• Sanctus@lemmy.world
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    10 months ago

    Biden got those rail workers their sick leave. Democrats are just too quiet about their achievements.

      • GiantSpoonWielder@lemmygrad.ml
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        10 months ago

        It’s just liberal bait, best to ignore them.

        When rail unions were preparing for a potential strike, Biden made it illegal for them to do so.

        Rail unions wanted to strike for better benefits, vacation time most importantly as the corporations had them working a lot of hours with virtually no paid time off. Part of ‘efficiency’ in the pursuit of profit, running as much freight, with as few train engines and workers also means greater wear on the infrastructure and less maintenance work being done. All this contributes to the more regular occurrence of accidents, some incredibly damaging to public health and the environment.

        They got some minor benefit increases, but i don’t believe much, if anything, related to their main complaints. And now they have no real recourse. The only credit Biden and the democrats should get is from their capitalist sponsors.

        Here’s an opinion piece summary from a rail union member

        • Sanctus@lemmy.world
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          10 months ago

          They did end up getting four of them.

          heres a link. I am definitely not a liberal. I just read that they did. What Biden did was shitty. He should have forced the sick days.

          • albigu@lemmygrad.ml
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            10 months ago

            If you read your own link, you’ll see that this is only for a couple rail companies, and not a guaranteed right in the future. It’s cool that they got something, but this is not a big win by any chance.

            Also 4 sick leave days is frankly too little for a critical infrastructure and transportation industry in the country that had 1 million die of covid.

            • Sanctus@lemmy.world
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              10 months ago

              I did read my own link. I agree with you. But rail laborers did get more sick days.

              • 🏳️‍⚧️ 新星 [she/they]@lemmygrad.ml
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                10 months ago

                Congress had the ⅔ supermajorities to override Biden’s veto anyways. All Biden had to do was veto the bill to say he tried to prevent the legislation as “the most pro-union president” but it was out of his hands, and he couldn’t even do that.

            • Fal@yiffit.net
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              10 months ago

              It’s cool that they got something, but this is not a big win by any chance.

              So you’d rather they get nothing then. Gotcha

              • albigu@lemmygrad.ml
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                10 months ago

                No, I’d rather a general strike brought the entire USA industry to a halt and the government/corporate classes to their knees, until the workers got every single one of their long overdue demands. Way to miss the mark.

                • Fal@yiffit.net
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                  10 months ago

                  Ok, so, seeing as that’s not going to happen, you’d rather the status quo than the marginally better situation. Hope that works out for you

                  • albigu@lemmygrad.ml
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                    10 months ago

                    Are you done putting words in my mouth? What a weird one you are.

                    This carrot and stick approach is the Democrats’ speciality, block the strike through legislation while also confusing the narrative and giving breadcrumbs for a small portion of the workers to sap the momentum and put worker against worker.

                    If you want so hard to know what should’ve happened (you don’t really, you’ve already made up your mind about me), first off it should be up to the rail workers, but if I were one of them I’d recommend the strike go on despite any laws. The purpose of an union is to represent the will of all workers, not just the uplifted few or their politician buddies.

            • Sanctus@lemmy.world
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              10 months ago

              Well this is probably the only time I defended Biden. Usually I want to quit my job and molotov government buildings. But I usually vote democrat while wishing there was a laborers party in the US. So left somewhere.

                • Sanctus@lemmy.world
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                  10 months ago

                  Like I’m not already a socialist, mate. Bunch a crabs in a bucket right here.

                  • GiantSpoonWielder@lemmygrad.ml
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                    10 months ago

                    I am not trying to pile on, genuinely curious about your perspective as a socialist.

                    I don’t think many people around here have an issue with strategic voting alongside actual organizing and support. The way you worded your first comment sounded like uncritical support for Biden/Democrats in regard to their rail union ‘achievements’. From later comments it doesn’t sound like that is what you intended, but I am struggling to understand why they deserve any credit. Even from the article you posted, they removed the only actual leverage the workers have, then after significant public pressure, helped avert further unrest by convincing the companies to give less than 50% of the workers 3 or 4 days of paid sick leave a year. I don’t see anything laudable here. (And for the absolute idiots, Fal@yifffit.net, I agree 4 sick day more gooder than 0 sick day).

      • Fal@yiffit.net
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        10 months ago

        What don’t you get? You’re saying both sides are the same even though that’s just factually untrue

            • PolandIsAStateOfMind@lemmygrad.ml
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              10 months ago

              Baal was one of the ancient Canaanite gods, one of those deities worshipped as king of the world, dying and resurrecting every year, also was god of storms, fertility and cattle.

