208 Comments
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Zyxomma's avatar

Ta, Robyn. Solidarity forever.

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Mathew Reuther's avatar

He clearly made that choice and infuriated a ton of his members. Cognitive dissonance, baby.

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subterrene's avatar

In the words of Killer Mike:

So I go get a job, UPS

Where they treat you like BS

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Mr Mild - BlueVotingBastard💙's avatar

Here in the People's Republic of Massachusetts there's a ballot question (Question 3 - Unionization for Transportation Network Drivers) whether or not to give Uber and Lyft drivers the right to form Collective Bargaining units. I'm a fan of unions (never belonged to one, my Mother and Step-Dad were on their respective schools Collective Bargaining committees, and the Mild Jrs are members of their respective school's union (Mild Jr is the rep for his school building)).

Recently there have been several ads about Uber and Lyft (paid for by Uber and Lyft or their lobbyists, I assume). The first set of ads aired a few months ago; it portrayed Uber and Lyft drivers as happy being "Independent Contractors", working what hours they wanted, etc. The more recent ones talk about how there is now a base pay rate ($34 something an hour), paid health care, and some other benefits. I assume these ads are paid for the same group who paid for the first set of ads.

I'm not quite sure how to vote on this, I like the idea of the drivers being able to bargain for wages and benefits, but the language of the petition is about 7 and a half pages, and it doesn't include Delivery drivers (DoorDash, Instacart, etc).

I'll have to think on this some more.

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I Stedman's avatar

Problem being that there are lots and lots of 'gig workers' out there who don't work for Uber and Lyft.

All the independent musicians who play concerts here and there and make the ends meet with teaching lessons to a few students.

Independent carpenters who work to build a thing, then move on.

All these people are independent 'gig' workers - who control their own hours and pay, UNLIKE LYFT AND UBER - and they were doing fine before someone decided to invade the taxi industry.

Legislators just have not quite thought this one through.

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carovee's avatar

Congrats, may so many drivers follow that Bezos cries great buckets of tears.

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Waffle McWafflersdatter's avatar

Amazon CEO announces 5-day return to office mandate today. Seems like it could be a tantrum in response to this. I hope the whole damn workforce unionizes and the NLRB eats them alive.

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carovee's avatar

Most likely. Also (bad) managers seem to have forgotten that workers were plenty productive at home.

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Queen Méabh's avatar

Many years ago I worked as a temp employee for a major airline that shall be nameless, I worked as the paralegal for the top corporate attorney, who was a VP of the airline. At one Board meeting just before Christmas my boss asked me to sit in on the meeting, and I got to hear all the executives bitching about one small regional office somewhere in Wisconsin where ONE PERSON was agitating for a union. They voted to fire every single person in that office the day before Christmas. They chose that day on purpose to cause the maximum distress for their families during the #1 holiday season of the year. They could have waited until after New Year's, but chose not to. I could tell that my boss was personally upset about it, but he never said a word during the meeting and voted to approve this plan, rather than stand up for his principles. I was sick to my stomach and very glad I was only a temp employee and could GTFO of there soon. The offered me a permanent job, but I turned it down. My parents had raised me to dislike filthy rich people, and that was the day on which I understood why they felt that way.

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I Stedman's avatar

If your boss had squawked, they too would have been fired the day before Christmas.

This is why they invented unions...

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Sherry's avatar

That was just shitty.

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enon's avatar

i would also think the timing of the firing is when employees are focused on xmas

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Queen Méabh's avatar

My great great grandfather was a Teamster for the US Army during the Mexican-American War in 1848. That was when the word "teamster" meant what it originally meant, which was driving wagons with teams of horses. He did it again for the Union Army during the Civil War, which was the closest he ever came to being in a "union." I am pretty sure he would approve of this post if he were alive.

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John Thorstensen's avatar

Congratulations!

I guess the drivers had been ionized, but now they're unionized! It's hard to be neutral about this, though.

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MorganX's avatar

----------->>>>> !!!!!!!!!!!!

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fair_n_hite_451's avatar

I was positive someone would make this pun.

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Gary Seven in Space's avatar

Which Ionizer were they using?

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John Thorstensen's avatar

Far-ultraviolet radiation, I believe.

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Gary Seven in Space's avatar

Far Right side of the Spectrum, eh....

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John Thorstensen's avatar

Well, it's kind of an extreme blue, so more like the Bernie Sanders and AOC side.

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Uncle Milburn's avatar

The Isomiser.

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MorganX's avatar

Fuck this particular Sean, not the Good Shawn, and all honors and trophies (and benefits!) to the actual Teamsters who fought to get those protections. Facing retaliation including job loss and worse is scary stuff.

OT: got morning workout done, around lunchtime, still waiting to get the rest of bloodwork results.

Ballet barre crap, 200 reps. Triceps/arms, 120 reps. Abs/core, 150 reps. Repeat tonight!

New oatmilk, yummo, knocks off lotta calories. Breakfast, lunch & snack: 570 cals, 55gm protein.

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Enter Ranting's avatar

Hey Republicans, please stop trying to shoot Donald Trump. If you kill him, I won't get to watch Kamala whoop his ass in 49 days.

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Khavrinen's avatar

*After* the election, however....

