4 ms·

Yeah, coming from a country with strong labour laws, it's mind boggling that this is legal in the US. I think the realist view has to be that the market ain't e

Yeah, coming from a country with strong labour laws, it's mind boggling that this is legal in the US. I think the realist view has to be that the market ain't ever going to fix it, companies are always going to try to get away with as much as they can, and the people have to force the Government to bring in minimum standards.

inferiorhuman 4y ago
Yeah, coming from a country with strong labour laws, it's mind boggling that this is legal in the US. As an American I'm not surprised, but I am disappointed. Certainly Biden looks like a fucking jackass. Currently the Zodiac Killer is bemoaning Biden's anti-worker sentiment. Obviously Cruz is wholly incapable of doing anything with a modicum of integrity but if the republicans run with this through the 2024 election cycle and they get someone with savvy on the ticket (like good ol' governor death sentence) things could get dicey for the democrats. Legal or not it sure seems like the democrats are trying real hard to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.
- biztos 4y ago
  I’m also American and I have no idea what you mean about the Zodiac Killer[0]. Is that a nickname for some politician you don’t like, or is an actual serial killer complaining about the president and it’s relevant because… I guess because we weren’t expecting to hear from him? Help an expat out here! [0]: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zodiac_Killer https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zodiac_Killer
  - krapp 4y ago
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ted_Cruz%E2%80%93Zodiac_Killer_meme https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ted_Cruz%E2%80%93Zodiac_Killer...
robertlagrant 4y ago
There's no market for natural monopolies.
ALittleLight 4y ago
The market is perfectly capable of fixing the problem. The employees should quit, strike, or slowdown work until their employers give them what they want.
- retrac 4y ago
  > should quit, strike, or slowdown work I'm not sure how it goes down in the USA, but here in Canada, federal transport workers are de facto prohibited from striking or other job action. Every time they go on strike, the next day the government passes legislation declaring the strike illegal because they are essential workers and a disruption poses a threat to infrastructure of national interest, and a new binding labour contract is imposed on the workers. The only legal option is to quit. (But you can't even encourage your coworkers to quit, too. That amounts to illegal labour agitation.) Air traffic control, port workers, railway workers, etc. get this treatment. They have no right to strike, in practice. Edit: a quick Google search suggests it's same situation in the USA: > The House has passed a resolution 290-137 that would force unions to accept a tentative agreement reached earlier this year between railroad managers and their workers and make an imminent strike illegal. https://www.npr.org/2022/11/30/1139876084/congress-house-railroad-strike-bill https://www.npr.org/2022/11/30/1139876084/congress-house-rai...
  - inferiorhuman 4y ago
    If the annual tax forms are any indication railroad workers in the US have all sorts of separate rules and whatnot. In the US the right to strike is something that can be bargained in most industries which is why, in the Bay Area, BART workers can and have struck while Muni workers resort to "wildcat strikes". Muni workers bargained away their right to strike in exchange for something I've since forgotten. As far as port workers, they are not prohibited from work action. The ILWU (the dominant West Coast longshoreman union) has a loooooooong history of work action to support various political causes from anti-war to police brutality. Before the sanctions kicked in ILWU refused to unload cargo from Russian ships in solidarity with Ukraine. Realistically the rail workers almost certainly don't need to strike to cause pain. They can likely slow things down dramatically by following rules and regs to the letter. Perhaps we'll start to see infrastructure sabotaged. Maybe dockworkers will refuse to handle rail cargo. Maybe Teamsters will refuse to do last mile for rail cargo. Who knows.

inferiorhuman 4y ago

Yeah, coming from a country with strong labour laws, it's mind boggling that this is legal in the US. As an American I'm not surprised, but I am disappointed. Certainly Biden looks like a fucking jackass. Currently the Zodiac Killer is bemoaning Biden's anti-worker sentiment. Obviously Cruz is wholly incapable of doing anything with a modicum of integrity but if the republicans run with this through the 2024 election cycle and they get someone with savvy on the ticket (like good ol' governor death sentence) things could get dicey for the democrats. Legal or not it sure seems like the democrats are trying real hard to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.

biztos 4y ago
I’m also American and I have no idea what you mean about the Zodiac Killer[0]. Is that a nickname for some politician you don’t like, or is an actual serial killer complaining about the president and it’s relevant because… I guess because we weren’t expecting to hear from him? Help an expat out here! [0]: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zodiac_Killer https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zodiac_Killer
- krapp 4y ago
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ted_Cruz%E2%80%93Zodiac_Killer_meme https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ted_Cruz%E2%80%93Zodiac_Killer...

robertlagrant 4y ago

There's no market for natural monopolies.

ALittleLight 4y ago

The market is perfectly capable of fixing the problem. The employees should quit, strike, or slowdown work until their employers give them what they want.

retrac 4y ago
> should quit, strike, or slowdown work I'm not sure how it goes down in the USA, but here in Canada, federal transport workers are de facto prohibited from striking or other job action. Every time they go on strike, the next day the government passes legislation declaring the strike illegal because they are essential workers and a disruption poses a threat to infrastructure of national interest, and a new binding labour contract is imposed on the workers. The only legal option is to quit. (But you can't even encourage your coworkers to quit, too. That amounts to illegal labour agitation.) Air traffic control, port workers, railway workers, etc. get this treatment. They have no right to strike, in practice. Edit: a quick Google search suggests it's same situation in the USA: > The House has passed a resolution 290-137 that would force unions to accept a tentative agreement reached earlier this year between railroad managers and their workers and make an imminent strike illegal. https://www.npr.org/2022/11/30/1139876084/congress-house-railroad-strike-bill https://www.npr.org/2022/11/30/1139876084/congress-house-rai...
- inferiorhuman 4y ago
  If the annual tax forms are any indication railroad workers in the US have all sorts of separate rules and whatnot. In the US the right to strike is something that can be bargained in most industries which is why, in the Bay Area, BART workers can and have struck while Muni workers resort to "wildcat strikes". Muni workers bargained away their right to strike in exchange for something I've since forgotten. As far as port workers, they are not prohibited from work action. The ILWU (the dominant West Coast longshoreman union) has a loooooooong history of work action to support various political causes from anti-war to police brutality. Before the sanctions kicked in ILWU refused to unload cargo from Russian ships in solidarity with Ukraine. Realistically the rail workers almost certainly don't need to strike to cause pain. They can likely slow things down dramatically by following rules and regs to the letter. Perhaps we'll start to see infrastructure sabotaged. Maybe dockworkers will refuse to handle rail cargo. Maybe Teamsters will refuse to do last mile for rail cargo. Who knows.