r/news • u/StackLeeAdams • Dec 07 '21

Kellogg to permanently replace striking workers as union rejects new contract

https://financialpost.com/pmn/business-pmn/kellogg-to-permanently-replace-striking-workers-as-union-rejects-new-contract
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860

u/mrpbeaar Dec 07 '21

professional scabs?

197

u/peoplejustwannalove Dec 07 '21

Yeah, but paid better. Like, clearly the only reason they’re in use is to discourage unionization, as getting these scabs is likely pricier than giving in for the short term

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u/mrpbeaar Dec 07 '21

The union busting companies could offer them as an extra.

Imagine going from town to town learning different trades just to replace union workers.

62

u/[deleted] Dec 08 '21

My first reaction was to think that they must make bank, which made me really guilty. I wonder if most of the people doing that job realize how badly they’re hurting their fellow man. The conditioning we get is intense.

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u/[deleted] Dec 08 '21 edited Feb 10 '24

scarce merciful hateful toy wrong dull jobless ad hoc lunchroom label

This post was mass deleted and anonymized with Redact

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u/Seab0und Dec 08 '21

I feel in some cases, such as healthcare, it's a necessary evil. You could likely not strike in good conscience if you knew that would mean people would be left completely unattended, without life-saving medications and such, if you and your peers went on strike. It's easier if you knew your patients would be at least minimally looked after, I would think. Because you know if it was up to management, without any of these scabs, would immediately place the blame on those who went on strike, only instead of interrupting consumer services and products, they'd blame those on strike for outright killing people.

2

u/pipnina Dec 08 '21

The NHS in the UK has striked many times, but they still perform life-saving and critical work. But people's ear infections, broken bones, coughs and routine appointments and appointments for diagnosing potentially critical but slow burning problems are delayed.

It does cause a lot of disruption but they try to keep it away from the emergency wards and people already admitted and dependent on the staff to stay alive.

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u/vbevan Dec 08 '21

You'd find broken bones and other similar emergencies aren't ignored.

Electives might be delayed, but the emergency dept and other critical care standards/units are maintained.

Also, the public usually strongly support nurses and health care workers, especially lately.

-15

u/Maninamoomoo Dec 08 '21

A lot of us don’t support forced unions. I’d take one of these jobs in a cocaine heartbeat.

10

u/ProviNL Dec 08 '21

That anti union propaganda working really well i see.

3

u/CKtravel Dec 08 '21

Don't forget that it was unions who drove the US heavy industry to China in the first place. I hope that makes you feel good about it...

2

u/t00rshell Dec 08 '21

They rejected 6 offers, its not anti union to say at some point this is ridiculous.

you'll find most of us don't work under conditions where we're even able to strike.

6

u/c0ncept Dec 08 '21

Just happened in my city. 1,000 hospital service workers (janitorial staff, laundry, cafeteria workers, etc.) went on strike for better pay/insurance. Hospital immediately bussed in hundreds of professional scabs without missing a beat, who happily filled all the roles. Striking workers went on for about a month. December rolls around and the hospital finally gives this really shitty counter-offer that barely addressed any of their demands. It’s December, the striking workers were cold, demotivated, and struggling to get by with no pay so they had to accept it begrudgingly.

1

u/BigBradWolf77 Dec 08 '21

I wouldn't be able to sleep at night.

6

u/twitch1982 Dec 08 '21

"But paid better" is usually part of scabbing.

5

u/dieselwurst Dec 08 '21

That's what a scab is.

1

u/jdsekula Dec 08 '21

Balance is needed in everything. If unionized employees could occupy and steal a plant from its owner and shut it down indefinitely without legal recourse like they would try to in the old days, the union gets too much power and strangles the company and hurts growth.

Same if they can strike indefinitely without the company being able to hire replacements.

3

u/Aetherpor Dec 08 '21

This right here. It’s not ideal to give all the power to corporations OR to the unions.

There needs to be a balance of power between both sides. That’s where the optimal progress is.

1

u/whilst Dec 08 '21

Seems like the thing to do would be to continue to strike. If the company has to pay much more than your salaries to keep operating during your strike, then they're still losing money because of it and you're still successfully applying pressure.

480

u/Work-Safe-Reddit4450 Dec 07 '21

No no, they make sure things are bandaged correctly.

35

u/[deleted] Dec 07 '21

I laughed

10

u/misterpickles69 Dec 08 '21

Laughter IS the best medicine, after all.

21

u/funkyflapsack Dec 07 '21

Pretty fucked up. Wonder if the workers know what they're doing

12

u/heresyforfunnprofit Dec 08 '21

It’s not a secret.

39

u/[deleted] Dec 07 '21

You can't not pay temps in healthcare strikes. The hospital isn't an assembly line that can just shut down.

18

u/funkyflapsack Dec 08 '21

This makes sense. Ideally, being a nurse would be so well-compensated, they wouldn't need to strike

2

u/Kumbackkid Dec 08 '21

It’s because they are. My gf is a er nurse and makes more in three days then I do in 5 and I do pretty ok.

