Democrats and the ‘Most Pro-Union President’ Knife Rail Workers

The media coverage was atrocious as the great strike that wasn’t fully exposed whose team Democratic lawmakers are on

As I watched media clips over the last two weeks surrounding the possible strike of US rail workers, I couldn’t help but think back to the labor struggles of America’s past. The ‘Land of the Free’ has one of the most violent histories when it comes to worker suppression, but that information gets glossed over at best in history classes.

We’re never taught the full impact the previous generations of laborers had, what they sacrificed, or how many lost their lives in pursuit of basic dignity. It is all but ignored that through organizing and putting everything on the line, poor workers were able to secure bargaining rights, a minimum wage, end child labor, create a forty-hour work week, and much much more.

Most seem to think these things emerged as the natural evolution of human progress.

Nothing could be further from the truth. They had to be pried from the hands of wealthy owners. And, as flawed as our current economy is, most who are living a semi-decent life can thank the sacrifices of previous generations of unsung working-class heroes.

But gone are the tales of brave men and women who stood in the line of fire as corporate-funded Pinkertons and police forces, working on behalf of Robber Barons, bludgeoned workers to death for daring to ask for living wages while the oligarch-serving news outlets downplayed the bloodshed and cast blame on the employees themselves.

When we look back now, if we ever do, we are shocked to see the violence and media obfuscation of men and women who simply wanted adequate pay and worker protections.

Fast forward one hundred years and those events are mostly forgotten.

And Americans are having to fight the same battles for basic dignity while the corporate-owned media portrays everything as a worker-created problem and supposedly labor-friendly Democratic lawmakers side with billionaires and abandon their voters for the umpteenth time.

Once again, we’re witnessing the famous adage: history doesn’t repeat but it rhymes.

The ‘Land of the Free’ has one of the most violent histories when it comes to worker suppression, but that information gets glossed over at best in history classes.

On Wednesday, after having taken the paid sick day provisions out of the bill, Congress voted on legislation that shoved an already-rejected deal down rail workers’ throats. It moved to the Senate, where it was also passed late on Thursday before being signed by Biden on Friday.

The paid-sick-day piece that was separated, as everyone knew would happen, passed the House but was then rejected by the Senate, forcing the workers back to work without many of their demands being met.

All of this in a Democratic-controlled Washington DC.

I heard talk of it being a larger meta-strategy, as union workers get on TV and rightfully berate the Biden administration for abandoning them. The pressure could force him to take large action, but time will tell if that’s true.

In the meantime, it is a horrible horrible look for the Democrats to be siding with ownership at this time.

In general, the whole debate is being had in the wrong sphere. We’re talking about workers and sick days when we should be talking about rail companies, executives, and billions in profits.

Due to The Railway Labor Act of 1926, one of the first pieces of labor legislation in American history, labor relations in the railroads are regulated by the federal government.

As CNN explained: Under the Railway Labor Act, the federal agency that oversees railroad and airline labor relations is the National Mediation Board, which tries to bring the two sides together, and it set up a series of limits and cooling off periods during which unions can not strike and management can not lock out the workers. And if all those efforts fail, then Congress can step in and impose a contract under which both sides will have to operate.

In other industries, the National Labor Relations Act protects workers’ right to strike at any time if their contract is expired. But those rules don’t apply here.

So even with a Democrat in the White House, rail company management knew that if they held out, Washington DC would be imposing a contract, would surely have their back, and then would tell the employees to shut up and get to work.

That is exactly what we saw this week.

Rail unions have been negotiating these new contracts for three years, and their asks are not extravagant. The piece getting the most attention, as mentioned, was for guaranteed paid sick days.

At the moment, they have zero.

Meanwhile, the rail industry in the US has become one of the most concentrated, with a small number of firms having monopoly control in various regions of the country. Over the decades, to satisfy investors and maximize returns, they’ve been implementing cost-saving measures, reducing staff numbers, ignoring maintenance, and extending train length.

All of that has paid off. CNN reported, “The four major railroads — Union Pacific (UNP), CSX (CSX), Norfolk Southern (NSC) and Berkshire Hathaway (BRKA)’s Burlington Northern Santa Fe — reported some form of record profits in 2021. Wall Street analysts expect even better profits in 2022, at least for the three railroads they cover.”

The companies are having record years while the workers have zero paid time off.

That should be the only framing of this debate.

It would cost companies less than five days of earnings to pay for the sick days of all 125,000 employees.

That is all we should be saying.

Instead, much of the media coverage is focused on the workers and the impact a strike would have on the economy, failing to mention ownership is a part of the negotiations and would therefore be even more responsible for any negative impact. They leave out the part where Warren Buffett and rail companies are raking in billions of dollars a year and sending out checks to shareholders while refusing to give any paid time off.

The news is full of fear-mongering that the economy will take a hit, people will get laid off, and little Johnny won’t get his Christmas gifts on time because workers are selfish and greedy.

The framing is always that the workers are causing this event and not that the companies are creating the mess because they don’t want to share a tiny fraction of their earnings with the men and women who work twelve-hour days making the freight in the country run.

It’s insanity.

Shoutout to Jake Tapper — didn’t think I’d be saying that — who actually jabbed Transportation Secretary Pete and mentioned the rail companies.

That is unfortunately a very rare occurrence. Again, it is mostly blaming workers while Congress pats themselves on the back for avoiding a rail strike and disciplining labor on behalf of billion-dollar corporations.

One moment, Biden is calling himself the most labor-friendly president since FDR and the next he’s giving unions a fat middle finger.

One moment, Dems are tweeting their support for labor, and the next they’re siding with rail companies and telling workers to shut up and work on a contract they already rejected.

AOC flip-flopped so hard even TYT called her out.

As usual, it reveals the Democrats to be the vapid shell many know they are. It shows the Progressive Caucus is a paper tiger that folds to corporate concerns every time. And it shows that ‘the Squad’ is good in rhetoric but useless when the moment to stand up arrives.

They claim to be fighters, but time and time again, they’re nowhere to be found when it truly matters.

Because that is their role.

The Democratic Party isn’t there to bring progress; it is there to stop it.

It is the friendlier more open-minded face of a corporate-controlled government, existing solely to gaslight kind-hearted liberals into believing change is possible if they donate some money and vote Blue.

Once in power, barriers magically appear from all directions that keep them from following through on promises.

The Progressive Caucus and the Squad are simply the further left marketing arm of the same apparatus.

They’re there to keep people convinced that change is on its way if they vote harder and have a little more patience.

But as we’ve seen with this recent selling out of rail workers, Team Blue will side with donors over voters every. single. time.