Political Discussion

www.thedrive.com

A Looming Freight Rail Strike Would Be Very Bad. Here's Why It’s Happening and What It Means (UPDATED)

How did the U.S. get to a point where all the freight trains could stop? Sick time, or lack of it.
www.thedrive.com www.thedrive.com

BNSF, the largest freight rail company in the U.S. and one of the largest transportation companies in the world, recently implemented new scheduling systems for their engineers and conductors that require 24/7 on-call notice, with the ability to report to work and run a train within 90 minutes of being paged. Taking any time off in this system is penalized, and it means that railroad employees frequently cannot schedule doctor appointments, have weekends off, or even attend funerals.

Unions are seeking the end of the punitive scheduling system and have already softened their bargaining request from asking for paid sick days to any sick days at all, paid or unpaid. Despite this, railroad companies insist 24/7 scheduling is required for profitability, even though it's already the most profitable industry in the U.S. by a wide margin. This comes after years of seeing labor costs cut to the bare minimum as precision scheduled railroading—and the 80-hour-long shifts required for it—has become the industry standard. Hundreds of railroad employees have already resigned in large part due to the scheduling systems; others have threatened to quit if a contract is signed that does not change how sick time and leave are handled. All of this comes against a backdrop of nearly 29 percent of rail workers—more than 45,000 in total—having been cut from the workforce in the past six years.
Click to expand...
The railroads and unions are already in a mandated "cooling-off" period that the Railway Labor Act requires, and have been in arbitration with federal officials for months after President Biden blocked a strike earlier this year. That mandatory arbitration has come after three years of previous negotiations between the union and rail companies. That final cool-down period ends at midnight Thursday, which is when a strike will finally be legal under federal law.
Click to expand...


How is this even legal. It sounds like costs cuts have turned into slave labor. We've gone backwards more than 100 years in labor rights.

Also, we have a bigger problem to solve is business can't run and be profitable while providing basic benefits and living wages.
 
RenegadeMonster said:
How is this even legal. It sounds like costs cuts have turned into slave labor. We've gone backwards more than 100 years in labor rights.

Also, we have a bigger problem to solve is business can't run and be profitable while providing basic benefits and living wages.
Click to expand...
I have a friend who just straight-up quit the rail industry about 8 years ago. They had something called an Extra Board where you were pretty much on-call all the time. If a full-time Engineer called off or had a scheduled day off they would call you based on what number you were on the Extra Board. You were not a full-time employee with full-time benefits. You were basically the equivalent of a contractor, but had to be on-call perpetually. He would get called in at all hours. 6am, 3pm, 1am. Just whenever. You could "Mark Up" which put you back to the bottom of the list on the Extra Board. There were times he would work 6 days in a row, there were times he wouldn't work for 2 weeks. Even though he was an employee of the railroad he didn't have any vacation or sick days, so if his kid had a birthday and he "marked up" that meant risking going a week or more with no pay. It was a really shitty way to live. He was constantly stressed about work, pay, and personal obligations. He eventually got hired in full-time and it wasn't much better. Unless you had 30 years seniority your hours, days off, and shifts were still hell. He would work nights for 7 days, then would be told that a Senior Engineer had vacation, so he had 48 hours to change his sleep schedule and come in for 7 days of mornings. It went like that for about 4 years until he just up and quit one day.

The benefits and retirement in the rail industry were good (so much so that I even went to a half dozen hiring sessions with knowing how bad it was for my buddy), but they stack the deck against you and put you through the ringer for long enough that there's a lot of burn-out and a lot of employees don't stay til retirement. That's good ol' business in the U.S.of A. Woo Hoo!

Mind you, this was all around a decade ago. I can't imagine how bad it's gotten now.
 
Skeletonframes said:
I have a friend who just straight-up quit the rail industry about 8 years ago. They had something called an Extra Board where you were pretty much on-call all the time. If a full-time Engineer called off or had a scheduled day off they would call you based on what number you were on the Extra Board. You were not a full-time employee with full-time benefits. You were basically the equivalent of a contractor, but had to be on-call perpetually. He would get called in at all hours. 6am, 3pm, 1am. Just whenever. You could "Mark Up" which put you back to the bottom of the list on the Extra Board. There were times he would work 6 days in a row, there were times he wouldn't work for 2 weeks. Even though he was an employee of the railroad he didn't have any vacation or sick days, so if his kid had a birthday and he "marked up" that meant risking going a week or more with no pay. It was a really shitty way to live. He was constantly stressed about work, pay, and personal obligations. He eventually got hired in full-time and it wasn't much better. Unless you had 30 years seniority your hours, days off, and shifts were still hell. He would work nights for 7 days, then would be told that a Senior Engineer had vacation, so he had 48 hours to change his sleep schedule and come in for 7 days of mornings. It went like that for about 4 years until he just up and quit one day.

