Biden has already told them they can't strike twice. Sided with the RR instead of the Unions. Could be a really big deal.

https://duckduckgo.com/?q=Looming+railroad+strike&t=newext&ia=web

Let's hope it is........................

MM

I talked with a trucker today while fueling up and he is hopeful that this won’t happen but feels that it’s a better than even chance that it will. However short lived it’ll be major pain.

Through conversation he mentioned that there are over 7 million over the road truckers moving America. If true, I had no idea that we have that many truckers on the roads.

Puts things in perspective to appreciate them.

So toots a lot lizard AND a clam?

More like 3.6m as of 2020 and that number has been decreasing this year. Also - that's a count of "CDL" holders basically so a dump truck guy or straight truck guy is counted but not really OTR as most think of as a "trucker".

8 Unions Reach Tentative Deal with RRs

plain & simple

FJB

Yes!

We don't, try Google if none of your "sources" have an accurate number.

Or just listen to teal:

Kudos for annoying the schit out of a stranger.

And your numbers are bullschit, per usual.

LOL

Having experienced several strikes tentative doesn't mean much. If the Union heads slither in with the company like they usually do I think this might get ugly.

Got the Glee club up and running here!!

Laughing!

This time, I'm with the railroad unions. Nobody I know on the railroad enjoys their job any more, I never see them anyway because they can't get any time off. The Wall Streeters are fixated on single person crews but I think that's completely nuts. Trains aren't like trucks and when things go wrong, if you're alone on the engine you're pretty much helpless. And since there's nobody on the property, well, help can be a long time and lots of miles away.
RRs are running 15,000 ton trains, that's basically the equivalent of 500 trucks with 500 drivers. One person? What could go wrong? Even trucks have relief drivers and the CB for company. Not on the RR.
And it gets better. The end game here is to have automatic trains with nobody on board at all. Completely robotized. I can imagine how that will go when the computer programs run up against the vicissitudes of an analog world.

Dave, that’s the jist of it. The RRs are making a play for one man crews by holding a knife to the unions neck over healthcare. Lots of employees will be retiring before the ink is dry on the contract. Warren Buffett owns BNSF and GEICO so you can see between the lines. It’s a long standing tradition that the railroad “barons” write their own rules and own their employees.

I’m not a union guy, by anyones measure. But I also support them in their most recent struggles with bnsf. Talked to some folks awhile back directly impacted and the specifics on it really blew my mind. They’re getting fûcked.

Good bad or ugly, who's right or wrong.

All we need is another fugging supply shortage.

Mostly the union bosses are working with the company men to fugg the worker.

doz this mean the wendys aint goan have no lettuce heads again?

Because you fuuuked up with your stooopid azz info you were trying to pass.
That several members corrected you on.

Once again you got schit smeared on your face of your own doing.


You stooopid fuuuking Liberal Socialist Democrat covtard homo racist.


🤣😄🤣🤣😄🤣😄🤣🤣😄😄😄🤣🤣😄😄🤣😄🤣🤣😄😄🤣😆🤣😄🤣🤣😄😆🤣😄😄🤣😄😄😄😄😄🤣😄😄😄🤣🤣😄🤣🤣😄😁😂😂🤣😁😂🤣🤣😁😁😀😁😂🤣🤣😁😀😂🤣🤣😀😀😂🤣😀😂🤣🤣🤣😂😄😆😆😄😔😆😄😄😀😂🤣😁😁😂😂😂😀😀😄😆😆😄😆😄😄😀😂😂😂😀😀🤣😁🤣😀😄😆😄😀😂🤣😁😂😂😂😂🤣😁🤣😄😆😄😆😄🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

They are currently getting fu.cked hard, no doubt.

But ask them where they were a few years ago when entire new conductor classes couldn't hold a board anywhere, let alone where they signed on and then were furloughed. Old heads couldn't spare a turn or two every half cause it ate into their check. The attitude is/was fu.ck the low man because I got fu.cked when I was low man - cut 'em. Union brotherhood is a beautiful thing.

Guys holding a board now are making money hand over fuc.king fist - unfortunate side affect is they don't have any time to enjoy it.

As far as enjoying the job, nobody on a train crew got into it for love of the game (unless they're foamers).

You know the deal going in. Schedule (lack of) sucks. Hotel sucks. Non existent home life sucks.

