The Economy

Hold on a little while, that rate could rise with a strike.

 

There's a saying about railroads, that after they hire you they spend the rest of your career trying to fire you.

 

From what I can glean, everything is settled except the railroad workers want the right to have unpaid sick leave for unexpected emergencies. Right now, they basically work on 24-hour notice, and have to burn a paid leave day if something comes up. The railroads argue that employees have plenty of paid leave days but have to declare when to use them in advance, so they don't see an issue.

In essence, your kid has to give you a week's advance notice that he's about to get sick and needs to be taken to the hospital. At the same time, I understand the trains need to know how many engineers and conductors and dispatchers are available because of flexibility, and they don't have nearly enough as it is.

I can see where that's a no-go for the union.

 

Wow. I thought they made double that.

 

A guy I went to high school with works for Norfolk Southern. He did his time doing whatever, but is far enough up the ladder now that he basically runs a bus route. He leaves home in the morning, takes a freight train on about a 60-mile trip, brings a different one back, and is home for supper. That's his daily routine.

 

Amtrak cancels long-distance routes amid looming rail strike

 

The Class 1 railroads have spent the past decade-plus eliminating the equivalent of a Class 1 railroad's worth of jobs, both in T&E (Train & Engine, crews), Maintenance of Way and back office. Hedge funds and shareholders are to thank for that, along with Precision Scheduled Railroading (PSR) operations which deploy fewer but longer trains, so fewer locomotives and fewer crew. You can imagine what that has done to service. Veteran employees have been leaving in droves, and attracting new ones has been problematic.

 

What's the deal on this "points" system I've read about?

 

Good question. Apparently this is already in place at BNSF:

"Workers would be given a total of 30 points for their lifetime careers. Each day off outside of allotted vacation days would result in docked points, with the following penalties:

Monday-Thursday: 2 points
Friday-Saturday: 4 points
Sunday: 3 points
Holidays: 7 points

According to a worker, engineers, conductors, and railyard workers are being reclassified as “assigned service” employees, who would lose 7 points regardless of the day of the week. Another employee has stated that workers are now expected to be available 90% of the time instead of the current 75%. In order to win points back, workers would have to work for two weeks straight without a day off."

F---ING SUITS! This makes corporate media look like a bunch of slackers.

 

If this strike comes to pass ... and I hope it doesn't ... it will be interesting to see how the blame game plays out. As I understand it, President Biden's board recommended the new contract be adopted.

 

Just more bad news for Biden