unions


CEO’s Scab Shows

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I was originally going to mock Drew Barrymore and Bill Maher for scabbing when they announced they were putting their shows back into production while the WGA/SAG-AFTRA strikes are still going on. Unlike CEOs, some celebrities are capable of shame, and both changed their minds after a week of ridicule. I still had to put a Maher jab in here ’cause he sucks.

If the strike continues much longer, the studios’ pipeline of new stuff will dry up. They may think they can wait the unions out, but audiences are less patient and won’t keep their subscriptions autorenewing if the only new stuff they’re getting are reality TV and game shows.

If these CEOs can’t get their shit together, they deserve to be bought out by UPS, a company that realized averting strike for a few million in benefits is better business than losing billions to stick it to the unions.

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Child Scabs Wanted!

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Strike fever is sweeping the nation the same time as child labor laws are being rescinded in Republican states. The actors’ union joined the writers in rejecting the studios’ bullshit deals, making the directors’ guild look like chumps for accepting one.

There’s still a week for UPS and the Teamsters to negotiate a fair deal and avoid a strike. But corporations haven’t been making smart long-term decisions, instead choosing to destroy their assets to goose short-term quarterly profits, so I’m not holding my breath.

My Dad’s a retired UPS driver, and the 1997 strike happened just as I was heading off to college. I’m sure that was a fun financial roller coaster for my parents, but the strike ended up securing his pension so he doesn’t have to greet shoppers at Walmart today.

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Scab Scripts

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The Writers’ Guild of America declared a strike early Tuesday after the executive side of the entertainment business refused to negotiate their modest demands. A lot has changed since the last writers’ strike in 2007, especially how media is consumed and compensated.

Netflix’s red envelopes were the big new thing back then, and now they’re a relic young people think coexisted with BETAMAX. Yet pay, residuals, and benefits are still stuck in that ancient time before we had to manage a dozen or so streaming logins.

All of these studios are making profits, just not enough to satisfy Wall Street’s maw. So they’re screwing writers and nickel-and-diming their subscribers by canceling shows and memory-holing their back catalogs to save a few cents on residuals, all to squeeze out more dividends and stock buybacks.

Joe “Union Guy” Biden broke a rail strike so the economy wouldn’t take a hit. If this writers’ strike goes on long enough to harm the studios’ bottom lines, I’m sure he’ll find a way to intervene.

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A.I. for Government and Business

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I know there was an actual Trump indictment and arraignment this week, but I have to get ahead for some real-life stuff and did an evergreen comic.

AI’s always invoked to replace labor, never management or any job that wields actual power. I’m decades away from the last time I wrote a computer program, but I guarantee you it’s easier to automate the work of the guys who turn spreadsheets into human misery than anyone doing anything useful for society.

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Masochist Airlines

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This week’s Southwest Airlines debacle made regular holiday air travel look pleasant.  COVID, flu, RSV (insert Gilligan’s Island theme song:) and the rest of the viruses we’re pretending don’t exist are causing people to be out sick from all sorts of essential jobs.

Southwest was apparently hit especially hard since they put all their post-shutdown profits towards stock buybacks instead of updating any of their infrastructure. Companies putting buybacks, dividends and executive payouts above improving anything else is what people mean by late-stage capitalism. Everything is getting worse, but LINE GO UP.

Way back in ancient times, I would fly Southwest from Baltimore to Providence often for just $69 (nice) and it would take about 1 and half hours, including what little pre-9/11 check-in hassle there was. Amtrak was over a hundred for 7+ hour trip. Trains haven’t improved, but airlines have pretty much sunk to or below their level.

I haven’t flown in a while. Hope I didn’t draw the seats looking too comfy.

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2023 New Year’s Resolutions

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I’m abstaining from making any predictions about 2023. Not for lack of any ideas where things are headed, but because I don’t want to be too much of a holiday party pooper.

I’ll let COVID, RSV, and flu do that.

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Busted Books

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A hodge podge of topical things.

The shitty contract forced onto rail workers by Congress and the President that contains zero (0) paid sick days is going to cause a lot of problems. Either immediately to the supply chain if a wildcat strike happens, or electorally when unions abandon Democrats for abandoning them.

“B-b-but it was Republicans who voted against it!” some might say. And that’s what Democrats planned on by decoupling sick leave from the rest of the bill. I typed a version of this on Mastodon, where I’ve been dabbling since my Musk-induced departure from Twitter. Hive Social is phone only, and not very secure, so I’m not doing much there besides parking my name.

Decoupling sick days from the rest of the rail bill was done by the Democratic House, so they could blame Senate Republicans while pleasing rail barons.

The antitrust thing could be about Ticketmaster flubbing Taylor Swift tickets, Amazon, cable companies, or almost literally anything else that sucks in this country.

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What’s New on Streaming

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The omicron wave and a colder than usual March caught me up on a lot of TV. Marvel and Star Wars superfans will probably get mad at me even though I ate up all that garbage. I also read books. Mostly the Dune sequels though. Shut up.

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