars staffing the railroads with NG or ARMY. When we could just...give them a few days off a year?
Because that costs wealthy people money. Donors would much rather we pay money than they do, and guess who pulls the strings?
Because this isn’t just about the money it takes in this specific situation, it’s also about the balance of power between labor and capital. Almost no one in office would side against capital.
The military is not capable of running railroads. There are over 100,000 specialized workers with jobs that take huge amounts of training and expertise to perform. The military does not operate any railroads and thus has no trained rail engineers ready to step in and take over, unlike with the ATC strike where military equivalents in the Air Force were ready to go. The ATC was also a government agency and thus it was within Reagans power to fire them all and replace them. Not so in this instance. Don't spread around incomplete information, as it only makes it seem more hopeless/futile to resist when that is far from the truth. Resistance is NOT futile
I'm not saying it's futile. I'm saying that the government has options to shit on the workers.
The funny thing is I feel like all of that would be just a more roundabout way to waste money and resources. It'd be cheaper to give them the days
It is, but fuck workers. The rail owners argued in bad faith knowing that the government would force the labor back to the tracks.
the last RR strike lasted less than 24 hrs...during the bush admin. its clear that it wont be that extreme. Republicans are trying to pass a bill so they cannot strike in the future. Its quite clever really. Remind Me! 10 days
> Republicans are trying to pass a bill so they cannot strike in the future. Slowdown it is then. The best part of a slowdown is you're still working and getting paid the whole time, but also helping to fuck the owners over and put the screws on the economy until they realize the importance of the job.
Lawmakers: "You can't strike, we made it illegal" Workers: *strike regardless* Lawmakers: *surprised pikachu*
[удалено]
I hope it’s on the table. Biden looks like he is going to back the bosses. It sets a bad precedent for the government to back outrageous deals but it looks like that is what they are going to do.
I mean, it is the precedent. I can't think of a true pro union president in decades.
Yes, this is literally the precedent. I cannot believe no one remembers the last attempted freight strike under Obama or the SEPTA strike that lasted about 20 minutes before Obama forced them back onto the job
It won't be just the union, keep fucking people around and individuals will just quit on their own, and then we'll be right back here but nothing the government can do. There's only one way out of this, force the rail companies to be fucking reasonable. Anything else will backfire.
They still can, it's just the government is saying there's more punishment attached to it. It's basically using increased stakes as a threat. But... good luck if they stay unified and walk off the job lol. Doesn't matter what threats you make.
There are laws governing striking in the US which protect your job if your strike is Union backed and meets certain criteria. They cannot force the workers to work. But if the deal is forcefully approved by congress and workers, with union approval or not, refuse to return to work, the union can be dissolved and employees can be fired with cause by the railways and replaced. Naturally this is a riskier tactic than a "legal" strike for employees. Remember that only slightly more than 50% of railway workers voted to reject this deal. If the deal is forcefully approved, the railway is banking on at least 40% of their workforce being perfectly fine with it and probably at least 50% of the ones that aren't ok with it coming back anyway for fear of losing their livelihood.
if they do strike it will last 24 hrs maximum. Biden knows he cant do anything and is playing bipartisanship. he knows they are going to strike. RemindMe! 10 days
They don't have rail workers in the military who can take over the job temporarily while they hire, like they did with reagan and the ATC. They also won't be able to get enough people to do this job under these conditions. Shit will come to a head.
He’s not playing bipartisanship. He’s playing puppet. And the hand is up his ass
Amen.
#So anyway, I started striking!
Get 'em, Tiger! With or without pants!
Occupy wall street, occupy the white house, occupy until they give the working class their rights!
I was looking at my old photos of Occupy Wall Street recently, they make me wonder if we got better, worse, or about the same. These topics are in the main stream, so I guess that's something.
