• mozz@mbin.grits.dev
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    6 months ago

    Biden fired the guy who used to run the NLRB, and put in a bunch of actually pro-labor people, who gave lots of material support to all this union activity that coincidentally has been meeting with all sorts of success over the last couple of years.

    I’m not trying to downplay the hard work that unions have been putting in that have been getting them significant gains in the last few years. But Biden’s NLRB has been right there with them negotiating with the companies and giving them legal support which is absolutely crucial.

    my third world country can still do better so far.

    Wait – you’re not from the US, and deeply concerned with the US election and wanting to weigh in on who needs to win it?

    I know when I have some spare time, I like to go involve myself in British elections, or Japanese; I talk on message boards to people from those countries and have all sorts of things to tell them about how they should vote. It’s just something I like to do.

    • umbrella@lemmy.ml
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      6 months ago

      so he basically coopted the movement with his own appointed people, with bipartisan support. the actual result of it is zero paid time off for sick workers, one of their main concern when striking. they are still working grueling hours, and have to be on call for even more grueling hours. IIRC biden even outlawed further strikes under threat of violence (!!!). the one good thing he did was increase their bad salaries for… slightly less bad salaries, no free time and no further right to demand anything else?

      thats a lot of shifting money and people around so they can pretty much end the strike without caving to most of the worker’s demands, and keep the status quo. that is the main thing when leftists complain about elected “left” wing representatives being all talk while still keeping workers in a bad situation.

      the threat to the shareholders’ pockets alone was enough to get them on their feet and respond immediatly, this could have been the birth of another worker’s rights movement, but it was a big nothingburger instead.

      about the ad hominem, let me give you the tip of the iceberg: our conservative politicians literally went to the us recently, to basically ask your politicians for brutal sanctions on our country, the same people who tried to copycat trump’s jan 6 so yeah, i have all the reason to be concerned given your long history messing with our democracies in the region. thanks for the condescention though, but i bet a lot of you have many concerns about ukranian and russian politics now.

      • mozz@mbin.grits.dev
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        6 months ago

        so he basically coopted the movement

        Absolutely false.

        Unions in the US have the same leaders they always did. Now, though, they have an NLRB who will fight legal battles on their behalf. Here’s a general overview.

        How on earth is that a bad thing? You’re saying the NLRB was “coopted” by the federal government? I’m having trouble even understanding what you’re saying happened, here.

        i have all the reason to be concerned given your long history messing with our democracies in the region

        Yeah, this part makes sense to me (and in particular as a reason to be suspicious of any US politician, Biden included). That said, given Trump’s unusual-even-compared-with-the-American-standard support for overt dictators the world over, including Bolsonaro, you should definitely want Trump not to win power again, right?

        • umbrella@lemmy.ml
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          6 months ago

          Now, though, they have an NLRB who will fight legal battles on their behalf.

          as someone thats pretty far left, i understand that rich people rule a given country through the state and politicians and we have much less influence over it than they do.

          -whether this works still remains to be seen but i’m skeptical. legal battles tend to be longer and are harder to be ruled in favour of the weaker link pretty much everywhere, i’m under the assumption politicians are very aware of this even if they play dumb, and we won’t be able to actually defend this system because iirc they outlawed further striking. we are relying solely on judges and politicians.

          -on the other hand strikes, especially something like railroads which make the backbone of trade and production in any country, elicit a very quick response with very consequential decisions from our overlords. workers have the upper hand in the sense that even a week without them will hit the corporations very hard in their pockets. this is what they truly care about and respond to. breaking a strike up can be complicated after it reaches critical mass, hiring scabs is difficult, and workers get to tell a big fat NO to abusive conditions with chips in their hands they can play when negotiating, in addition to other protections that might exist.

          massive, coordinated striking is a big part of leftist strategy because it skips politicians, rich people and governments entirely, it doesn’t matter who’s in power then. its a more direct way of doing democracy. this is why we say killing this mass movement in favour of bureaucracy is bad for us. at best it will slow us down and at worst it will be attacked or influenced by the next trump when the workers really need it. not that many don’t currently really need it, but the frog can always be boiled further.

          you should definitely want Trump not to win power again, right?

          well i also understand that even inside capitalism, when the state is pressured to be more democratic, the people tend to not want to fuck over other people inside and abroad to sustain the profit of a few.

          we are usually treated with the same contempt by both republicans and democrats, i dont think the more open fascim republicans plan have will change anything for us until the international correlation of power changes. that and biden maintains the status quo which is already pretty bad, what is happening in gaza could very well be happening to us given the right circumstances, for example. this is why.

          i don’t want trump to win because he will strain the system in the opposite direction i would want, but hes polling ahead and its looking like he will very much win regardless. strong unions are something that would 100% definetly push back but with bidens move to deflate the most important one at the time, i doubt it. this is pretty much ratchet theory or whatever its called nowadays.

          • mozz@mbin.grits.dev
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            6 months ago

            whether this works still remains to be seen

            Labor has been winning in a big way since Biden came in, including both many strikes and many legal battles. Legal battles means forcing union elections at the UAW, or fighting court battles whether the strikes are legal (which for some fuckin reason is a thing in the US) for example. It doesn’t remain to be seen whether it’ll work; it already has been happening.

            i dont think the more open fascim republicans plan have will change anything for us until the international correlation of power changes

            You do understand that giving an opinion on the US election, but following it up with saying but that’s only the US, so even if millions suffer or die there it doesn’t really impact me here in Brazil… that isn’t gonna convince me as a US voter to obey your way of looking at the election here?

            This is one reason, but by far not the only reason, that it’s weird that I’m running into so many people on Lemmy who have strong opinions on the US election (and always in the direction of not voting for Biden) who follow it up with, oh by the way I’m not even from the US, I just have super strong opinions about the election there.

            strong unions are something that would 100% definetly push back but with bidens move to deflate the most important one at the time

            I feel like you probably haven’t been reading my links about what Biden has been doing with unions and labor, and just know that one example that everyone knows and likes bringing up.

            • umbrella@lemmy.ml
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              6 months ago

              i’m not looking for anyone to obey me, i don’t think i’ve implied you should vote for anyone specific.

              i’m just talking about it with you, vote for whoever you want.

        • mozz@mbin.grits.dev
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          6 months ago

          I know many non-US people, especially from the global south, who take the attitude: Hey the US government is full of enemies to us, don’t try to tell me anything good about any one of them, please and thanks. For them to take that viewpoint honestly makes perfect sense to me.

          I know absolutely 0 of them who go on message boards and get real involved in talking with Americans about how they should view American politics and who they should support in American elections or who they shouldn’t, and how to view it, and what those people did in domestic US politics decisions and why that should impact who I support in the election.

          Just one of those little mysteries one encounters sometimes

          • umbrella@lemmy.ml
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            6 months ago

            I know absolutely 0 of them who go on message boards and get real involved in talking with Americans

            here! me! i’m literally doing this right now!

            i literally just typed out a big explanation in another post on why biden (and democrats for that matter) are just as harmful to us here, and how he might be setting the stage for a worse trump presidency. i’m pretty open with my political positioning and origin too.