The benefits and retirement in the rail industry were good (so much so that I even went to a half dozen hiring sessions with knowing how bad it was for my buddy), but they stack the deck against you and put you through the ringer for long enough that there's a lot of burn-out and a lot of employees don't stay til retirement. That's good ol' business in the U.S.of A. Woo Hoo!

Mind you, this was all around a decade ago. I can't imagine how bad it's gotten now.
Click to expand...

www.npr.org

Biden says a tentative railway labor deal has been reached, averting a strike

President Joe Biden said Thursday a tentative railway labor agreement has been reached, averting a potentially devastating strike before the pivotal midterm elections.
www.npr.org www.npr.org

Looks like the strike has been averted. Hope they got meaningful change and not "moderation".
 
RenegadeMonster said:
www.npr.org

Biden says a tentative railway labor deal has been reached, averting a strike

President Joe Biden said Thursday a tentative railway labor agreement has been reached, averting a potentially devastating strike before the pivotal midterm elections.
www.npr.org www.npr.org

Looks like the strike has been averted. Hope they got meaningful change and not "moderation".
Click to expand...
Wow. As soon as I read "Biden says..." in the title my mind automatically went to worst-case scenario, because I have been programmed to think that way in the last 5-or-so years. The fact that it ended with something that could be optimism is a new feeling for me, right now. Haha. Hope it's good for the workers and hope it proves to other labor sections that real change is possible for them.
 
Hemotep said:
One less slime ball around who's willing to cover up sexual assault on campus.
www.cnbc.com

Ken Starr, prosecutor in Clinton Whitewater probe, dies at 76

Ken Starr, who led the Whitewater investigation into former President Bill Clinton, has died at 76, his family said.
www.cnbc.com www.cnbc.com
Click to expand...


And nothing of value was lost. He's one of the dudes that helped get Epstein a sweetheart deal to avoid prosecution. It's been literal decades and I still feel bad for Monica. Poor girl got pilloried.
 
Skeletonframes said:
I have a friend who just straight-up quit the rail industry about 8 years ago. They had something called an Extra Board where you were pretty much on-call all the time. If a full-time Engineer called off or had a scheduled day off they would call you based on what number you were on the Extra Board. You were not a full-time employee with full-time benefits. You were basically the equivalent of a contractor, but had to be on-call perpetually. He would get called in at all hours. 6am, 3pm, 1am. Just whenever. You could "Mark Up" which put you back to the bottom of the list on the Extra Board. There were times he would work 6 days in a row, there were times he wouldn't work for 2 weeks. Even though he was an employee of the railroad he didn't have any vacation or sick days, so if his kid had a birthday and he "marked up" that meant risking going a week or more with no pay. It was a really shitty way to live. He was constantly stressed about work, pay, and personal obligations. He eventually got hired in full-time and it wasn't much better. Unless you had 30 years seniority your hours, days off, and shifts were still hell. He would work nights for 7 days, then would be told that a Senior Engineer had vacation, so he had 48 hours to change his sleep schedule and come in for 7 days of mornings. It went like that for about 4 years until he just up and quit one day.

The benefits and retirement in the rail industry were good (so much so that I even went to a half dozen hiring sessions with knowing how bad it was for my buddy), but they stack the deck against you and put you through the ringer for long enough that there's a lot of burn-out and a lot of employees don't stay til retirement. That's good ol' business in the U.S.of A. Woo Hoo!

Mind you, this was all around a decade ago. I can't imagine how bad it's gotten now.
Click to expand...

This sounds like nonunion jobs in film
 
RenegadeMonster said:
Something both Florida and Texas have in common...

www.fox5dc.com

2 buses of migrants dropped off outside VP Harris’s residence near Naval Observatory in DC

Two buses of migrants were dropped off Thursday morning outside Vice President Kamala Harris’s residence in northwest Washington, D.C.
www.fox5dc.com www.fox5dc.com
Click to expand...

I talk to my father in law about his experience packed inside of a freight truck with a bunch of other migrants with no bathroom. He tried to get over here three times. It wasn’t pretty.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top