By Ray Cardello for December 2, 2022 Season 14 / Post 41

There are so many elements of the possible rail strike that anger people who care about the situation. The first is that we are still contending with a potential shutdown. We were told by Joe Biden, the “Union Guy”, that he had resolved the strike back in September. He lied. Like so many other lies, he blew smoke at us to help his party minimize the losses in the Midterms. Student Loan Forgiveness, avoiding the rail strike, falling gas prices……all lies. And like sheep, the American people bought his lies and voted for more Democrats at all levels than deserved to win. Biden promised he would be the most transparent. He never said he would be the most honest. We see that clearly, now.

Secondly, why is the government involved in negotiating contracts for private institutions and passing laws to grant benefits to specific union workers? None of this should be happening in a country that bases its economy on capitalism and free enterprise. Government intervention would be the solution in a socialist or fascist state.

The most hypocritical move on the part of Biden was to put the burden of solving this labor issue in the hands of Congress. The last time this rail contract needed action, Bill Clinton was President, and Joe was a Senator from Delaware. Congress was asked to intervene, and six Senators voted NO to Congress’ plan to avoid a strike. Joe Biden was one of those six and voted no because he said this was a union issue with the rail companies and not the place for government intervention.

Not to consider this possible strike a trivial matter. One-third of all products used and bought in this country travel via rail. With the economy already fragile, the country does not need the type of disruption to the supply chain that a rail strike would create. We also do not need thousands of rail workers, not to mention all of the ancillary workers hitting the unemployment ranks just before the holidays, or any time, for that matter. We could look at 1-200,000 workers that could become non-workers next week.

Biden was so pompous in September as he took a victory lap touting his years of working with the unions as making him the right man for the job. He failed and lied. When are the Democrats going to join the right and recognize that this President and his administration are inept? Biden asking Congress to clean up his mess was terrible. But equally bad was the House passing a stand-alone bill granting all rail workers, regardless of which union or contract, seven days of paid sick leave per annum. Where in the Constitution does it give any branch of our government the right or power to negotiate or dictate contract terms to any industry? It isn’t there, and I am disappointed for any Republican who voted for either of the two bills drafted to prevent a strike. I do not want a strike. The negative ramifications are too significant, but I do not want the government to assume more power.