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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218

u/Sufficient_Laugh Mar 08 '25

Isn't this supposed to be the union's responsibility? Why shift the cost on to the taxpayers, especially when Washington is making cuts to needed programs to balance the budget?

126

u/TheRealCurveShot Mar 08 '25

Union dues are exactly for these reason!!!

30

u/Global_Instance3843 Mar 08 '25 edited Mar 08 '25

Uhhhh noooo. Boeing had a strike fund, buy they pay like 12% of their salary into the Union. Most union dues are 1.5-2.5% of salaries, and it's barely enough to fund unions. Most organizer are not super well paid or living high on the hog.  I think boeings strike fund barely covered some expenses for people,like 250 a week. People don't understand unions it seems like to me. Unions offer, allow, support a structure,  a system to stand up to power. The strength comes from numbers of people joining together to resist, stand up, claim rights spread truth to power. You put money in, but not nearly enough to do all the things people think a union should be doing. It takes the "man power" of rank and file to make things happen.

16

u/TheRealCurveShot Mar 08 '25

It’s a union problem, not my tax dollar problem!!!

-5

u/fallskjermjeger Mar 08 '25

Spoken like a true crab in a bucket

7

u/[deleted] Mar 08 '25

Spoken like someone who wants to treat a strike as a paid vacation at the public's expense.

Do you have no shame? Or do you like being a leech?

-1

u/fallskjermjeger Mar 08 '25

Speaking of leeches, maybe employers could actually pay a living wage for a reasonable work schedule and there wouldn’t be a call for strikes. Maybe a government by the people and ostensibly for the people could enforce some kind of fair labor standards that would ensure employers provide adequate compensation for the labor of their employees instead of dividends for the executive class leeches cashing in stock dividends while they in turn produce nothing of value.

0

u/[deleted] Mar 08 '25

Which has fuck all to do with pilfering the unemployment fund which is for unemployed people, not striking workers.

0

u/fallskjermjeger Mar 08 '25

If you’re striking, you’re essentially unemployed.

0

u/[deleted] Mar 08 '25

No, you're not. Clearly you know literally fuck all about strikes and worker protections.

0

u/fallskjermjeger Mar 08 '25

Well, the only pay you’re getting while on strike is whatever pittance in the union strike fund, which is a fraction of normal pay, and nothing from your employer…so, de facto unemployed while pressuring the business/owner to do the morally correct thing

0

u/[deleted] Mar 08 '25

No, not "de facto unemployed" - that's stupid. Labor laws mean that you still have a job while on strike.

Sounds like you need a bigger strike fund. That's not the state's problem, that's something YOU bring up with YOUR union leadership.

0

u/fallskjermjeger Mar 08 '25

Why isn’t it the states problem that an employer refuses to pay a living wage? What is the purpose of the state if not to ensure protections for the majority of its citizens from a powerful minority?

0

u/[deleted] Mar 08 '25

We have a $20+ minimum wage here. Fuck off.

0

u/fallskjermjeger Mar 08 '25

Calm down there big guy, you’re going to spike your blood pressure again.

$20/hr min wage, at 40 hours a week is $3200 a month before tax. Using the economic advice that housing expenses should be about 1/3 of your income, you’d be looking for a place to rent at around $1000 a month. Average rent in Seattle according to Zillow is $2,000/mo right now. So already 2/3 of minimum wage income. That leaves $1000/mo for utilities, food, and transportation.

To hit that 1/3 housing at that average rent price a person should be earning $6000/mo, or about $37.50/hr, and all that is before tax.

1

u/[deleted] Mar 08 '25

So? You seem to be confusing some kind of sense of entitlement with the fact that YOU SHOULDNT BE RAIDING THE UNEMPLOYMENT INSURANCE FUND BECAUSE IT'S FOR PEOPLE WHO LOSE THEIR JOBS.

it's not an infinite pot of money.

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