The Rail Struggle, Lefts in the Peanut Gallery
Some of the language on the left about the rail deal is unhinged. AOC etc. did have an argument. I happen not to agree with it, but there is a case for voting for what you can get when you can get it. The contract without sick leave does have some gains in it. Whether that is enough is not up to any of us, nor to the AFL-CIO. Maybe the unions begged them, don't make us strike . . . let us take the W.
The overriding mistake is to keep this in the Congressional box, which is inherently limited under current circumstances and will never give us a great outcome. The workers have not used their principal weapon, which can change everything (for good or for ill). That is for them to decide. We ought to support their decision. Most of us are not the ones who could go without money for basics like food and rent.
If the contract provides zero sick days, or one, it's still silly to say 7 is not 15, or that the right to strike is not provided. It's not up to us.
In general the right to strike is a misnomer. Nobody really is granted a right to strike, since the Gov can always come down on you in one way or another. The teachers in West Virginia lacked the right to strike. I had a friend with a lot of labor experience, and he told me striking without the right to strike could be a death sentence (massive per day fines). Decades ago, my sister-in-law (a teacher) spent a few weeks in jail for striking.
The teachers struck anyway at some risk and lived to tell about it. They won not because WV has a cool state government (quite the contrary). The state could not just dismiss all of its teachers. Rights are not granted; they are wrested by force or credible threats of force, in class struggle. A rail strike is a formidable weapon.
It still comes back to the White House. The Bidens could hold out for a better deal or be forced to, not by the left, but by the workers' ability to tank the economy (with our enthusiastic support). Our place is to stay in solidarity with the workers and criticize the White House for not keeping up their end -- supporting a better deal.
In this game, the Squad is just a sideshow, and talk of disciplining them is a sideshow once removed. As a senator, Bernie is a bit more (individual senators have much more power than individual representatives), so my other premise to just keep an eye on what he does.
People talk about keeping in consultation with the Squad, the better to browbeat them into the correct posture. The people to consult with are the workers, through their elected leaders and their rank and file leaders.