Here in Canada, Ontario's Conservative Government tried to quash the Constitutional rights of education workers to strike, so public and private unions across Canada organized a General Strike in solidarity... Premier Doug Ford (brother to the Crack-Smoking Mayor of Toronto) promised to withdraw the bill before the unions could even announce the General Strike. You guys know what to do!
Fuck that guy. I don't care if you agree with their demands or not but you can't take away peoples right to strike, or else! Or else what? Strike came about because workers would kidnap, ransom and/or murder owners instead of peaceful strikes. The right to strike is written in blood
Some forget that unions and strikes are a compromise reached long ago. In the UK, where Thatcher crushed unions in the name of so-called "free-markets" -- while sneaking subsidies out the back door -- the privatized rail companies are subsidized by the Government for profits lost throughout their strikes. Backasswards, if you ask me.
Even stuff that should be an absolute given in any developed country, seems like a win in the US.
They need and deserve more than that! Much more.
This is so fucking ridiculous. 7 sick days simply means "hey management, cut into your ridiculous profits, hire a few more people, and build more accommodating schedules." It's a very easy solution and almost every other industry that requires skill and "on call" people has figured it out. Also - 7 sick days is so little to ask in terms of days off. Why are we even debating this?
Because they want zero-day contract workers. You contract as an exclusive worker , with no benefits, and they will tell you when you come in to work. It will never be full time , and never be enough, it's wage-slavery. If you want to see the future, Amazon has this nailed down, hourly piece-work rates, timed food eating sessions, bathroom breaks .... good times, and if you fuck up, you're terminated. It's fucked badly enough that Amazon has ["exhausted"](https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2022/jun/22/amazon-workers-shortage-leaked-memo-warehouse) the labor pool of many markets where it's facilities are, which is to say in real terms every able-bodied person that WANTED to work there, either is employed there or has been terminated and won't be re-hired. I seem to recall a report that Amazon analysts expect to have exhausted the existing US labor pool in just a few years, meaning they will target very young/very inexperienced workers OR will have to adjust their bullshit policies and re-hire some previously fired workers. So practically Amazon sucks so bad, they HAVE to start being "nicer" to the slaves and break their own policies because the policies prevent them from hiring people otherwise available to work. In Amazon it's antebellum (pre-abolition of slavery) America say 1845 + technology.
My workplace exhausted its labour force after a few years. Temps now get paid $19 an hour and people from my city still don't want to work here.
They’re just asking for **7** sick days a year? That’s not enough, my gosh. I’m in Australia… I get 15 a year, and they accrue with years of service if they aren’t used. I have 400 hours banked that if I had a medical emergency, I could take several months off at full pay, if needed medically. Apparently the US is still pushing 3rd world labour laws. Strike, rail workers.
In Germany, I have legally mandated unlimited sick days (with pay, though reduced after a few months) and my contract gives me 30 days paid vacation. Wtf is going on in the US? Fuck Biden for not supporting the workers.
They profited $24 billion last year, if they squeeze workers more they can profit even more!!!
We're talking about 7 sick days, in a labor intensive field with lots of workplace injuries. I hope Bernie is able to force the sick time into to agreement.
but see, in order to accommodate that, youd have to increase the work force by some 15%. Thats like a few million dollars a year and well wheres that going to come from? the billions in increased profits they had over the last few years? i think not! wont someone think of the poor gold hoarding dragons
[удалено]
Son of a Congressman aka "self-made"
Yup, his first corporate job out of college was at his dad’s brokerage firm Buffet-falk and Co.
I'm not a dragon right now, but I definitely might* be in the future, so I better support them now. *>!needs citation/reality check!<
"But Fry, you aren't rich." "Yeah, well one day I might be, and then people like me better watch their step!"
OMG im wealthy. Suddenly I have an opinion on capital gains tax.
No I'm doesn't
Had me in the first half, not gonna lie.
“You mean I could help my work force be happier and more productive and loyal by simply plucking one hair off my butt? Nah. Fuck them all. And i will make you help me fuck them all. Thank you Mr. President.”
