ADVERTISEMENT

Biden, the Union Man...

noble cane

I.T.S. University President
Feb 25, 2002
9,297
3,036
113
Biden asking Congress to force the Unions to take the deal..

 
the employees get 24% raise, another day off, an upfront bonus.

will this improve train service. where will the increases come from.
 
8 out of the 12 rail unions involved wanted to accept the deal; there were 4 holdouts that rejected it. Meanwhile, the management side of things also rejected the deal in the end. The proposed deal proved unpalatable to both management and some unions.

You know what they say about a good compromise, right? It leaves everybody unhappy. He's "busting" the strike and forcing the unions to take the deal, yes. But he's simultaneously forcing the rail companies to take the deal when they don't want to either.

I don't have a lot of expertise on rail commerce or the involved unions, but superficially it seems that this is a strike busting action that I can get behind.
 
  • Like
Reactions: drboobay
8 out of the 12 rail unions involved wanted to accept the deal; there were 4 holdouts that rejected it. Meanwhile, the management side of things also rejected the deal in the end. The proposed deal proved unpalatable to both management and some unions.

You know what they say about a good compromise, right? It leaves everybody unhappy. He's "busting" the strike and forcing the unions to take the deal, yes. But he's simultaneously forcing the rail companies to take the deal when they don't want to either.

I don't have a lot of expertise on rail commerce or the involved unions, but superficially it seems that this is a strike busting action that I can get behind.
I'm all for busting unions.

I just find it funny that Mr. Union is going to strong arm a union now when 6 wks ago he was all about negotiating.

I wonder what changed?
 
I'm all for busting unions.

I just find it funny that Mr. Union is going to strong arm a union now when 6 wks ago he was all about negotiating.

I wonder what changed?
Biden has never been a left wing diehard ideologue. He has to keep the left flank happy, but I think he's ultimately a pragmatist. That is showing right now.

For some reason the media is spinning this as him busting the unions, but the truth is he is also forcing management to take the deal against their will. You could spin it around if you wanted and say, "8 out of 12 unions approved, and now Biden is forcing management to accept the union-approved deal, Biden is a true champion of the unions!".

That's misleading, of course. But so is saying that he is betraying the unions. He is simply forcing a compromise in the face of a total impasse. As I said, I think he's a pragmatist.
 
It was a lose-lose situation for Biden. If he forces an agreement he gets lambasted as being anti-labor. (Typically by a bunch of Right-To-Work folks who ARE actually anti-labor)

If he lets the deal get flushed down the toilet then we have a rail crisis, contributing to inflation growth and he would get lambasted for his economic record.

Thats why it has become such a talking point for conservatives like aTUfan. They don’t actually care that Biden would really prefer to be in a situation where a railway strike wouldn’t significantly harm the country, but he’s not in that position, so they can prod him about it.
 
Ding ding ding... todays daily double..
Nothing changed. He just didn’t want to drive up inflation in this economy. Sure he did wait until after midterms from making the somewhat unpopular decision.

I think that if we had been in a different economic environment he probably would have let the dispute rage on, so as to give the labor unions a chance.
 
  • Like
Reactions: drboobay and watu05
No way to please everyone or most everyone here so do the least harm.

Good, pragmatic decision.
 
Nothing changed. He just didn’t want to drive up inflation in this economy. Sure he did wait until after midterms from making the somewhat unpopular decision.

I think that if we had been in a different economic environment he probably would have let the dispute rage on, so as to give the labor unions a chance.
Unpopular with the unions maybe. If people understood the fallout from a rail strike the decision would be quite popular among the American people
 
ADVERTISEMENT

Latest posts

ADVERTISEMENT