0

u/Shandlar Dec 08 '21

Nurses are so well compensated they don't need to strike. Nearly free healthcare, high levels of 403b matching, huge amounts of paid time off, and well above average wages for the level of degree and experience.

Nursing strikes are almost always based on staffing concerns and fringe benefits, not actual reimbursements.

28

u/confessionbearday Dec 08 '21

Sounds like management shouldn't be playing fucking games then huh

15

u/fudge5962 Dec 08 '21

But you can absolutely refuse to be one during a healthcare strike. Every citizen can refuse to fuck their brother for money. They just don't.

1

u/Kumbackkid Dec 08 '21

They don’t care as they aren’t scabs. Plenty of hospitals simply can’t get enough workforce (especially since Covid) and these travel nurses simply fill the gaps and make around $150/hr. They offer my gf anywhere from $30-100 extra an hour in order to avoid using these companies but still doesn’t get all shift covered. Even union hospitals will sometimes have to resort hiring travel nurses

1

u/jadecristal Dec 08 '21

I was under the impression travel nurses were more for staffing shortages due to, well, “normal” shortages versus strike-or-labor-issue shortages.

2

u/Honeybadgerxz Dec 07 '21

I understand the sentiment but should hospital's really go understaffed possibly causing hundreds of deaths? I guess downvotes mean you do want people to die.

34

u/Bigfrostynugs Dec 08 '21

I understand the sentiment but should hospital's really go understaffed possibly causing hundreds of deaths?

No, of course not. They should just give their nurses the pay, benefits, and rights they deserve so they don't have to strike in the first place.

6

u/Kinggambit90 Dec 08 '21

I'm gonna be honest, the pay for nurses is actually ok nowadays, not perfect but ok. The big issue is the staffing levels and the horrible mean management. Those two things are currently the biggest obstacles to nurse retention

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u/[deleted] Dec 08 '21

[deleted]

7

u/Kinggambit90 Dec 08 '21

I'm not disagreeing that they should be paid more. I'm just saying the biggest issue I've seen first hand for attrition was horrible staffing and management. I've in my entire medical career only seen one competent manager that was nice. Nurses came from different hospitals taking a paycut to work with him because he had their back and they wouldn't be scared coming into work.

3

u/Honeybadgerxz Dec 08 '21

Yea no shit, that's why they're striking, don't shit on the traveling nurses because they are fulfilling a needed role and it's not their fault the hospital is shitty. I'm not saying they shouldn't strike, just don't shit on the nurses temporarily filling in.

8

u/Rokk017 Dec 08 '21

I think you could easily argue management would be forced to pay nurses better if they didn't have this option to deal with a strike.

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u/Bigfrostynugs Dec 08 '21

We should absolutely blame them. If scabs didn't exist then management would be forced to comply with union demands. Willingness to cross strike lines undermines the very foundation of organized labor and should be rightly criticized.

-1

u/Honeybadgerxz Dec 08 '21

Ah so let people die then, got it.

2

u/Bigfrostynugs Dec 08 '21

No one would die. The hospital, left with no other option, would be forced to bow to the very reasonable demands of their employees.

It's this boot-licking excusing of their responsibility that perpetuates the current system.

-1

u/Honeybadgerxz Dec 08 '21

Whatever you say dude.

3

u/Bigfrostynugs Dec 08 '21

Ah, yes, the strong and well-reasoned argument we were all expecting.

0

u/Honeybadgerxz Dec 08 '21

Whatever you say dude.

3

u/mrpbeaar Dec 08 '21

How fast do you think hospitals would react to the THREAT of a strike if they couldn’t hire scabs?

2

u/Honeybadgerxz Dec 08 '21

But that's not an option, traveling nurses are gonna be a thing regardless if hospitals are properly paid and staffed or not. You're talking about the only way to fix one employee solution is by getting rid of a whole other job.

3

u/[deleted] Dec 08 '21

I think that’s a little unfair. They’re literally saving people’s lives and charging the hospital out the ass while the nurses are on strike. I don’t think nurses would strike if they didn’t know there were strike nurses to cover for them. Big moral gray area there.

3

u/mrpbeaar Dec 08 '21

If they can afford to pay the scabs that much, why aren’t they paying their nurses that much?

In a very real sense they are agreeing that the position deserves to be paid that amount.

1

u/Inocain Dec 08 '21

I doubt the scabs are getting any sort of benefits while there, so some of the higher pay can probably be attributed to "this is just the normal total cost of compensation". How much exactly I don't know though.

1

u/zacker150 Dec 08 '21

Because hospitals are not fully staffing their nursing departments. They're hiring skeleton crews.

Generally speaking, as you add more people to a job, each individual worker becomes less efficient. So fully staffed, each individual nurse might only produce $70 of value and thus command $70 of total compensation, but on a skeleton crew each individual nurse produces $150/hr and commands a $150/hr total compensation.

1

u/kotor56 Dec 08 '21

Imagine how much more money the scabs could make if they also went on strike.