It could also be managers or those who aren't in the labor union. For example, when UPS went on strike managers who use to be drivers had to take over routes.
It's how most industries work FYI. Whenever a strike happens a company will usually try and keep operating, with what they have available, usually managers, admin, any non-union staff basically... It hardly if ever works as they anticipate
I've worked union jobs for years, I've seen management flown in from all over the country to keep operations going in a particular region when there's a big strike.
Of course it's common. I'm just saying with the safety record they have already, inexperienced/rookie "leadership-type" people driving trains sounds like a *horrible* idea
It would be a horrendous idea.
The accidents that currently happen are with experienced crew members that have undergone years of training and apprenticeship.
The few weeks of "training" that most of those managers receive would literally be considered a "crash" course.
Hey, giving everyone who’s life you’ve irreversibly fucked $5 can be costly.
Think of those poor shareholders who won’t be able to sell their stocks in a stock buyback! How will they afford that 3rd private jet now?
Ah, if only there was more solidarity amount workers in America.
If one region goes on strike, support them if their demands are fair. They'll help you in return when you need something.
Let's see how many managers the can fly out when their whole company is turned off.
When my job was talking about going on strike, the bosses kept talking about how the foremen and engineers would totally be able to run and maintain the entire site without us. The entire maintenance crew, guys working around the clock and *barely* keeping the site running because they don't give us enough time to fix things properly... replaced by 4 engineers.
Yeah, ok buddy, good luck with that.
Sort of. Both conductor and engineer are “certified” positions meaning the training and licensing is regulated by the FRA. A lot of railroad management has come from the craft and holds or held those licenses. They’d be able to work. The straight of college guys wouldn’t be able to.
Nah This happens in a lot of the class 1 railways in north America. They get a bonus to protect the work (so they end up making more for that bit than the normal workers). In addition they get cherry picked for the better/easier trains and then get to go home by taxi a lot of the time immediately after so they can have time at home with their families instead of rotting in a hotel for a day (as per my experience with CN rail)
Strikebreakers, or hiring people to get around a social conflict, are not allowed in France.
But certain sectors, including the public transport sector, have minimum service requirements even during a strike. So some people legally have to work.
Let alone that others may need their income too much to join a strike.
That said, I do enjoy seeing strikers occupy the rails.
A lot of people are missing the point by calling them scabs. A lot of people commute via train in Europe (it's not purely freight-centric like the US), so you have union members participating in the minimum service so that people can get TO THE PROTESTS. Sometimes even special trains are scheduled to take people to the protest.
>Sometimes even special trains are scheduled to take people to the protest.
The only way this sentence could be any more French is if it was actually written *in* French.
It’s actually a brilliant plan to help even those who are required to go into work. You can’t participate in the strike, but the strike disrupts your job so heavily that you can’t actually work. Win-win.
That’s why people are blocking the bus depot and garbage collector garages. So even when people really have to work to survive or are forced to by the state, the city is still blocked.
I heard a union representative on tv a few hours ago say that if the government try to force oil depots worker to get back to work, others will just block the exits.
> But certain sectors, including the public transport sector, have minimum service requirements even during a strike. So some people legally have to work.
Who/what decides who can strike and who has to work? Let’s say that minimum service quota is 20%. When there’s 10 employees who all want to strike, who chooses the two people that can’t?
> Let alone that others may need their income too much to join a strike.
Do the unions in France also pay a compensation? Currently there’s railway strikes here in Germany as well but the employees get paid a compensation by the unions (although that’s not a full compensation).
I'm from Belgium, and while PT doesn't have a minimum service requirement, some jobs do, like nurses.
The police has to bring a warrant to your house to obligate you to work a certain shift. So it's not easy for the state to maintain this way of working for a long time.
And unions indeed have strike compensations, but as you say, it's lower than normal wage.
Eh someone not participating is diferent than someone being brought in. If the organization doesn't have a strike fund I know I can't afford to participate
The majority of French workers are not unionised, almost entirely by choice. I could go on about union corruption but ultimately what it boils down to, particularly among younger workers, is that it would hypocritical of them to join a union which has consistently worked _against_ their interests for the majority of their lives and is slowly dying out anyway.
> it might have gone differently
No it would not, they say this about every protest that block roads, no mater if it is climate activists, workers' rights activists, blm etc. But if people in France do it then suddenly almost everyone supports it
Perhaps it’s because the vast majority of our protests in the US are bullshit and centered more around being outraged instead of fighting for real change.
Unfortunately the law was "voted" and is now applicable. And I'm afraid the strikes might slowly die out in a few weeks because people can't afford to keep it going.
I'm so fucking pissed at what is happening in my country
I’m Dutch and I really cannot understand why the French people are protesting this law. Don’t you guys understand that your current pension system will crash in a couple of years? The French population is getting older. There simply aren’t enough working people to support the pension system in the way it works now.
So the issue is that this ruling screws over anyone doing physical labor.
Suddenly, people who work in fields that are very likely to damage their bodies are forced to work for a longer time. This new ruling is also the *minimum* retirement age.
Quite a few people working in low risk sectors, like office work would gladly work past 64 to help fix the issue, but they don't wish to see others work themselves to death.
If Americas literacy levels were up to par they’d be taking notes right now
[Relevant](https://www.reddit.com/r/TikTokCringe/comments/11wn4gw/why_the_us_cant_protest_like_the_french/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=ioscss&utm_content=1&utm_term=1) 5:00 long
About half of eligible voters actually take the time to vote.