              His name got somehow twisted into an evil god because of ancient Hebrews who smeared him incessantly in the Bible since it was also one of the main gods of hellenistic Seleucid Empire and Selucids were forcing Jews to woship him, causing tons of religious tensions - and they were doing it in the time that significant parts of Bible got compiled so naturally the current issues took main place in those.

              Moloch is also Canaanite god, but it’s kinda discussable if it was even a separate god or just other title of the same god (Moloch is just Melek which means “king”, while Baal means “lord”). Also got smeared in Bible and later christian theology for the sacrifice of newborns. And while that practice is confirmed, it’s still unclear if it’s even tied to Moloch/Baal and most probably the sacrifices werent alive but the babies that were stillborn or died soon after birth, since newborn mortality in those time was huge.

              In short, it’s incredibly convoluted part of ancient mythology with tons of missing context, but the Elder Scrolls daedric prince Molag Bal is a combination of both names in fully biblical sense since as the god of rape, cruelty and domination he’s probably the most evil and nasty of all daedras (which is an achievement since the competition in evil and nastiness is harsh there).

            • Shrike502@lemmygrad.ml
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              10 months ago

              It’s likely the other way around. Molag Bal - Moloch Baal. “Baal” just means “lord” or “master”

          • Fal@yiffit.net
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            10 months ago

            So you don’t care about actually helping anyone. Because if you’re sitting there and trying to say that no one is better off with the democrats than the republicans, it’s not wonder you’re on lemmygrad. You’re either 12, or have the critical thinking skills of a 12 year old.

            • 🏳️‍⚧️ 新星 [she/they]@lemmygrad.ml
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              10 months ago

              trying to say that no one is better off with the democrats than the republicans

              Lemmygrad’s position is not that no one is better off under Democrats than Republicans. Instead, our position is that when it counts (helping the working class), both parties are united in giving workers the middle finger.

                • LarkinDePark@lemmygrad.ml
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                  10 months ago

                  Okay but the US is 4% of the world’s population. There’s millions more who don’t get to be trans because they get killed by the USA. In the past two decades alone is estimated (by US bodies) that they’ve killed 4.5 million people and displaced tens of millions more. It makes no difference who is in power, red or blue. In fact some argue that the blue are the more warmongering of the two. When you support them, you enable them. This is what people mean about culture wars and identity politics. Trans issues are miniscule and have an inordinate focus because they don’t threaten anything. People arguing about them does the square root of zero to affect the status quo of a vastly greater evil. They steer discussions away from real things and into LGBTQ stuff.

                  • 🏳️‍⚧️ 新星 [she/they]@lemmygrad.ml
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                    10 months ago

                    I don’t want you to misinterpret me. I do agree with you. Certainly, the U.S.’ impact is unacceptable regardless of who is in power.

                    Certainly, the best thing a US President could ever do is ensure that the U.S. will not live to see another day.

                    The truth is though, I might be a citizen and all, but no matter what I do, I don’t get a say in voting for someone other than the warmongers. I don’t get to vote for the communists, and even if I did, anyone who would propose a serious threat would be eliminated in some fashion.

                    Anyways, it’s getting late, but there are people for whom the tiny marginal difference between ordinary liberal and hyper-reactionary liberal is a big deal. To say the tiny marginal difference affects “no one” isn’t correct, although it may very well be close to a rounding error in the grand scheme of things.

                    Does it make any difference to the millions of people bombed abroad whether the bombers supported trans rights? Of course not, and we both know that.

      • Sanctus@lemmy.world
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        10 months ago

        Like how we should be uniting together and bringing down the owner class? Please read the comment chain if you’re going to comment. The dog pile really isn’t getting anything done.

        • The Free Penguin@lemmygrad.ml
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          10 months ago

          I did read the comment thread. Joe giving rail workers their sick leave is because this in example of the bourgeoisie giving concessions to the proletariat.

          • Sanctus@lemmy.world
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            10 months ago

            And concessions is all we will receive. Laborers will suffer in America until they realize they must band together and actually fight back against the capitalist owner class with real violence. Until then, the stale bread and dreary circuses will continue until both the planet and the people have nothing left to be taken.

            I don’t need this. You want to sharpen your pitch forks? Come get me, you want to dog pile onto this comment thread? Go for it if it makes you feel better. But you’re preaching to the choir here.