Rail Strike Avoided… but Robber Barons, a Corrupt U.S. Government, and the Monopoly Economy are Alive & Well
On Friday, December 2, President Joe Biden signed a joint resolution from Congress binding railroad workers to a September tentative agreement with the railroad corporations — a contract that a majority of rail workers had recently rejected. Joined by labor secretary Marty Walsh and transportation secretary Pete Buttigieg, Biden declared, “We’ve avoided a catastrophic rail strike.” The reason Congress could intervene in the railroad labor dispute is that a century-old law — the Railway Labor Act of 1926 — explicitly provides for the possibility of a strike while simultaneously limiting its disruptive power.
Understanding this contradiction — allowing for strikes but within narrow, government-sanctioned confines — requires a review of the history of the right to strike and its regulation in what came to be called “emergency disputes.” Whereas the US legal system looked askance at workers’ right to walkout for much of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era, the effective legalization of trade unions during the New Deal transformed the relationship between workers and bosses in the United States. If labor unions were to be legalized, US politicians reasoned, their negotiations with employers had to be regulated in those workplaces where, in the words of the 1947 Taft-Hartley Act, interruption of service “imperils the public health and safety.”
By Gregg Wall (12-10-2022)
From, allegedly, being the most pro-labor President, since FDR, to stabbing railroad workers directly in the back - over sick leave - Biden has performed the most extraordinary pivot in modern American politics.
Then again, it’s entirely consistent with Biden’s, seemingly, endless betrayal of the American people, during his first two years in office. You know, when Biden and Dems, controlling both the House & Senate, failed to pass BBB, cannabis legalization, higher minimum wage, ROE codification, and voting rights legislation. Understandably, one might conclude that Biden is working for the Republican party and the robber barons, that America’s failed political duopoly reports into.
Of course, Biden does work for the robber barons, in America’s Neo-Gilded Age, and American voters were keenly aware of this back in 2020. Biden’s track record, along with establishment Dems and GOP, has been one never ending catalogue of treachery… attacks directed at the American people, the nation, unions, and the consumer & labor (versus endless favoritism & welfare for wealthy donors, the rich & powerful).
Even “progressives” in the House played their role, by decoupling strike breaking legislation, and proposing separate legislation for the sick leave railroad workers sought (so these same faux progressives could pat themselves on the back, knowing full well that the sick leave bill would never pass the Senate). That’s right, this entire ordeal was about cheating workers out of five to seven sick leave days, so labor could stay healthy and run the nation’s critical infrastructure. Goddess knows the robber baron ingrates -- sick twisted chiselers, and mentally crippled misers, like Warren Buffett and Charles Munger -- aren’t going to get the job done.
Interestingly, students of America’s highly corrupt congress had seen this stunt before, when the Progressive caucus saw the House decouple the bipartisan corporate infrastructure bill from BBB; and then, the same progressives caved to Biden’s plea to pass the corporate infrastructure welfare bill, while leaving BBB essentially dead & buried (and now, BBB, almost assuredly, is a footnote in the great American pantheon of lies).
It should turn the nation’s collective stomach… and the irony should be lost on absolutely no one… that many of the union busting acts & laws of the 19th and 20th centuries concerned railroads. Moreover, as clearly stated in the aforementioned Jacobian article, the rationalization for busting up union strikes often comes down to interrupting services that "imperils public health and safety”. The cold hard reality: billionaires, and the judges & politicians that the oligarchy owns, are far more concerned about interrupted profits, not interrupted public health & safety.
What could “imperil public health and safety” more than sick & unwell engineers and railroad employees operating locomotives, that weigh anywhere from 100 to 200 tons? So you know that I’m not exaggerating, and what a threat to public health and safety Biden’s & congress’ decision was … some of us recall a railroad accident in Canada a few years back, where a town was incinerated.
That’s right. The Lac-Megantic rail disaster, where half the town was destroyed and building after building had to be demolished, post-catastrophe. The death toll was 47. The deadliest non-passenger rail accident since Canada’s confederation in 1867.
What caused the disaster? Lax rules & regulations, dilapidated infrastructure, tank cars that had not been replaced, and likely, overworked rail employees (there was only one employee on the doomed train, which no surprise is what American railroad robber barons are pushing for presently). The accident could as easily have happened in the United States, given America’s aging & crumbling infrastructure, union busting activities, overworked employees, presently - zero sick leave, and the greed & parsimony with which U.S. railroad management and ownership conduct themselves. To drive the point home, we know that increased frequency of accidents drives catastrophic events. The NSC reports: “Railroad deaths totaled 893 in 2021, a 20% increase from the 2020 revised total of 744 and the highest since 2007.” Meanwhile, railroads are scoring record profits, at the expense of their workers and the general public. Seems that billionaires, management, and ownership merely view their employees and the general public as collateral damage, on the way to multi-billion returns and rich dividends for shareholders.
The bottom line: The very words & excuses for busting unions… safety and public health… are often sacrificed when we allow billionaires, cartels, monopolies, and Wall St to trample over workers, consumers, and the general public.
And when a blood-soaked congress & regulatory agencies are for sale, on the cheap.
Copyright JM Hamilton Publishing 2022
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