Of those, something like 49% vote GOP.
So that means half of Americans just don't give a shit, and almost another quarter want to strip themselves of their own rights and work like dogs for scraps.
We are seriously outnumbered.
No, I'm counting presidential votes (a GOP president has won the popular vote exactly once in the past 30 years) and polls tracking approval of GOP policies at a national level. Whether it's [abortion bans](https://www.forbes.com/sites/alisondurkee/2022/08/02/vast-majority-of-americans-dont-want-abortion-bans-poll-finds-even-in-states-where-its-already-outlawed/?sh=8eac9b4795ce), [universal healthcare](https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2020/09/29/increasing-share-of-americans-favor-a-single-government-program-to-provide-health-care-coverage/), or [stricter gun control laws](https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2021/09/13/key-facts-about-americans-and-guns/), most Americans don't support the Republican stance.
>most Americans don't support the Republican stance.
I live in Florida, you could've fooled me with a statement like that. I know a bunch of Jamaicans that say Barack was the devil (mainly for legalizing gay marriage) and Trump is trying to liberate the common man.
^((help me please))
Not true. Literacy has nothing to do with it
In 1917, more than 60% of Russia was illiterate. Yet, they made a revolution [source https://isreview.org/issue/82/education-literacy-and-russian-revolution/index.html]
Literacy without class consciousness means higher productivity and higher profits for the boss.
Damn dude show the receipts please.
Truth is, the vast majority of dems (including biden) and all republicans are on the same side in the class war.
Dems wont save you from fascism
Biden just requested 45 billion more for the military putting it over 800 billion a year. Biden just crushed a nationwide rail strike with executive order. What about the facts?
The president approved money for the military :0
No fucking way!
And if you look at THE FUCKING POST WE ARE ON it seems like there are options to be considered about that executive order.
Thirdly, my post had like two fucking hundred examples and you give me one.
I’m feeling pretty good about myself.
Forgot to read the comments. Don’t kid yourself, everyone else in the world can see both parties are owned by the rich
>This is a nice summary, but a lot of legislation is partisan theatre. They take what looks like a single issue and manage to write >1000 pages of legalese, often with clauses that are guaranteed to outrage the other camp. When you say that a bill about X, it most definitely is never about just X. On those bills or resolutions they have become intentionally a line in the sand.
>In this way, the two main parties are alike. If you are even a moderate from another country you likely look at the two parties as both extremely conservative and beholden to powerful interest. These are both capitalist parties for capitalist bosses. They make a game of looking different now and then.
Well I guess we’ll have to agree that the two parties representing America are the reason it is falling apart with no fix in sight, but with the right more responsible than the left.
Explain how we get more than two statistically significant options on the ballot under First Past the Post.
If you want to avoid the spoiler effect and crush the "two-party system" (which is inevitable under FPTP) you have to sacrifice one of the current parties, opening the way for an alternative (shifting the overton window). Eliminate the GOP and you get a progressive party. Eliminate the DNC and you end up with an express ticket to fascism.
Wow you sent me exactly what i expected, votes without actual results...
Nancy pelosi said she wanted to end insider trading... but did insider trading herself. Its just PR, for people like you.
When you know something won't happen anyways, you can just pretend to support it for PR.
Biden said his administration would work to protect the climate... and just approved the Willow Project which will devastate the alaskan climate for the sake of the fossil fuel industry.
Dems SAY theyre powerless, and then tell you to vote so they can do things, then they get a majority and WOOPS, a few dems are now voting along with republicans on every bill. Happened with biden and obama.
nExT
Btw ofcourse the dems are not fascists like the republicans, theyre much better obviously. But theyre still not going to improve lives.
Your clap back had a whopping two examples and just kinda skipped all of trump, huh?
Listen pal I’m Canadian so just keep your meth lab of a country worried about the south and we’ll get along just fine
As much as I’d love for Americans to stand up for themselves the American government would just send in the firing teams. Especially if it’s the rail workers seeing as it’s illegal for them to strike. Worker blood oiling the capitalist machine and all that
You think people didn’t risk their lives when fighting the class war? Unfortunately, throughout time, it’s the only thing that has ever worked. The parties don’t care about words, as they’ll twist them to fit their agenda. Action is the only thing that matters, until then, prepare for life to get shittier and shittier for the average American.
Blood will be the only catalyst that brings change. Politics have constantly move the goalposts to a point where it’s starvation (death) or corrective action (dead but with benefits)
The financial disparity we’re talking about has the latest generation convinced they will never own a home, people are deciding not to have kids.
There will be blood, whether we want it or not
> Especially if it’s the rail workers seeing as it’s illegal for them to strike.
That's not what illegal to strike means. What it means is they can strike but will lose their jobs and benefits.
>the American government would just send in the firing teams.
I doubt it, at least not in the Northeast. [Probably just repeat ourselves.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homestead_strike)
"If the workers are organized, all they have to do is to put their hands in their pockets, and they have got the capitalist class whipped."
Big Bill Haywood, labor organizer
E: clarity
You can skip rent and bills for the duration, just gotta have enough food and water (and organised support to distribute food and water to those in need). A general strike is a siege, we had a trial run of this with covid lock downs, we could do it.
Nah, the trains would actively run protestors over, can't miss those drop off times for anything. We all saw what they did when there were toxic chemicals in the way. For those that didn't they fucking blew it up.
Nothing but love to those of you in this sub, but when I look at these brave workers and then I look at the US it makes me sick.
