Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Railroad Strike cannot be averted without...

The Dems, Big Business and Union Leaders are all against the workers.


Who would think we would see that?

Or, they could just say "Goodbye, I've had enough" and just quit. 700 did just that at the beginning of the year... some, maybe not a large proportion might just say F... Congress, and F... the railroads. In which case nothing has been solved and Congress shouldn't have stepped in between the railroads and their employees. So now, it's all up to personal preference.


Phil

My buddy is working overtime for his company tomorrow. BNSF called him and asked him to install the stickers and placards required on the rail cars. They said that they don’t have the language in the contract necessary to have THEIR employees do it so they are farming it out. They told my buddy that they don’t need welder/fabricators to do it so they were hoping to get a “deal”. My buddy couldn’t stop laughing (he was inside next to me taking the call) and told him that he doesn’t have any non welders on staff so if he needs it done it’ll cost them the welding/fabrication rate. He quickly agreed saying it’s gotta get done and they don’t have anyone that is willing to do it. 🤬

My buddy will happily spend 8 hours applying stickers to rail cars while getting paid $150 hr for something that they could pay $15 hour for.

The issue isn't just wages and sick leave. Since Harrison Disease (aka Precision Scheduled Railroading) swept the boardrooms, railroading as a career has been wage slavery. My last railroading friend just took early retirement because he decided he wanted a life before he died.
His final month, he spent 31 days straight being called on rest with his fastest trip being 9 hours and about half being trips where you "go dead" after 12 hours and then have to sit and wait for a ride to town, and THEN your rest starts and boom, you're called on rest. But that 8 hour clock starts when you book off, not when you hit the pillow at home or at the motel "away."

Now, this is a smart guy, great wife and kids, third generation locomotive engineer on his dad's side, wife's side was five generations but everyone on that side is non-railroad, doctors and attorneys instead. He had four years to go, but the past five years were the hardest of his career. He said, "I realized I no longer was working for a railroad."

Sick leave is just a sideshow. The business is a grind, people are just little gears to be ground to dust, and when they break, another automaton comes along. But the new automatons aren't signing up for some reason.

I really think the "strategy" here is to force the issue and have crewless trains run by computer or remote monitoring, eliminate humans on trains entirely as soon as possible. Wall Street wants 24/7 utility of all assets and humans can't do that. The industry was forced to install a super-signal system and by gosh, they'll get their money's worth from that infrastructure one way or another.

I don’t get sick leave either. How many paid days off so they get?

Anyone in a union in 2022 is a scumbag.

All these railroaders crying about how bad it is, well I will tell you the same thing I hear when folks talk about my profession....nobody made you work for the railroad, go get a new job.

And 10% for THE BIG GUY!!

JFC... could you imagine having the OP as your "fatherly role model" growing up? Watching him sit around in his froot o' looms all day, looking for everyone else to pay his way

Fuggin yuck.