Looming Rail Strike
- Thread starter Leeshouldveflanked
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The article addresses how the 'disruption' argument is bullshite.
I don't see why eminent domain track matters for pricing to compete with trucking that runs on eminent domain roads? I would also bet the railroads pay for far more of the upkeep of their track than the trucking companies pay for their roads, so if anything you got this argument completely bass ackwards.
Hard to have unregulated companies compete when we've allowed them to consolidate already. We gonna break them up like Ma Bell? (I hope that reference isn't dating me too terribly these days.)
I'm saying it's irrelevant whether you call it PTO or sick leave. If you feel sick and don't work, and you still get paid for that day, then saying you don't get a single sick day is a little disingenuous. I have had jobs with vacation and sick leave and jobs with just PTO and the jobs with just PTO are better. Separating sick leave and vacation essentially ends up giving your less diligent and/or more dishonest employees more vacation.
Interesting that Amtrak is cancelling routes ahead of the strike as well. Didn't realize how dependent they are on freight railroads everywhere but the eastern seaboard.
Mark me down as so far below your intelligence level that this makes zero sense to me. I'll just continue along over here in the corner with my dunce hat on...
They're not shooting themselves in the foot. It's better for a lot of politicians to be in the minority party. Just rail on the opposing party and say a lot of stupid **** but not actually be accountable for anything.
Pretty sure McConnell doesn't want the leadership back right now because he doesn't want to have to work deals with they type of people who would be definition be needed to form that majority. It's a lot less headache to negotiate with democrats and the 12-15 members of his caucus that are the right combination of safe for reelection and also squishy.
Well that is nonsensical. There's not an administration that wouldn't step in and try to help in some way, given the scale of potential impact to the country. Biden isn't special in that way. I suspect any decent presidential administration would do similar.
It's not irrelevant if it has to be pre-approved you mendacious little ****. Because then when you attempt to call in sick, it's not pre-approved use of PTO so it's come in or be fired. But you know this, and only you can answer why you're lying about it on purpose.
It really doesn't. The main problem is from New Orleans to probably Bay St. Louis. Lots of single track in that area and no siding, and it would be expensive to add it because of the terrain, but more importantly probably not feasible to get through NEPA, or at least not in the next decade. The study they reference as "independent" really wasn't. Basically were asked to justify a result and they did. CSX's study is likewise ********, but there is a truth in the middle there somewhere. It certainly is possible to run amtrak on the same lines. It would be a pain for some of the industry, but certainly manageable for a high value line. But for a line that's going to lose money and mainly be a novelty?
Trucks use a general public good available to everybody. Not sure if they come closer to paying the actual cost than normal cars or not. They pay more in taxes, but they also put a lot more wear and tear on the roads. Railtracks are also different than say gas pipelines and electric transmission lines. Besides being available to whoever is willing to bid on them, high prices and windfall profits to pipeline or transmission owners actually incentivize more construction. They don't incentivize more track construction because it's basically impossible to build them in todays environment.
The barrier to entry for competing railroads is mainly access to the tracks. You'd have lots of short lines either expand or pop up if they had access to track. There would certainly be some problems iwth going that route just like there are problems with electric and gas transmission. There are just tradeoffs with those type of things that tend towards a natural monopoly because of upfront investment. A regulated entity is going to be inefficient also, just in different ways. But I think we are well past the "pigs get fed, hogs get slaughtered" point with railroads.
None of your 3 paragraphs even attempted to address the argument I made. You really need to go take a dump and stop spewing your ******** on here.
Large brokers are not able to set OTR domestic pricing. They follow pricing and do not lead pricing.
This has been shown countless times in studies as there is a lag between rates both when increasing and when decreasing.
Even the largest OTR domestic broker had only a miniscule % of the market- under 5% last I saw.
1- collusion does not exist among the large brokers. It absolutely does not exist.
2- brokers do no set rates, they chase rates. This means brokers are behind the market as cost(pay to carriers) increases and behind when cost decreases. Brokers pay above average when Estes are high and declining because they don't have thebl power to influence rates. They pay what they need and bill what they can.
3- an increased file average for individual loads does not mean collusion. Industries all over have seen record profits on a per unit basis over the last few years.
If it is going to hurt the country as a whole they have the power to do it. I don't think the hold up is about conditions or pay. I think they are ok with that part of the deal. It's only two of the twelve unions that have not agreed to the new deal. To answer your question if we can't get water, bread, rice, and other goods to the grocery stores, heating oil, oil and other essential things yes the government should step in. In most case the Government should stay out of collective bargaining.
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Most companies with PTO and not sick days/vacationdays require that PTO be submitted in advance for preplanned time off and also require that PTO be submitted in advance or as soon as reasonably possible for unplanned time off. Saying they don't have sick days when they do have PTO doesn't mean they don't get paid when they are sick. It's certainly possible that CN has a use it or lose it PTO policy and they don't allow PTO to be used for unscheduled sick days so that every sick day is just an unpaid day. The Class I's seem to be full of people that relish having government granted protections and being generally unaccountable for anything, so certainly I can see them doing that if they can get away with it. And while people will put up with a lot for relatively high pay and a pension, I'm still skeptical CN can get away with that and wouldn't assume they can unless somebody with knowledge actually says that's the case.