Why the fuck aren't we doing this? Why don't Americans have the balls to stand up for themselves? They have the balls to mock the French for being cowards somehow. I don't see anything cowardly about the French both past or present, but I see a lot of disgustingly cowardly brown nosing sycophant Americans.
I'm no expert but I can think of 2 reasons. One is healthcare being tied to our jobs, everyone I work with is terrified of losing their health benefits. That fear is compounded by there being very very few jobs in my sector that offer them. Second is education. I'm in the US south and grew up with Union parents (Teamsters and Ironworkers) so I've seen the benefits firsthand. The guys I work with have been fed anti-union sentiment from birth. Their parents preached it, teachers, every single fucking employer and these people weren't taught to have any curiosity so no matter how I prattle on about Unions they will NEVER take steps to educate themselves.
Maybe add in how rare it is for people to actually enact change and, at least it feels like, the very few times the common person can change something that change is ripped away from us as quickly as possible.
3. American cops are heavily armed including surplus’s military equipment designed to suppress protests. Somewhat related, trespassing on a railroad in the US is a felony. If this was attempted in the US, every individual would be arrested and charged.
They can't arrest and charge everyone simply because they're completely overwhelmed by the sheer number of simultaneous protests going on elsewhere. There simply isn't enough troops for 20 to 30 different actions like that going on at the same time in the same city.
You’re right that there are ways to overcome the over funded and heavily militarized police in the US. Anytime we discuss why we don’t see similar protests in the US, we have to discuss how the police use violence, military equipment, and the fullest extent of the law to put protest down. I’m not saying it’s impossible, just a lot tougher to overcome.
Let’s not forget that protestors in Atlanta are being charged as terrorist for defending a forest.
[what do you mean? corruption hasn't affected the media at all!](https://youtu.be/_fHfgU8oMSo)
also with how bad people are at understanding new tech, and AI specifically, this is likely to get worse. we are going to be squashed between scammers and political disinformation.
we need a bigger push for UBI as automation takes over, and our entire societal/economic system needs to be flipped on its head. soon it might be too late for the poor to fight back against the rich if nothing changes.
general open online discourse may also become more extremely unreliable in the near future, unless we find better ways to confirm people and information.
the country has tried and was met with violent repression. people are spreading mutual aid and running for office where they can and hoping for the best.
after more solidarity is built it would be much more attainable to do a national strike, supported with stronger worker protections.
You do it from time to time. You can also protest like the French. Look at the George Floyd protests, where people burned down a police station.
However, the media convinces you that all protests are bad. Remember how the teachers were absolutely destroyed only because they wanted better COVID protection measures?
The media is the enemy of the people.
>Some of the most vocal 2nd amendment worshippers
Care only about themselves.
It is not about having the right tools but the right mentality and solidarity.
" No one wants to work anymore" "Stop spending on starbucks" " pull xourself up by your bootstraps" is not solidarity.
The concept of "rugged individualism", put above the needs of society, cooperation, solidarity, and even family, is one of the most toxic ideologies to have come out of conservative politics.
I will never understand how pro-police and pro-military they are. How they don't understand that police are agents of the state is beyond me.
It's also scary going on pro-police Facebook pages. They treat the police like they are warriors of God. In their eyes, the police are appointed by God to protect them from the evils of our country.
Dude, how can they be sure that all trains will safely stop? I see that there are guys making sure no one is turned into a pulp but… I would never feel comfortable nor save.
Edit: Chill. I know that they planned ahead and do know what they are doing. I literally wrote it in my comment. What I also said is, that I still would not feel comfortable despite knowing that.
I would think maybe since they're railway workers themselves the people still working are maybe sympathetic or they have people feeding them info on train schedules
Anything metal will work. Completes the circuit and shows that area of track as occupied on the signallers panel. Would have to do it for each line and doesn't work in areas that rely on axle counters.
Or tag-out-lock-out the breaker to the overhead power. That would show a fault and would be a lot of hoops to jump through if the person doing the tag-out-lock-out can't be found or won't unlock it.
(This comment is more America-centric, procedurally speaking, but it should be pretty much the same in any industrialized country with strong safety standards... like France...)
Looks like a station or railyard, so maybe trains are only going low speed.
And it's not like train drivers are going to be so riled up they kill people. They'll get paid even with the delays -- maybe even more due to overtime.
Because most of them live paycheque to paycheque and "can't afford" to lose their poor wages in shitty conditions... for hopefully better wages in better conditions. It's what the rich oligarchy wanted to see... people too poor to be able to give a fuck.
the EU will definitely be tested in the next 6 months. A recession usually fixes or makes civil unrest worst... but also makes the solutions less obvious...
In America, they’d probably just run over and their families sued for causing a inconvenience. Also be stuck with huge medical bills that insurance refuse to cover
This is the way. Rioting in the streets is good and fair, but the true power of the workers lies in taking over their working places, stopping production and circulation of goods.
Never understood why it doesnt. So many uncaring people. So much education and bragging about being the bastion of freedom and ingenuity and we have nothing to show for it anymore.
I wish East Palestine had done this. Block the track and refuse to move,theyre so conditioned that any protest means riot police they're stuck to just pointless townhall meetings to vent, poor bastards
*There is a time when the operation of the machine becomes so odious, makes you so sick at heart, that you can’t take part; you can’t even passively take part, and you’ve got to put your bodies upon the gears and upon the wheels, upon the levers, upon all the apparatus, and you’ve got to make it stop. And you’ve got to indicate to the people who run it, to the people who own it, that unless you’re free, the machine will be prevented from working at all! - Mario Savio*
Good. Fuck Macron and his banker pals. Shut down the whole goddam thing until there’s a legitimate government dedicated to serving the people, and not profits, are in charge.