Company spends three months trying to hire you and the next 30 years trying to fire you. The money is right and the bennies stack up more than favorably against anyone else this day and age. Thats what you put up with it for.

Yeah that’s what you did.

LOL

Trade groups and chambers of commerce estimates are that the shutdown would cost the economy over 2billion$/day.

Lady being interviewed on Breitbart radio this am, was talking about it, no raises in 5 years, no paid sick leave, but RR boats about record profits.

No, just someone with actual knowledge fact checked instead of posting wrong info, do you not appreciate errors being corrected and how come you didn't fact check?

Might lend some credence to your posts.

Would think one would appreciate a little due dillegence.

Stick to your parts there in B.C.

That’s what you’re good at.

Still waiting to find out what Tootie is good at...and won't lie about for attention.


I doubt we will ever find out.



She is a bit catty this morning!

She's about as far removed from anything 'railroad' or for that matter anything 'working man' as possible.

I love trains

just that

Used to work with a foamer.

I was in a bar once about 120 miles from our homes, and he called. Could hear a train in the background. Asked me the loco number/livery. I replied and he told me basically exactly where I was - within about 25 miles. Some special switch unit only used on one section of track and he knew it.

I dig trains too - my grandfather worked for the Chicago Northwestern, 2 uncles worked for Savages, one of them working for smaller RR's in the NE now, Great Grandfather worked for the Soo Line etc but I'm not a foamer. Those guys are a special breed.

Working for the RR must not be any picnic. A young friend went to a hiring seminar put on by Union Pacific a couple years back.
First thing the UP man holding the seminar said, "Look around here guys, 22 men looking for a good paying steady job, 18 of you will walk out of here today without filling out an application". And then he went on to explain the why, there are no holidays, days off you can plan for, live by the phone, everything in your life will be ruled by the phone. Most of UP openings at that time were in Maintenance of Way, but there were a couple train crew jobs too. Anyway the guy was right, only 5 guys filled out apps, my friend walked, all he could see was a high risk of divorce.

Yep - good friend of mine I've known since birth - he does/works maintenance for CN - been offered roles in the cab lots of times. Won't do it. Likes his maintenance gig.

This is exactly right. Except that years ago, those doing the hiring weren't always so honest about it. And following the train crew shortage of the late eighties, crews doing the training were loath to let the newcomers in on the score because they were ready to end three years of flogging, and they didn't want to scare anyone off.

However - there are benefits to the job that are rare to nonexistent anywhere else. It's true that the divorce rate is high, but individuals' own choices are largely to blame. The BLET president's claim that embargoing hazmat shipments is purely extortion is somewhat hyperbolic. Federal law post 9-11 requires that many of these shipments can't be left unattended. It's not a simple thing to stop 24/7/365 traffic.

Be that as it may, a railroad strike isn't going to last more than three days. The RLA guarantees it. The funny part is that there will be another generation of young rails who get to learn that the Dems won't side with them when they go to the mat.

Maybe something in N gauge

Put me down for a HO

I just need a new power cord for ours.


Board!

My grandson was recently hired by BNSF in their Tech Support Group. His schedule is a constant one of moving between locations with days off few and far between. He’s single so it fits his lifestyle just fine for now and he’s making excellent money and getting himself a good jump start on his finances.

His schedule would be very hard on any family man.

His other grandad retired from the R.R. And two of his uncles are still with the R.R. but have worked themselves into 5 day/week positions so not so bad for them.

As far as the strike goes, my grandson says what he hears is pretty much equally split between yeas and nays at this point whereas as before the talk was mostly in favor of the strike to prove a point.

I guess we’ll know by Friday.

Nice story. Pure fiction.

Meanwhile Team Biden is pushing for greater union power and expansion.

Genius.

The strike vote has already been taken and approved, or we wouldn't be talking about it at this point.

Understood. State the obvious.
The question is will it occur and who blinks first.

Want me to make an educated guess?
I'm not psychic and I no longer have current inside info, but I wouldn't be surprised if BLET president Pierce is betting on a favorable PEB appointed by Biden. And if it comes to that, I'd be surprised if that PEB didn't protect the railroads. Just Like Every Time.

Yessir. Politics will be front and center in the outcome.

There’s no need to fear. President Biden’s here.Lol. Edk

Maybe JOE will recall what HARRY did ?

