Yesterday, I reported that Joe “81 Million Votes” Biden is begging Congress for its help in halting the looming railroad strike, which is slated to begin Dec. 9, amid the Christmas shopping season.
Now he is being slammed by railroad union members for the move.
“Joe Biden blew it,” Railroad Workers United said in a press release. “He had the opportunity to prove his labor-friendly pedigree to millions of workers by simply asking Congress for legislation to end the threat of a national strike on terms more favorable to workers. Sadly, he could not bring himself to advocate for a lousy handful of sick days. The Democrats and Republicans are both pawns of big business and the corporations.”
Biden frequently calls himself the most pro-union president in history, yet he’s now urging Congress to use the power granted it under the Railway Labor Act of 1926 to avert a strike that would cause severe economic disruption.
After meeting with Biden at the White House, Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) vowed Congress would take up a bill this week to avert a strike.
Biden has called on railway workers to accept the labor contract brokered by the White House in September, warning that a strike threatens “crippling” disruption.
And while one Republican congressman vows to support the strike-preventing measure, he underscored that Biden bragged earlier this year that he had resolved the dispute.
Arkansas Republican Rep. Rick Crawford, ranking member of the House Subcommittee on Railroads, Pipelines and Hazardous Materials, said he would support legislation but noted Biden had claimed the tentative agreement ‘resolved’ the strike issue back in September.
‘President Biden is now asking Congress to resolve the threatened union rail strike that he and his team had said they had resolved,’ Crawford told DailyMail.com.
‘As it becomes increasingly apparent that several unions have no intention of supporting the tentative agreement, it is vital that we pass legislation to prevent a strike.’
However, not all Republicans in Congress are eager to force the unions not to strike.
Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) announced on Tuesday that he won’t support legislation to prevent an economically calamitous rail strike if it isn’t supported by the union workers.
The Florida lawmaker’s statement, marking an unusual pro-labor position for a Republican, comes as workers at several rail unions have voted to reject an agreement reached between labor leaders and the railroads. A strike, which would be terrible for the economy, could begin as soon as next week unless Congress uses its special power to intervene and impose a labor agreement.
The railways & workers should go back & negotiate a deal that the workers,not just the union bosses,will accept
But if Congress is forced to do it,I will not vote to impose a deal that doesn’t have the support of the rail workers
— Marco Rubio (@marcorubio) November 29, 2022
DONATE
Donations tax deductible
to the full extent allowed by law.
Comments
Seems quite a few are waking to the fact that unions begin with preserving the worker but end up as a wholly-owned subsidiary of the former union that now exists only to preserve itself.
Transhumane is a given. Anti-worker is relatively novel. Still, the “benefits” are good, and the prices are progressive. So, the sequel was ostensibly a democratic Choice… uh, choice.
This is a time where the repubs in Congress need to grow a pair. Now is the time to follow the dem playbook and get every thing under the sun attached to this bill that they ever wanted. If our amendment is not added to bill we won’t support it. The dems own any rail shutdown.
I would believe that this bill requires 60 senate votes since it is not a spending bill.
The current spending bill expires on Dec. 16, the repubs can’t let this railroad bill get attached to the CR for spending.
If the dems demand a clean bill it would be among the few times they ever want one.
You’re asking the RINOs to disobey their Chamber of Commerce masters. That’s a mighty big ask. The Dems will do this because Joe asked them to, and the Dems are really, really good at rallying around the party when it’s required. The RINOs will also rally because that’s what they do.
I agree, if the Pubs were smart (hah!) they’d do as you suggest. But they aren’t, so they won’t.
Manchurian Mitch’s Omnibus Bill is likely to take care of this … and many more … emergencies.
All those millions in union dues funneled to the dems and what do they get in return?
The union bosses get taken care of gloriously with fat payoffs, sweetheart ambassadorships and government postings, and no-show do-nothing government jobs with fat paychecks.
The actual union workers get none of that.
The essence of the Democrat Party and its big government spawn is FORCE. Not consent, not persuasion, but raw FORCE.
Unions and their members were happy when Ds forced others for the benefit of unions. Not so happy now that Ds are forcing them to take a D deal just so as not to hamstring D Biden.
Has Rubio suddenly found his conservative footing?
He’s using Dem tactics against them. When they are in a bind, don’t vote to bail their asses out of their own pit. Gotta give credit where it’s due there.
See that list of 1,000 things that are important to the country. Joe Biden blew every one of them. Next up Joe’s going to negotiate the rail strike, Okay, let’s vote for him—we can trust him for sure. He won’t let us down.”
After the election:
“Joe Biden blew it,” Railroad Workers United said in a press release.
Well, duh.
Obama purportedly said: Don’t underestimate Biden’s ability to f things up.
What did we expect in his negotiations with the railway union, and his premature lap around the reach?
“Around the track”
I hope when LI changes platforms, the spell checker works BEFORE some one hits submit.
Pipeline Workers United said in a press release, “Welcome to the Union party, brothers.”
As I understand it the issue is the ability to use a sick day not just the presence of x number of sick days in the contract. The members must give written notice and get approval 24 hours in advance of their shift. Those shifts ain’t 9/5 office jobs.
As a result a member needs to go to the doc on Monday AM before work but must wait a minimum of 24 hours. So Tuesday AM he can see a doc assuming he could get an appointment. In reality, due to the way they are staffed, it means the end of scheduled work period of a couple or three days and not just a single shift before they can see a doc.