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Enter Ranting's avatar

May he spend the rest of his miserable life in fear of being shot at any second.

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MorganX's avatar

And he won't even get to do PRISON!!!

He MUST stay alive!!

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Prometheus59650's avatar

𝐒𝐞𝐜𝐫𝐞𝐭 𝐒𝐞𝐫𝐯𝐢𝐜𝐞 𝐰𝐚𝐫𝐧𝐞𝐝 𝐓𝐫𝐮𝐦𝐩 𝐚𝐠𝐚𝐢𝐧𝐬𝐭 𝐩𝐥𝐚𝐲𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐉𝐮𝐩𝐢𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐜𝐥𝐮𝐛 𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐫 𝐬𝐞𝐜𝐮𝐫𝐢𝐭𝐲 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐜𝐞𝐫𝐧𝐬: 𝐫𝐞𝐩𝐨𝐫𝐭

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carovee's avatar

The GOP practical lives to ignore warnings.

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MRK's avatar

Meanwhile, he's blaming Democrats when there's no reason to believe this person (I was about to say shooter, but he never fired a shot) ever listened to Democrats.

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carovee's avatar

I wish the media would do a better job of clearing that up. The shots were secret service shooting,

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Prometheus59650's avatar

Not to any degree so you could fairly call him a Dem. He was all over the place, but mostly right.

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MRK's avatar

He was on the right, except he wasn't an idiot on Ukraine. That doesn't seem 'all over the place' to me.

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Satanic Pancake's avatar

Well, he also supported famously liberal Tulsi Gabbard, she of the always Democratic. Wait . . .

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Prometheus59650's avatar

Didn't he donate to and otherwise push Warren at some point?

If that has turned out to be wrong then it's wrong. But if it's true, Elizabeth Warren isn't exactly a conservative.

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MRK's avatar

This is the first I'm hearing of that, and it seems unlikely with someone who supported the people I know he supported. If true, perhaps he had different ideas at one point, but this might be another situation where someone with the same name is being confused with this guy.

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Trespassers Will's avatar

Wow, he sure is brave! He should keep being brave!

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SkeptiKC's avatar

As if he pays attention to a damned thing anyone ever tells him.

Particularly at this desperate juncture in time...

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Prometheus59650's avatar

But, "Meeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!"

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gallbladder's avatar

"Now, watch this drive."

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🍁 L Ron Pony's avatar

<slices the ball into the rough>

'Hole in one!'

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fair_n_hite_451's avatar

"How to win at golf"

by Kim Jong-un

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Mysterysurf's avatar

Harris was meeting with the Teamsters today, right? Will be curious about how that goes.

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Gary Seven in Space's avatar

I can't find a time or livestream...do you have a link?

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Prometheus59650's avatar

I'm not sure how much it matters. Rank and file have already announced support. Not sure how much it matters what the scab says in the end.

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Gary Seven in Space's avatar

Not all....Truck drivers are notoriously MAGA because of years of RWNJ talk radio bullshit.

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MRK's avatar

It will be interesting to see what happens the next time the Teamsters have to pick their president.

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Prometheus59650's avatar

I'm pretty sure his days are numbered in the jerb.

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Dorothea is a Democrat's avatar

I'm still getting a text a day from Democrats. I always text STOP, but the next day it comes in under a different name. They apparently have an unending supply. Yesterdays was STOP-MAGA. Anywho, I get the reason for allowing political communication in this manner, and the catch was you can make it STOP. Easy as pie. But I doubt anybody could foresee the use of endless titles effectively making the action STOP totally useless.

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Runfastandwin's avatar

delete all is your friend

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Georgiaburning's avatar

I keep getting ones that talk about crushing Trump, but I want to see the video.

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𝕺𝖓𝖙𝖍𝖊𝖔𝖙𝖍𝖊𝖗𝖍𝖆𝖓𝖉's avatar

With sound.

Shit! Did I say that out loud?

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Trespassers Will's avatar

Many of them are scammers too. Best always to go to the site for whomever you want to contribute to (you probably know this but it’s always worth pointing out).

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Michael B's avatar

Only one a day? What is your secret, I get 30 or more everyday...

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Russell Jones's avatar

OT: I hadn't seen this before, but the Green Party got booted off the November ballot in Nevada:

https://www.cnn.com/2024/09/13/politics/green-party-jill-stein-supreme-court-nevada/index.html

The Greens are asking SCOTUS to overturn the Nevada Supreme Court's ruling, and to stay the state court ruling in the meantime.

"The Green Party is being represented by Jay Sekulow, one of former President Donald Trump’s personal attorneys."

Sekulow is an exceptionally competent and successful lawyer who's been advocating on the wrong side of many issues for decades.

It's my hope that there are far fewer Jilliots now than there were in 2016, but I don't know that for sure.

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Dorothea is a Democrat's avatar

JFC. Sekulow is scum.

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🍁 L Ron Pony's avatar

Scum.

Works for scum.

Checks out.

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Oy!'s avatar

Too bad the Teamsters have the hack Sean O'Brien as President. Sorry but I don't buy his bullshit spin about why he spoke at the Trump convention.

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gallbladder's avatar

I'm still waiting for that match-up between him and Mullin.

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