Political memes ONLY.. To prove your political points.

Aeroknow

Aeroknow

Well-Known Member
Greengrouch said:
They work 60+ hours a week and don’t get any sick leave. A week of sick leave and an increase in staffing might decrease profit margins by 10-15% if they strike that’s on the rail executives for being greedy, not the workers for wanting a home life
Click to expand...
I’m a union carpenter by trade.
we don’t get any fucking sick leave. Nobody in the union building trades does. So Wtf?

everything that congress has got them is great.

I think everybody should have paid sick leave but that’s not happening yet
 
Greengrouch

Greengrouch

Well-Known Member
Aeroknow said:
I’m a union carpenter by trade.
we don’t get any fucking sick leave. Nobody in the union building trades does. So Wtf?

everything that congress has got them is great.

I think everybody should have paid sick leave but that’s not happening yet
Click to expand...
Every other developed nation has sick leave. Costly strikes are how labor laws get made, the government will have to pass a law mandating paid sick leave. For employers that can’t afford it; to bad they can and should fail.
 
Aeroknow

Aeroknow

Well-Known Member
Greengrouch said:
Every other developed nation has sick leave. Costly strikes are how labor laws get made, the government will have to pass a law mandating paid sick leave. For employers that can’t afford it; to bad they can and should fail.
Click to expand...
Yes. Every single worker in this country should have it. That cost should be passed on to consumers and or come out of profits. I agree.
My point is there’s allot of us other union heads that don’t have it. And I fucking guarantee you we work allot harder than most of them. Just because they can put a gun to the economy’s head shouldn’t make their cause better than anybody else’s.
Would it be nice if they got it during normal negotiations yeah! Of course.

I’m not hating. I think it should be a federal mandate for all.
 
hanimmal

hanimmal

Well-Known Member
cannabineer said:
I can imagine that it has been so bad so long that the strikers are certain they need to exploit the opportunity to exert the big leverage. The last decades have been much kinder to management than to labor. I read something not long ago about rail workers having a pretty draconian on-call system, and management entrenched in an attitude of “take it or quit”. So it’s tough on both sides (workers and customers).
Click to expand...
Don't get me wrong, I am with the workers on this. I think 7 days no reason sick days a year in a post-pandemic environment is more than reasonable. We need to stop forcing people to work sick. Sure sometimes it will be taken advantage of, but that is not a reason to not give it to them.

These companies are so used to workers being disposable after gutting them to skeleton crews that we are finding ourselves in this situation now. All of the money they saved having found its way back into their pockets (even if it gets spent in new buildings/machines/offices because that is money in their own company (building the owners wealth) and not something that increases the growth of the people who do the work of the company), all the while their taxes were being slashed.

It has a been a long handful of decades that this has been building. And I don't blame the rail workers to take this moment that they are desperately needed to get some very much needed pay. 24% pay increase is pretty badass, I wouldn't toss that aside for 6 sick days, but I still hope they get it.

But I would also understand that as strong of a position as the workers are in at the moment, it is because they are such a pivotal role in our society that if they did strike right now, and trying to explain to your kids why you have to boil water to drink because someone thought a 24% pay raise was not enough is not going to sell.

 
cannabineer

cannabineer

Ursus marijanus
hanimmal said:
Don't get me wrong, I am with the workers on this. I think 7 days no reason sick days a year in a post-pandemic environment is more than reasonable. We need to stop forcing people to work sick. Sure sometimes it will be taken advantage of, but that is not a reason to not give it to them.

These companies are so used to workers being disposable after gutting them to skeleton crews that we are finding ourselves in this situation now. All of the money they saved having found its way back into their pockets (even if it gets spent in new buildings/machines/offices because that is money in their own company (building the owners wealth) and not something that increases the growth of the people who do the work of the company), all the while their taxes were being slashed.

It has a been a long handful of decades that this has been building. And I don't blame the rail workers to take this moment that they are desperately needed to get some very much needed pay. 24% pay increase is pretty badass, I wouldn't toss that aside for 6 sick days, but I still hope they get it.

But I would also understand that as strong of a position as the workers are in at the moment, it is because they are such a pivotal role in our society that if they did strike right now, and trying to explain to your kids why you have to boil water to drink because someone thought a 24% pay raise was not enough is not going to sell.

Click to expand...
24% pay increase sounds great on the surface of it. But I wonder (I don’t know) how many % would be equitable compared to, say, mid-level insurance workers. Rail is a peculiar industry with a loyal workforce, and I wonder how much capital has been in this loyalty.

The extreme example, of which I learned recently, was sugar in Haiti under the prerevolutionary French. There were twenty slaves for every Frenchman, since sugar cane is labor-intensive well beyond cotton. The plantation owners could work the slaves to their capacity. However if they overworked them to the point where they died in six to nine months, they made more money, enough that there was profit left after buying a full set of fresh-off-the-boat slaves. So that’s what they did.

I have no idea how much of that applies. But with management recognizing obligation only to the shareholder, my trust is not great.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top