Don't get me started on RR's and unions!
Union (BRASC) screwed us like a house cat by buying off local chair to the top!
Did the same thing with the BLE and the BRT. Dimwits thought the UTU would be a big improvements over BLE and BRT.
All they did was gather all the sheep onto one corral, like"Judas" steer, leading harvest of the herd to slaughter.

About 1965, the RR cut off all firemen. The firemen were engineer trainees.
About 1975, the RR suddenly figured out they couldn't just "replace" retiring/dying engineers.

Later, the RR made a promise that if they removed the caboose and went to two man crews, they would NEVER put over 75 cars on a train.
UTU agreed.
RR continued putting together 100 car trains.
....and still are.
They replaced the caboose with F.R.E.D.(Flashing Rear End Device).
By the time an approaching engineer realizes he/she is approaching a F.R.E.D. at speed, it's too freaking late!

One man crew?
What can two men do that one can't?
Replace a knuckle?
Set out a B.O.?
Repair an airhose?
As a matter of fact, what can a four man crew do that a one or two man crew can't.

Might as well go with unmanned locomotives.
At least personal inuries will be reduced to derail cleanup crews only! LOL!

Railroad motto

"Uphill slow,
Downhill fast,
Tonnage first,
Safety last!"

Yep. I always get my railroad information from non railroad folk. You retard. LOL

KneelsForPole,

You may be on to something.

Please tell me you're just a foamer. The part I put in bold suggests so.

I had to look up "foamer" lmao. 🤣

Hell of it all is they’re making record profits and want more. Outsourcing everywhere possible. They’re woke to boot.

Lol, musta missed signal day.

And this country can’t do without them for very long.

Such profundity.

Half the board just googled that.

.


We've already had a PEB board, we're just at the end of the 30 day cooling off period.

So they strike tomorrow let's say. Trains in motion - I assume they'd roll to next stop and then the crew walks?

I wish the RR, UPS, Fed Ex, USPS and the truckers would go on a 60 day strike all at one time. 3/4 of the idiots in this country would starve or get shot stealing somebody's sheit. The Great Reset !!!

Speaking of conflict resolution.......Kerry used james Taylor to serenade the Iranians a few years ago.....

With Boxcar willie no longer available, Biden gonna have real hard time working things out with the RRs.

Replacing retiring personnel has been a long going problem with all industries. More with some than others. Railroad crews are treated like the lowly truck driver (like dirt), yet so many depend on them. Most of this strike talk is the fault of government and the lack of the FRA to follow through with promised minimums and better pay and hours of operation. FHA rules on minimum crew size has been promised for decades, and still nothing. Pay, the average engineer makes less than $25 an hour, and permanently on a short on-call list. Don't report when called, even when ill results in heavy penalties and in some cases being dismissed. Generally, I'm on the side of the unions, but with the railroads for far too long the unions have pretty much been on the same side as management.

I believe this time around a strike is very well possible, and one lasting for 30 days or more. And again, the FRA will promise better regulation and do nothing.


Phil

What are you smoking? I definitely want some to be that optimistic! 3 days is highly unlikely let alone 30 days, Congress and the President will not allow it. I hope you prove me wrong while I'm standing on the picket line on Friday.

Not unless labor just folds and completely gives into management. The union couldn't have picked a worse time to strike, period. The companies can afford to sit it out and just do maintenance, repositioning manpower and equipment where best needed, and not be in a hurry to get anything done. But they won't give in to much of any of your demands. Heck what you all are asking is basically a completely new labor agreement and asking for what amounts to approximately a 50% pay increase, and retroactively. That won't happen, and no one will move without some serious negotiating and one or the other just giving in. I don't see that happening right off the bat, and remember it's been more than 30 years since labor has even been taken seriously.

Phii

Yes, we tye up our working ticket and walk off property. If you are working to your away from home terminal (AFHT), there are already steps in place to get you to your home terminal. I more than likely will be working to my AFHT tomorrow when/if the strike happens.

Good luck. I’m not so sure the RR can afford a shut do for very long.

Are the yard crews union too?

Thanks. I had forgotten the time line of the process there. Since I'm retired, my interest has slipped.

