Could Rail Strike Next Week Bring Economy to a Grinding Halt?

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Problem with unions is they protect the worthless employee and hold back the hard working employee. I've always been able to negotiate myself for pay and benefits. I never needed a POS union thug to protect my job. Unions serve no purpose. I'd bust all unions if I could.
I've worked as an hourly employee (welder/fabricator), management, business owner and finally retired as a VP in a major oil company.
 
Businesses don't exist to provide quality goods and services. They exist only to make money for their owners. The corporation is the dominant form of business and it has no responsibility to workers or customers. Its only responsibility is extracting value from labor to give to its investors.

The interests of workers are in direct conflict with the interests of shareholders and management. The investors are likely to be a foreign hedge fund or private-equity fund that preys on companys in financial distress.

Management's plans are just as likely to include laying off workers, downsizing operations or liquidating the company altogether and selling off it's assets to increase the share value and pay higher dividends. They are far more interested in implementing exorbitant executive pay, bonuses, and a share buy-backs for themselves than they ever will be in better conditions for workers.

People will always try to get better pay and better working conditions. It's up to workers to look after their own interests. The selfish pursuit of individual self-interest, the profit motive, is what makes capitalism work.
 
Jim’s Daily Rant. BlackRock and the RR Unions.

I had a buddy that was attending night school that I carpooled with for a semester. Pat was working on his Masters in Management. He told me of a class he had taken that somehow put him in the role of a union negotiator.

The class was broken up into small groups of negotiators that held their meetings simultaneously.
I don't know how he did, I don’t think he ever said. But I do recall his reason for telling me of the experience. The Professor cheated one group!

Pat said the professor met with one participant alone and promised him an automatic “A” if the negotiation ended in a strike. This was announced after all negotiations were over and all was discussed afterward. The point was you have to look for hidden motives in adversaries.

Tomorrow we will learn if the railroad unions will go on strike. It is being echoed that BlackRock, Inc. controls the largest railroad in the contest.
It is said that BlackRock owns a lot of the industries that could be shutting down the U.S. economy. Let’s hope none of this is true.
 
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Rhian L'Arson said:
Businesses don't exist to provide quality goods and services. They exist only to make money for their owners. The corporation is the dominant form of business and it has no responsibility to workers or customers. Its only responsibility is extracting value from labor to give to its investors.

The interests of workers are in direct conflict with the interests of shareholders and management. The investors are likely to be a foreign hedge fund or private-equity fund that preys on companys in financial distress.

Management's plans are just as likely to include laying off workers, downsizing operations or liquidating the company altogether and selling off it's assets to increase the share value and pay higher dividends. They are far more interested in implementing exorbitant executive pay, bonuses, and a share buy-backs for themselves than they ever will be in better conditions for workers.

People will always try to get better pay and better working conditions. It's up to workers to look after their own interests. The selfish pursuit of individual self-interest, the profit motive, is what makes capitalism work.
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"Businesses don't exist to provide quality goods and services. The exist only to make money for their owners. The corporation is the dominant form of business and it has no responsibility to workers or customers. Its only responsibility is extracting value from labor to give to its investors."

Actually, good businesses realize that without quality goods and services you don't make money. If you do not treat your workers and customers fairly, then you also will not make money because you will not attract the best workers and your customers will go elsewhere. No customers, no money.

I will take issue with this statement as well
"The selfish pursuit of individual self-interest, the profit motive, is what makes capitalism work."

A more accurate statement would be:
"The selfish pursuit of individual self-interest, the profit motive is what makes PEOPLE work, which in turn makes capitalism work."
Self interest is part of the HUMAN condition, not capitalism. Capitalism simply works with the human condition, rather than against it.
Furthermore, from your perspective, I am going to guess you have never been in a management position.

"The interests of workers are in direct conflict with the interests of shareholders and management. The investors are likely to be a foreign hedge fund or private-equity fund that preys on companys in financial distress.

Management's plans are just as likely to include laying off workers, downsizing operations or liquidating the company altogether and selling off it's assets to increase the share value and pay higher dividends. They are far more interested in implementing exorbitant executive pay, bonuses, and a share buy-backs for themselves than they ever will be in better conditions for workers."

