When a union tries and fails to get things, that’s the harsh nature of bargaining and limits of worker power. They decide when the contract is the best they’re gonna get. When they’re prevented from striking and then someone else decides they can have some benefits, it’s absolutely a different arrangement and doesn’t inherently have worker approval.
Do you think they would have gotten nothing if they had struck? Absolutely nothing? And you’re so certain of this, despite knowing that the strike would have cost billions of dollars for the rail corps?
Well, if they had decided to accept nothing, that’s their Perogative, but it’s not the place of the President to negate their rights to collectively bargain and negotiate on their behalf after gutting 100% of their leverage.
This is a big deal, said Railroad Department Director Al Russo, because the paid-sick-days issue, which nearly caused a nationwide shutdown of freight rail just before Christmas, had consistently been rejected by the carriers. It was not part of last December’s congressionally implemented update of the national collective bargaining agreement between the freight lines and the IBEW and 11 other railroad-related unions.
“We’re thankful that the Biden administration played the long game on sick days and stuck with us for months after Congress imposed our updated national agreement,” Russo said. “Without making a big show of it, Joe Biden and members of his administration in the Transportation and Labor departments have been working continuously to get guaranteed paid sick days for all railroad workers.
Then they could’ve rejected again, and the workers would have struck. Workers have a healthy strike fund because they don’t strike often, corporations lose a billion dollars a day… who do you think would break first? I guess we’ll never know because it is now illegal for them to strike in perpetuity because of the work that Congress did at the administrations request. They gave up their right to strike for 4 sick days, and no safety changes. Such a victory.
No, he got them 4 of the 14 sick days they were trying to get, and NONE of the safety changes they were trying to get.
I don’t think I’ve ever seen a union get everything they asked for. It’s not as good as it might have been, but it’s a lot better than nothing.
When a union tries and fails to get things, that’s the harsh nature of bargaining and limits of worker power. They decide when the contract is the best they’re gonna get. When they’re prevented from striking and then someone else decides they can have some benefits, it’s absolutely a different arrangement and doesn’t inherently have worker approval.
Do you think they would have gotten nothing if they had struck? Absolutely nothing? And you’re so certain of this, despite knowing that the strike would have cost billions of dollars for the rail corps?
Well, if they had decided to accept nothing, that’s their Perogative, but it’s not the place of the President to negate their rights to collectively bargain and negotiate on their behalf after gutting 100% of their leverage.
https://www.ibew.org/media-center/Articles/23Daily/2306/230620_IBEWandPaid
Then they could’ve rejected again, and the workers would have struck. Workers have a healthy strike fund because they don’t strike often, corporations lose a billion dollars a day… who do you think would break first? I guess we’ll never know because it is now illegal for them to strike in perpetuity because of the work that Congress did at the administrations request. They gave up their right to strike for 4 sick days, and no safety changes. Such a victory.