What happened with the railway unions

[Mike]

Remember when the rail workers threatened to go on strike? Remember how everyone was mad at Biden, because he broke the potential strike and sided with the rail companies in order to keep the trains running on time? Turns out there was a lot going on behind the scenes.

After three years of negotiations, a strike was imminent. Biden brought them to the mediation table. They came up with a contract that both sides agreed on, except for one item: workers wanted paid sick leave.* Biden could either turn it over to Congress or let them strike. He chose the easy way. And everyone hedges their bets: the House passes the contract in one bill, and passes paid sick leave** in a second. The Senate passed the base contract, but a GOP filibuster killed the sick leave. Biden signed it.

But then, Bernie Sanders, with help from the Biden administration, worked with the unions to put pressure on the rail companies. Eventually CSX, one of the big rail companies, was convinced to offer paid sick leave. That agreement was used to pressure the others, and ultimately, the whole industry got on board. So something that in the media narrative reads as "Dems turn on unions" actually turns out to be "Dems help unions to get what they want... eventually."

I have issues with both political parties in the U.S., and the long-term and continuing support by both sides for atrocities overseas continues to anger me. But on the other hand, I need occasional reminders that they have real differences domestically, even if it's not always as different as I would like. And one side works far more often in directions that are important to me than the other. I dream of a day when we see true voting reform in a way that makes politicians accountable and allows for votes outside the two-party system to be made in a meaningful way.

*Holy shit! Rail workers didn't have PAID SICK LEAVE, and that was somehow the bone of contention?

**No seriously... no fucking SICK LEAVE?!? It outrages me every time I type it.

[Phoebe]

That's pretty much how it is for people nowadays. Most young people I know have no hope whatsoever of sick leave - they just rely on having a supervisor who won't fire them for taking time off work without pay, or who will send them home if they show up obviously feverish and contagious. Our society is messed up. This reminds me also of the recent story about the Kellogg's guy who wants people to eat evening meal cereal. I grew up eating cereal as a bedtime snack fairly often but even during times of, shall we say, no surplus wealth and government cheese, we did not eat it for dinner. We may have eaten chipped beef on toast, tuna casserole, or boiled cabbage with potatoes, or even pancakes with an egg, but we did not eat boxed cereal for dinner. Then I discovered a guy who led worker strikes against Kellogg's, since they treated their workers like crap (QUELLE SURPRISE!), is now running for Senate. Maybe no hope of winning but interesting that it's happening, anyway.

[Kyle]

With respect to the sick leave issue- I know plenty of people that work at jobs to do provide sick leave- but the hurdles they put up to get it is ridiculous and sometimes unobtainable for people. When I was a teen working entry-level jobs, I always had sick leave. And if you needed to take it, you called your boss before your shift, told them you were sick, and then you got your sick leave if you had it accrued. Now if you aren't working in a white-collar job and you want sick leave, you have to physically go to the doctor (no virtual visits) have that doctor diagnose you with something and then write you a doctor's note to give to your boss. It's ridiculous.

It's like how when we were kids and you were sick, you'd just have your parent write a note saying you were sick. Not good enough anymore. Now you have to go to a doctor, get a diagnosis and have the doctor write a note for your kid, or it will count as an unexcused absence. Here in Texas, too many unexcused absences can get the parent in criminal trouble for truancy. So ask yourself- what's the change in the school policies? Easy- we commodified student attendance. At the turn of the century we started our "No Child Left Behind" and widespread standardized testing that tied actual dollars to (1) the number of days a student attended; and (2) the performance of students on these tests. Thus, schools decided to put up hurdles to student absences that are unobtainable for many people that don't have the means or time (if both parents are working) to meet the requirements. Again, it's ridiculous.

I've complained for a long time that we're seeing a regression in the commodification of our workforce. The lack of real sick leave is just more evidence of that. I know that labor has always been commodified and not viewed as humans, but as resources, but it's tough to see the real human impact these dumb policies have on real human people.

[Mike]

100% Aidan's last job had "paid leave", which combined sick days and vacation days. Discouraged calling in sick, because no one wants to waste vacation hours on being miserable. If you DID call in sick, you had "points taken off" for taking paid leave without requesting it in advance. Aidan came in to work sick... mild fever, etc, and wound up vomiting at work. His boss told him to go home but warned him that he would likely get written up by HR and be aware that if you use leave time immediately before or after a holiday, then you lose your bonus holiday pay. Aidan said "Fine, I'll tough it out then." And the boss said, "No, you can't stay now, there's a witness who could hear you vomiting, so we know you're sick. You have to go home." So he went home, lost his holiday pay AND got written up. HR told him he should be grateful his supervisor went to bat for him, because they wanted him fired.

So he told them to fuck off and quit.

There were plenty of things that happened at that job that I'm sure had to be illegal, but there was no union, and all of their employees lived very much paycheck to paycheck. They knew no one had the resources to fight back, so they got away with it all.