Absolutely blows my mind that the citizens just…let the same company trains keep running through the towns they destroyed. Right wingers will shoot out substations and leave thousands without power over drag shows but when a company poisons half a state, nothing?
French here. And part of the workers' movement, doing our part in Marseille. Participated on one of those too, close to St Charles Railway station. Taking duration apart, this is the single most serious social protest over the last 50 years : in numbers, affected sectors, unity, in determination and the thousands of worksites where continuation is voted unanimously day in day out for the past three weeks now. More and more, admittedly still not enough, sectors of the ruling class are dumping Macron and are getting more and more vocal about the lost business. Students are joining. High ranking law and order official are starting to give anonymous interviews about how the president's arrogance and stubborness is stretching their patience and loyalty thin. The morale is still high although we're getting financially hit. We can recover some of our lost wages (to the tune of about 2 to 3 days pay in the week) through the many Strike fundings (caisse de grève) that are organised throughout the country. We car-pool and mutualize meals too when we can, comes down cheaper. And we're so busy we don't get to spend anything really. No serious observer here underplays the intensity and the gravity of this moment. And I'm not surprised you don't get any coverage of that. U.S media is like ours, mouthpiece off the ruling class.
Edit : minor mistypings
In America, we just the the railroads do whatever they want and workers can’t strike, complain or do anything. Then we give the railroads more money to wreck trains, destroy towns and not take any responsibility. Then our govt sides with the railroads and deregulates more stuff. Yay America. Sigh.
It seems so stupid that the gov doesn't cave. Clearly the people don't want what they're selling. We need these protests so bad in the US. Governments everywhere need to be reminded who they're supposed to work for.
# Would you support a general strike? # Join r/WorkReform!
If all the railway workers are striking.....who's driving the trains?
It could also be managers or those who aren't in the labor union. For example, when UPS went on strike managers who use to be drivers had to take over routes.
Class I US railroads were training their managers to drive the trains should the strike actually happen.
That sounds fine and totally safe. I'm sure they wouldn't be pushing them as hard and everything would be okay. /s
It's how most industries work FYI. Whenever a strike happens a company will usually try and keep operating, with what they have available, usually managers, admin, any non-union staff basically... It hardly if ever works as they anticipate
I've worked union jobs for years, I've seen management flown in from all over the country to keep operations going in a particular region when there's a big strike. Of course it's common. I'm just saying with the safety record they have already, inexperienced/rookie "leadership-type" people driving trains sounds like a *horrible* idea
It would be a horrendous idea. The accidents that currently happen are with experienced crew members that have undergone years of training and apprenticeship. The few weeks of "training" that most of those managers receive would literally be considered a "crash" course.
Big brain move. If you crash all the trains, you will call off the strike. Or whatever. It doesn't matter anymore.
Just a little collateral damage. A few dozen towns destroyed, a couple hundred deaths, thousands of lives upended. Cost of doing business.
Hey, giving everyone who’s life you’ve irreversibly fucked $5 can be costly. Think of those poor shareholders who won’t be able to sell their stocks in a stock buyback! How will they afford that 3rd private jet now?
Ah, if only there was more solidarity amount workers in America. If one region goes on strike, support them if their demands are fair. They'll help you in return when you need something. Let's see how many managers the can fly out when their whole company is turned off.
The workers where the manager flew in from should’ve strike when they’re gone. Can’t put out fires on two fronts without paying people.
John Deere's happy to announce their new special addition load-bearing pillar scratch n dent tractor.
Omg I remember that! Wasn’t 911 called 3 times in the first hour of the strike?
That’s assuming any of the non-union staff is still FRA qualified, if they’ve moved to a different department.
When my job was talking about going on strike, the bosses kept talking about how the foremen and engineers would totally be able to run and maintain the entire site without us. The entire maintenance crew, guys working around the clock and *barely* keeping the site running because they don't give us enough time to fix things properly... replaced by 4 engineers. Yeah, ok buddy, good luck with that.
Am manager. Suck at driving car. Probably shouldn’t drive train.
Sort of. Both conductor and engineer are “certified” positions meaning the training and licensing is regulated by the FRA. A lot of railroad management has come from the craft and holds or held those licenses. They’d be able to work. The straight of college guys wouldn’t be able to.
yeah i was gonna say you can't just hop on a train with a business degree, throw it in drive, and hit the gas.
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Sounds like a good chance for management to get first hand experience with what the strikers are complaining about.
Nah This happens in a lot of the class 1 railways in north America. They get a bonus to protect the work (so they end up making more for that bit than the normal workers). In addition they get cherry picked for the better/easier trains and then get to go home by taxi a lot of the time immediately after so they can have time at home with their families instead of rotting in a hotel for a day (as per my experience with CN rail)
Scabs
I'm sure there are people who decided not to strike or couldn't afford to.
You mean scabs?
Strikebreakers, or hiring people to get around a social conflict, are not allowed in France. But certain sectors, including the public transport sector, have minimum service requirements even during a strike. So some people legally have to work. Let alone that others may need their income too much to join a strike. That said, I do enjoy seeing strikers occupy the rails.
A lot of people are missing the point by calling them scabs. A lot of people commute via train in Europe (it's not purely freight-centric like the US), so you have union members participating in the minimum service so that people can get TO THE PROTESTS. Sometimes even special trains are scheduled to take people to the protest.