The role of management is to have the best workers available working for them because that makes their job easier. Management must delegate responsibility, therefore, you must be able to trust that the people you are delegating that responsibility to, are up to the task.

Just as there are in a labor force, there are good managers and bad ones.

A good manager spends a great deal of time trying to figure out how to guide a so-so worker to reach their full potential.

I know this because my husband is a Global Manager for a large computer company. He has asked me on multiple occasions "What do I do with X? He/she is very intelligent, knowledgeable but, they just have a way of pissing people off and have no concept of working as a team towards a common goal. They pick fights with customers and team members, then the rest of us have to spend a great deal of time putting out the fires that X starts."

YES, trying to help the workers he manages be the best that they can be is one of his main focuses! So much so, it keeps him up nights.

"the suits" are not the enemy. They worked their ass off in most cases to get where they are. Of course, there are always exceptions.

To get to where he was, he spent 10 years of his working life traveling away from his wife and children 2 weeks out of every month. We took one vacation every five years and even on vacation, he brought his computer with him and worked. He worked 80 hour weeks for no additional pay because he was salaried. Bonuses are simply back pay for at least some of the extra hours you worked for free.

Even still 30, years after college; tonight, we are going to go dancing, but, he is going to drop me off at the dance hall, drive back to the house, take a 2 hour call to Asia, and then come back and dance for a couple of hours before getting up for a 6 am conference call from Europe. He does not get paid overtime, much less time and a half. He does it because THAT IS WHAT HE HAS TO DO TO KEEP HIS JOB and make the company he works for successful so it can continue to employ himself and thousands of others.

He gets 4 weeks paid vacation every year and to date, he has taken 4 days off for the year. He has never taken all of his vacation.

Try to tell a union worker that they have to work on vacation, work over-time without a guarantee that they will ever get paid for it. Tell them that the work day never ends that they must be available to work at the drop of a hat; Middle of dinner, middle of the Superbowl, doesn't matter. Tell them they must do that to KEEP their job and they may still not get a pay increase or promotion. Maybe next year? What do you think would happen?

Yes, he has had to fire people and lay people off especially at times when the economy stinks, like it does now. Every time, it kills him. The people that get cut, are generally those whose metrics (they actually consider measurements of performance), are in the lowest percentiles. If you are not as good at your job, as your peers, you are at risk of being let go when the belt gets tightened. Actions have consequences.
 
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JimCosta said:
Jim’s Daily Rant. BlackRock and the RR Unions.

I had a buddy that was attending night school that I carpooled with for a semester. Pat was working on his Masters in Management. He told me of a class he had taken that somehow put him in the role of a union negotiator.

The class was broken up into small groups of negotiators that held their meetings simultaneously.
I don't know how he did, I don’t think he ever said. But I do recall his reason for telling me of the experience. The Professor cheated one group!

Pat said the professor met with one participant alone and promised him an automatic “A” if the negotiation ended in a strike. This was announced after all negotiations were over and all was discussed afterward. The point was you have to look for hidden motives in adversaries.

Tomorrow we will learn if the railroad unions will go on strike. It is being echoed that BlackRock, Inc. controls the largest railroad in the contest.
It is said that BlackRock owns a lot of the industries that could be shutting down the U.S. economy. Let’s hope none of this is true.
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In reference, found this...

https://www.newstreason.com/post/bl...largely owned by both BlackRock and Vanguard.
"The top three shareholders of CD Industries Holdings, the world’s largest fertilizer company, include both BlackRock and Vanguard. BlackRock and Vanguard are also the top shareholders in Union Pacific, the railroad giant that moves fertilizer and other agriculture inputs all across the country."

The CEO of Blackrock is.....LARRY FINK

"He sits on the boards of the Council on Foreign Relations and World Economic Forum.[6][7]"

"BlackRock, is the largest investor in weapon manufacturers through its U.S. Aerospace and Defense ETF"

Larry Fink - Wikipedia
 
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I'm sorry but employers and workers are in a relationship of buyers and sellers and in a market system buyers' and seller's interests are in direct conflict. Buyers want to pay as little as they can and sellers want to get as much as they can for their product. It is only selfish competion with other businesses that forces them to improve quality. Every business has to get as much money as possible with as little effort as possible or competition will force them out of business. Workers do the exact same thing. They want to make as much money for as little work as possible. This is only rational and everyone ends up being better off in the end. Greed is what guides the invisible hand.

