Huge Supreme Court case today. Glacier v. Teamsters.
Cement truck drivers went out on strike. Some of the cement in their trucks hardened (as cement is known to do). After the strike, the company sued the workers for destruction of property. Issue is whether they can.
If the company wins, it will vitiate the ability of workers to strike in this country (which has been happening quite a bit, don't you know).
And now is where I remind you that the Roberts Court has been the most pro-business court in US history that lives to smash labor rights.
If "White working class voters" were motivated by economic self interest, their MAGA spokespeople would be up in arms for the workers.
Instead, it's the kind of case that proves MAGA is just in it for the racial bigotry and doesn't give a toss economic anxiety.
One (dumb) thing that is happening in this thread from people determined to lick jackboots, the issue IS NOT whether the workers had to empty the cement trucks after they started striking. The issue is whether the NLRB (Which said the workers' actions were FINE) has any power.
Like there was an actual ruling from the National LABOR Relations Board that said the workers DID take reasonable precautions to avoid the destruction of property.
The nihilist Republicans are saying the NLRB doesn't matter and they should still be able to sue anyway.
This is all going even worse than I figured, and I figured it would go pretty badly.
Essentially KBJ and Sotomayor have abandoned the best arguments for the unions, and are now focused on limiting the scope of the eventual corporate victory.
Well, that sucked.
Every labor case start with this Court 6-3 against labor.
This case might be 8-1 or 9-0 with the liberals siding with the jackboots to limit the scope of this ruling. Getting very Fulton v. City of Philadelphia (anti gay adoption case that was 9-0) vibes.
striking is compromise against armed militant unionism. removing legality of strikes makes them not so useful. suddenly, violence looks very effective again. america has no gun control laws.
another bad idea from ruling class. this will cause suffering: first for workers, then for owners.
not good. that compromise is reformist, but it saved lives.
you want to know the one thing that would make those gun control laws spring up like rat traps?
[edit] or more realistically, they'll arrest you for doing an "illegal" strike and that would disqualify you from carrying, or other tricks like that
yes, like california under Reagan when Black Panther Party began to defend itself.
the government will try, but I think it would not work in states with gun culture.
Yeah maybe you could’ve done something like 15 years ago but if you try to take guns in a state like Florida, Georgia, or Texas today and good fucking luck, like 30% of those people will genuinely shoot the cops that come at them.
And I don’t even agree with those people on literally anything. But it’ll be a big problem if you want to restrict gun ownership.
felonies for everyone. until everyone else is felon and it doesn't matter anymore who is.
Fascism literally cannot win forever, if only because they run out of people to kill and shit to steal.
It's still frustrating how domesticated America has become, but hey, dingoes were domesticated once too.
Okay so you meant "we need to work harder" and not "it's hopeless, give up". Just checking.
We've shown with WTO in the 90s that we can organize toward militancy. It's not a matter of how bad things are but of how organized we are.
Idk they didn’t have smartphones magnetically sucking our souls in the 90s
striking is compromise against armed militant unionism
That's still striking though, just not legally sanctioned. Which is what strikes originally were in the first place.
They want to send us back to the good old days when workers would beat their bosses to death over labor disputes. Oh well, it's their funeral, not mine.
You must give 6 months notice before quitting and have it approved by a local magistrate. You'll also need a quitting permit which can be purchased for $600, approval depends on whether or not you have another job lined up. If you don't, you will not get a quitting permit.
All retirees must have worked continuously for at least 10 years as a W2 worker before retirement.
being forced to play a real game of "Papers, Please" in order to quit your job at mcdonalds is innovation actually
:agony-immense: I HATE NEO-FEUDALISM! I HATE NEO-FEUDALISM! :agony-immense:
It's fine, you're not owned by your
lordboss, you're tied to thelandbusiness. Serfdom is a-ok, baby!
You’ll also need a quitting permit which can be purchased for $600
Not even a joke at this point, companies will eventually start charging for finding your replacement
Hell yeah, bringing back the Diocletian Reforms, tying you to the same trade as your parents.
If you're an accelerationist in this thread talking about how this will bring back a militant labor movement, I want to ask you who the militants will be. You're the radical edge of the movement. It's people like you who will be the first militants.
So I have a question: are you salting key industries? Are you organizing towards wildcat strikes?
If not, then it's likely that the militant turn you're looking for won't come to pass.