I'm saying the top rate of his pay has not changed. Obviously if you know anything about hourly wages, when you hire on it takes a certain amount of time, say 2 years or whatever to top out on your grade. After being topped out....no. No cost of living or other type increases. Which is what I typed in plain English. Do you work for the railroad or have inside knowledge of the situation ???
I don't have any specific knowledge of CN but I have dealt with people in a few different situations who have claimed to not have gotten a raise despite having gotten a raise every year, just because those raises were basically guaranteed with minimal performance, hence my skepticism of the claim.
I will say that I've never dealt with any company where you could feasibly top out your pay in two years without there being a performance issue. The few I've worked for with well defined pay ranges still generally allowed people to stick around in the same position for a decade before maxing it out and you generally only dealt with it for people at the end of their career that had plateaued as very few employees would stick around a decade without advancing at least some. So definitely was not considering that people might top out their pay in two years and then stick around for another 8.
I am not saying you are wrong or right, I will say I am surprised to read this opinion from you though.
Should these people also be forced to work, or are they free to opt out thru resignation/quitting?
I dont often see people advocate that the government should be allowed to tell people they must work.
You can "risk it and call BS" or you could read literally anything that's been written on this topic in the last year.
https://www.vice.com/en/article/3angy3/freight-rail-train-disaster-avoidable-boeing
This article is actually about the labor conditions, it's very good -
https://www.vice.com/en/article/5dg...licy-is-pushing-railroad-workers-to-the-brink
https://www.vice.com/en/article/5dg...licy-is-pushing-railroad-workers-to-the-brink
Amy farmer that sells to point of sale that requires rail is 17ed up the *** without lube. Just in time for harvest too.
Hopefully it won’t go on for a long time because once harvest kicks into gear everywhere north of St Louis it’s going to be rough. Especially farmers in the Dakotas and parts of Kansas and Nebraska who ship a lot of their product by rail to the Pacific Northwest.
Hopefully it won’t go on for a long time because once harvest kicks into gear everywhere north of St Louis it’s going to be rough. Especially farmers in the Dakotas and parts of Kansas and Nebraska who ship a lot of their product by rail to the Pacific Northwest.
Well, the links so far posted in this thread were literally written in the last year and only provided one-sided claims that were ambiguous. And most of the quick google searches return superficial stuff with similarly one-sided but still unclear claims.
The Vice article surprisingly seems like real journalism with actual clear statements that can be fact checked.
The government can say go back to work. The government can stop a strike. You don't have to go to back to work. You can go find another job. The Government can force you to join the military if they want. They make you pay taxes. They can force you to take a vaccine. They told business they had to shut down during the pandemic. They can force factories to stop manufacturing one items and start manufacturing something else. In times of emergency the Government has a lot of power. It needs to be that way. Imagine China attacking the United State through Mexico and the rail road workers refused to transport tanks to the front. What does the Government do then? We already have a supply problem. If the rails shut down people will go hungry. That is an emergency. We are still considered under a emergency. That is how Biden justified forgiving student loans. Like it or not that's the way it is.
Like I said the Government should stay out of Collective Bargaining but the rails shutting down will be devastating to the United States at this moment of time.
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Yeah sorry the sarcasm wasn't called for on my end. That 2nd one I shared was written by Aaron Gordon, he did an amazing job covering NYC transportation issues for a long time. He's great.
That sounds a lot like socialism! Anyway the fear they have now with the current workforce on the RR, Is that they are willing to quit, they are young and not willing to sacrifice to establish seniority. Believe me it takes time, and if you don’t have any, this is a brutal place to work, sleeping in ****** motels 4 deep to save per deim, because it doesn’t pay enough for your room, let alone food and travel. We all did because “it was a good job”, and it is now, with almost 20 yrs in, because I can choose a good job. A ton of guys have to get in where seniority let’s them.
I think Biden is a puppet but this lays at the feet of all of Congress and no matter which side of the isle is involved I expect problems because the strike will probably grow into a huge problem before there is any real attempt to fix the issue and our Legislative Branch rarely does anything proactively unless it lays on the platform of their party's agenda nn
In time of emergencies we have always lost our civil liberties. WWII a private citizen could not own gold. The Government issued ration cards. You could not buy certain items from any one. You could not sell certain items. Men were taken from their homes and sent over seas to die and they had no say in it. Look at the civil liberties we have lost because of 9-11. Hell when I was in the Marine Corps they would not let anyone who was a E3 or less get married. When I went to Desert Storm we did not fly on a military aircraft. We flew in a United Airline 747. They were forced to move troops around. If the rails shut down this country will be in trouble. I am on the side of he rail road workers but having food on the table, clean drinking water, fertilizer for the farmers, heating oil for the winter, wheat to make bread, rice to boil is more important right now. Despite what the Big Guy says things are bad and Americans are in trouble. Strike will make it worse.
I go turkey hunting every year in Kansas. The hotel I normally stay at always has a bunch of railroad guys staying there… all piled in a room like you said. Fun group of guys though. Came in from a hunt last year and they were all sitting on the tailgate of a truck grilling on a cheap grill with a cooler of beer. Invited my friends and me to join them for a burger.
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