this post was submitted on 23 Sep 2023
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Work Reform

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In an extraordinary show of support for organized labor, President Biden said he would join workers in Michigan on the front lines of their strike against leading automakers.

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[–] pdxfed@lemmy.world 75 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Man, if the DNC wasn't a bunch of corporate shills and had let Bernie actually run a campain and supported his groundswell we wouldn't have to have Biden in the whiplash-inducing position he's been in:

  1. break railworker strike, then work behind closed doors to get them their demands
  2. appoint very pro-labor NLRB member who has done good work
  3. now join an actual labor protest against an industry our government bailed out to the tune of ~50b in 08/09 and gives massive tax subsidies to

TLDR; it's good to see from someone who claims to represent the everyman, but until elected officials get more left than the democrats and start showing what they can do for poor white folks (minimum wage, visible labor protection, childcare, healthcare, etc.) they're going to continue to lose them to TV crazies.

[–] iforgotmyinstance@lemmy.world 24 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I don't agree with breaking the railroad strike, but follow-up negotiations got zero coverage. Nada. Mass media got people thinking this is a double standard, yet it truthfully isn't.

[–] Sunforged@lemmy.world 18 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Labor's power is our ability to withhold our labor. To take away the ability to strike is to take away our power.

Biden's follow up has gotten plenty of coverage, the media has been falling over itself to sell it as a huge win, when the reality is he got rail worker 4 days sick leave and the ability to turn 2 vacation days into sick leave. Compair that to here in Seattle where anyone working within city limits is getting 12 days off a year and it becomes obvious what bread crumbs Biden actually got them. Not to mention that the administration only started pushing the rail companies in earnest after national pressure was mounting from the disaster in East Palestine.

Could it be people critical of Biden are actually paying closer attention than yourself?

[–] Gradually_Adjusting@lemmy.world 10 points 1 year ago

It's always a struggle, isn't it. We hold our leaders to a standard, while the other side of the aisle blatantly doesn't. It puts us at a disadvantage, and the whole country suffers because the oppo just loves to fall in line while we try to find a nuanced level of support for ours. It's a FPTP issue, a media issue, a gerrymander issue, there's so much wrong with our democracy and nuance is the first thing to go.