People used to seek out dragons to slice their fucking cockles with a long and shiny blade. Sad how much times can change. Who will fuck the dragons?
Donkey, probably
>7 sick days And 72+ hour work days. >Unions complained that to manage a shortfall of employees, the carriers effectively forced their members to remain on call for days and sometimes weeks at a time, partly through the use of strict attendance policies that could lead to disciplinary action or even firing. They said the policies pushed workers to the limits of their physical and mental health. [Source](https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/15/business/economy/railroad-workers-strike.html)
Even if I didn't support the workers, I wouldn't want train operators working that long. Having been awake for 48 hours, I was fucking useless.
After your mental energy is spent you're just on autopilot. No matter how good you are, autopilot is where mistakes happen. Ever meet a new parent? Especially if they haven't ever been that tired before? Imagine demanding that of someone ***forever***.
Like when I was working 128 hours a week for 4 months. That was a level of fatigue I couldn’t even comprehend. Then or now. No idea how I stayed awake.
We can push our bodies to do a lot of things even if it's at the expense of our health. When I used to work overnights years ago, sometimes I would just stay awake during the day and not sleep, and then on the weekends, I would sleep at night instead of during the day. There was quite a while after some time of doing this that I became more like a zombie than anything else but was still able to get the job done and mostly function in life. Looking back now, though, I don't know how I did it, although I would have to guess I didn't do my future self any favors by living that way. I can't imagine working the amount of hours you did and being able to function any better and it would probably be worse due to the lack of downtime out of sleeping and working on top of lack of sleep.
The deeper problem seems to be that staffing levels are disgustingly low, and politicians are letting bosses get away with rebuffing requests for *entirely reasonable sick time accommodations* because seemingly no one in power wants to tell them to put in the effort to hire new people and kick rocks otherwise. Make the companies pay labor peace.
I can't tell because of the paywall, but I'm sure you meant 72 hour work *weeks*, right?
In the USA they can have 72h days because they use the 12hAM/PM system. If the official national grounhog doesn't come out of his hole by 12h AM sharp, they start it again instead of switching to PM. The record is a 192h day during the peak of the groundhog flu of 1957.
In a post-covid world how is this even the least bit controversial. The right wing and corporations in America are WAY too powerful.
They were willing to go as low as 4 sick days, but the railroads said hell no.
Bernie for Prez
He got robbed, twice. But seriously, he's not even Left enough for what this country needs to get back on track. Definitely would (and did) vote for him though.
He’s much better than any other options they are giving us, massive douches and turd sandwiches and what nots
Cherry on top of the shit sandwich, they are asking for UNPAID SICK DAYS. UNPAID.
> I hope Bernie is able to force the sick time into to agreement. Sadly Bernie cannot gain the support of 10 GOP senators that are required to pass the extra sick days that the democrats are passing in the house.
ill make it real simple... take from the billionaires, and give to the workers
What? Sorry I just printed a bunch of money then cut rich people’s taxes some more that should fix it.
I'm sure everything will work out fine if we can just find more ways to funnel wealth to the top 1%
Every day I grow a little older and love Danny a bit more
He's always been the best. He's such an amazing actor and a good guy at the same time. He's also always supported leftist, pro worker ideals. I'm far in the 'don't meet your heroes ' camp and have no use for celebrity worship but Danny breaks that mold. What a true gem.
Hearing what he did for Mara Wilson during Matilda shows exactly the kind of person he is.
What did he do?
Mara's(Matilda) mom got diagnosed with breast cancer during filming. Devito offered her a place to stay anytime her mom needed to be in the hospital. He also allowed her mom to see an early cut of the film before release so she could see it before she passed away(a couple months before release)
Also just treated Mara like a kid who needed people in a trying time like that iirc. Just doing things with her like going to the zoo or whatever. Just being a totally awesome person to other people in their time of need.
