• This is a political forum that is non-biased/non-partisan and treats every person's position on topics equally. This debate forum is not aligned to any political party. In today's politics, many ideas are split between and even within all the political parties. Often we find ourselves agreeing on one platform but some topics break our mold. We are here to discuss them in a civil political debate. If this is your first visit to our political forums, be sure to check out the RULES. Registering for debate politics is necessary before posting. Register today to participate - it's free!

SHUTDOWN: Is it a Strike if you are not being paid?

H

haymarket

DP Veteran
Joined
Sep 3, 2010
Messages
120,954
Reaction score
28,535
Gender
Undisclosed
Political Leaning
Undisclosed
If your employer is not paying you for your work, and this happens day after day, week after week and now you are missing several paychecks, would it be considered a strike if the workers decided to not report back to work until the pay for their labor is restored?

I ask this because there was a discussion that perhaps it will take a complete system wide shutdown of the folks who work at our airports in security to get the Congress and the President to resolve this shutdown. But so far, on its worse day, only about 10% of airport security workers have called in sick.

What would be the legal problems with their union simply telling them that their employer has broken their contract and they can have the option of not reporting to work until the matter is resolved and the employer honors the contract?

Would this be a huge impetus to solve the shutdown?
 

Why would anyone characterize this as a strike? When you strike, you control the decision. You choose to forego work knowing full well that your employer can forego paying you. None of these workers had a choice here. They were forced out of work and there is nothing they can do to resolve it.

It's lazy for anyone to call this a strike. And flat out wrong.
 

Trump used the word strike recently when he was musing about the shutdown that he himself caused.

Beyond what we have now, what I am asking is would it be a strike if the workers decided that since the employer is no longer honoring their end of the labor contract, they should also not honor it and stay home in massive numbers shutting down the entire air travel system?

Could they be accused of violating the law which normally prevents such worker actions?
 
Whether they have a union or not.......


They probably have very few "rights".

 

Would be interesting to see this play out. Trump could take a page prior president and and fire those who refuse to work. Lets remember words matter. These peoples paycheck are being deferred so it isn't they won't be paid for their labor. Not a good situation and they certainly have the right to quit for a better job. If they don't come to work their employer should have the right to fire them.

Hope it does not come to any of this. These people are like someone caught between to elephants. Truth is most pols and their partisan supporters,e.g. posters on this site, refuse to give the other side a "win" no matter the cost to the nation.
 

In this country, nobody should be forced to work without pay. Slavery is not legal anymore, and we are not one of those countries where people are forced into labor.

Firing someone for striking is one thing. This isn't a strike. These people want to work and the government won't pay them.
 

Trump is a moron if he called this a strike.

I guess I actually could have stopped that last sentence after the fourth word and it still would've been correct.
 

The employer is not honoring the labor agreement. The employer is the one who has breached the contract.
 
Since the enactment of the Taft-Hartley Act in 1947, federal employees have been legally prohibited from striking.


Strike: a refusal to work organized by a body of employees as a form of protest, typically in an attempt to gain a concession or concessions from their employer.
 
They can't even call in sick to often, lest they violate the law.

All we hear in the universal healthcare debate from trumptards is, "So you think people have a right to doctors labor". And now, they are ignoring their own claim to the right of government employees labor, over a ****ing wall that no one in mexico is particularly worried about as an obstacle. Because it's a ****ing wall.

Hypocrites, one and all. To bad they aren't smart enough to remember their own bull**** from day to day, we could remind them of them making 800,000 people work without pay for their monument to racism next time healthcare is brought up and they use the, so you're entitled to other peoples labor argument.

I really do hate Trump supporters more than Trump. Scum of the earth, need to segregate them from society. Just push them all into Alabama, which still Celebrates Rob E Lee's bday on MLK day. So you know they'll be happier there amongst their own...
 

Untrue deferred payment is different than non-payment. Don't know anyone who gets a paycheck at the end of each our they work to take this to a ridiculous extreme. Not much different than you calling it slavery.
 
haymarket said:
The employer is not honoring the labor agreement. The employer is the one who has breached the contract.
Click to expand...

Lets assume you are accurate. That certainly allows the employee to quit. Doing so does have consequences. So people take action and accept both the good and bad that comes from that. Perhaps they will get paid sooner, perhaps they get replaced. Either way the situation is resolved.

Not much different than an employee threatening to quit because they feel improperly paid. When that happens in the real world oftentimes that person is replaced.
 

.

A strike is done to get a pay raise, better benefits, better working conditions, to get what was not particularly promised, but what was felt deserved, etc.

A strike is not done to get what is already promised.
 
tres borrachos said:
Trump is a moron if he called this a strike.

I guess I actually could have stopped that last sentence after the fourth word and it still would've been correct.
Click to expand...



Trump is not a moron if.........


Trump is a moron.


The operative expression above is the "period".
 
lol...everyone should walk off the job if they are being impacted by this shut down. You'd see the government back up an running in a couple days, max. If this was happening in a European country, the entire country would be on strike. You, the people, sure let your representatives get away with a lot. :lol:
 
washunut said:
Untrue deferred payment is different than non-payment. Don't know anyone who gets a paycheck at the end of each our they work to take this to a ridiculous extreme. Not much different than you calling it slavery.
Click to expand...


Yes, but in this case, there is no end in sight.

Forcing people to work without a definite timeline on when the pay will come, if someone calls that slavery, I'm okay with it.
 
OscarLevant said:
Yes, but in this case, there is no end in sight.

Forcing people to work without a definite timeline on when the pay will come, if someone calls that slavery, I'm okay with it.
Click to expand...

Firstly I agree that the workers are being put in a bad position. Never heard of a slave having the opportunity to call in sick or quit. Words matter.
 
The real danger is that the $16/hour TSA screeners quit and go find other employment... It will take months and months to replace them even after the government reopens...
 

Well, one of the many great things about America is that the Federal government touches very little on the daily lives of most Americans. With the exception of filing one's taxes every year, or receiving Social Security/Medicare benefits (which are unaffected by this shutdown), it is the state and local governments that most people have to deal with when they deal with the government for anything at all. Thankfully we do not live in a unitary state like that of France or Germany or the United Kingdom, where the equivalent of this form of shutdown would lead to a death spiral of civil society at every level.
 

Call it whatever. As of right now I call it slavery and my view is this...if you can't afford to pay me, I can't afford to work here.
 

In Canada we're the same way...and yet I wonder at the wisdom of that. Seems the less impact the citizenry has on their governments, due to arms length extending bureaucratic infrastructure, the less control they have over how badly their government can screw them over. Wouldn't it be nice if you could actually demand your government do their job, in a meaningful way, and they actually do it?

Sounds to me like all you gain is a government that can play its games, using you all as pawns, while not really feeling much impact themselves. Seems like a flaw.
 

Even Common Sense 1 agrees that Trump was wrong to characterize it as a strike. That's got to be a first?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Menu
Log in
Register
Cookies are required to use this site. You must accept them to continue using the site. Learn more…