Current Events > Senate denies RR workers sick pay and makes striking ILLEGAL!!!

(+) Yeah! (+)

In a separate 52-43 vote, the Senate rejected seven days of paid sick leave for rail workers, who have complained that current policies keep them on call for days or weeks at a time and penalize those who call out sick.

Progressive lawmakers sided with the rail companies and introduced amendments to include the paid sick leave in the contract. But the unions have little recourse now that the Senate has approved the deal without the new sick leave policy. If Congress imposes the terms of our next contract, then pursuant to the Railway Labor Act, thats the end of the line, Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employees Spokesperson Clark Ballew told Forbes this week, citing the 1926 labor law that gives the federal government the power to intervene in railroad contract disputes.

Crucial Quote
The issue is paid sick leave, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) said on the Senate floor Thursday. They are one of the few industries in America today that have zero sick paid leave. Unbelievably, if a worker on the rail industry today gets sick, that worker gets a mark for missing work and can, and in some cases will, be fired.

Time for them to strike now. Don't back down.

they go to jail

can lose their pensions

stuff like that

What are they going to do? Arrest every rail worker and put themselves in the same situation of having no rail workers as a strike would have done?

I know the pressure will be there on enough of them that they no longer will, but now is the best time to prove that they will not back down and to demonstrate the power of united labor.

they go to jail

can lose their pensions

stuff like that

Biden should veto

What are they going to do? Arrest every rail worker and put themselves in the same situation of having no rail workers as a strike would have done?

I know the pressure will be there on enough of them that they no longer will, but now is the best time to prove that they will not back down and to demonstrate the power of united labor.

Biden should veto

So you guys want the supply chain and economy to get worse than it already is?

So you guys want the supply chain and economy to get worse than it already is?

So you guys want the supply chain and economy to get worse than it already is?

they go to jail

So you guys want the supply chain and economy to get worse than it already is?

So you guys want the supply chain and economy to get worse than it already is?

So you guys want the supply chain and economy to get worse than it already is?

Fuck we need a fresh start. This shit is revolting.

What's so bad about giving people sick days

Why do these rail barons hate paid leave so much? Why would a company have no problem handing out 24 percent raises, $1,000 bonuses, and caps on health-care premiums but draw the line on providing a benefit as standard and ubiquitous throughout modern industry as paid sick days?

The answer, in short, is P.S.R. or precision-scheduled railroading.

P.S.R. is an operational strategy that aims to minimize the ratio between railroads operating costs and their revenues through various cost-cutting and (ostensibly) efficiency-increasing measures. The basic idea is to transport more freight using fewer workers and railcars.

One way to do this is to make trains longer: A single 100-car train requires less track space than two 50-car ones since you need to maintain some distance between the latter. More critically, one very long train requires fewer crew members to run than two medium ones.

Another way to get more with less is to streamline scheduling so that trains are running at full capacity as often as possible.

All this has worked out poorly for rail workers writ large. Over the past six years, Americas major freight carriers have shed 30 percent of their employees. To compensate for this lost staffing, remaining workers must tolerate irregular schedules and little time off since the railroads dont have much spare labor capacity left.

Americas major freight carriers have shed 30 percent of their employees. To compensate for this lost staffing, remaining workers must tolerate irregular schedules and little time off

So you guys want the supply chain and economy to get worse than it already is?

Absolutely.

The economy NEEDS to absolutely tank. It's current state is deplorable. We've got situations like this, where people as essential as railroad workers risk getting fired of they ever, EVER get sick.

We've got CEOs getting hundred million dollar bonuses while their rank-and-file can't afford to eat at the company cafeteria.

We've got thousands of people providing essential services for literal poverty wages.

Even small businesses try to use their "small business" defense to JUSTIFY poverty wages, because somehow Jeff and Jan's dream of owning a dry cleaner means they're entitled to a worker living with their parents on cheap Ramen, for life.

We've got slashed benefits across the board. We've got an entire generation that barely understands what a pension IS, nevermind having any hope of getting one.

Wages have stagnated so hard that the median income hasn't budged in almost 50 years.

We've got thinkpieces from major economic publications telling us that homeownership is a thing of the past, and we should embrace renting forever as some "new frontier."