So Pierce was betting on a favorable PEB, but didn't get that in his opinion and the opinion of the rank & file (no surprise). The thing that gets me is how the rail union leadership (and mostly just the leadership) acts like they believe a Democrat administration will be their saviour, and barring that, a Democrat owned congress will allow a protracted strike. They entertain this fantasy (perhaps, selling the snake oil) every time, and every time, they're disappointed. And then the rank & file slap the leadership on the back and reelect the same group of leaders. I can guarantee that there are a lot of rails, including some local union leaders, who see the folly in this but they are outnumbered.

So - my expectation is that this will go just like almost every other contract negotiation of the last 40 years, and the PEB will be applied. I'm prepared to be surprised though, based on the current crop of Democrat politicians' penchant for doubling down on stupid. Ironically, I can't decide on which outcome I prefer. A protracted rail strike right now would not bode well for Democrats in the coming election, assuming we still actually have elections.

On the class 1's? Yes.

[/b]

Originally Posted by Greyghost

Replacing retiring personnel has been a long going problem with all industries. More with some than others. [b]Railroad crews are treated like the lowly truck driver (like dirt), yet so many depend on them. Most of this strike talk is the fault of government and the lack of the FRA to follow through with promised minimums and better pay and hours of operation. FHA rules on minimum crew size has been promised for decades, and still nothing. Pay, the average engineer makes less than $25 an hour, and permanently on a short on-call list. Don't report when called, even when ill results in heavy penalties and in some cases being dismissed. Generally, I'm on the side of the unions, but with the railroads for far too long the unions have pretty much been on the same side as management.

I believe this time around a strike is very well possible, and one lasting for 30 days or more. And again, the FRA will promise better regulation and do nothing.


Phil

I can agree with that. My buddy retired and then a year later rehired, promised a lot of bucks to work 3 more years. He made 100k as an engineer .

Thanks. I have some product "in transit" from San Diego to Chicago, curious as to what's gonna happen with it

All I can say is that in my 38 year career, the longest strike I can recall was something just short of 3 days. And that was with Democrats in charge. I recall others that lasted hours, and at least one that was stopped by injunction before it even began. Like I said, the Railway Labor Act was designed to limit the effects of strikes.

Again the Federal Government will not allow a railroad strike to go on long if at all. It will have nothing to do with labor folding, and labor isn't folding that's why we're looking at a strike at 00:01 EST Friday. When would be a good time to strike in your opinion?

We didn't pick this time to strike, it is just when it is happening. Contract negotiations after 2+ years failed. A PEB was held, we went back to the table and negotiations failed again. Would it be better to strike five years from now, when the next contract negotiations fail?

I also don't know where you're getting your numbers. If you want to know exactly what we asked for at the PEB, what was offered by the railroads, and what the PEB recommend then click on the link. It's 125 pages and pretty dry.

PEB 250 Recommendations

Its Phil....he gets his numbers out of his ass.

Which Class 1 is keeping engineers on at $25?

This one. The only one Phil has ever been around.

OOoooo. Thats a good'un if you can get hired on.

Best of luck to you. Ignore Gayghost as he’s an idiot.

I retired from BNSF in June after 19 years, but I am still getting the emails. I just got off a Zoom meeting with my local union and it looks like the strike will happen. Both the BLET and SMRT will officially go on strike tomorrow night (or Friday morning, however you want to look at it) at 12:01 which is the earliest they legally can. The companies came out with an offer this afternoon that was laughable from what I was just told. Also, the machinists union, which had struck a tentative agreement, voted that agreement down today. Will be interesting to see what happens tomorrow.

Biden will go to Delaware for the weekend.....

A shortline engineer possibly? Not any Class 1 railroads. The least I've been paid is $2500 a half as an engineer Jun 23-July 18 of this year. I was working the Local and had the job annulled because of lack of manpower. Normally I make $4500 a half and put in 55 hours a week.

That's $40 an hour and the lowest paying job as an engineer at my terminal. However, it had a set schedule and two days off a week. I enjoyed that for a little over a year, unti Hi-Viz screwd things up and people with more seniority wanted time off.

Do you remember the uproar when Reagan just replaced the ATC strikers that would not come to work? That move turned every union into a slush fund for the Demrats. Do you really think Biden is going to stand up against the unions? Oddly twice Biden has supported the Railroads already. Be interesting to see if Biden supports the workers or the sold out union heads and the Railroads.

Maybe it would kick something off that needed to start 1/6...

Okay, I apparently need an update. What is "Hi-Viz"?

