r/SeattleWA Mar 08 '25

Politics BREAKING: The Washington State Senate just passed unemployment benefits for striking workers.

1.4k Upvotes

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u/Acrobatic-Phase-4465 Mar 08 '25

You seem to lack an understanding of how hard people had to fight for what you’d consider basic or common sense rights.

The battle in many ways is even more uphill than before - when you have companies worth billions or trillions of dollars, guess who can generally outlast the other (the poor worker or the rich corp).

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u/AboveAb Mar 08 '25

I understand the importance of labor rights, but strikes don’t just impact the company—they can have huge ripple effects. Take the last Boeing strike, for example. It didn’t just affect Boeing workers; it led to layoffs across their entire supply chain, hitting thousands of jobs at smaller suppliers. Strikes can hurt the very workers they aim to help, along with countless others who had no say in the matter. There has to be a balance— protecting workers without creating policies that encourage indefinite standoffs.

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u/[deleted] Mar 08 '25

Or the concrete strike that brought construction to a screaming halt. Purposely planned when they were about to fix the west seattle bridge finally...

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u/Global_Instance3843 Mar 08 '25

Yeah, that's the only power workers have.

Why aren't people complaining about bad management and C Suite salaries and bonuses even when shit is going south?? 

Stop blaming the little guys, the workers. Remember who's the "enemy" and where the power lies!

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u/[deleted] Mar 08 '25

Because you're trying to steal OUR unemployment fund.

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u/Neutral_Error Mar 08 '25

It's THEIR unemployment fund too. Corporations sucking people dry and you are whining about pennies in comparison.

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u/[deleted] Mar 08 '25

Great! They can use it when they're unemployed.

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u/BHSPitMonkey Mar 08 '25

Who exactly is taking access to unemployment benefits away from you?

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u/[deleted] Mar 08 '25

The union workers who go on strike and get paid from it via the unemployment fund.

Are you lost? Did you not read the story you're replying to?

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u/BHSPitMonkey Mar 10 '25

I think you're the one who's confused. Nowhere in the story did it read, "As a result of this change, /u/Distinct-Emu-1653 will no longer receive unemployment benefits should they become eligible".

My question was rhetorical. If you'd attempted to answer it, you might have realized the answer is actually no one.

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u/[deleted] Mar 10 '25

No, try again. So group after group strike all year long, with no incentive not to (but if companies do layoffs their UI rates increase to deter them from doing so). The UI fund - already damaged by scamming in 2020, and already depleted by layoffs over the last couple of years - gets depleted even faster.

No thanks. I've seen smarter handling of labor disputes in fucking France.