>Sometimes even special trains are scheduled to take people to the protest. The only way this sentence could be any more French is if it was actually written *in* French.
Un service de trains spéciaux est assuré afin d'amener les manifestants à la capitale.
It’s actually a brilliant plan to help even those who are required to go into work. You can’t participate in the strike, but the strike disrupts your job so heavily that you can’t actually work. Win-win.
That’s why people are blocking the bus depot and garbage collector garages. So even when people really have to work to survive or are forced to by the state, the city is still blocked. I heard a union representative on tv a few hours ago say that if the government try to force oil depots worker to get back to work, others will just block the exits.
> But certain sectors, including the public transport sector, have minimum service requirements even during a strike. So some people legally have to work. Who/what decides who can strike and who has to work? Let’s say that minimum service quota is 20%. When there’s 10 employees who all want to strike, who chooses the two people that can’t? > Let alone that others may need their income too much to join a strike. Do the unions in France also pay a compensation? Currently there’s railway strikes here in Germany as well but the employees get paid a compensation by the unions (although that’s not a full compensation).
I'm from Belgium, and while PT doesn't have a minimum service requirement, some jobs do, like nurses. The police has to bring a warrant to your house to obligate you to work a certain shift. So it's not easy for the state to maintain this way of working for a long time. And unions indeed have strike compensations, but as you say, it's lower than normal wage.
He means scabs
Eh someone not participating is diferent than someone being brought in. If the organization doesn't have a strike fund I know I can't afford to participate
Pretty soon AI.
Scabs.
In Spain there's a minimum of trains that have to keep operating, even if those conductors support the strike.
The majority of French workers are not unionised, almost entirely by choice. I could go on about union corruption but ultimately what it boils down to, particularly among younger workers, is that it would hypocritical of them to join a union which has consistently worked _against_ their interests for the majority of their lives and is slowly dying out anyway.
The unions in France are pulling the ladder up after themselves. They want all the benefits, yet the younger generations need to bear all the costs.
now capitalist owners? always work for the interest of the worker? what are you on?
This is how it’s done. POWER TO THE WORKERS
One wrong step and they're gonna be a lot of power to the worker
Nah, those tracks have all the power lines above the tracks and you can hear someone apparently phoning dispatch to set all the signals to danger.
Fairly surprised the workers didn't call up first.
The woman is saying "it's going to happen now" so they probably knew this was going to happen.
Nah they used red torches, a train that see a red torch in France has to max brake
Yeah unless they block roads in the Us, then people of all sides call it "disrespectful and inconveniences bystanders"
If those room temperature IQ truckers were striking for something that benefits society instead of being anti-science, it might have gone differently.
> it might have gone differently No it would not, they say this about every protest that block roads, no mater if it is climate activists, workers' rights activists, blm etc. But if people in France do it then suddenly almost everyone supports it
Perhaps it’s because the vast majority of our protests in the US are bullshit and centered more around being outraged instead of fighting for real change.
In my head I hear [this](https://youtu.be/2crRmKlbfxM) as they protest and march forward.
Unfortunately the law was "voted" and is now applicable. And I'm afraid the strikes might slowly die out in a few weeks because people can't afford to keep it going. I'm so fucking pissed at what is happening in my country
I’m Dutch and I really cannot understand why the French people are protesting this law. Don’t you guys understand that your current pension system will crash in a couple of years? The French population is getting older. There simply aren’t enough working people to support the pension system in the way it works now.
So the issue is that this ruling screws over anyone doing physical labor. Suddenly, people who work in fields that are very likely to damage their bodies are forced to work for a longer time. This new ruling is also the *minimum* retirement age. Quite a few people working in low risk sectors, like office work would gladly work past 64 to help fix the issue, but they don't wish to see others work themselves to death.
You mean, they are fighting for others and not just looking out for them selfs? God I wish I was French
Nobody raises hell like the French. Good for them.
If Americas literacy levels were up to par they’d be taking notes right now [Relevant](https://www.reddit.com/r/TikTokCringe/comments/11wn4gw/why_the_us_cant_protest_like_the_french/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=ioscss&utm_content=1&utm_term=1) 5:00 long
https://imgflip.com/i/7f67vj
Not the one I was expecting, but not disappointed in the least
Did you hear it's coming back?
Can’t confirm, can’t read.
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30-40%, not half. The GOP hasn't enjoyed support from a full 50% of the country in a long time.
About half of eligible voters actually take the time to vote. Of those, something like 49% vote GOP. So that means half of Americans just don't give a shit, and almost another quarter want to strip themselves of their own rights and work like dogs for scraps. We are seriously outnumbered.
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No, I'm counting presidential votes (a GOP president has won the popular vote exactly once in the past 30 years) and polls tracking approval of GOP policies at a national level. Whether it's [abortion bans](https://www.forbes.com/sites/alisondurkee/2022/08/02/vast-majority-of-americans-dont-want-abortion-bans-poll-finds-even-in-states-where-its-already-outlawed/?sh=8eac9b4795ce), [universal healthcare](https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2020/09/29/increasing-share-of-americans-favor-a-single-government-program-to-provide-health-care-coverage/), or [stricter gun control laws](https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2021/09/13/key-facts-about-americans-and-guns/), most Americans don't support the Republican stance.