The real issue is staffing. The RR don’t have enough employees to cover down on someone missing a shift. So the members can’t get approval to use the sick day. It’s counted as missing a shift. That dings their paycheck and their performance record; Joe missed work, was unexcused so no bonus or promotion and the potential for being fired. All due to inadequate staffing.
When Precision Scheduled Railroading was implemented, railroads cut into the bone & then some. Now they can’t hire enough workers & those that do make it, don’t stay on the job long enough after experiencing working conditions & treatment by management.
Management’s main job is to make the working life miserable & playing ‘gotcha’ by looking for any excuse to fire workers as a means of self advancement.
As said elsewhere, when a very generous retirement is 30 years, & workers w/20 or 25 years are quitting, & those that were furloughed (laid off) don’t want to come back; then the problem isn’t the workers, it’s management’s being beholden to Wall Street.
The unions just don’t get it; the Dems don’t give a crap about any of their supporting groups except at voting time.
Just like the teacher’s unions here in MA, they support (or are told to support) the Dems to a man/woman/?, elect them, and then spend the rest of the 2 to 6 years protesting in front of the State House that they aren’t getting anything they were promised.
Lather, rinse, repeat, every voting year.
They just aren’t smart enough, or so in the bag, to realize that they would have much more “pull” if they played each party off the other, but noooooo, they have sold their souls to the Dems.
They are the poster children for the definition of insanity.
Now the RR workers are getting the same “service” from Biden. Suckers.
Not quite: turns out that the unions did get everything they wanted. They just keep protesting in front of the State House so as to get more. That’s what unions want: more. There’s no such thing as enough.
Railroaders don’t have a choice. Even though they are a private union working for a private companies, federal law REQUIRES they belong to a union, according to their craft. There are HUNDREDS that are conservatives, but they, too, are fighting against dem workers that still think Dems care about the worker who keep voting in other Dems. The Union leaders STILL accepted an agreement that the workers had been fighting with the railroads about for 3 years and should have known it would be rejected. The main sticking point has been the fact that the railroads have had massive layoffs by building 2 and 3 mile trains, using less engines, less manpower and cutting operating costs anywhere they can, just to please their hedge fund managers! And yet the unions act surprised, and we’re upset at the members for not accepting their “deal”. If it was just about money, they wouldn’t have railroaders that have been working for 20 years taking early retirement and finding other work for less pay, just to have a job that let’s them have a day off once in awhile and even lay off sick! They are so shorthanded (by there own design) that workers are regularly refused sick days and even days they are entitled to and use punitive actions against them if they still refuse the call. In fact, I haven’t talked any that think all of the sick days need paid, they just want to be able to lay off. The one day the tentative agreement allowed had to be pre-approved 30 days in advance, and can still be rejected if they are short handed. This is why the railroads won’t give… They know that they wouldn’t being making billions in profits if they were operating at full capacity. Look up the percentage of manpower reduction in in the past 5 years.
If they have to go to work sick instead of being able to take a day off, & the meds they tack causes them to be drowsy & make a mistake causing a derailment or other action causing deaths..guess what; it’s on the worker & not the company & it’s attendance policy.
These workers cannot take a day off if they have a family member sick or they have to attend the funeral of a family member or friend unless they want to get dinged for it.
If they didn’t they might have to vote for, shudder, a Republican.
You aren’t arguing with a logically reached position: you are arguing with someone’s very identity. And I don’t know how you reach that.
House already passed it and it wasn’t even close.
Republicans are so utterly stupid. Biden publicly bragged about averting a rail strike, used that to campaign on, and now they’re just going to help him stop the actual strike without demanding anything in return?
God they are SO BAD at this.
Nah, they just don’t give a sh!t anymore and they are letting it fly
Everyone is out of the closet these days!
Ain’t life grand!
They say, “the truth shall
Set you free”
I use to believe that, now I see the absurdity of it
You don’t say…
When Little Marco starts looking like the bastard offspring of Musashi and Sun Tsu, by way of Patton and Boyd, your “party” might have a strategery problem.
Just sayin… there’s a reason The Bad Orange Man decided to hijack *your party’s* nomination for the White House. (And no, I don’t blame The Orange Crush for any of the results in the last two national elections. That’s just The Feckless R’s returning to form.)
Perhaps, but these fools will still vote for him.
Biden and his Administration WANT them to strike, because a strike will hurt our economy and destruction of America is his goal..
On another site there was a picture of a railroad union worker holding a sign saying, Yes to rail unions, No to capitalist politicians….For that sign tells me the union is against Capitalism so I can’t support the rail union for its communism leanings…
Blame the late CEO E. Hunter Harrison for developing ‘Precision Scheduled Railroading’ (or better known by some as ‘Pretty Shitty Railroading) that all Class 1’s adopted that brought this on.
I’ve never been a Union guy, never belonged to one, etc; As far as I’m concerned, so long as a worker is putting in an honest hard days 8 to 12 hours working & supporting a family, I could care less if they’re Union or not. They’d be the first ones to call me or anyone else not belonging to a Union as ‘Scab’, which is a conditioned, knee jerk reaction & not using the term correctly.
However, I fully support the Union workers in this instance.