- cross-posted to:
- politics
- cross-posted to:
- politics
In an interview with the Guardian from his home base in Burlington, Vermont, Sanders urged the Democratic president to inject more urgency into his bid for re-election. He said that unless the president was more direct in recognising the many crises faced by working-class families his Republican rival would win.
“We’ve got to see the White House move more aggressively on healthcare, on housing, on tax reform, on the high cost of prescription drugs,” Sanders said. “If we can get the president to move in that direction, he will win; if not, he’s going to lose.”
The US senator from Vermont added that he was in contact with the White House pressing that point. “We hope to make clear to the president and his team that they are not going to win this election unless they come up with a progressive agenda that speaks to the needs of the working class of this country.”
Sanders’ warning comes at a critical time in American politics. On Monday, Republicans in Iowa will gather for caucuses that mark the official start of the 2024 presidential election.
Biden faces no serious challenger in the Democratic primaries. But concern is mounting over how he would fare against Trump given a likely rematch between them in November.
https://www.reuters.com/world/us/biden-signs-bill-block-us-railroad-strike-2022-12-02/
He then went on to apply pressure to the railroads in order to get them everything they wanted without striking.
The IBEW sums up his many accomplishments for unions:
ALL of a union’s power is in striking/the threat of striking, and it needs to be demonstrated regularly. Biden not letting the nation feel the pain of a railroad strike was a disservice to the union movement.
Not winning those concessions through a strike was a blow to the union movement. Daddy came and took away their privilege to fight back, spoke to the railroad, and got their ice cream for them… this time.
They need to have their own power 24/7/365 under any President, or they have no power at all.
How you win is just as important as winning. They need to be a peer that can stand up to the railroad with consequences at any time, or they’re on borrowed time before the next encroachment.
Nope. You aren’t looking at the bigger picture. The unions that were holding out were doing so to the detriment of the rest of organized labor. Had they continued to be allowed to do so, the economic consequences would have been a devastating PR blow to organized labor, as would the political consequences.
I have to wonder how many of you naysayers are actually involved in organized labor activism, given how out of touch you appear to be with how unions are actually thinking about the railroad strike. We, meaning organized labor, aren’t on the same page as you at all, and while we don’t doubt that you have the best intentions, at this point you’re basically making yourself the enemy by elevating the odds that Trump wins reelection, which would be devastating to organized labor.
I fully expect to be downvoted by Lemmy’s purist zealots, as frequently happens when I don’t toe their extremist line or pretend to be who they think I should be as a union organizer and activist. But I’m the one down here on the front lines, not you fucking privileged cry-babies who are going to flip the table over if you don’t have everything your way.
It’s bullshit. With friends like you, working people don’t even need enemies.
Go see how supportive of a union’s right to strike for better pay and working conditions your enemies are, then.
Spoilers… nah I wont ruin it for you.
Remember what happened when the air traffic controllers tried to strike and shut down the country’s airports? Anti-union sentiment, Federal Unions outlawed, a wound they still haven’t recovered from. Biden was trying to avoid an outcome like this, quite astutely. If they had shut down the nations economy with a railroad strike he would have gotten the blame and unions would have been set back decades.
Either unions have the power to strike or they are begging beggars subject to the whims of capital.
You can’t have both, and it isn’t a Grey area. Biden chose capital in the case of the railroad.
I’ll vote for the feckless crime bill passing, union busting piece of garbage to stave off Jerry Lewis Hitler, but he’s part of the longer term problem with this country, and one of the OG neoliberals that surrendered the Democrat party to Reagan the oligarchs economically into today.
When union power gets large enough it won’t matter if they’re legal, Massachusetts teachers just did an illegal strike to great effect.
It matters if they’re enshrined in law because in the grey area, under the right wrong administration, the means of state violence will start cracking illegal striker’s skulls and calling it “rule of law.”
Yes we know the Boomers are pieces of shit.