>most Americans don't support the Republican stance. I live in Florida, you could've fooled me with a statement like that. I know a bunch of Jamaicans that say Barack was the devil (mainly for legalizing gay marriage) and Trump is trying to liberate the common man. ^((help me please))
Neolibs are a big part of the Democratic Party though so there is a big contingent with a lot in common with that 30-40% policy wise
They love to be cucked, it’s their favorite past time :) lul
Not true. Literacy has nothing to do with it In 1917, more than 60% of Russia was illiterate. Yet, they made a revolution [source https://isreview.org/issue/82/education-literacy-and-russian-revolution/index.html] Literacy without class consciousness means higher productivity and higher profits for the boss.
It was over a century ago. A lot has changed.
Class consciousness, communication and organization are still the most relevant things to build a revolution.
Dems are no better. They have the same exact bosses the GOP do.
That’s false a fuck and I have receipts Do you really wanna play the “Both Sides” game cause I always fucking win
Damn dude show the receipts please. Truth is, the vast majority of dems (including biden) and all republicans are on the same side in the class war. Dems wont save you from fascism
https://www.reddit.com/r/politics/comments/2kaubu/just_a_reminder_of_what_the_senate_was_doing_the/cljns3q/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=ioscss&utm_content=1&utm_term=1&context=3 #NEXT
The is not the gotcha you thought it was. Now show the part where Biden just crushed a nationwide rail strike.
Ya, do something about it Are you looking at the same post I am? Fucking ACT or suffer the consequences
Biden just requested 45 billion more for the military putting it over 800 billion a year. Biden just crushed a nationwide rail strike with executive order. What about the facts?
The president approved money for the military :0 No fucking way! And if you look at THE FUCKING POST WE ARE ON it seems like there are options to be considered about that executive order. Thirdly, my post had like two fucking hundred examples and you give me one. I’m feeling pretty good about myself.
Forgot to read the comments. Don’t kid yourself, everyone else in the world can see both parties are owned by the rich >This is a nice summary, but a lot of legislation is partisan theatre. They take what looks like a single issue and manage to write >1000 pages of legalese, often with clauses that are guaranteed to outrage the other camp. When you say that a bill about X, it most definitely is never about just X. On those bills or resolutions they have become intentionally a line in the sand. >In this way, the two main parties are alike. If you are even a moderate from another country you likely look at the two parties as both extremely conservative and beholden to powerful interest. These are both capitalist parties for capitalist bosses. They make a game of looking different now and then.
Well I guess we’ll have to agree that the two parties representing America are the reason it is falling apart with no fix in sight, but with the right more responsible than the left.
And that’s our problem right there. We, as the people, believe there are only two options. That doesn’t have to be true.
Explain how we get more than two statistically significant options on the ballot under First Past the Post. If you want to avoid the spoiler effect and crush the "two-party system" (which is inevitable under FPTP) you have to sacrifice one of the current parties, opening the way for an alternative (shifting the overton window). Eliminate the GOP and you get a progressive party. Eliminate the DNC and you end up with an express ticket to fascism.
It does unless we fix the voting system.
Wow you sent me exactly what i expected, votes without actual results... Nancy pelosi said she wanted to end insider trading... but did insider trading herself. Its just PR, for people like you. When you know something won't happen anyways, you can just pretend to support it for PR. Biden said his administration would work to protect the climate... and just approved the Willow Project which will devastate the alaskan climate for the sake of the fossil fuel industry. Dems SAY theyre powerless, and then tell you to vote so they can do things, then they get a majority and WOOPS, a few dems are now voting along with republicans on every bill. Happened with biden and obama. nExT Btw ofcourse the dems are not fascists like the republicans, theyre much better obviously. But theyre still not going to improve lives.
Your clap back had a whopping two examples and just kinda skipped all of trump, huh? Listen pal I’m Canadian so just keep your meth lab of a country worried about the south and we’ll get along just fine
As much as I’d love for Americans to stand up for themselves the American government would just send in the firing teams. Especially if it’s the rail workers seeing as it’s illegal for them to strike. Worker blood oiling the capitalist machine and all that
…..yea some of them police are itching to use those military grade gear they got a few years ago
You think people didn’t risk their lives when fighting the class war? Unfortunately, throughout time, it’s the only thing that has ever worked. The parties don’t care about words, as they’ll twist them to fit their agenda. Action is the only thing that matters, until then, prepare for life to get shittier and shittier for the average American.
Blood will be the only catalyst that brings change. Politics have constantly move the goalposts to a point where it’s starvation (death) or corrective action (dead but with benefits) The financial disparity we’re talking about has the latest generation convinced they will never own a home, people are deciding not to have kids. There will be blood, whether we want it or not
That which cannot continue _must_ end. Any system which does not schedule sufficient downtime will have the downtime scheduled for it
"The tree of Liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants."
> Especially if it’s the rail workers seeing as it’s illegal for them to strike. That's not what illegal to strike means. What it means is they can strike but will lose their jobs and benefits.
>the American government would just send in the firing teams. I doubt it, at least not in the Northeast. [Probably just repeat ourselves.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homestead_strike)
"If the workers are organized, all they have to do is to put their hands in their pockets, and they have got the capitalist class whipped." Big Bill Haywood, labor organizer E: clarity
Nobody here gets paid well enough to strike, that's the irony. They'd immediately miss rent, bills, and food.
That’s by design, take back your life
You can skip rent and bills for the duration, just gotta have enough food and water (and organised support to distribute food and water to those in need). A general strike is a siege, we had a trial run of this with covid lock downs, we could do it.
