I recently ran afoul of some former friends on the Internet. They took exception to my negative response to a post that posited employers should have no right of refusal when it comes to an employee’s vax status. See the cartoon around the middle of my previous post, here. Their bottom line? “My body, my choice. Period.” My bottom line? “Your liberty ends where my nose begins.”
Also, unless you own your own company or are represented by an exceptionally strong union, your performance of any job function is primarily controlled by your employer, not by you. That makes any faux-libertarian take on potentially infectious body fluids projected into a shared indoor workspace entirely moot in my book – and perhaps also in your employer’s book too? Attending 3 funerals in one month for friends and family who died too young either directly or indirectly due to the pandemic puts a serious damper on my willingness to put up with very much antivax bullsh*t. Not to put too fine a point on it.
********
Against that backdrop comes today’s business news: The strike against Nabisco is over. This provides Oreo junkies like me with renewed access to the unhealthy snack treat we all know and love.
From the strike-ending story:
A weeks-long strike by Nabisco employees in five states ended Saturday. The union announced that its members had overwhelmingly approved a four-year contract with the parent company of the maker of Oreos, Ritz Crackers and other snacks.
The employees are members of the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers International Union. The Union had clashed with Nabisco over proposed changes to shift lengths and overtime rules. The strike had brought renewed attention to the snack giant. Nabisco faced criticism from union members over long shifts, pensions and the production of some products in Mexico…
In an update posted on its website Saturday, the union said that striking workers will return to their jobs this week… Workers will get raises of 2.25% in 2021 and 60 cents per hour in each of the next three years.
********
Let me just say that one more time: A two-and-a-half-percent raise in 2021. Plus sixty cents an hour in each of the next three years. And this was supposed to be a victory for organized labor? Sheesh. It’s almost enough to convince some folks to start their own cookie company – as if the hard-line corporate vax stance wasn’t enough motivation already. Then again, if the Baker’s Union wants to go to bat for any staunchly anti-vax among their number, I say, have at it. They’ll have at least as much leverage for that as for that big sixty-cent-an-hour pay hike that’s coming in 2022, 2023, and 2024. Ahem.
This concludes Today’s Business News.
Yer welcome.