I was responding less to the lefty comment and more to the idea that aligning workers with shareholders is a good thing ("reasonable" per your comment). If you don't subscribe to left-wing ideas, and sit more in the lib territory (non derogatory in this instance) of the spectrum, I can understand why we would disagree on that.

Generic leftist drivel below:

The profit motive is inherently exploitative of the working class. In my opinion, any attempts to align the working class with the profit motive is just a way for the owning class to dismantle class solidarity. Not to get too into theory, but this is where the idea of and disagreements regarding the petite bourgeois often come in. There is a concept of a managerial class who does not necessarily own the means of production, but profits based off of exploitation of the people beneath them. A lot of people consider this its own class, or at the very least class traitors, but what it really is is just working class people who the owning class has convinced to promote the interest of the owning class. If the owning class can divert a large enough portion of the working class into that sector then there is not much hope for change. You often hear about blue collar and white collar workers, but discussions of people who explicitly do not have to work don't come up as frequently. You're seeing more people talk about billionaires nowadays though, and if enough white collar workers realize that they are much closer to blue-collar workers than the billionaires I think we would be in a much better place.

They'd be better off with the cash that they could choose to invest or spend as they please and they would be much better off if companies were not able to extract that amount of wealth in the first place. Then they wouldn't have to threaten a strike to get compensation. They weren't just gifted this. The union had to fight for it. Additionally, stock valuations change and they have a vestment period and restrictions on selling. If you read my comment as an indictment on compensating employees and not the system in which they exist then I'm not sure you're engaging in good faith.

Stock is better than nothing, but the equivalent in cash would be better for sure. They can then invest it how they see fit if so desired and unlike company stock there's no vesting period or restrictions on selling. I'm glad the employees are getting something, I just think it's important to realize that this is better for the company than paying cash bonuses and is not really similar to owning the means of production in any meaningful sense.