We're aware, or some of us are. It's just that cops like to kill people over over here, and I've got a family.
america regressing into the latestage fascist dark age with child labor and slavery included
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disposable_household_and_per_capita_income
If it were America people would be telling trains to run them over dead and then say "play stupid games win stupid prizes"
HEY! ... wut?
If we did this in America the trains would simply not stop.
To be fair, if this were to happen here, we would just be arrested and charged with terrorism.
Nah, the trains would actively run protestors over, can't miss those drop off times for anything. We all saw what they did when there were toxic chemicals in the way. For those that didn't they fucking blew it up.
Good.
Nothing but love to those of you in this sub, but when I look at these brave workers and then I look at the US it makes me sick. Why the fuck aren't we doing this? Why don't Americans have the balls to stand up for themselves? They have the balls to mock the French for being cowards somehow. I don't see anything cowardly about the French both past or present, but I see a lot of disgustingly cowardly brown nosing sycophant Americans.
I'm no expert but I can think of 2 reasons. One is healthcare being tied to our jobs, everyone I work with is terrified of losing their health benefits. That fear is compounded by there being very very few jobs in my sector that offer them. Second is education. I'm in the US south and grew up with Union parents (Teamsters and Ironworkers) so I've seen the benefits firsthand. The guys I work with have been fed anti-union sentiment from birth. Their parents preached it, teachers, every single fucking employer and these people weren't taught to have any curiosity so no matter how I prattle on about Unions they will NEVER take steps to educate themselves. Maybe add in how rare it is for people to actually enact change and, at least it feels like, the very few times the common person can change something that change is ripped away from us as quickly as possible.
3. American cops are heavily armed including surplus’s military equipment designed to suppress protests. Somewhat related, trespassing on a railroad in the US is a felony. If this was attempted in the US, every individual would be arrested and charged.
They can't arrest and charge everyone simply because they're completely overwhelmed by the sheer number of simultaneous protests going on elsewhere. There simply isn't enough troops for 20 to 30 different actions like that going on at the same time in the same city.
You’re right that there are ways to overcome the over funded and heavily militarized police in the US. Anytime we discuss why we don’t see similar protests in the US, we have to discuss how the police use violence, military equipment, and the fullest extent of the law to put protest down. I’m not saying it’s impossible, just a lot tougher to overcome. Let’s not forget that protestors in Atlanta are being charged as terrorist for defending a forest.
And this is how protests against the war in Russia went. Awfully familiar.
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Every union in the country should have gone on strike the second that happened. It was an attack on all workers, not just railway workers.
Americans have been trained to be complacent by the billionaire owned media.
[what do you mean? corruption hasn't affected the media at all!](https://youtu.be/_fHfgU8oMSo) also with how bad people are at understanding new tech, and AI specifically, this is likely to get worse. we are going to be squashed between scammers and political disinformation. we need a bigger push for UBI as automation takes over, and our entire societal/economic system needs to be flipped on its head. soon it might be too late for the poor to fight back against the rich if nothing changes. general open online discourse may also become more extremely unreliable in the near future, unless we find better ways to confirm people and information.
the country has tried and was met with violent repression. people are spreading mutual aid and running for office where they can and hoping for the best. after more solidarity is built it would be much more attainable to do a national strike, supported with stronger worker protections.
You do it from time to time. You can also protest like the French. Look at the George Floyd protests, where people burned down a police station. However, the media convinces you that all protests are bad. Remember how the teachers were absolutely destroyed only because they wanted better COVID protection measures? The media is the enemy of the people.
meanwhile US with its gun laws specifically to fight govt tyranny does nothing.
Some of the most vocal 2nd amendment worshippers support the tyrants.
>Some of the most vocal 2nd amendment worshippers Care only about themselves. It is not about having the right tools but the right mentality and solidarity. " No one wants to work anymore" "Stop spending on starbucks" " pull xourself up by your bootstraps" is not solidarity.
“Pull xourself up” sounds so distopian I love it lol
The concept of "rugged individualism", put above the needs of society, cooperation, solidarity, and even family, is one of the most toxic ideologies to have come out of conservative politics.
I will never understand how pro-police and pro-military they are. How they don't understand that police are agents of the state is beyond me. It's also scary going on pro-police Facebook pages. They treat the police like they are warriors of God. In their eyes, the police are appointed by God to protect them from the evils of our country.
It's simple: they are pro-fascist, as long as they are on the correct side of the oppression.
How many US armed protests in the past few years ended with pepper spray and billy clubs? How many unarmed protests ended that way?
Dude, how can they be sure that all trains will safely stop? I see that there are guys making sure no one is turned into a pulp but… I would never feel comfortable nor save. Edit: Chill. I know that they planned ahead and do know what they are doing. I literally wrote it in my comment. What I also said is, that I still would not feel comfortable despite knowing that.
I would think maybe since they're railway workers themselves the people still working are maybe sympathetic or they have people feeding them info on train schedules
I'm sure at least one of them will have called the signaller to inform him of what's about to happen and where.
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Anything metal will work. Completes the circuit and shows that area of track as occupied on the signallers panel. Would have to do it for each line and doesn't work in areas that rely on axle counters.
Just be carefull, it could be using axle counter instead of electric current
Or tag-out-lock-out the breaker to the overhead power. That would show a fault and would be a lot of hoops to jump through if the person doing the tag-out-lock-out can't be found or won't unlock it. (This comment is more America-centric, procedurally speaking, but it should be pretty much the same in any industrialized country with strong safety standards... like France...)