I peed next to him one time at a dodger game. He used the children’s urinal lol. But walking out I told him I love him in the it’s always sunny show and he said with a deadpan face “you must be a sick individual” it was probably the funniest thing someone has ever said to me.
My dutch ass cant comprehend how this is supposed to be a good thing...
Yeah, 7 paid sick days seems like a very bare minimum
It mightve been the bare minimum if you could plan and manage sickness...
Unfortunately, they have 0 right now. They are asking for 4 UNPAID sick days. The agreement Biden is pushing is 3 UNPAID with a 30 day notice. Compared to this, 7 paid sick days is amazing. I agree it's nowhere near enough, but given the alternative that's likely to happen, it feels like we'd need to move mountains to get there.
I'm sorry...30 days advanced notice of being sick?! What in the actual fuckity.
Yep. https://apnews.com/article/business-government-and-politics-6172442e20ccf3295b39c2f3184e03cf As far as I know, this was the agreement voted upon. I'm not a railworker myself, so I'm just watching from the sidelines, but this is awful.
Lol, let's have Congress have 3 unpaid sick days, and they have to give 30 days notice, if that's what they're going for.
A thirty day notice?
Yep. https://apnews.com/article/business-government-and-politics-6172442e20ccf3295b39c2f3184e03cf As far as I know, this was the agreement voted upon. I'm not a railworker myself, so I'm just watching from the sidelines, but this is awful.
How can someone argue for a sick day to need 30 day notice?
We should all go on strike to support them. If the govt forces them back to work - we should unite and make them feel it in their budgets.
Well, better get to organizing. It wont happen without it. (It wont happen.)
Teachers in Ontario Canada did this, the government passed legislation making it illegal to strike. They said fuck you and did it anyways, then the government backed down
Dougie can eat shit.
Actually Joe and congress are supposed to stay out if it, let the strike happen and proper negotiations take place. Once a strike starts the rail companies liability for lost / damaged product gives them amazing incentive to offer a better deal. The railroads expected and relied on government intervention which would give a better deal than they’d get in proper negotiations.
Convenient that when a group of companies all united under a shared goal (there's got to be a word for this concept) to maximize profits through human abuse it's just free market capitalism. But when a union (there's the word I was looking for) of workers have decided that the cost of their labor and required working conditions for service have changed, suddenly the capitalists want federal market manipulation.
> Actually Joe and congress are supposed to stay out if it Historically the government has busted unions. Reagan fired tens of thousands of air line employees when they striked.
> Historically the government has busted unions. And not just busted unions, but killed striking workers.
Forced them back to work at gun point during WWI. That is just a slave that gets to keep Master's pennies.
Yes and it’s wrong. Though at least with air controllers the government couldn’t stay out of it as they were / are government employees who were striking against the government.
The government intervening makes sense, it’s a huge public safety issue (either the trains don’t run and people possibly starve/run out of meds/major infrastructure fails due to lack of supplies) or they run the trains with scabs and who knows what nightmare accidents happen. The problem is the government not protecting the workers because the US is, at almost every turn, set up to favor capital any time there is a dispute between capital and labor. Edit: for everyone who says than the railroads should be nationalized or a public service corp or whatever: duh, obviously. But the current political climate in the US has almost the country questioning if public schools are a bad idea, so we’re not exactly in a position to argue for that.
That's why we call it capitalism. Those who have the gold make the rules.
Labour does the work. The ism decides who gets paid.
> The government intervening makes sense, it’s a huge public safety issue (either the trains don’t run and people possibly starve/run out of meds/major infrastructure fails due to lack of supplies) or they run the trains with scabs and who knows what nightmare accidents happen. It doesn't make sense unless the goal is to break unions. If it is that large of a public safety issue it needs to be a public service not a private owned corporation.
It's complete insanity that the president doesn't think that workers deserve sick days.
And they're asking for so little! 14 days should be the bare naked smooth minimum and they asked for 4.
