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

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Workers are in the business of selling a product someone wants. The product they sell is their labor time. Like any business, sometimes they raise the price. Sometimes businesses cooperate to get the highest price like OPEC does with oil. When workers do it it's a union. It's not a matter of fair or unfair just supply and demand.

Everything is worth only as much as someone is willing to pay for it.

Time is not the commodity to be sold with a high value, skill is.

Everyone has time in varying and unknown amounts; it is not a unique product. What you can produce with that time is what differentiates $1 per hour from $1000 ph.
 
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Prices don't reward workers based on their skills. They only signal what skills are most in demand and the costs of different options. Prices change rapidly in response to new sources of supply and new products. Volatile prices are always randomly pulling the rug out from under even the most skilled workers. However skilled they are, workers can't count on their skills being rewarded in the market. Being highly skilled might improve their odds, but luck is also a big factor.

The idea that unskilled workers get what they deserve is not true. The inequality of bargaining power between workers and employers puts workers under more pressure to sell their labor than employers are under to buy it. Employers can hold out longer because they have more money and better alternatives. That means employers have more power to not take the deal and so they get better terms.
 
Prices don't reward workers based on their skills. They only signal what skills are most in demand and the costs of different options. Prices change rapidly in response to new sources of supply and new products. Volatile prices are always randomly pulling the rug out from under even the most skilled workers. However skilled they are, workers can't count on their skills being rewarded in the market. Being highly skilled might improve their odds, but luck is also a big factor.

The idea that unskilled workers get what they deserve is not true. The inequality of bargaining power between workers and employers puts workers under more pressure to sell their labor than employers are under to buy it. Employers can hold out longer because they have more money and better alternatives. That means employers have more power to not take the deal and so they get better terms.


Curious question. Have you ever run a business. Have you ever employed someone?

What pulls the rug out from workers, is inflation, not employers. IF you do not like who you are working for, the conditions, the pay the benefits, you are a free agent. Quit your job and look elsewhere. In this market where good labor is in demand, if what you are doing is worth so much, if you cannot be easily replaced, then you should be able to find a new employer who will give you what you want. If not, then maybe your "skill" isn't as rich and rare as you thought.

Unions are no better than a mob with pitchforks and torches, standing outside a building demanding things or else...

Until the governments stop printing money out of thin air, working people will continue to see themselves shafted. We all will except those at the top of government, responsible for creating it, who then line their own pockets with our tax dollars. Nancy Pelosi and her 120 million dollar "public servant" fortune comes to mind. Bernie Sanders is another one...Joe Biden...the list is long and spans both parties.
 
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When the government quits supporting people that don't want to work, then you will see the real value of skill vs. unskilled. Working in a fast food industry (burger flipper) does not require much skill and is certainly not worth the high labor costs. The problem is the government is supporting those that don't want to work. I used to change jobs (companies) about every two to three years. I typically got a 10 percent raise by doing this vs. the 2 or 3 % raise I would have gotten by staying. If you have skills, you have options. Unions are a complete waste of time and money now. In the distant past they had a place, now they are just there to protect the useless. AND yes, I have been a union member in the past and they were a liability to the employees.
 
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.

I have to disagree. I have negotiated one on one and got what I was asking for, which included guaranteed benefits like health insurance and vacation time.
"Supply and Demand" - I could supply something (expertise) they had a demand for. It did not involve any other employees, and there were no other employees with that expertise. That would not have been possible with a union.

With unions you often end up with employees that don't have anything of value to supply for the company, and the company doesn't have any demand for it. But they have to hire those employees because of the union and then they can't get rid of them.
 
The highly skilled expert in some field in the US will be laid off tomorrow and his job will be offshored to an equally highly skilled worker in China or India.

The least qualified person for a well paid job will fail up and get hired because of his of his rich daddy's connections. The turds float to the top.

The highly skilled, highly paid doctors and lawyers have their own unions, the American Medical Association and the American Bar Association. They only earn such high salaries because their unions act as gatekeepers to manipulate the supply and demand for their labor.
 
Prices don't reward workers based on their skills. They only signal what skills are most in demand and the costs of different options. Prices change rapidly in response to new sources of supply and new products. Volatile prices are always randomly pulling the rug out from under even the most skilled workers. However skilled they are, workers can't count on their skills being rewarded in the market. Being highly skilled might improve their odds, but luck is also a big factor.