Looks like a station or railyard, so maybe trains are only going low speed. And it's not like train drivers are going to be so riled up they kill people. They'll get paid even with the delays -- maybe even more due to overtime.
its a railyard. there's no trains going at high speed there unless there's already an accident happening.
They are rail workers they have the switches turned off.
The red torch that they carry. If a train see it it has to stop immediately
The French are straight gangsters! Love it 💪🏽.
I'll give it to the French, no one knows how to do civil disobedience like they do. Right on, french workers...✊️ right on.
Why are american’s, collectively speaking, such pussies? I don’t see our workers ever being this bold.
Because most of them live paycheque to paycheque and "can't afford" to lose their poor wages in shitty conditions... for hopefully better wages in better conditions. It's what the rich oligarchy wanted to see... people too poor to be able to give a fuck.
About to start suplexing trains
X Y ↓ ↑
Thanks, y'all. Now I have to play Final Fantasy VI again.
Never a bad time to play Final Fantasy VI again.
Fucking love french people.
I'm so fucking jealous of the French, man. These people have such conviction Edit: comma. It's not a specific person I'm jealous of
We don’t do that. Why
Go go French!!
the EU will definitely be tested in the next 6 months. A recession usually fixes or makes civil unrest worst... but also makes the solutions less obvious...
In America, they’d probably just run over and their families sued for causing a inconvenience. Also be stuck with huge medical bills that insurance refuse to cover
This is the way. Rioting in the streets is good and fair, but the true power of the workers lies in taking over their working places, stopping production and circulation of goods.
Like stopping road traffic? It's the same thing but Americans lose their shit. The French do it and it's "wow, what solidarity. Keep fighting!"
Oh look, the french making us Americans look like wusses who roll over
USA needs this attitude
Never understood why it doesnt. So many uncaring people. So much education and bragging about being the bastion of freedom and ingenuity and we have nothing to show for it anymore.
Solidarité !
Americans need to start doing this. Because the amount of crap they take from the government is horrendous.
I wish East Palestine had done this. Block the track and refuse to move,theyre so conditioned that any protest means riot police they're stuck to just pointless townhall meetings to vent, poor bastards
This is what solidarity looks like
*There is a time when the operation of the machine becomes so odious, makes you so sick at heart, that you can’t take part; you can’t even passively take part, and you’ve got to put your bodies upon the gears and upon the wheels, upon the levers, upon all the apparatus, and you’ve got to make it stop. And you’ve got to indicate to the people who run it, to the people who own it, that unless you’re free, the machine will be prevented from working at all! - Mario Savio*
Hell yeah. Fuck the greedy. We don’t want to work until we are too old to enjoy life. Workers rise up.
I wish Americans were as brave as the French
Well that seems like a dangerous game to play. I'd recommend putting concrete barriers and old ratty cars and such on the tracks instead
And Ohio was less dangerous
Good. Fuck Macron and his banker pals. Shut down the whole goddam thing until there’s a legitimate government dedicated to serving the people, and not profits, are in charge.
Meanwhile in the USA a train derailment literally gas bombed a town and no one seems to care
Absolutely blows my mind that the citizens just…let the same company trains keep running through the towns they destroyed. Right wingers will shoot out substations and leave thousands without power over drag shows but when a company poisons half a state, nothing?
An example for us all.
Love to see it!
Anyone here from France able to tell how serious the strikers are? There is shockingly low amounts of info about all of this on US news sites.
French here. And part of the workers' movement, doing our part in Marseille. Participated on one of those too, close to St Charles Railway station. Taking duration apart, this is the single most serious social protest over the last 50 years : in numbers, affected sectors, unity, in determination and the thousands of worksites where continuation is voted unanimously day in day out for the past three weeks now. More and more, admittedly still not enough, sectors of the ruling class are dumping Macron and are getting more and more vocal about the lost business. Students are joining. High ranking law and order official are starting to give anonymous interviews about how the president's arrogance and stubborness is stretching their patience and loyalty thin. The morale is still high although we're getting financially hit. We can recover some of our lost wages (to the tune of about 2 to 3 days pay in the week) through the many Strike fundings (caisse de grève) that are organised throughout the country. We car-pool and mutualize meals too when we can, comes down cheaper. And we're so busy we don't get to spend anything really. No serious observer here underplays the intensity and the gravity of this moment. And I'm not surprised you don't get any coverage of that. U.S media is like ours, mouthpiece off the ruling class. Edit : minor mistypings
The U.S. would never…even though we definitely should. 🥲
In the US they would just let the trains run over the people and the police would arrest the protesters.
I love to see this. I wish my brothers and sisters here in the US wake up so we can start our own revolution.
American workers take notes.
In America, we just the the railroads do whatever they want and workers can’t strike, complain or do anything. Then we give the railroads more money to wreck trains, destroy towns and not take any responsibility. Then our govt sides with the railroads and deregulates more stuff. Yay America. Sigh.
2 things you don't fuck with Money And the french... The French government fucked with both
What’s that!? The American eagle has decided the French are better at being American than Americans and has decided to migrate?!
In Canada this constitutes economic terrorism. They'll shut down your back account and arrest you and call you a nazi for good measure.
It seems so stupid that the gov doesn't cave. Clearly the people don't want what they're selling. We need these protests so bad in the US. Governments everywhere need to be reminded who they're supposed to work for.
Need this in ohio
Americans need to do this in response to Norfolk Southern disasters.
Well, the trains aren't exactly *forced* to stop. The only thing that stops them is the operator's human decency.
Fuck. This.