So get organized with the I.W.W. or email your local UNITE-HERE or Workers United chapter and tell them you want to salt and learn to organize.
Yeah it doesn't seem like some of the people in this thread have every seriously engaged with a union. They're almost all timid as mice and the primary role seems to be more about navigating the bureaucracy of the NLRB to get a contract rather than developing labor militancy. If we seriously want a militant labor movement we're gonna have to build it pretty much from scratch, which isn't to say we have to build all new unions, but the existing ones need serious transformation before they're willing to challenge the existing order.
Every union has militancy inclined leadership in it. The project is multifold:
-organize your shop with a mainstream union who has the resources to back you up through the contract process.
-find militant leaders and gain their support in organizing towards direct action at your jobsite. If your leadership won't back you, turn to the wobblies, they will.
-get trained as a shop steward, join your MAT or CAT, run for election, or become a staff organizer. Become the leadership that can back up militancy.
-organize leadership to reform your union, move them towards working w/o a contract, lower strike thresholds, aggressive new organizing, better strike pay, 1 member 1 vote, illegal action, rolling strikes.
-salt for militant locals to build their membership base and our collective capacity.
the bourgeois continually :why-shouldnt-i: rolling back the compromises made between militant labor and the bosses gonna be :shocked-pikachu: when they start getting mailbombed again
you want a militant labor movement? this is how you get it :think-mark: accelerationist supreme court
Good thing the most pro-worker president ever packed the court with pro-worker judges
At this rate unions will just start killing their bosses in a couple decades 🤷not surprised the ruling class is incapable of seeing further than a few years
if you'll get your pants sued off if you do everything legally there's no goddamn reason to follow the law
People are just going to stop working these jobs as conditions continue to worsen. This is already happening in nursing, hospitals around me have lost 2/3 of their staff since the beginning of the pandemic because bedside has become a nightmare. Same thing with the railworkers, what do you expect will happen when nobody wants to work these jobs anymore?
Yeah like unless you’re going full forced labor at gun point there’s only so much you can do before people go “At this point McDonald’s is preferable” and just go get another job
That's what the fascist turn domestically is all about.
unless you’re going full forced labor at gun point
:foucault-shining: "Is that a boomerang I see?"
Yeah good luck at this point. Making these jobs as unappealing as possible is going to catch up to them eventually.
They'll reinstitute the draft just to keep the treats rolling. Hope they're ready to get fragged for trying to force people into slave labor.
They haven't ruled yet, this headline's a bit misleading.
Listen to the oral arguments here if you want to try to read the tea leaves: https://www.c-span.org/video/?525218-1/supreme-court-hears-case-employers-sue-unions-strike-property-damage
Liberal Justice Elena Kagan said that a broad ruling in favor of companies could undercut union decisions on when to strike, which often are made to pressure employers by causing economic harm.
"When we start focusing on intent, without more, it pulls in pretty much every strategic decision that a union makes as to when to conduct a work stoppage," Kagan said.
Conservative Chief Justice John Roberts said that there is a distinction between causing economic harm and intentional property destruction.
"The difference between the milk spoiling and killing the cow," Roberts said.
So Roberts is against the companies claims here, right? I can't watch the video now, but that quote is defensive of unions, if I understand.
Best I can tell, yes. It's nice that it sounds like he's leaning in the right direction on this but it can get to 5-4 without him.
Gorsuch of course is most famous for this case , so I think we know where he stands.
Hey Siri, what happens when you block the release valve on a pressure cooker?
Great time to read why communism by Moissaye J. Olgin and Strike Strategy by William Z. Foster to start learning pro-militant unionization lingo and tactics.
If you're willing to work as a part of a collective movement - join a communist party or the Big Syndicalist union, or find whatever grassroots anarchist group nearby or one of the major anarchist federations you like. And before you set your blazing hearts into joining whatever groups lucky enough to have you, you gotta seriously concider how much of yourself - your time, effort, funds, etc - you're willing to give to the movement. You gotta know yourself as well as the group you may be joining. Pace yourself and don't overextend too much.
As Lenin said - There are decades where nothing happens; and there are weeks where decades happen. To make those weeks where decades happen productive for the working class, we need to devote ourselves to building and rebuilding our movement in the interim decades where nothing happens - and unfortunately we might be running out of those decades.
Death to America
Make Assassinations Great Again
