1ºCombat Sailor True, republicans are upfront about their preferences for the rich and mega-corporations. But it seems like democrats are right now, doing the bidding of these large corporations too, even if in public speeches they claim to be more supportive of unions and workers. This could have been a slam-dunk opportunity to show that Biden and congressional democrats support unions and workers getting treated fairly and with respect. Instead it seem like they are backtracking on their verbal support of unions, and will probably still end up with a disruption of the rail-industry anyways. The worst of both worlds
2ºMartin Van Der Harst so what’s the flexibility you speak of ? Three Dr. visits a year, but they must be on Tuesday Wednesday and Thursday and 30 day notice. So no, that’s a lie. Teachers get sick days. Teachers have a day shift schedule/get summers off…we have no schedule, and we stay away from home half the time. You can’t compare main stream jobs to the railroad….They will hire anyone with a pulse right now. Felons, no high school diploma, it doesn't matter, come on out hero and move some freight since you think it’s more important than employees well being….The other unions voted yes because they knew this would happen. They knew no one would stand with us, they never do, which is why we are in this position. So they voted yes to speed up the inevitable and get the back pay, since we haven’t had a raise in 3 years.
3ºMartin Van Der Harst there’s no flexibility. We will be disciplined under the attendance policy if we are sick. Yea, we get three dr visits a year lol gotta give 30 days notice, and only on Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday. It’s a 22% pay raise, 24% compounded. That number looks good on paper, but our raises have been so bad the last 20 years this hardly catches us up. When you can go drive a truck for Walmart and start out making 110,000 a year vs 80,000-90,000 as engineer something is wrong. The time away from home, and being on call 24/7 isn’t worth it anymore. When I started there was a waiting list, and we had to pay 4,500 for conductor school. Now the school is free and new hires are paid from day one, and they can’t find anyone that wants to do this. That should tell you all you need to know. People with 20 plus years are quitting. If what we do is so important to the economy, shouldn’t we be taken care of ? We are already ran into the ground because of crew shortages, it’s only going to get worse as more people quit. Imagine it’s 10:00 pm and you’re preparing for bed, and as soon as you cover up the Phone rings. It’s your call to work. You have two hours to get ready and get to the yard. You work 12 hours taking your train 200 miles from home. Wait 2 more hours on transportation to take you to the hotel, where you get 10 hours rest. You may get called at the end of that 10 hours to go do it again, or you could sit at the hotel 24 hours or more waiting for that call. So about the time you get sleepy again the phone will ring. This cycle happens at all hours of the day or night every day. It’s a lifestyle that’s hard to explain, and even harder to live …and YOU will not ever fully understand it unless you actually do it. All we want is fair compensation and a few sick days, but the greedy railroads that’s making record profits off our backs can’t even do that.
4ºMichael Linkowich So then screw all the rail workers who are unhappy with their work conditions? Nobody wants the country to shut down, obviously. But I also don’t think that congress should just be able to step in at the behest of corporations and just force workers to accept substandard working conditions and practices. Obviously republicans don’t care as much about unions and labor laws. But I at least thought the democrats would care more about that. At least that’s what they made it seem like during election cycles. The biggest thing these workers want is some paid sick-time each year. Why is that so hard for these huge railroad companies to do???
5ºOscar Garcia , I've work for essential businesses and weather is planning.
When your union reps say its a good deal and then threaten to hold the US citizens hostage in your negotiations, then its time for congress to use its powers under the law.
This may come down like the ATC union overbluffing and losing their jobs which is more essential than ticket takers and driving trains.
I hope it doesn't get you fired if congress steps in but replaces those who don't show up to work because alot of people are willing to be trained at that pay scale and we keep getting tens of thousands of immigrants weekly
6ºChris Hickman We don’t want to shut down the supply chain. What we want is quality of life and our only negotiating power is the ability to strike. Without that we have no leverage to force negotiations. I’m guessing that you don’t work for a railroad. You probably do not work on call with zero days off. We only get days off when we take off and we have a ridiculous attendance policy that forces us to work when we are tired and sick. The railroads extremely limit our ability to even use our paid time off. Sick? Can’t get a paid day off. Funeral? Nope, denied. Unless you work for a freight railroad or personally know someone who does then you have no idea how bad it is.
Again we don’t want to hurt the country but we need support on our side and not in favor of these greedy railroads.