Biden doesn't have to do anything at this point. I imagine the railroads are judge shopping as we speak.

Can't say for sure if this is a clear sign that customers feel that a lengthy RR strike is imminent but I live very near RR tracks and for the past couple of weeks I've been seeing train after train pulling much longer strings of cars than usual loaded with everything from coal to tank cars to double stacked shipping containers, many of the shipping containers with major trucking company names like, Schneider, Yellow Freight, J.B. Hunt, etc., and big box store Walmart, Amazon, etc., shipping containers.

https://www.cnn.com/2022/09/15/business/railroad-strike-averted-tentative-deal

Well sheit, I wanted a strike.

There is only so much this administration can lie about and get away with. A railroad strike would have been front and center in all Americans faces as far as retail pain. The administration has made a lot of behind the scenes promises to both the union membership and its governing body. I’m betting the governing body came out the best.
good time to be in the shoes of a servicing entity like the railroad industry with such a weak government trying to hide all of its disasters.
This is in no way a cut on the rank and file.

Osky

Hi-Viz is quite simply the new work availability policy that BNSF implemented last February. Under the old availability policy of being available 75% of the days in a given month. For unassigned service (on call) this equated to 5 weekdays and 2 weekend days a month they could take unpaid off without violating the policy. If you work assigned service (set 5 day schedule) you were only able to take one unpaid day per month.

So under the new Hi-Viz policy we are given 30 points. An unpaid layoff Mon-Thu cost 2 points a day, Fri-Sat 4 points per day, and Sun 3 points for unassigned service. Any unpaid layoff in assigned service cost 7 points. Then there are also what's called High Impact days, basically one of the 11 federal holidays, plus SuperBowl Sunday, Mother's and Father's day, or any day that BNSF deems without notice and to take an unpaid day cost 7 points unassigned and 10 points in assigned. If you miss a call, fail to report, or have to layoff after on duty it'll cost the employee 15 points. Current example we have an engineer who lost 15 points for failure to report, he has an accident report from his car wreck driving to work and emergency room paperwork and the company still charged him 15 points.

1st violation or hitting 0 points is a 10 day suspension and points reset to 15, 2nd time 20 day suspension and points reset to 15, 3rd time is termination. So far I know of a handful of people who have their fist violation, and one guy who had hit his third. None have been suspended or terminated, they've all been told to "get back to work". I imagine though the boot might come down in the future for some of the extreme violators.

To earn 4 points back we have to be available for work with no paid or unpaid time off for 14 days with a few exceptions (jury duty, union business, or mandatory training). You also can earn 1 point if you make a trip between 12:01 Friday and 11:59 Sunday. However, you can't have a paid/unpaid layoff in the same weekend, and if you have more than one trip in that weekend you still only get 1 point. If you're the top engineer or conductor in the terminal for hours worked in a month you can get 7 points.

When Hi-Viz was first implemented we couldn't have more than 30 points. The company did do some adjusting and now with top hours worked and the weekend point we can work up to a balance of 37 points. The staying available for 14 consecutive days to earn 4 points will not earn you above 30 points.

BNSF saw the writing on the wall late last year, as they were trying to recall employees back to work from furlough. They had over 1500 certified conductors furloghed system wide with the majority of them at THREE + Years, most didn't come back to work. So when freight traffic picked up there wouldn't be enough employees to move them.

FYI in June and July the top engineer worked over 260 hours in both months. The conductor was over 240 hours. The engineer working boards are progressive, the conductor boards are not unless the extra boards are exhausted.

Federal law prohibits the railroad from working us past 12 hours on duty, more than 6 consecutive starts not counting deadheads with less than 24 hours rest time, and from working more than 276 total hours in a month not counting Limbo time. Limbo time is any time past our 12 hours of mandated hours of service where we might be waiting on transportation or lodging or deadheading by van or train.

An agreement… how happy is Warren Buffet this morning? Gotta keep those tanker cars moving….

Osky

Thanks for the explanation. Sounds like an improvement over the attendance policy we had on UP.

Fond memories here of the 90 hour weeks of '97.

Still has to be voted on, but history says either way, it's probably what will be.

Are we outta TP yet?😱

Here is a GOOD listen on the whole process of the rail strike for the layman. Warning I think one guy is a socialist/communist if not all of them, but the guy who does most of the talking is informative.

https://podcastaddict.com/episode/145162283

Whoops, another NO vote... OH!

