Comment on Record national strike wave swells as 300,000 hit the picket lines
Chetzemoka@startrek.website 8 months agoYou wouldn’t have support for the UAW, writer’s, and Kaiser healthcare strikes, if the rail strike caused the general public to go without power and water. Blame the idiot people who favor their comfort over other people’s lives, same as it ever was. But you absolutely would have seen the public turn against strikes, if that had happened.
And of course they walked away with only part of what they came in asking. That is how negotiations work.
The only thing I came away feeling from the whole situation is that if those rail services are so critical to the basic functioning of this country that we can’t afford a strike and the government needs to step into negotiations, then we should be nationalizing this industry. Period. It should not be permitted to be in the hands of a corporation.
bdonvr@thelemmy.club 8 months ago
They got what, 4 days out of 15 they asked for and nothing else? He’s not a good negotiator.
Rail strikes are common in a lot of the world and they seem to do just fine.
And in any case, the strike doesn’t have to be all or nothing. They can do limited and partial strikes. They could do some days on and off.
This “oh the economy would’ve imploded and thousands would die” narrative is probably partially coming from industry propaganda.
Chetzemoka@startrek.website 8 months ago
The US is the third most populous and fourth largest country in geographic area in the world. We’re genuinely far more dependent on rail freight for basic functioning than countries that have had rail strikes.
(Which is why we should nationalize the rail system.)