Rail Strike

[mikewof]

If the USPS is breaking the law, it should be held accountable, period.
.

So you would like to prosecute OUR Post Office rather than the predatory contacts from Amazon that put in place on our Post Office?

The convenience of Amazon makes them innocent? Someone else had that opinion.

 

[billy backstay]

So you would like to prosecute OUR Post Office rather than the predatory contacts from Amazon that put in place on our Post Office?

The convenience of Amazon makes them innocent? Someone else had that opinion.

If Amazon is breaking the law, they should be held accountable, period.
.

 

[Bus Driver]

I am regularly amazed at the new brand of "progressive" who sees no moral compulsion to avoid union-busting luxury companies like Amazon, Starbucks, Trader Joes and Whole Foods. The companies have managed to convince their customers that it doesn't actually matter that they have created an impoverished class of workers as foundation to billions in annual profit.

Completely agree.

Was in a Starbucks in downtown Baltimore, where a barista from a Union store was speaking with the staff about organizing. The young woman behind the counter shared "I have a good boss. Why would I need to be in a Union?"

Um, because that manager could be gone tomorrow and the next one could be a dick?

The main benefit I see is all conditions of employment are specified and agreed upon. Short of that, you (as an employee) are subject to the whims of management/the owners.

 

[mikewof]

 

[Dog 2.0]

Completely agree.

Was in a Starbucks in downtown Baltimore, where a barista from a Union store was speaking with the staff about organizing. The young woman behind the counter shared "I have a good boss. Why would I need to be in a Union?"

Um, because that manager could be gone tomorrow and the next one could be a dick?

The main benefit I see is all conditions of employment are specified and agreed upon. Short of that, you (as an employee) are subject to the whims of management/the owners.

Do you believe that it should be her choice?

 

[Bus Driver]

Do you believe that it should be her choice?

Yes. Do you believe I am of the opinion it isn't? Please limit your response to something I actually typed.

 

[Dog 2.0]

Yes. Do you believe I am of the opinion it isn't? Please limit your response to something I actually typed.

I'm not for making presumptions and all for responding to what is actually said, hence the question. I suspected that you might be opposed to "right to work" but it seems on this one, we agree.

 

[Bus Driver]

I'm not for making presumptions and all for responding to what is actually said, hence the question. I suspected that you might be opposed to "right to work" but it seems on this one, we agree.

I do think her reasoning for not considering a union is short-sighted. Goodness knows there are plenty of examples of employees being exploited by employers. Just because she is not encountering that, right now, has no bearing on what is happening elsewhere and may come to her place of employment.

For the record, we were at that Starbucks to show solidarity. We entered, placed an order, and when asked for our name, replied "Union Strong". After a few orders under that "name" were filled, the manager prohibited the baristas from calling out that "name". After we left, one who did so, was fired.

 

[dacapo]

Starbucks........................blech ;-)

 

[Raz'r]

Do you believe that it should be her choice?

Well, if it's a union shop, she has a choice to work there or not. So clearly she has a choice. If it's not a union shop, the workers may get to vote on whether they want a union, again, she has a choice.

 

[Keith]

oh, look....

there's no rail strike....

 

[mikewof]

I do think her reasoning for not considering a union is short-sighted. Goodness knows there are plenty of examples of employees being exploited by employers. Just because she is not encountering that, right now, has no bearing on what is happening elsewhere and may come to her place of employment.

For the record, we were at that Starbucks to show solidarity. We entered, placed an order, and when asked for our name, replied "Union Strong". After a few orders under that "name" were filled, the manager prohibited the baristas from calling out that "name". After we left, one who did so, was fired.

Damn, great idea! Not a fan of Starbucks, but I'm going to do this.

 

[mikewof]

oh, look....

there's no rail strike....

Not in the USA, good thing the Union held strong for us regular folks, huh?

But Britain? https://www.reuters.com/world/uk/train-drivers-12-rail-companies-strike-october-pa-media-2022-09-16/

 

[Dog 2.0]

Well, if it's a union shop, she has a choice to work there or not. So clearly she has a choice. If it's not a union shop, the workers may get to vote on whether they want a union, again, she has a choice.

And if it's in a right to work state she even more freedom to choose, she can work wherever wants and decide for herself whether or not to join a union.

 

[Bus Driver]

And if it's in a right to work state she even more freedom to choose, she can work wherever wants and decide for herself whether or not to join a union.

Is anyone suggesting she not have the right to make her own decisions?

 

[Raz'r]

And if it's in a right to work state she even more freedom to choose, she can work wherever wants and decide for herself whether or not to join a union.

But in a right to work state, she likely will have limited healthcare options, thereby removing her rights to choose.

 

[Dog 2.0]

Is anyone suggesting she not have the right to make her own decisions?

Some people would limit what decisions she is allowed to make.

 

[Bus Driver]

Some people would limit what decisions she is allowed to make.

Anyone in this thread?

 

[Dog 2.0]

Anyone in this thread?

Don't know for sure but it sounds like Raz'r would.

 

[mikewof]

Don't know for sure but it sounds like Raz'r would.

It's a different time, now.

I'm from a time when scabs got the shit beat out of them as a matter of course. But 2022? When my local Kroger went on strike, the remarkably chill, peaceful strikers just stood their positions in front of the store, and watched casually as both employees and customers casually walked over their line. They didn't even seem all that perturbed, if at all.

But holy hell, it made my blood boil. I was raised in a blue collar household in an Army and Air Force manner to "walk that post in a military manner and take no shit from the company commander." That strike line was the lives of our brothers, sisters, families, their children, their future and their lives. I found myself scolding these oblivious strike-breakers, genuinely getting agitated in a way that the actual union workers didn't ... "Safeway is just a few blocks down, why not go there? It's a union shop and they are not on strike."

Old timers like you and I need to let go of what unions were and learn about what they are. They don't seem to be about exclusion anymore or a religious fervor, but rather the last resort of a generation of broken people who can barely afford to give their families what they had. Unions are their last resort in an economy that now sees them as economic fodder. Twenty-two year olds who live in their cars, and are proud of their decision to do so! This can't possibly end well for the future of our United States to "establish justice and insure domestic tranquility."

We need to see this new push of union membership and fighting for basic worker rights as the thing that might well save Corporate America from itself. In general, these non-union workers are not forced into anything, but they are being educated. @Bus Driver found a way to do that in a peaceful, and nonviolent way.