Phil

Dam, and the pedophile said he stopped this issue.....

So the train strike may be back on...

Toot Toot

Or is that...

No Toot... No Toot.

It is all so confusing anymore.

What I miss?

Indictments

Indictments

Indictments!!!!


panic panic 😱

Says the guy with 16.4 million canning lids.

No panic,

It was a clearance .35 a pack

So I cleared the shelf. Figured they’d never go bag.

Who’s the retard now

lol

Not until mid November, per BMWE's reported statement.

It's hard to say how much a BMWE strike will effect train movement. You can run trains without union track workers if you really want to. Depends a lot on where the BMWE places their pickets and for how long though. The other crafts, if called to work, will honor the pickets, but otherwise will report for duty. There are non-union contractors for track work, and the class ones have their contact info, guaranteed. Unless the class ones want to make a (costly) point by shutting down for the BMWE (which I don't recall ever happening before), I'd expect a rail slowdown rather than a shutdown.

Ironically, IIRC, the last go-round resulted in BMWE getting more gains than the operating crafts - without striking. They must think they're harder to replace than in the past. Perhaps they're right. Near as I can tell, pretty much all of the generic work has already been farmed out. What's left is the more specialized or critical work that maybe isn't contracted as easily.

Its already slow on the BNSF northern Line.



You have to wait a long time to see a train.

BTW - honoring pickets.....

I recall one time the BMWE was on strike or about to strike - the game plan was to make train crew changes at locations other than the terminals. That made it unlikely that there would be pickets that the crews would have to honor. Some added cost involved, but nothing beyond what the company could either absorb or weasel out of. My point being that if a BMWE strike stalls rail traffic entirely, that's the choice of the railroad companies.

Nobody's on strike right now, and according to reports, all of the unions have accepted agreements except the BMWE (track workers). So? ? That looks like a carrier issue.

Oh yeah. Didn't mean to imply it wasn't. More of a sign of a healthy economy thing.


Know a maintenance of way guy........massive turnover in that job. For good reason too.

Always been that way in the system gangs. Which is most of what's left. Not much remaining of the track jobs with normal hours and no travel. A lot of them are there only as a foot in the door, and move into the operating crafts and/or management.

How fast can you go in one of those pickups with the train wheels???

It's sad to see so many jobs going to contractors. perhaps Unions are partly to blame. Employees also because some of them tend to do shoddy work and fool around when they should be productive. Then there's the corporate lunacy chasing profits. It's expensive to keep up 401K's and increasing healthcare costs for employees. They have shut down almost all the car shops and contracted out the work. Contractors don't pay as much or offer the benefits. It's not just a RR thing. It's the current trend in corporate management.

One union strikes, they all strike... so far, its three unions that have voted NO...

Phil

Bull. That ain't how it works. Been through many of these, and sometimes they all strike, but sometimes not. They aren't monolithic. And the there is a natural division between the operating crafts and the maintenance crafts.

How fast can you go? Or how fast are you allowed to go. The pat answer for both is "it depends". It's different depending on what track you're on, and things may have changed since the last time I had anything to do with hi-rail vehicles, but the fastest I recall being allowed to go by rule was 40 mph. If you think the rules don't apply, then.....fast as you dare. Better not get too daring. It's pretty easy to derail those things.

Outsourcing to contractors.

Unions too expensive?
Contractors underlying?

Takes half a second to judge by how someone presents it.

Except rainshot.
Not often someone here presents the info straight up the middle
without shading it.


Kudos.

Kinda what i was figuring....

Couldn’t just shoot the fuel to it and haul a$s.

I always figured they would be squirrely on roads too with those reverse dish wheels

It's been done. You've likely even seen footage.

Nah.

All 12 unions are working in conjunction with one another. If one strikes, they all strike... and that has already been stated... just as the fact that they all have a Me-Too agreement up-front. Another words, any of them votes NO Agreement, (and so far, there has been 3), then all the others refuse to cross the picket lines, then when that or those unions that say no, reach an agreement. Then that agreement goes to all of the unions. And as it looks at the moment, none of them are too pleased with the suggested agreement that was reached last month. Not to mention that 700 have already walked off at BNSF back in the first few months of 2022 over working conditions.

