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Railroading Railroad Workers

Published by marco on

 Since at least July, I’ve been following the story of the railroad workers in the U.S. Their situation is awful. Their working conditions are extremely strict. They are not commensurate with those of a civilized society. It is only because of the extreme death of labor in the U.S. that there is even a discussion. But there is—because there is no support for labor in the U.S., only support for capital.

The U.S. is far from covering itself in glory, as we’ll learn from a spate of articles, starting with President Biden intervenes in rail talks in last-ditch effort to head off national strike by Tom Hall (WSWS),

“Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg underlined this in comments to News Nation yesterday. “We’ve got to get to a solution that does not subject the American economy to the threat of a shutdown,” he said. “We don’t have enough trucks, or barges, or ships in this country to make up for the rail network.””

Then concede to their very reasonable demands! They are essential. What is the actual fucking problem? Are the profits of the railroad companies not obscene enough? Can it really be that they’ve bought off every last legislator and functionary? Or is really that the hatred of the poor and the underclass in the U.S. rivals that of even the Indians for lower castes like the untouchables? The fervor with which the U.S. political class—the elites—refuse to even consider conceding even a morsel to the unwashed masses is nigh-religious.

Is it that the elites can’t be shown to have given in to the demands of the working class? Is that it? Is it that the elite politicians are in the back pocket of the private transportation corporations and nearly literally can’t conceive of a solution that involves them actually serving the citizens who elected them rather than the corporations who fund them?

They are more afraid of losing funding for the next campaign—and, almost certainly, huge personal kickbacks from their funders—than they are of the people who ostensibly elected them. These are functionaries who have no responsibility to the people. They care more about the profits of U.S. corporations than about the well-being of workers who the politicians, in the same breath, describe as absolutely essential.

It’s just that, when you’re at the bottom of the heap and essential, no-one ever thinks that the solution is to pay you more or give in to your demands. Instead, they lead these poor people on and on, over months and months, then threaten them with being responsible for taking down the nation. As if that’s not the politicians’ responsibility. As if it’s not their inability to conceive of doing the right thing that’s the problem.

Instead, they do things like this,

“In fact, through the veneer of “collective bargaining” with a union apparatus totally integrated with management and the state, the strategy of Biden has been to prevent a strike and impose a sellout. Meanwhile, Biden and the Democrats—together with the Republicans—have been preparing for months behind the scenes for congressional action to block a strike and unilaterally impose a deal if necessary.”

Because they only understand force when it comes to the working class. They absolutely fucking hate the working class. They hate the poor. The elites absolutely resent the fact their hallowed lives are bound up with these unwashed masses, that the unwashed masses can even conceive of having opinions of their own, instead of just suffering in silence and obscurity, while they provide the underpinnings of a society enjoyed by the 1% and suffered by everyone else.

This is the concession that they’ve made so far:

“The only change was the addition of three unpaid sick days per year for doctors’ appointments—up from zero—which had to be scheduled between Tuesday and Thursday, at least one month in advance.”

Read that again. It’s madness that this is even considered a concession.

  • You “get” only three days per year
  • You don’t get paid for them. “Get” in this instance means that they can’t officially fire you for going to the doctor. They have to think of some other excuse.
  • You can only schedule them on certain days (because why not right? The point is to show these animals who’s boss)
  • You have to schedule at least a month in advance. Liver hurt? Fuck you. Drive the train for 30 more days before you can get it looked at. Oh, and good luck being back in the city where you made your appointment on the day when you have your appointment.

Their union agreed to this. As I’ve told a colleague of mine who works as a teacher in the U.S.: if you’re getting fucked over like this and you think you have a union, then think again. You’re paying union dues, but you don’t have a union. You’re paying a union to work for your employer.

“A strike in the leadup to the Christmas holiday would have a particularly powerful effect, stopping the 40 percent of freight which is shipped on the railroads and costing roughly $2 billion a day.”

No kidding, really? Then do your job and give them what they want. They are not asking for the moon. They are asking for justice.

Instead, they get the rod, as detailed in Biden calls on Congress to impose rail contract, in a major assault on workers’ democratic rights by Tom Hall (WSWS), where Biden and the Democrats and all of Congress will join in just denying labor rights to what they deem to be essential workers. They are essential, but we will not pay them more nor give them sick days.

Instead, there is no difference between the U.S. and a corporate dictatorship. The corporations make policy and treat the populace as a captive work-force. Those railway workers should be happy that they’re getting paid at all! They should feel lucky to have a job, whether or not it pays anything!

