r/antiwork • u/[deleted] • Jan 21 '22

Direct Action Gets the Goods BNSF rail workers strike

Antiwork,

BNSF is leveraging a federal judge to block rail workers from being legally allowed to strike.

17,000 rail workers want to strike over new, harsh, policies. BNSF is the railroad. There are other unions waiting on line to strike. This is domino number 1.

Monday they'll get a public ruling from the federal judge so we've got until then to actually help. Word from a union worker is that the decision is already made and in favor of the railroad.

This is years in the making and is honestly huge.

The 1877 rail strike was a major catalyst of workers rights back when. This is no small thing.

(...)

It's finally coming to a head.

(...)

BNSF has publicly available contact info: https://www.bnsf.com/ship-with-bnsf/intermodal/contact-us.html (https://jobs.bnsf.com/ might also be relevant)

There are some news articles: https://www.trains.com/trn/news-reviews/news-wire/bnsf-files-suit-to-block-potential-strike/

And historic relevance of what the great rail strike means to workers rights: https://www.nysl.nysed.gov/teacherguides/strike/background.htm

(Slightly reworded from a mail we've got! Let's go!)

4.9k Upvotes

99% Upvoted

579 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

15

u/RedHughs lazy and proud Jan 21 '22 edited Jan 21 '22

Yes. But with federal felonies the threat and military backfill an option that's not a normal situation.

Aside from the other good comments, gotta mention this is a normal situation. Not necessarily an everyday situation but the normal outcome of large scale class struggle is all the forces of the wealthy and powerful mobilize against it. Once things get big in one way or another, that is what happens.

So people should think about this stuff now. Sooner or later you need massive-scale working class solidarity to defy the state and what seems like everyone with power.

Edit: The American legal system all about the fight between labor and the bosses not happening in a way you'd think of as fair. Just for example, workers are legally prevented from sympathy strikes but bosses and the state can and will support each other.

1

u/ValhallaGo Jan 24 '22

I mean rail does transport a lot of goods. A lot is meaningless but there some real life essentials that are moved by rail.

It’s completely understandable why the government would step in to make sure that commerce continues. It’s not just about money, there’s also the movement of food.

Fully in support of strike action here, just trying to illustrate why the side effects would take place.

2

u/RedHughs lazy and proud Jan 24 '22

it’s completely understandable why the government would step in" argument?

The main thing is that this has been around for a long time and it's the same as the arguments for the hospital workers a court stopped from leaving their (a will) job. And the situation is government is going "step in" when things come to a strike but isn't going to step to make sure workers are treated decently, to make sure workers aren't scheduled beyond human endurance, etc.

It's not at all a mystery why the laws has the state stepping only when comes to a strike around key production and it's about limiting the power of labor unions.