Oh, how pleasant. First, from the Democratic Soviet of Minnesoduh:
About 15,000 nurses in Minnesota walked off the job Monday to protest understaffing and overwork — marking the largest strike of private-sector nurses in U.S. history.
Slated to last three days, the strike spotlights nationwide nursing shortages exacerbated by the coronavirus pandemic that often result in patients not receiving adequate care. Tensions remain high between nurses and health-care administrators across the country, and there are signs that work stoppages could spread to other states.
Interesting, that. It’s not like the hospital administrators can just round up random people in the streets and say, “Hey, wanna job?” (although I suspect that Parkland in Dallas has been doing just that for years already).
Round about now, I bet those same hospital administrators kinda regret firing all those people for refusing to be guinea-pigs for an untested vaccine.
Anyway, the next bit of end-of-summer cheer comes from the railroads:
The International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM) said on Wednesday that its members rejected a tentative deal by its leaders intended to avoid a nationwide railroad strike.
BNSF, CSX, Norfolk Southern, and Union Pacific — four of the nation’s largest rail lines — announced embargoes on certain shipments earlier this week as negotiations continued, although 10 of the nation’s 12 largest railroad unions had tentatively endorsed an agreement outlined by the White House. However, IAM — which was originally among the 10 unions — announced its members rejected the deal.
Strikes could begin later this week if union leaders and rail companies fail to make a deal. House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD) said on Monday that Congress, which has the authority to block strikes, would intervene “if needed.”
Supply chain bottlenecks driven by labor shortages and worldwide government lockdowns have impacted the American economy over the past two years, leading to inflationary pressures as consumer goods fail to reach shelves. The daily cost of a nationwide rail shutdown could amount to $2 billion, according to a report from the Association of American Railroads, which noted that trucking companies and other alternatives do not presently have the capacity to carry freight previously handled by rail lines.
Hands up all those who think that the current Administration has the ability to prevent either of these — oh, none of you, huh?
Me neither.
Now would be a great time for Transport Sec BootyJudge to adopt another kid and take some more “maternity” leave right? It’s really hard for men to has babies ya know and they needs lots of time off.
And…unless they’ve fixed it, there’s also the threatened port strike by the dockworkers in LA since their last contract expired in June (which no one has been talking about on the news of course).
Joe will probably blame Putin, then Trump, and finally he’ll blame the Republican party because they wouldn’t agree to his Build Back Bullshit plan.
And to fix it, I expect Congress acting like the collective courtiers of Canute will insist Joe issue executive orders to stop the economy from crashing and inflation from rising while they busily hunt down phones from anyone who even whispered the words Trump and/or Stolen election.
You might want to issue one last suggestion that people stock up on shelf stable edibles tomorrow, because it’s very possible we’re about to be on the receiving end of a perfect storm of government induced shit.
I didn’t hear about the dock worker’s contract expiring. No surprise the media doesn’t cover this.
Healthcare is in shambles. Nursing is its own worst enemy. It does nothing to stop the mantra of “nurses eat their own” that was prevalent from nursing school right on up through me leaving the industry. Far too many managers are burnt out bullies who have no place in the occupation. Nursing has also self immolated by ending diploma programs, tossing LPNs out of hospitals, and trying to get Associate Degree nursing programs shut down. They demand that more nurses get expensive yet meaningless master’s degrees that do nothing to improve care and only increase a nurse’s debt to get educated. Good luck to the nurses on strike. Massachusetts recently had a referendum requiring nursing ratios to patients. If the healthcare industry won’t fix itself then the politicians will get involved and we all know that politicians can’t fix a sandwich.
JQ
Dock workers, nurses, and railroad workers mostly sound like MAGA deplorables to me. It’ll be interesting to see if our government tries to impose the same penalties the Canadian truckers got and, if so, what the response will be.
I’m gonna keep saying it anywhere I am allowed to do so for as long as
‘news’ organizations keep printing / saying otherwise –
‘Chain bottlenecks …….. labor shortages ‘ have NOTHING to do with inflation !
Yeah, I know, I’m preaching to the choir.
Inflation is simply printing money to pay for whatever you want/have to
pay for ! Carter did it and Dufus ‘R’ Us ( or whoever is REALLY in charge ) is
running a real close 2nd, soon to be 1st place !!
They are still printing money to cover the revenue shortfall due to the several
MILLION workers ( from what I have read,seen and heard ) who have never
gone back to work since the lock downs, shutdowns, and stoppages !!
So those people, instead of contributing tax dollars are now receiving them !!
Do they really NEED 80,000+ new IRS employees ?? To do WHAT ?? You know
the answer. This will make the IRS larger than the Pentagon !!!!
The printing and inflation WILL NOT stop until the shortfalls are eliminated.
More tax paying workers, more tax revenue ( by any means necessary ),
a GROWING stable economy, something has to change and I can’t think of
anything remotely painless that will fix this mess in the foreseeable future !
Latest on the cable news (Chicago station) is that there has been a tentative acceptance of a new contract. 6% a year pay increase over next 4 years and more paid time off. Apparently the biggest beef was not actually pay but extreme overworking of the reduced pool of employees and no time off to recover, so they now get both more pay (still below inflation) and more time off..
Having worked in the industry for 7 years, I can tell you that most of the people I dealt with at the rail yards and shops were getting up near retirement age and the younger ones were sparse. That is not a good portent.
I wish them all well, it is a great industry and pays well relative to lack of education, also values experience and reliability in their employees.
“also values experience and reliability in their employees.”
Both of which are manifest attributes of the present crop of high school graduates. (I hear those last three words internally, as delivered by Lily Tomlin.)
Hhhmmm, damn gremlins have deleted my font sarcastic again.
Experience and reliability might be found if they hire ex-Marines or such.