Biden’s Poker Face Is Just A Blank Stare To The Rail Unions
President Joe Biden fancies himself as a friend of unions. That said, he also thinks that a pair of Aviator sunglasses will be a memorable part of his legacy. Unfortunately, for sleepy Joe, the idea of substance and love of country never seem to enter his rapidly diminishing faculties.
You don’t have to be an economics professor to understand what effects a rail strike would have on a nation at any time. However, if you’re the President and the looming strike is just before Christmas and it’s in the middle of a period of inflation that’s the highest in forty years that you created, perhaps some creativity is required.
Sadly, the last thing that we can expect from the White House is rational thought or clear direction. Instead we get an administration taking the easiest way out which is essentially “derailing” negotiations.
In September, creepy Joe prematurely celebrated what he thought was a solution to the strike. Actually, to outsiders, the deal at first glance appears fairly substantial.
Three unpaid days off a year for engineers and conductors to take care of medical appointments.
No penalties for hospitalizations.
24% wage increase retroactive to 2020.
Granted, the three unpaid days off and not being penalized for hospitalizations seem like “gimmies,” but the 24% increase in pay retroactive to 2020 is enticing.
Obviously, delusional Joe thought he had slam dunked this issue. Chest out and Aviators on, Joe took a victory lap. Unfortunately, Joe forgot to mention two glaring issues. First, eight of the twelve unions approved the agreement. However, the four that didn’t approve it just happened to be the four largest unions. Also, one of the largest disputes centered around sick leave. Something the eight smaller unions may have forgotten, but the four largest have not.
I’m not trying to diminish the complexity of a negotiation that I’m not involved in, but sick time is definitely the main issue here. Forgive me, but there has to be middle ground for reasonable dialogue here.
Nevertheless, weary Joe doesn’t have the energy to pursue a true solution. Instead, Joe does what he does best, he passes the buck so any blame appears to fall elsewhere.
In this case he chose Congress to be his fall guy, by passing the problem onto them with instructions to implement the tentative agreement he negotiated in September. Congress can do this by enacting the “Railway Labor Act of 1926.”
You see, all the way back in 1926 the country was already becoming rail dependent. Today, that dependency has multiplied exponentially. The unions are more than aware of this and they know they have the leverage.
The drop-dead date to avoid a strike is December 9th. By instructing Congress to invoke his temporary settlement, Biden has awoken the ire of the unions.
The Railroad Workers United (RWU) Treasurer, Hugh Sawyer freely spoke his mind on the subject:
“Joe Biden blew it. He had the opportunity to prove his labor-friendly pedigree to millions of workers by simply asking Congress for legislation to end the threat of a national strike on terms more favorable to workers. Sadly, he could not bring himself to advocate for a lousy handful of sick days. The Democrats and Republicans are both pawns of big business and the corporations,”
The RWU has stated that they are in this fight for the long haul. Since it is estimated that a strike would cost Americans two Billion dollars a day, we need it to be a short one.
The union clearly believes that low energy Joe simply shrugged off what they see as a very negotiable point of contention. Instead, he thumbed his nose at them and couldn’t be bothered with their concerns.
Biden created the misery that currently envelopes America. While the country puts on a brave face and tries to look forward to Christmas, Biden seems intent on rubbing salt in the wound.
