House passes bill to avert railroad strike

[Bugsy McGurk]

If it gave the unions exactly what they wanted there would be no problem with putting the terms to a membership vote. Biden has long anti-union credentials going back to his police-bootlicking record.

Truly ridiculous. Unions have considered Biden their strongest ally for decades.

 

[PNWest]

First, I didn’t say you want to see the bill fail so economic devastation occurs. That is the goal of some GOP saboteurs.

As to Biden’s alleged “flip flop” I think that’s a goofy charge for the reasons I laid out above, which you ignored. Let me know if you can address what I said.

You are correct. I responded to a different message taht you wrote. Let me address the one that you wrote to me here:

Nah, that’s just the idiotic spin from the Biden haters/saboteurs.

No one can question Biden’s lifetime record of supporting the unions, while the carpers did everything they could to destroy the unions. That does not mean that Biden and responsible members of Congress should allow the destruction of the economy through a rail strike. Shucks, the bill gives the unions exactly what they wanted.

Biden's comments are completely opposite from his position when he was in the Senate. You present this as a one or another choice. That's not the case. Biden COULD attempt for force the union positions instead of the company positions. He didn't.

Frankly - I'm OK with his current actions. But they are completely opposite of his earlier positions.

 

[Bugsy McGurk]

You are correct. I responded to a different message taht you wrote. Let me address the one that you wrote to me here:




Biden's comments are completely opposite from his position when he was in the Senate. You present this as a one or another choice. That's not the case. Biden COULD attempt for force the union positions instead of the company positions. He didn't.

Frankly - I'm OK with his current actions. But they are completely opposite of his earlier positions.

That’s just completely contrary to the reality. First, the bill would give the four holdout unions what they want. Second, even putting that aside, this is not “completely opposite of his earlier positions.” His “earlier positions” were not that there should be a railroad strike that would devastate the economy. He has always been as pro-union as a politician could be, but his “earlier positions” did not include acting to devastate the economy.

 

[EatTheRich]

Truly ridiculous. Unions have considered Biden their strongest ally for decades.

No doubt some union leaderships do see it that way. The underlying ideology and program is known as “opportunism” and stems from the existence of a labor aristocracy with material conditions far superior to those of the average laborer. This aristocracy looks for private deals that benefit itself at the expense of workers in general, while posing as the voice of an undifferentiated working class. Since class struggle is the main motive force of history, any strategy of class collaboration necessarily reflects the imprint of this aristocratic layer. Since unions uniquely have the power to make socialist revolution, union bureaucracies are particularly susceptible to being bought off in this fashion, especially when the working class is weak (playing an analogous role here to the social democratic and Stalinist nomenklatura in joining hands with the capitalists to bring independent working-class struggle to heel). Every bourgeois leftist politician, consciously or not, necessarily grasps the labor leaders’ hand only to limit their mobility, something the opportunist labor leaders cannot hope to likewise do (outside this or that indecisive tactical tour de force) since by selling out the public they purport to represent they lose their power. The result is a succession of betrayals. When the bourgeoisie no longer needs the opportunist union leaders as their allies against the rank and file, they get called to heel by Sanders or Biden. Likewise when Sanders is no longer needed to pacify the rebellion, he loses power and Biden is elevated. As Biden becomes alienated from a left he helped defeat, he loses political ground to Manchin, who passes the torch on down the line to McConnell, Trump, DeSantis, etc. (or one of these leaders turns sharply to the right themselves, or whatever must be done to reconcile the appearance of being governed by Washington to the reality of the ongoing class struggle), until this process is interrupted by the eruption of an independent class-struggle perspective among the working class which begins to sweep away the opportunist (counterrevolutionary) leaderships as it conquers new ground.

 

[EatTheRich]

That’s just completely contrary to the reality. First, the bill would give the four holdout unions what they want. Second, even putting that aside, this is not “completely opposite of his earlier positions.” His “earlier positions” were not that there should be a railroad strike that would devastate the economy. He has always been as pro-union as a politician could be, but his “earlier positions” did not include acting to devastate the economy.

How pro-union can he be if he isn’t even calling for the formation of workers’ councils (aka soviets) to represent the workers’ interests? If the threat of a strike is such a big emergency, he could always resolve the big issue in labor’s favor by using his vast emergency powers to mandate extensive paid sick leave for all employees while leading a push for a state health care system. Seems to me many politicians such as Lenin have been far more pro-union.