“Biden justified the move on the basis of the major economic impact that a strike would have, which he claimed “would hurt millions of other working people and families.” This could be resolved tomorrow if the railroad industry, the most profitable in America, agreed to workers’ reasonable demands, including paid sick leave and schedules that leave them time to spend with their families.

“{…}

“Dripping with contempt for the railroaders, Biden concluded: “I share workers’ concern about the inability to take leave to recover from illness or care for a sick family member. … But at this critical moment for our economy, in the holiday season, we cannot let our strongly held conviction for better outcomes for workers deny workers the benefits of the bargain they reached, and hurl this nation into a devastating rail freight shutdown.” In other words, the democratic will of workers should not be a barrier to their “enjoyment” of the terms of a sellout contract that they rejected.

“Monday night, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi issued a statement cynically feigning concern for railroad workers while running roughshod over their right to reject a pro-company contract. “As we consider Congressional action, we must recognize that railroads have been selling out to Wall Street to boost their bottom lines, making obscene profits while demanding more and more from railroad workers. We are reluctant to bypass the standard ratification process for the Tentative Agreement,” she claimed, before declaring, “we must act to prevent a catastrophic nationwide rail strike.”

So, order the companies to concede to the workers’ demands. It really is that simple. It’s not like those companies will go out of business if their profits dip just a touch. They are making money hand-over-fist. They have never had better years. They are profiting massively. They will not be made to share this wealth with the workers who have made their companies so productive. Congress doesn’t care. No-one does. No-one who matters.

The article Democrats Were Dithering on Railworkers’ Rights. The Left Just Forced Their Hand. by Branko Marcetic (Jacobin) writes,

“The political malpractice on display here became clear when several Republicans used it as an opening to posture as pro-worker. Ted Cruz called railworker demands for sick leave “quite reasonable,” while, more significant, Marco Rubio put out a subtly union-bashing statement calling for both sides to “go back and negotiate a deal that the workers, not just the union bosses, will accept” and affirming he would “not vote to impose a deal that doesn’t have the support of the rail workers.”

“Likewise, Josh Hawley, who has moved to brand himself as a pro-worker populist in advance of a planned 2024 run, stated that workers “said no and then Congress is gonna force it down their throats at the behest of this administration.” Even Colorado Democrat John Hickenlooper, hardly a progressive firebrand, saw which way the wind was blowing and affirmed that “any bill should include the SEVEN days of sick leave rail workers have asked for.”

“In other words, several Republicans and a guy who drank fracking fluid were to the left of the “most pro-union president” in history.”

And The Railway Labor Fight Is an Object Lesson in Democratic Party Hypocrisy by Luke Savage (Jacobin) writes,

“Earlier this week, the Biden White House issued a statement of thanks to Democrats and Republicans in the House of Representatives who had just voted to impose a contract without sick days on railworkers and override their right to strike.”
“[…] legislation to impose a contract on railworkers meanwhile passed by a whopping margin of eighty to fifteen. Never let anyone tell you that bipartisanship is dead.”

They are all criminals. Utterly amoral criminals. Are they not afraid? They are not. They have literally no fear that their ordering “essential workers” to shut their fucking crybaby mouths and go back to work doing their essential things without a pay raise and without sick days and without any improvement in their abysmal working conditions.

They are not afraid. They are the kind of people who annoy the waiter and are not afraid that anyone would every dare to piss in their soup. Oh, how we need Tyler Durden and his crew right now. There seems to be no other way. The arrogance of the elites is unbounded. Their support of corporate rights over basic human decency (and this, right before Christmas), is absolutely infinite.

The only unions allowed to function in the U.S. are for firemen and police officers. What do the police do when they don’t get what they want? They slow down. They stop doing their jobs. Are any of them ever fired? Of course not. They get what they want. Honestly, this is how it should work. But it only works like that for the hyper-militarized enforcement arm of elite America. Everyone else has to shut the fuck up and get in fucking line.

I really, really hope these rail unions follow up on their statement to not follow the edicts of the Congress. By what right can Congress order them back to work? They conceded to none of their demands and told them to go back to work. This was Congress’s answer:🖕 It should be the workers’ answer to Congress as well. Slow down, don’t show up, fucking ruin Christmas for everyone. Lose that $2B a day. Congress thinks they’ve avoided it because they sincerely believe that the world has to do what they say. Prove. Them. Wrong.