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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsBernie Sanders attacked Warren Buffett for rejecting his request to intervene in a strike at a Berks
Sen. Bernie Sanders criticized Warren Buffett, and highlighted his low rate of tax, after Buffett declined to intervene in a labor dispute.
Sanders implied that Buffett was falling short of his own ideals by letting a labor dispute drag on at Special Metals, a West Virginia firm owned by Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway holding company.
Some 450 Special Metals workers have been striking since October. They object to plans to limit pay rises to 1% or 2% for several years, to increase healthcare premiums, and to limit vacation time.
Negotiations over a return to work paused in mid-December, per the local news station WHCS, and were not due to resume until January.
Read more: https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/markets/bernie-sanders-attacked-warren-buffett-for-rejecting-his-request-to-intervene-in-a-strike-at-a-berkshire-hathaway-company/ar-AASkKBK?cvid=c9aead56650d4dab894657564ca684f0&ocid=winp1taskbar
InAbLuEsTaTe
(24,110 posts)good for him!!!
50 Shades Of Blue
(9,771 posts)JohnSJ
(91,945 posts)It is a holding company, and does NOT participate in running a businesses operations
Klaralven
(7,510 posts)JohnSJ
(91,945 posts)Klaralven
(7,510 posts)They are involved in selecting managers and allocating capital.
I agree that they are not involved in HR decisions regarding the rank and file.
lapucelle
(18,037 posts)He's had an open invitation for quite a while.
JohnSJ
(91,945 posts)Hortensis
(58,785 posts)Those who set moral standards for others have a duty to meet them themselves.
The same for those who admire Sanders for presenting himself as on a higher moral plane than Buffet but don't hold him to his own standards. I believe Sanders' standards, and those of those who claim to share them, should at least equal my standards, and I haven't felt they did for a very long time. Many don't.
Fwiw, I (of course) think supporting strikers is a good thing. In itself. FOR itself. FOR workers themselves.
Not to promote a charismatic leader and not as an opportunity to act out class-based resentments.
JohnSJ
(91,945 posts)But Sanders in the OP title, so the answer has to involve some kind of attempted denigration of him.
New year, old shtick.
InAbLuEsTaTe
(24,110 posts)Hortensis
(58,785 posts)is about SANDERS badmouthing a BILLIONAIRE.
But who would be posting what if this post was instead discussing, you know, progress on the strike? I know some who believe Sanders does great things are sincere; and who knows, someday, looking back to these turbulent times, meta analysis may suggest they weren't wrong even if there's nothing concrete to point to over 30 years so far.
But supporting Sanders is not the same thing as supporting the objectives.
For those interested in the strike, the union leader's appreciation for Sanders' diverting to Buffet is tepid but hopeful that it may help in some way, that it was "nice" that he "at least tried to help."
The 450 Special Metals strikers are taking a break over New Year's, but they and the company are resuming negotiations with a federal mediator next week, and the hope is that they will not have to return to the picket line.
Sympthsical
(8,934 posts)I'm just noting that any thread about the man always summons a hijacking where it's all about how awful he is and completely ignores the worthy cause he's supporting.
Sanders is just bringing attention to the cause.
Why some "liberals" have to always distract from the causes we ostensibly support is a puzzler. Feels vaguely intentional.
Nixie
(16,920 posts)Making things personal also seems vaguely intentional. Nothing here is contrary to two losing election results no matter how much denial.
Sympthsical
(8,934 posts)Others . . . are not.
Captain Zero
(6,714 posts)To get them a better, more fair, deal than what the company is trying to shove down their throats.
Hortensis
(58,785 posts)Sanders, and his loyal voters, were used by the Republican powers, the religious right, Russia, and above all the anti-establishment populist movements on both right and left, to defeat Democrats. And with us our liberal, progressive western democracy.
Congress is at stake in 2018. Our democracy is now at such great peril that if Republicans get control in November, 2024 might mostly just finalize a takeover that's already succeeded.
Sanders realized the simmering revolution won't be socialist and has thrown in to defeat RW authoritarianism. But a lot of those who invoke his name are as focused on destroying the Democratic Party and what we protect as they were in 2016.
311 days left for people to realize what they have to lose and how it'll happen.
lapucelle
(18,037 posts)Because Berkshire Hathaway has real estate holdings Sierra Blanca and Warren Buffett transferred/sold BNSF railroad stock to Berkshire Hathaway (including the CA-TX line with a terminus at Sierra Blanca), it appears that Sierra Blanca once again finds itself at the nexus of the machinations of a modern robber baron's power play.
https://www.texastribune.org/2021/04/15/texas-power-grid-berkshire-hathaway/
https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/sierra-blanca-tx
lapucelle
(18,037 posts)Berkshire Hathaway owns land in Sierra Blanca and Buffet transferred the owns BNSF railroad line that runs between CA and Sierra Blanca to Berkshire Hathaway.
https://www.texastribune.org/2021/03/25/warren-buffett-texas-power-plants/
https://grist.org/article/how-berkshire-hathaway-fed-investors-a-flawed-narrative-about-their-climate-progress/