 

[Bugsy McGurk]

How pro-union can he be if he isn’t even calling for the formation of workers’ councils (aka soviets) to represent the workers’ interests? If the threat of a strike is such a big emergency, he could always resolve the big issue in labor’s favor by using his vast emergency powers to mandate extensive paid sick leave for all employees while leading a push for a state health care system. Seems to me many politicians such as Lenin have been far more pro-union.

Using Soviet standards to assess a US politician’s stances toward workers and unions is more than a little strange.

 

[Dawg]

Truly ridiculous. Unions have considered Biden their strongest ally for decades.

Suckas

‘Joe Biden blew it’: rail unions decry plan to impose deal through Congress (msn.com)

 

[Dawg]

You are correct. I responded to a different message taht you wrote. Let me address the one that you wrote to me here:




Biden's comments are completely opposite from his position when he was in the Senate. You present this as a one or another choice. That's not the case. Biden COULD attempt for force the union positions instead of the company positions. He didn't.

Frankly - I'm OK with his current actions. But they are completely opposite of his earlier positions.

after elected they forget what they promised

While Joe has a Feast let them eat dirt

Biden and Macron to Feast on Lobster and World’s Best Cheese (msn.com)

 

[PNWest]

after elected they forget what they promised

While Joe has a Feast let them eat dirt

Biden and Macron to Feast on Lobster and World’s Best Cheese (msn.com)

Don't worry - while Biden and Macron enjoy the world's best lobsters and the world's best cheeses all of the rightie will stil do the world's best WHINING!

 

[Dawg]

Don't worry - while Biden and Macron enjoy the world's best lobsters and the world's best cheeses all of the rightie will stil do the world's best WHINING!

You think only rightie will be only one's WHINING

I beg to differ

Surely you don't think all railroad workers are rightie, and remember WE taxpayers are paying for the get-down, ya got Lobster?

 

[Dawg]

look at that pretty mouth

AOC, Squad hit with backlash for voting to prevent railworkers from striking (msn.com)

 

[middleview]

Actually the opposite is true. I want to see it passed to avoid the economic devastation. I'm just pointing out that Biden USED to be opposed to things like this. He was against it before he was in favor of it I guess. You really don't see the flip-flopping here? Are you that much of a Biden apologist?

I fail to see that there is a requirement to support union demands in all cases. The circumstances here are certainly different from a hotel strike or an airline strike.
At this time the economy is in a precarious situation and that must be taken into consideration.

The average railroad worker gets nearly a month off for PTO. Take a vacation day if you're sick.

 

[write on]

I fail to see that there is a requirement to support union demands in all cases. The circumstances here are certainly different from a hotel strike or an airline strike.
At this time the economy is in a precarious situation and that must be taken into consideration.

The average railroad worker gets nearly a month off for PTO. Take a vacation day if you're sick.

And when the economy levels out, give back those vacation days.

We all need to calm down and not let the right wing (Fox N3wz) manipulate us into hysteria.

Remember the toilet paper and bread run back when things looked bleak due to Covid?

 

[middleview]

And when the economy levels out, give back those vacation days.

We all need to calm down and not let the right wing (Fox N3wz) manipulate us into hysteria.

Remember the toilet paper and bread run back when things looked bleak due to Covid?

"give back"? Nothing was taken. The current PTO policy is the same they've had for decades.

 

[write on]

"give back"? Nothing was taken. The current PTO policy is the same they've had for decades.

I see it as back pay for the hours they've worked having to use their PTO in the long run.

We're talking about the same thing. We're just looking at it from different angles.

 

[write on]

What is a 'tentative agreement'?

Am I missing something?

 

[write on]

Should farmers be treated with the same admiration as our troops because they were/are the backbone of what led to the growth of those that sit in our defense?

hmmm

Farm Aid - Keep America Growing

Farm Aid is building a family farm-centered agriculture system. Our annual fundraising festival features board members Willie Nelson, Neil Young, John Mellencamp, Dave Matthews and Margo Price.

www.farmaid.org

 

[write on]

@Dawg

 

[Dawg]

Should farmers be treated with the same admiration as our troops because they were/are the backbone of what led to the growth of those that sit in our defense?

hmmm

Farm Aid - Keep America Growing

Farm Aid is building a family farm-centered agriculture system. Our annual fundraising festival features board members Willie Nelson, Neil Young, John Mellencamp, Dave Matthews and Margo Price.

www.farmaid.org

Food and Freedom, hummmmmmmmm
Sounds like a hellofa line-up