Moving Forward: A Workers' Rebellion?

The 2021 elections pretty much marked the completion of the ongoing crash-and-burn of the Zhou regime’s agenda. The number one priority for Dems—especially, but not only, those in swing districts—will be how to distance themselves from the hard Left that has set their party’s policy stances. That won’t be easy, and increasing numbers of Dems will probably end up deciding to throw in the towel—resign, not run in 2022, rather than go through the meat grinder of a losing election. Recruiting quality replacement candidates willing to fight an uphill campaign won’t be easy. This attempt to pivot will prove to be somewhat akin to dancing with shoelaces untied, in part because the hard Left has become the center of gravity for the Dem party and they’re not interested in changing the brand to anything approaching normality.

In the meantime, life goes on across the fruited plain. In what the Zhou regime hopes will become the new normal, large corporations are plotting ways to coerce decent, hard working employees into participating in a dangerous medical experiment—or firing their asses if they decline. Nice place America has become. The regime tells corporations to jump, and they say: Who do we fire?

There have already been plenty of signs that this is not going to go smoothly. This has been particularly evident among municipal employees—police, firefighters, sanitation workers, but also in healthcare, where the mandates are causing severe staffing shortages. Not to mention the resentment and loss of employee good will toward their employers.

Reuters, of all media outlets, has a very interesting article today that focuses on the role of larger corporations in all this:

From Boeing to Mercedes, a U.S. worker rebellion swells over vaccine mandates

The first few paragraphs give a hint as to the likely impact this will have in very near term political terms. These union workers are preparing lawsuits against their companies with the help of union hired lawyers, but they know that it’s not actually the companies behind this:

AUSTIN/SEATTLE, Nov 2 (Reuters) - In Wichita, Kansas, nearly half of the roughly 10,000 employees at aircraft companies Textron Inc and Spirit AeroSystems remain unvaccinated against COVID-19, risking their jobs in defiance of a federal mandate, according to a union official.

"We're going to lose a lot of employees over this," said Cornell Adams, head of the local Machinists union district. Many workers did not object to the vaccines as such, he said, but were staunchly opposed to what they see as government meddling in personal health decisions.

The union district has hired a Texas-based lawyer to assist employees and prepare potential lawsuits against the companies should requests for medical or religious exemptions to vaccination be denied.

A life-long Democrat, Adams said he would no longer vote for the party. "They'll never get another vote from me and I'm telling the workers here the same thing."

Now, by “Machinists union” the authors mean the IAM—International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers. The IAM represents 646,933 workers. The union, at least the leadership, has traditionally been one of the more aggressively leftist unions, very active in Dem politics. For the head of a district to openly state that he’ll never vote for another Dem and is telling the workers in his district not to vote for Dems is an indication that the IAM leadership is very worked about this entire mandate business. They have a finger on the pulse of their members, so this is a very big deal. The IAM has a lot of political clout and there aren’t many companies that don’t think twice before gratuitously antagonizing the IAM. Tough negotiations may be one thing, but not these absurdly anti-science mandates. If the Dems want to build their new base around college educated white women and give the bird to the IAM, that’s their choice. It seems crazy to me.

The idea of an economic recovery that doesn’t include the industries in which the IAM represents the workers also seems, to me, to be pretty much of a non-starter. Many of these companies are the backbone of US industry and exports. To take the example from the article, the IAM represents Boeing workers:

The mandate has stirred protests from workers in industries across the country, as well as from Republican state officials.

Opposition to the mandate could potentially lead to thousands of U.S. workers losing their jobs and imperil an already sluggish economic recovery, union leaders, workers and company executives said.

More legal clashes are likely over how companies decide requests for vaccination exemptions.

...

For Boeing Co in the United States, more than 7,000 workers have applied for religious exemptions and around 1,000 are seeking medical exemptions, people familiar with the matter told Reuters. That amounts to some 6% of the planemaker's roughly 125,000 U.S employees.

...

The rebellion has put Boeing executives in a bind. The company could lose skilled staff, but must comply with a presidential order.

There are more examples:

Spirit AeroSystems did not respond to a request for comment.

Raytheon Technologies' CEO Greg Hayes last week warned the U.S. defense firm will lose "several thousand" employees because of the mandate.

A group representing FedEx Corp, United Parcel Service Inc and other cargo carriers said it would be virtually impossible to have all their workforces vaccinated by the deadline.

Can you imagine the national mess if FedEx and UPS suffer work slowdowns?

Some companies have imposed vaccine mandates even absent immediate government regulation.

Mercedes-Benz USA, the U.S. unit of German carmaker Daimler AG which is not a U.S. government contractor, told employees in an October email seen by Reuters that proof of vaccination against COVID-19 would become a condition of employment beginning Jan. 4.

The carmaker said it implemented the move in anticipation of a separate U.S. government vaccine mandate that would apply to businesses with at least 100 employees, affecting some 80 million workers nationwide.

Less than half of the company's workers at U.S. import processing centers are vaccinated and many refuse to get a shot, according to a source familiar with the matter.

The Virginia election was unquestionably influenced by the perception of 71% of people polled that America “is headed in the wrong direction.” Firing decent, hardworking people, family people who are providers with children and grandchildren, skilled workers who are the kind who make America great—this will be offensive to the fundamental American sense of fair play. The shift in the polls is showing this. No matter what people think about “vaccines”, they don’t like this. Americans in Virginia spoke to this and many other issues. The Dems are welcome to continue down this road. They will ultimately lose. Major corporations would be well advised to reconsider their obeisance to the Zhou regime and the Dem establishment.

In the meantime, I very much like the idea of a workers’ rebellion.