cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/20998907
October 01, 2024
Guest - Peter Goodman
NewYorkTimes global economics correspondent[a surprisingly pro-worker viewpoint from a writer from the NYT -PL]
I don’t trust any governments or politicians; we must always be critical of those with power and influence.
Biden was forced to cave to their demands due to the backlash on breaking the railroad strike and this being an election year.
The working class must continue to unite against the owner class; a general strike would help force the government and the corporations to listen to working class struggles instead of the same old crumbs we reicve from the duopoly; many grassroots movements have arisen for this occasion!
“Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will. Find out just what any people will quietly submit to and you have found out the exact measure of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them, and these will continue till they are resisted with either words or blows, or with both. The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they oppress.” ― Frederick Douglass
Dockworkers strike suspended, tentative agreement includes 62% pay raise over 6 years [Max Zahn, Meredith Deliso, and Soo Youn | October 3, 2024 | abcnews.go.com] https://abcnews.go.com/US/dockworkers-strike-suspended-sources/story?id=114445386
The tentative agreement would increase workers’ wages by 62% over the life of the 6-year contract, sources familiar confirm to ABC News.
This represents a significant increase from the shipping industry group’s offer of a 50% wage increase earlier this week. The union had been pushing for a 77% pay hike over six years.
The tentative agreement would bring the hourly wage for a top dockworker to $63 per hour at the end of the new contract, up from $39 per hour under the expired contract.
“I want to applaud the International Longshoremen’s Association (ILA) and the United States Maritime Alliance for coming together to reopen the East Coast and Gulf ports. Today’s tentative agreement on a record wage and an extension of the collective bargaining process represents critical progress towards a strong contract,” Preisdent Joe Biden said on the agreement.
Tens of thousands of U.S. dockworkers had walked off the job early Tuesday morning, clogging dozens of ports along the East and Gulf coasts.
Amid the strike, USMX said Wednesday it remained “committed to bargaining in good faith to address the ILA’s demands and USMX’s concerns.”
A prolonged work stoppage of several weeks or months could have rekindled inflation for some goods and triggered layoffs at manufacturers as raw materials dried up, experts said.
In 2002, a strike among workers at West Coast ports lasted 11 days before then-President George W. Bush invoked the Taft-Hartley Act and ended the standoff.
Biden literally did not cave to anything. This has nothing to do with Biden. The port owners and operators are the ones the workers were striking against lmao
No one is reading your paragraphs and paragraphs of text, fyi. After the first two sentences we stop.
I disagree; I remember the rail road strikes, and I think the reason why they caved is due to being an election year; crushing another strike would end their projections for 2024.
They interfered previously, so no need to take politicians at their word when we know that they lie all the time, Democrats or Republicans.
All is well; some do not like to read, and that is okay.
paragraphs and paragraphs of text
They are quotes from an article updating us on the strike, which you mentioned… Thank you for mentioning their was an update!
There are so many differences between this strike and the railroad strike you seem blissfully ignorant about. E g., a railroad strike would’ve halted all domestic and international trade within the US at the height of this last inflationary period, immediately having a negative impact on literally every American’s life, whereas this dockworkers’ strike only affected overseas imports/exports, leaving all domestic and North American trade intact and not immediately disrupting literally every American’s life.
Either way, the Biden Admin kept pressure on railroad owners for a contract in line with the railroad workers’ demands, and they won it.