It's not the lazy union worker that should bother you, it's the lazy fat cat investor who feeds like a parasite off the worker collecting his interest, rent, and dividends without ever having to lift a finger.

If workers can't get what they want through unions, they'll get it at that voting booth through legislation. The American Dream is for everyone to be in business for himself and voters are in the business of getting as much from the government as they possibly can. They'll get it by taxing the corporations out of existence and redistributing the wealth to themselves. Socialists are the ultimate capitalists. They're the ultimate corporate raiders. Carl Icahn envies them.
 
Rhian L'Arson said:
It's not the lazy union worker that should bother you, it's the lazy fat cat investor who feeds like a parasite off the worker collecting his interest, rent, and dividends without ever having to lift a finger.
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Um...you mean like the lazy greedy investors/workers in union pension funds?

Or, perhaps you are talking about those greedy workers who invest in 401k's or IRA's?

Or maybe my secretary single mother who worked until she died at 84, self educated regarding economics and business, scrimped, invested and saved, subsequently dying a millionaire?

Oh, those greedy, greedy capitalists!

Socialism sucks.

You can officially start your own business for less than $100 dollars in a business friendly state (usually a right to work state). Less than the cost of 2 tanks of gas. I'd say it is well within reach of most working Americans.
 
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My area has 4 major rail lines, Amtrak and the public belt. Being a port a lot of goods and raw materials move by rail. Power plants get coal by rail. If the railroad workers do strike it's going to create a bottleneck big time.
 
Rhian L'Arson said:
I'm sorry but employers and workers are in a relationship of buyers and sellers and in a market system buyers' and seller's interests are in direct conflict.
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I've been on both sides of the fence in both public corporations and private companies. You cannot paint them all with one big brush like that.
I would say this is sometimes or maybe even mostly true for stockholders in a public corporation, looking only at how much money they can make from the stock. It's not even a company to them, just an investment. That's why there are boards of directors that look at the whole picture.

By the way, I worked at a company where the employees voted against unionization. The company didn't use any underhanded tactics either. In your world that can't be explained. Out in the real world it can.

Have you ever owned a company?
 
Think of the richest 1 percent whose combined wealth is greater than that of everyone else combined. Think of BlackRock.

In practice the board of directors is rarely independent. Members usually sit on the boards of multiple corporations and they work together to help executives maintain their positions and gain more power over workers and consumers.
 
Rhian L'Arson said:
Think of the richest 1 percent whose combined wealth is greater than that of everyone else combined. Think of BlackRock.

In practice the board of directors is rarely independent. Members usually sit on the boards of multiple corporations and they work together to help executives maintain their positions and gain more power over workers and consumers.
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The problem is not individual wealth. The problem is public-private partnerships where government officials seek to influence the course of businesses and where those private entities are far too willing to play along, sometimes under threat of harm.

Sometimes the inverse is true, where corporations lobby and wealthy individuals seek to influence legislation that benefits them.

The partnership either way is corrupt and, is caused by government sticking their fingers in a pie that they have no business being near. It is the natural side effect of a government that has grown too big and expanded its powers far beyond its original purpose.

You want to fix corruption and the little guy getting screwed, vote for people who are for smaller limited government. That would not be the Dems by the way.

This partnership is one of the major pillars of Fascism, known as National Socialism and a necessity for Socialism in general. It has no place in our Constitutional Republic.

It is one of many reasons I said Socialism sucks.

Really, the above is only an expansion of the Union system and organized crime.
 
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By definition a corporation is a public-private partnership. Every limited liability corporation has a charter from the government that protects the owners from being personally sued for any wrongdoing committed by the corporation. Patents are the granting of monopoly privileges from the government. The government essentially licenses some groups of people to exploit segments of the population. Public-private partnership was always the name of the game.
 