The idea that unskilled workers get what they deserve is not true. The inequality of bargaining power between workers and employers puts workers under more pressure to sell their labor than employers are under to buy it. Employers can hold out longer because they have more money and better alternatives. That means employers have more power to not take the deal and so they get better terms.
I will give you an example: I have an “employee”, a part-time ranch hand. He lives in my home, rent free. I provide him with 3 home cooked meals, often of his personal requests, seven days a week, no charge.

I do his laundry and buy his work clothing, gloves, jackets, pants, boots, Dickies. He has free use of a vehicle for both business and personal use. I pay his medical bills from work related injuries.

He gets paid nothing in cash outside of these things all of which in our area at current prices, adds up to be about $4000 a month, not including MY LABOR (I work for free essentially).

Not bad for a part time gig. He doesn’t have much free time because he earns money at a full time job as well. So he generally works 70 hour weeks. I work both independent of him and by his side doing the exact same work or more.

This has been our arrangement for almost five years now. In that time, housing costs have increased $2000 a month (1 br apt). The cost of feeding him has gone up $500 a month. Insurance on the vehicle he drives has gone up $100 a month and the cost of his clothing has gone up $1200 a year.

In essence, I am paying $3000 a month more than I did back when he started just FIVE years ago. 75% of the increases have happened in the last two years.

In essence he has gotten a raise of $36,000 a year from us since he started and I am out that same amount if expressed on a balance sheet.

Additionally, because of the stupidity of this administration and their quest for chasing their white whale of “climate apocalypse”, the costs of producing have increased by 50%, the price we get at market is down 20% . I would like to know, where is MY RAISE? Where should I, as "an employer" picket? The Dutch farmers have the right idea.

What will grind the economy to a halt is not the rail workers strike. It is inflation, never ending printing press and a complete disregard for how the economy works.
 
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The highly skilled expert in some field in the US will be laid off tomorrow and his job will be offshored to an equally highly skilled worker in China or India.

The least qualified person for a well paid job will fail up and get hired because of his of his rich daddy's connections. The turds float to the top.

The highly skilled, highly paid doctors and lawyers have their own unions, the American Medical Association and the American Bar Association. They only earn such high salaries because their unions act as gatekeepers to manipulate the supply and demand for their labor.
A company can't hire who they want to here because of the unions which is the VERY REASON those jobs are going to China.

Yeah, I worked for a company that had a useless daddy's little turd who sat in his office and planned his next hunting trip.

He was a pariah in the company. Everyone despised him and he knew it.
Daddy was the president of the company, and was not happy his son knew nothing about how the company operated and had no rapport with the employees. He fretted about the future of the company.

I walked into his daddy's office and asked that he put his son under me so I could teach him some things about the company. I was not even in management BTW. I was practically a nobody in that company.

He did! I made the little turd work, and taught him how things were manufactured out in the factory. He actually enjoyed it. People began to respect him. Take a wild guess at how grateful you think his father was?

This is the way you become so indispensable to a company you can walk in and demand things - all it takes is a little ingenuity and some moxie. Find out what the needs and wants are of the management, and fix them. These are things that aren't allowed in union shops...
 
My daughter when she was in HS worked after school at a fast food restaurant. One day some dumba$$ went into the bathroom and trashed it, plugged up the latrine, flooded the sink onto the floor...a real mess.

It was rush hour dinner time so the manager asked my daughter (low girl on the totem pole) to go clean it up and make it useable. Yes, the restaurant had a cleaning service, but, they would not be in for many hours at closing. It wasn't in her job description but, she did it anyway without any lip. Next paycheck, she had gotten a nice raise.

Within two years she was the hostess/head waitress at a fancy steak house, making enough to get her own apartment at 18. Bought her first house at 20. Again, no union needed.

This is also how my son went from car detailer at 17 to head mechanic at the local Toyota dealership before his 27th birthday. Bought his first house at 22 and now owns a Tesla that I can't afford. The money he would have had to pay for dues to some mechanics union stayed in his pocket for HIS family's use.

Unions exist anymore to protect lazy-azz whiners who would otherwise be unemployed. If you are willing to work your ### off 9-5, have a reasonable IQ and not an EQ that allows for constant butt-hurt, go out of your way to do an outstanding job for each customer and the company, stop making complaining your full time job, and live within your means, you can become anything you want to in this country, even a millionaire.
 
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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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.
"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 ### 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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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.


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.
 
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.

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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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.
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.
 

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