Yesterday, US Senate passed a bill quickly to prevent US railroad workers from going on strike. It then passed a second bill providing workers 7 paid sick leave days (they had none and had proposed 15 in negotiations). In the following two 15 minute radio interviews of friday, December 2, I explain how the railroad workers and their unions were ‘set up’ by the Biden administration and its appointed Board to review the negotiations and recommend a settlement last Sept. that rejected workers demands for paid sick leave. Once the Board and Biden in Sept. rejected sick leave in its official recommendations, the railroad corps’ bargainers had the cover to refuse to make any concessions on sick leave or anything else. In short, the Biden admin came down on the side of the corporations and eliminated any chance of workers achieving their demands. This week the Democrats in the US House broke out the two bills–one to make a strike illegal and a second to provide 7 paid sick leave days–full knowing the Senate would pass only the first and reject the second.
For further detail discussion on the passage of the anti-strike legislation (the 19th intervention by govt on the side of employers in railroad collective bargaining since 1926, listen to the following two radio interviews.
TO LISTEN GO TO:
(Critical Hour Radio Show)
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1I7FsduLLq7sNbevQfxlUTAJzDWQHFSZy/view
(Political Misfits Radio Show) (additional topics also discussed)
Reblogged this on Calculus of Decay .
As to the level of interest rate hikes that will trigger a stock market collapse, frankly I don’t give a damn. The more interesting question is how the Fortune 500 have insulated themselves from the economic suffering of the lower 90%. The evidence is overwhelming that they have. The tedious mantra of progressive economists is that 70% of the US economy is driven by consumer spending but so what? The Fortune 500 have insulated themselves in a multitude of ways such as the $5 Trillion in interest free money; price gouging to make up for lack of consumer spending and on and on. The how and why the Fortune 500 have insulated themselves is worthy of a post.