Comment on UAW strike Day 4: GM threatens to send 2,000 workers home, Ford cuts 600 jobs

Varyk@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

• bibliotectress@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  1. There’s an election coming up. 2) Even though he’s Biden, he’s still not a Republican, so there’s a chance he’ll possibly side with labor.

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  • Varyk@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    Mm okay, thanks. Do you know why he was so staunchly against the rail workers?

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    • spamfajitas@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      He wasn’t so entirely against them as people might have made it seem.

      Biden deserves a lot of the credit for achieving this goal for us,” Russo said. “He and his team continued to work behind the scenes to get all of rail labor a fair agreement for paid sick leave

      https://web.archive.org/web/20230620220325/https://www.ibew.org/media-center/Articles/23Daily/2306/230620_IBEWandPaid

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      • Varyk@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

        Thank you for sharing this article, I didn’t know about it and It provides context to help me understand the entire situation way better.

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    • bibliotectress@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      Money. Because they were striking in December right before the holidays, and people get mad about shipments and economic problems right before the holidays. Also, he’s Biden, not Bernie Sanders. From Reuters:

      A rail strike could have frozen almost 30% of U.S. cargo shipments by weight, stoked already surging inflation, cost the American economy as much as $2 billion a day, and stranded millions of rail passengers.

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      • Varyk@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

        Damn thirty percent. Thank you. Wow.

        Yeah, knowing what I knew about Biden, I have been shocked at how many of his presidential decisions and policies I’ve agreed with.

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    • poprocks@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      Not sure but guessing it’s because the UAW has significantly more members?

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• Argurotoxus@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  I feel people are way too quick to jump down Biden’s throat for the rail union.

  First off, it’s worth noting he continued to worm with the railroad to get the employees the sick pay they wanted on the back end.

  But in the midst of the situation… I’m not going to pretend this hypothetical is completely correct. But I don’t think it’s crazy.

  Imagine you’re Biden and you hear about this railroad strike. Your advisors are telling you if the strike goes through how many rail passengers are stranded in the middle of nowhere, how much food is just going to go to waste and not make it to various towns, which factories manufacturing hospital equipment will be without material and unable to continue production. On top of a gigantic economic impact there could be deaths associated with the strike.

  Imagine you’re that guy and have to make the call to say nope, I don’t care, the strike continues.

  I’m super pro labor and anti corporation and even I would struggle to make that call. Especially if someone proposes the idea that on the backside of forcing the railroad workers to work we could pressure the railroad to give into the demands.

  I’m not saying he’s perfect and I’m not saying there wasn’t a better way. But I think that hypothetical is plausible. And I think people are too quick to forget that often times these decisions are which tragic situation would you rather allow to happen, and it’s not as clear cut as it sounds.

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  • Varyk@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    Good point as to why Biden is siding with the auto strikers so quickly, thanks.

    If we’re putting ourselves in these situations, I wouldn’t have a problem maintaining the rail strike either.

    I’d rather demonstrate the necessity of treating workers right than making sure anything gets done. I want people to remember the only reason we have all of our necessities and luxuries is because real people are making it happen. If the economy is going to crash because certain workers can’t afford to live themselves, or work in unsafe environments, then the workers needs must be addressed or the economy has to crash and yes, people will get hurt because of the course correction that needs to take place.

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  • Kichae@kbin.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    Imagine you’re Biden and you hear about this railroad strike. Your advisors are telling you if the strike goes through how many rail passengers are stranded in the middle of nowhere, how much food is just going to go to waste and not make it to various towns, which factories manufacturing hospital equipment will be without material and unable to continue production.

    Strikes are supposed to be inconvenient. A strike that is not inconvenient garners workers no leverage. Interfering with a strike because it is inconvenient is union busting.

    On top of a gigantic economic impact there could be deaths associated with the strike.

    There are deaths associated with a lot of things that the administration is not acting on. Why was this one special?

    Imagine you’re that guy and have to make the call to say nope, I don’t care, the strike continues.

    Imagine you're that guy, and your call isn't to tell the rail companies to negotiate in good faith and get the strike dealt with.

    He sided with the companies, not the workers. He did so publicly, and with the weight of the state.

    There's no nuance here. He interfered with workers rifhtgs to strike and to negotiate, favouring business over workers.

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