Rhian L'Arson said:
By definition a corporation is a public-private partnership. Every limited liability corporation has a charter from the government that protects the owners from being personally sued for any wrongdoing committed by the corporation. Patents are the granting of monopoly privileges from the government. The government essentially licenses some groups of people to exploit segments of the population. Public-private partnership was always the name of the game.
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Exactly my point. Tell me where in the constitution does the government have the power to say who and who cannot go into business for themselves or what form that must take?

It doesn't because that was what we fought a revolution for. You see in the old monarchy system, you could only have your town recognized for commerce by permission of the King. And towns were privately owned by other monarchs. That is why in many countries in Europe you will find town names that are also surnames. If you wanted to start a business in a town, you first had to get permission from the owner of the town, who then took his cut.

Serfs were only allowed to keep what the Lord/Duke/King said they were allowed to keep. This was the produce of their own labor. They were not paid in money by the owner of "the company", they were paid for the right to keep some of the fruits of their labor, nothing more.

It is for the purposes of taxing people unequally aka a progressive tax (also a socialist principle)

It is why I support the flat tax and limiting the Convening of the Congress to four months out of each year in addition to term limits.

The Federal government has "no mother may I?" status with marriage, business, or education; those are the purvey of the individual States (and really when it comes down to it, the churches, not the states have say over marriage since it is a religious ceremony; civil unions being the legal equivalent). The Federal Government has expanded their own powers and the result is massive corruption and a loss of individual freedoms.
 
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United States Constitution Article I, Section 8, Clause 8

Congress shall have power ... to promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries

Everyone else is excluded from going into business for themselves and competing in the market
 
That is patents and intellectual property. Tell me where it says you cannot start a business selling a product that anyone can produce with their own labor...wheat, corn, shoes, furs, meat, homes, land clearing, garbage removal....the Government, not the corporations control the fruits of your labor.

Again. You won't find it because that was what we fought a revolution for.

You see in the old monarchy system, you could only have your town recognized for commerce by permission of the King. And towns were privately owned by other monarchs. That is why in many countries in Europe you will find town names that are also surnames.

If you, as a citizen, wanted to start a business in a town, you first had to get permission from the owner of the town (charter), who had gotten permission from the king, all of whom then took their cut.

Serfs were only allowed to keep what the Lord/Duke/King said they were allowed to keep. This was the produce of their own labor. They were not paid in money by the owner of "the company", they were paid with the right to keep some of the fruits of their labor, nothing more.

That was what made America the land of opportunity. Anything was possible. For the first time in history, the fruits of their labor belonged to the common man and not the government. What has changed and why?
 
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Believe me, there are patents on wheat, corn, shoes, furs, meat, homes, land clearing, and garbage removal. There are millions of things you are forbidden from making and selling. I may be able to make and sell something cheaper than anyone else but am legally prevented from doing it because it would infringe on someone's patent. They probably don't even produce the thing but are just waiting to sue whoever tries to.
 
That has nothing to do with having to ask permission to start a business from the Government. If I want to sell corn, seed that my father's, father developed...no one else has a patent on it, I have to still ask permission to have a business doing it. If I want to sell trees for timber, trees that occur naturally, created by no man, but by nature, no patents on them, I have to ask permission from the government to do it.

It is the process of making money that I am asking permission for, not a specific product.

It is obvious at this point you have never started a business.
When I started my LLC, one of the first steps was to request from the IRS a tax identification number. On the form, they asked what I would be selling. They did not ask if I was selling patented seed products. Fruits, nuts, grains, meat...ect. because they do not care. They are only after their money and to know what can be legally claimed as a deduction on my tax bill.

Of all of the behemoth corporations in this world, the one that most people never recognize, is the Federal Government. Those at the top (congress critters)/CEO's make all the rules and line their pockets off of all those below them...they have taken too much power from us "little people" and awarded it to themselves.

I find it ironic that so many on the left hate the corrupt corporations but, love them the largest most corrupt one of all, the Federal Government Machine.
 
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Google says 18.4% of businesses in the U.S. fail within the first year. After five years, 49.7% fail and after 10 years, 65.5% of fail.

I don't like my odds.
 
Basically. I don't think it was ever intended when this country was founded to make working for yourself so convoluted. It really shouldn't be, and I can say it takes away from the joy of it. You spend a lot of your precious little time working to please the federal government (and avoid going to prison) and messing with paperwork, that should be spent with your family.
 
