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Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin

(107,646 posts)
Sat Nov 14, 2020, 01:04 AM Nov 2020

'There's a war on organizing, collective bargaining, unions and workers': Biden wants to undo Trump

executive orders on federal workers

President Donald Trump used executive orders to put up roadblocks for unions representing federal employees, and now President-elect Joe Biden seems poised to reverse those moves.

In May 2018, President Donald Trump signed executive orders mandating stricter deadlines and procedures when federal workers collectively negotiated new contracts, curbing on-the-clock time for union duties as well as giving some under-performing workers tight time frames to boost their performance.

In January 2021, newly-inaugurated President Joe Biden is likely to pull back those same orders, according to union members, who say the orders have weakened their ability to ensure rank and file staffers are treated fairly.

The Biden transition team didn’t respond to a request for comment, but Biden’s campaign website has signaled that the president-elect will address these issues: “There’s a war on organizing, collective bargaining, unions, and workers. It’s been raging for decades, and it’s getting worse with Donald Trump in the White House.”

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/theres-a-war-on-organizing-collective-bargaining-unions-and-workers-biden-wants-to-undo-trump-executive-orders-on-federal-workers/ar-BB1aZYZv?li=BBnbfcL
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'There's a war on organizing, collective bargaining, unions and workers': Biden wants to undo Trump (Original Post) Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin Nov 2020 OP
When Ronald Reagan fired the air traffic controllers, PoindexterOglethorpe Nov 2020 #1

PoindexterOglethorpe

(25,808 posts)
1. When Ronald Reagan fired the air traffic controllers,
Sat Nov 14, 2020, 04:03 AM
Nov 2020

and Lane Kirkland, then head of the AFL-CIO did NOTHING to oppose him, that was essentially the end of organized labor in this country.

As someone who benefitted from unions in the early decades of my working life, I'm appalled. I have always supported organized labor, and do to this day.

Ordinary workers need to understand that things like a forty hour work week, two weeks of paid vacation, and what miserable health benefits they have, are the result of unions.

Back when I was an airline employee, even though my working group was not unionized, we had some wonderful benefits thanks to unions in other parts of the industry. For instance, if we worked more than 8 hours in a day, we got overtime for that extra. We did NOT need to work more than 40 hours in the week to get that overtime. We were paid time and a half for working on Sunday, even if it was our regularly scheduled shift. On holidays, we got straight time for the eight hours we were scheduled to work, and time and a half for the hours we actually worked. Which means, assuming we only worked 8 hours, we got double time and a half. And if flights ran late, as they might well have, we got additional overtime pay.

All that didn't totally make up for never having an extra day off for a holiday, but the additional money was nice.

I sometimes point out to people that when I was an airline employee, I worked 5 days a week, 50 weeks a year. Period. Never a holiday off. Never. And there was often a lot of overtime work when flights ran late because of weather or maintenance. So we had a far more rigorous and difficult schedule than most people. At least I got free travel. Sometimes, totally free as in no service charge of any kind, such as on Pan American. Most of the time we were boarded in first class, because that was part of the agreed upon arrangement between airlines. Otherwise, we all looked after our own. It somewhat made up for the no holidays ever, no extra days off.

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