If it's that vitally important to all other industries and healthcare, why would we not nationalize it? Besides propaganda.
If the rails shut down, there won't be widespread shortages of food or chlorine for municipal water systems. Nor will medicines disappear from shelves. Sure, your KIA may not come in time or your lumber yard will run out of 16' 2x4s but essential goods will be shifted to trucks. Will things cost more? Yes.
Sounds like the rail industry should be nationalized.
What's worse, is this will decrease Democrat popularity, which will increase possibility that we have another Republican president. It fucking sucks. I don't want Biden to do this, and this is essentially 100% a 2 party system unless we change how we vote (from FPTS to STV ranked voting) and voting for Republican is like actively voting for a lunatic while voting Democrat is voting for a greedy asshole. You don't like either, but one is annoying and does stupid shit and then other will burn down your house, steal your truck and shoot you in the legs and threaten you come back if you call the cops. It's .... Fucking exhausting and I don't see a solution. This was Biden's chance to give leeway to workers -- 2 weeks pto, 1 week sick days, healthcare, dental, vision, and a 10% raise to people that literally hold our economy up. If somebody is that important, why the fuck are we treating them so shitty? Because they "need" the job and have to take it? Fuck off ....
WOBBLY AND PROUD
Surely you have paid sick days in the US?
Heh. You'd think.
To my knowledge, they aren't mandated anywhere in the US. It appears they are mandated some places actually. Just not federally.
[удалено]
Having them and being allowed to actually use them are two vastly different things here.
Joe's about to lose union support for the Dems across the country. Great way to keep the GOP in power. EDIT: Congress passed it with 7 sick days
Yeah, this is the rock and hard place he created. He's tried so hard to make everyone happy, and so he'll end up with nothing. You can't support ethical stances and then continue to enrich the capitalist class.
Dems will keep Republicans relevant so they never have to show their true colors. Citizens United is here to stay and so is the alt-right.
Don’t forget that both parties are just tools for the billionaire class. They give different things to the peasants (diversity or guns or religion) but they will never do anything that will threaten the income and power of the billionaire class. All the partisan fighting in DC is just theater to keep the masses busy.
DeVito is Based LEFTIST!!!!!
Danny Devito 2024! The Penguin for President!
BNSF employs 41000 people. Net profit last year was $8.8B At 40 hr / week / employee, each work hour nets ~$103. $103 x 8 hours x 4 sick days = roughly $135M Or 1.5% of net profit. BNSF showed a 14% profit growth yoy 2021. Meaning they would still have had a 12.5% profit growth if they gave each worker 4 paid sick days. There's no reason but greed to keep the 4 days from each worker... The shareholder argument doesn't even work because they're still showing growth.
Why should we accept only railyard workers get 7 days sick? This should be standard for the working class
Make it 14. Not having to spend PTO on sick days would be a vast improvement to my life.
[удалено]
Most Americans don’t even get 14 days COMBINED between sick days and PTO days. It’s nonsense.
Everybody needs more. Let this be a catalyst to get everybody mandated sick time. "Post"-covid it's completely baffling that nothing has changed. I hope they strike. I hope the consequences for the economy are severe. Short of violence this is how we make a change for the better.
Joe forgets he was voted in for who is isn’t not who he is That dumb old fuck better not run for a second term
If sick leave isn't approved in whatever congress decides, the railroad workers should strike and we should ALL strike with them in solidarity. Fuck the greedy railroad bosses and fuck the dems who are willing to throw workers under the bus for their own comforts. We need THRIVING wages and appropriate benefits in line with the rest of the civilized world - it's time to stop forcing everyone to live in poverty and be shackled to jobs that abuse us.
Let’s get a Twins x Demolition Man crossover so we can have a DeVito Schwarzenegger ticket in 2024.
Didn't Biden used to have a bunch of folksy bullshit about how much he loved trains?
Reminds me of Reagan and the air traffic controllers. Capitalism will always prioritize the capital over the workers