We've got oil and energy companies flagrantly war-profiteering, netting all time record profits while simultaneously wringing their caps and pleading poverty as an excuse for doubling gas prices.

We've got insulin costing $5 a bottle to manufacture, flat, ever since its invention, but raising its price by 15-18% year-on-year just because they can.

We've got politicians incentivized to let this shit continue, because they're free to perform basically insider trading based on their policy decisions.

This economy absolutely needs to crash and burn. It will be absolutely shitty for a while, but its not like it's gonna get any better otherwise.

The deal included 24% raises - the most in more than 40 years - and $5,000 in bonuses stretched over a series of annual payments. While employees would be expected to pay a larger portion of their health insurance costs, premiums would be restricted to a maximum of 15%.

The issue of paid sick leave was contentious during prior negotiations, with the unions - which had previously expressed a preference for higher wages and strong disability benefits over sick days - arguing that the immensely profitable railroad companies could afford them with minimal impact.

So you guys want the supply chain and economy to get worse than it already is?

I don't know why this needed another topic, but people should be aware that the TC's intentionally omitting some pretty critical information on this topic, primarily that the railroad workers are getting literally everything else they asked for as part of negotiations which includes a 24% pay raise, bonuses paid out over multiple years, and a cap on how much they have to contribute towards health care. It was a huge win for them on everything except sick leave, but some people seem to really like pretending like all they were negotiating for was sick leave and they got nothing.

Edit:
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-63814432

I'll also point out that the deal brokered was based on the Unions' own preferences and it seems like sick days was the only remaining holdout. They got everything else they wanted.

I don't know why this needed another topic, but people should be aware that the TC's intentionally omitting some pretty critical information on this topic, primarily that the railroad workers are getting literally everything else they asked for as part of negotiations which includes a 24% pay raise, bonuses paid out over multiple years, and a cap on how much they have to contribute towards health care. It was a huge win for them on everything except sick leave, but some people seem to really like pretending like all they were negotiating for was sick leave and they got nothing.

Edit:
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-63814432

I'll also point out that the deal brokered was based on the Unions' own preferences and it seems like sick days was the only remaining holdout. They got everything else they wanted.

Why do these rail barons hate paid leave so much? Why would a company have no problem handing out 24 percent raises, $1,000 bonuses, and caps on health-care premiums but draw the line on providing a benefit as standard and ubiquitous throughout modern industry as paid sick days?

TC's intentionally omitting some pretty critical information

Time for them to strike now. Don't back down.

... I don't hate the workers. They already got most of what they wanted, and I absolutely think they should get their sick leave and I'm hoping that can be worked on later, but not at the cost of destroying the lives of most people in this country by halting the supply chain and destroying the economy even more. Wtf?

... I don't hate the workers. They already got most of what they wanted, and I absolutely think they should get their sick leave and I'm hoping that can be worked on later, but not at the cost of destroying the lives of most people in this country by halting the supply chain and destroying the economy even more. Wtf?

How is that a solution to anything? As if things will just be "built better" afterward. That's not how it works.

What's to stop the government from holding the economy hostage in future negotiations like they did this time? The precedent being set is honestly disastrous for the future of this country.

So you guys want the supply chain and economy to get worse than it already is?

way to out yourself lmao

imagine bootlicking RailRoad Barons and pretending IT IS OK THEY CANNOT CALL IN SICK EVER

THEY SHOULDN'T GET SICK

WOW

also

LMAO

YOU CAUGHT LYING

LYING

Your gimmick isn't clever (or subtle) and your intentional bias is transparent. If you actually gave a s*** about these issues more than your personal commitment to s***post about them by riling people up you wouldn't need to be so disingenuous in your framing in the OP.

If that is what it takes to give basic human rights to these workers.

But thing is, it shouldn't take that. Congress should passed law to give them their sick days.

I thought Congress did pass it? Thats why it was raised to the Senate.

Yep. Sometimes you have to knock shit down to build something better on top of the ruins.

See? This is what I mean when I say America is a third world country disguised as a first world country.

A lot of countries in Europe are miles ahead of us in regards to worker rights