A big week for labor union action

While people in the United States are losing their sh*t over Will Smith slapping Chris Rock, one of the biggest strikes against neoliberalism in the world is happening in India.

Millions of workers began a nationwide two-day strike across India on Monday to express their anger at the government’s economic policies and press their demands for improved rights for industrial workers, employees and farmers.

About a dozen labor unions that organized the strike want the government to provide universal social security coverage for workers in the vast unorganized sector, hike the minimum wage under a flagship employment guarantee program and stop the privatization of public-sector banks.
The strikers are also demanding that the government halt plans to sell state assets.
...
The All Indian Trade Union Congress, one of the country's largest trade unions, said it expected more than 200 million formal and informal workers would join the strike, but the figure could not be independently verified.

Let's say that the All Indian Trade Union Congress exaggerated by 2X (a big if). That's still 100 million people on strike.
This is coming just six months after 250 million Indian farmers protested and striked for months.

Meanwhile back in America, two major Amazon warehouses are voting on union certification this week. Notice the change in "tone" of the news coverage, as compared to the neutral tone concerning the strike in India.

Amazon is gearing up for its toughest labor fight yet, with two separate union elections coming to a head as soon as next week that could provide further momentum to the recent wave of organizing efforts across the country.

Warehouse workers in Staten Island, New York, and Bessemer, Alabama, will determine whether or not they want to form a union. If a majority votes yes at either location, it would mark the first successful U.S. organizing effort in Amazon history. Rejection would notch another victory for the country’s second-largest employer in keeping unions at bay.

This wasn't Fox News, or the WSJ. That was AP.
Even CNBC gave more balanced reporting than that.

The more national labor unions have targeted Amazon, the more aggressive Amazon has become in discouraging employees from joining.

At JFK8, Amazon papered the walls with banners that proclaim “Vote No.” The company even set up a website, telling employees, “The ALU is making big promises but offering very little detail on how they will achieve them.” Amazon has also held weekly meetings with anti-union presentations that employees are required to sit through.

Kevin Pardee, who’s worked at JFK8 for two and a half years, said it’s been hard to ignore Amazon’s “overwhelming union-busting” while walking throughout the facility.

“You can’t go anywhere without some form of anti-union propaganda in your face,” Pardee said.

I'm crossing my fingers for the workers at Amazon and in India.

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Cassiodorus's picture

276298349_10166146890315128_5998448014263761983_n.jpg

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"The war on Gaza, backed by the West, is a demonstration that the West is willing to cross all lines. That it will discard any nuance of humanity. That it is willing to commit genocide" -- Moon of Alabama

Trump might not be able to run in 2024.

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@gjohnsit
from a prison cell. There's also no legal bar to convicted criminals or felons running.

Trump knows no shame; so, short of death or a reasonable facsimile, regardless of whatever happens in the next year or so, if Trump throws his golf cap in the ring, the GOP will have the same dilemma that they had in 2016. Perhaps that's what the GOP honchos want because who would want to inherit the disaster Biden/Harris will leave?

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Cassiodorus's picture

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"The war on Gaza, backed by the West, is a demonstration that the West is willing to cross all lines. That it will discard any nuance of humanity. That it is willing to commit genocide" -- Moon of Alabama

janis b's picture

@Cassiodorus

though it's tragic all the same.

It's probably the CNN report that was misinterpreted in the tweet.

The temperature at Concordia Research station atop Dome C on the Antarctic Plateau -- typically known as the coldest place on Earth -- surged to an astounding 11.3 degrees Fahrenheit (minus-11.5 Celsius) on March 18.
The normal high temperature for the day is around minus-56 Fahrenheit (minus-49 Celsius), which puts the March 18 reading at close to 70 degrees Fahrenheit (around 38 Celsius) warmer than normal.

The following link might have a more accurate measurement than CNN reports.
https://www.severe-weather.eu/global-weather/powerful-heatwave-affecting...

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Cassiodorus's picture

@janis b It's still pretty bad all the same. I hope the Demopublicans and Republicrats have picked some really good boogers out of their noses while Joe Biden gambles the planet away.

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"The war on Gaza, backed by the West, is a demonstration that the West is willing to cross all lines. That it will discard any nuance of humanity. That it is willing to commit genocide" -- Moon of Alabama

Fight for every citizen to have the government "provide universal social security coverage for workers in the vast unorganized sector, hike the minimum wage under a flagship employment guarantee program and stop the privatization of public-sector banks.
The strikers are also demanding that the government halt plans to sell state assets." Things that benefit every fellow citizen.

Our most successful and established unions pretty much care about their membership and nothing else, except how outside actions will affect them. That's why they were against single payer, because it would affect their health benefits package.

Also union workers on Keystone XL were ready to bust protesters and tribes heads to get the paychecks rolling. However 5 unions, National Nurses United, 1199 SEIU Health Care Workers East, Amalgamated Transit Union,New York State Nurses Association and the National Domestic Workers Alliance came out against Keystone.

So unions have become political factions, at least here, and supporting all and any unions gets kind of risky. The higher the pay scale and benefits for any worker, the more conservative they lean fearing "the left" will confiscate their earnings for benefits for "those people".

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are a direct result of unionization, strikes against greedy employers and solidarity across
different professions. India has the right idea. Sharing the pain to achieve a better standard.

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where you only have a job because the boss is afraid to lower his quarterly profit automating your position. Your motto: I've got mine Jack. Yeah, for this hour.
Kin Iverson said she's lost her support for UBI because, "People need to feel productive." Produce what? An excuse for more wage slavery? The gig economy's put the lie to that. We need to create a world where people can live without "a job".

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On to Biden since 1973