Rhian L'Arson said:
Google says 18.4% of businesses in the U.S. fail within the first year. After five years, 49.7% fail and after 10 years, 65.5% of fail.

I don't like my odds.
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It is a risk no doubt and that is why "owners" get paid way more than the common worker. It is your ass on the line. You could become wealthy or you could lose everything...work like crazy for three years only to see those thousands of hours flushed down the toilet because the government decides you forgot to cross a T or dot an I on some obscure requirement you didn't even know existed.

Or the government telling you that you have to close your business while others get to remain open during COVID.

No matter if someone owns a big business or a small one (which is how most big businesses start), it is your baby. You made sacrifices of yourself to feed it, clothe it, give it medical care and change its poopie diapers. You got up at all hours of the night because it was crying and you had to figure out what was wrong. You have been barfed on, peed on and functioned many a day on an hour of sleep and still you love it because it is a part of you.

If you go into business for yourself only with the purpose to make money, it will probably fail. It takes a very special person to start a business in your garage that becomes a global success.

It isn't all about the money. It is about making all of the hours you and your spouse spent sweating out whether or not you can make the mortgage payment this month, afford to pay for your kid to get braces or fix the machine that just broke down...it is about all of the baseball games and piano concerts you missed, all of the vacations you forewent, all of those hours of your life you spent trying to make something wonderful, where there once was nothing.

If you happen to "inherit" the business from your father, mother, grands...the pressure is even worse because it is not just your time and work that you are blowing, it is all of theirs as well.

People who have never been there, will never understand.
 
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Rhian L'Arson said:
The labor market is like other markets where supply and demand determine the price. Those with market power influence the price by manipulating supply and demand. They are price makers. They dictate the price for their product. Those with no market power just have to accept the price. Since no individual workers have market power alone, they cooperate as a union to get collective market power and set their price. You personally may not like it, but the market doesn't care about your feelings.
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FIRE EVERYONE of them that walks out!!!! There are lots of replacements looking for work out there that would be glad to work for what the railroad pays!!!!
 
the last rail strike 30 years ended after 3 days, and Congress intervened to give them everything they wanted.

Is anyone expected to believe that every industry that appears to be falling apart at the seams just happens to be majority controlled by two of the largest investment companies in the world? Are they really that inept? No - they know this manufactured chaos will kill off small free market competition and give them an even bigger monopoly once the Feds step in. History has proven this to be true EVERY SINGLE TIME.

It is also rumored that Port workers and even UPS workers will join them.

Given current circumstances, if these parasites think the Average Joe will sympathize with them, they're in for a world of hurt. At least 50% of this country - including myself - will consider and treat them as nothing short of domestic terrorists.
 
Tyler520 said:
the last rail strike 30 years ended after 3 days, and Congress intervened to give them everything they wanted.

Is anyone expected to believe that every industry that appears to be falling apart at the seams just happens to be majority controlled by two of the largest investment companies in the world? Are they really that inept? No - they know this manufactured chaos will kill off small free market competition and give them an even bigger monopoly once the Feds step in. History has proven this to be true EVERY SINGLE TIME.

It is also rumored that Port workers and even UPS workers will join them.

Given current circumstances, if these parasites think the Average Joe will sympathize with them, they're in for a world of hurt. At least 50% of this country - including myself - will consider and treat them as nothing short of domestic terrorists.
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You do realize that "investment companies" are made up of large and small investors just like us? Anyone with a 401k or IRA are part of these investment companies. I live off the returns of my investments, so I expect them to make the most money possible.
 
BlackRock, Vanguard and State Street have over $15 trillion in combined global assets under management, an amount more than three-quarters of U.S. gross domestic product. Those assets are ultimately owned by their clients but they exercise shareholder votes without client input. You may think you're making a killing on your investments but they take away more with one hand than they give with the other. Finance, insurance, and real estate, the FIRE sector, siphons wealth and income upward to the richest 1% while impoverishing the middle class.
Not only are they too big to fail, competing businesses are really commonly owned by the same investors. They are the real central planners of the economy.
 
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