Phil

I just wanted to say for the 4 th time (because I’m old and retarded)

I LOVE TRAINS


wabigoon…who’s with me???


wooooo trains…seen em a million times. Woooo trains. Lose your shît everybody….TRAINS!!!!!!!

Unions are now asking for 7 day's paid sick leave. An item apparently not even mentioned in the previous agreement with the presidential board. Pre-election hysteria should hide most railroad news until December. Merry Christmas....

Phil

And FreeMe also.

Inching up on mid-December, are you all prepared for the possible railroad strike... OH, and the possibility that it could possible even get support from long shoreman and truckers should they need to cross picket lines at certain facilities...

Phil

not a railroad job one that's not under worked and overpaid.

I expect that the workforce is much like any other that’s a union shop. Some people work hard and some can’t be trusted to work much if you held a gun on them. Unions traditionally dumb down the workforce to the lowest common denominator.

J
Precisely stated.

So, yesterday's tally brings it to 4 of the 12 unions voting NO DEAL. So, 9 Dec 2022 could be bringing transportation to a crawl if new negotiations don't come up with something agreeable by the 8th.

Phil

Working for the railroad. Decent story, still doesn't give a great picture.

I worked at the railroad for 28 years....never once did the employees get to vote to strike or not its up to the union officials.

The few times we did strike ir never lasted over a day before the US President ordered us back to work....no way they'll let the rail roads strike because it would shut the country down.

I saw trains go from trains with 4 crew members and a caboose to a 2 man crews with an engineer and a conductor with a telemetry devise on the rear and hot box detectors every so many miles. Trains could be controlled from satilites if they didn't cross public crossings.

One man trains would be too dangerous....mainly because of the hours we worked.

Half and half was today's tally. December 9th could be a strike.

https://smart-union.org/split-decis...freight-rail-contract-ratification-vote/

The strike is like Ross Perot

“Im back in this thing, it’s on again”

I got about 35 cans of walmart chili…bring it

You must have been UTU. That wasn't the case for BLE.

But I'm going to stick my neck out and predict that you are correct and there won't be a strike lasting more than a few days.

Notice how the MSM never brings up the history. Be Askeered

Burlington Northern Santa Fe's nickname is Best Not Start a Family. I'm a college railroader, how I payed for skool. But I never really left the game, kept my RR friendships and things now, for those still in, is ugly. No rest, no family time, no support "out there," it's just a total and utter grind and the job itself is no fun any more even on the good trips.
Oh, and you've got cameras watching every second, too. Don't tell any dirty jokes or give some kids by the tracks an extra toot on the horn, air costs money.
Wall Street latched on to this thing called "Precision Scheduled Railroading" that does just great as long as NOTHING EVER GOES WRONG. And with infrastructure better than it has ever been (truly), most of the time, you can get away with it. But the tiniest glitch? There's nobody around to fix it, no spares, no fallback.
And with working conditions so bad, railroads can't even recruit from all the experienced people they tossed out on the street when Covid cut traffic.
So I hope the unions win this time. While Wall Street lusts for an automatic train set that spins out cash like clockwork, our train set is out on the porch and runs across the neighbor's property. Someone has to keep an eye on things (awake) and fix stuff (brains and skill) or nothing runs at all.

Heaven forbids if they automate and cut the crew to just an engineer. Who'd watch the controls if he'd need to go down into the nose to check the tires?


Phil

UP is the most woke place to work in the nation. If anybody complains that someone hurt their feelings that person gets fired or at least reprimanded. UP and I'm sure the others made record profits last year and they want to cut forces to make more. It's a pretty sordid monopoly. UP car shop used to have a full machine shop and blacksmith shop. Instead of keeping them and turning them into a museum they loaded it all into gondolas and sold perfectly good machines and equipment for scrap. They've been slowly closing the car shops and laying people off in order to farm out the work to contractors for a long time now. The city of Palestine Texas has a contract drawn up and signed over 150 years ago that has been deemed invalid by the judicial system. They've been trying to close down that shop for many years. it's been to the supreme court at least two times and they denied but probably not this time.

BNSF is doing that too.


My friend almost cried when they yarded all the machine tools out to the scrap pile.


Wouldn't even sell them. Too dangerous for the employees to run.


The Union and the Corporate Guys are working together to screw the employees.



Shame on you people.

NS did the same here in Roanoke, VA
Shop/yard is a ghost town.