Four of twelve unions have rejected the deal the administration brokered in mid-September between rail carriers and union workers to avert a national strike.
"The new system, called Precision Schedule Railroading (PSR), made trains far more efficient by keeping workers on very tight schedules that leave little time for anything but work. Any disruption in those schedules—a family emergency, for example—brought disciplinary action and possible job loss."
Yes, a national rail strike would harm this nation. [UPDATE: I chose "harm" over "destroy" or "annihilate" because I try to avoid over-the-top rhetoric.] But I'd strike over this if I were a railroader, as it's pretty damn inhuman for the people who run the trains--and dangerous for the public to keep sick engineers behind the throttle of megatons of steel rushing toxic freight through population centers.
So I will support a strike, even though it will hurt me as a citizen and a consumer.
"Yes, a national rail strike would harm this nation. But I'd strike over this if I were a railroader, as it's pretty damn inhuman for the people who run the trains"
Completely agree.
But, we, as a nation, are normed out to greed as acceptable. Likewise, for 40 years, we have been normed to the the evils of "unions destroying our country".
So, forcing people into a slave "agreement"? No big deal.
The US has done that before, no problem. I just hope that if some or many workers decide not to honor the Federal government forcing them into a slave agreement that the Feds don't jail those who refuse.
It sure would be embarrassing to watch Trump golf while the Feds throw some workers into jail because they want some sick time would it not??
Saying a strike would "harm" the nation is like saying a nuclear bomb would give a sun burn. I know what's in many of those tanker cars. Not only water treatment chemicals but also polymers for manufacturing, and chemicals used in manufacturing an amazing and essential array of what we depend on.
The disabling of this Country would pose a severe national security risk. These things can't just be loaded into another mode of transportation.
I was raised in a Union household. I am pro-Union. So is Joe Biden.
As I said earlier these aren't Christmas toys. This means the literal health of this Nation. People will die.
Barbara, subscriber, Judith Felsten, linked a very strong piece from: Popular Information,' Railroading workers' by Judd Legum and Tesnim Zekeria. I recommend it to you and all subscribers interested in the issues behind a possible rail strike. It is below.
I understand that, Barbara: stopping the rail system would be a nightmare. But if the scheduling system the railroad corporations use forces engineers, mechanics, and others to work even when they're sick or their heads are not in the game because their child or spouse died---which is exactly what happens under the new system--that's not only obscene for the workers, it's dangerous for our nation.
How else do you propose workers forced the issue if not with a strike? If their work is so critical to the well-being of the United States, then why does President Biden not force the railroad corporations to change the policy, rather than force the workers to labor under such an obscene system?
This is exactly it. The corporations create all the conditions for the "emergency," but it's the workers who reject those conditions who are responsible for the consequences. Anyone who's OK with that is not pro-worker or pro-union.
Or pro-American citizen. We're the ones who will die if a derailment causes a fireball of toxic chemicals to rain upon a city. I want engineers and others whose heads aren't in the game because they're sick to stay home and recover, not get behind the throttle of trains.
Yeah!!! I was thinking the same thing! Why doesn’t the Federal Government make the railroad corporations give the workers what they need and deserve???
No other OCED nation allows wholly unfettered capitalism. The upside of unfettered capitalism benefits too few, and the downside leads to strikes or revolutions. Everyone thinks “it can’t happen here; it can.
Mike, I studied ethics in undergraduate and graduate. What used to drive people nuts was that in the scenarios presented there were no good/bad/, right/wrong, true/false answers.
This is a sad situation all around.
Reuters is doing a good job of reporting just the facts on this.
Anyway, I am signing off for the day. I just wanted to respond to you because you never mansplain here
Hi, Barbara. I agree as to how much of a nightmare a rail strike would pose, but I try to avoid overly inflamed rhetoric like "destroy the nation" or "end life as we know it." Thus, "harm." Comment sections are overcaffeinated enough, so I try to avoid over-the-top words when I can.
I didn't put anything into your comments, Barbara. My two quotes were my examples of over-inflamed rhetoric, not a reference to anything you wrote.
You are correct that "lecturing other commenters inflames the conversation." In case you forgot, here's your lecture to me, which prompted my explanation as to why I chose "harm" over more aggressive descriptors. That the CS system plunked it way down here is unfortunate, but not my doing:
Barbara M to Shane Gericke:
"Saying a strike would "harm" the nation is like saying a nuclear bomb would give a sun burn. I know what's in many of those tanker cars. Not only water treatment chemicals but also polymers for manufacturing, and chemicals used in manufacturing an amazing and essential array of what we depend on.
"The disabling of this Country would pose a severe national security risk. These things can't just be loaded into another mode of transportation.
"I was raised in a Union household. I am pro-Union. So is Joe Biden.
"As I said earlier these aren't Christmas toys. This means the literal health of this Nation. People will die."
I don’t know for sure, but I suspect that the railroads are exempt from those laws, carrying over from the days of the Robber Barons who operated the railroads and bought the politicians of the day. As a federal worker, I have a separate pension plan. I know that the entire railroad system also has a totally different pension system. As well as I don’t think they pay into Social Security. They have their own Fromm what I understand. I used to work in a federal building that had a Railroad Workers retirement system office. Completely different than what the regular public has, similar to the Postal workers who also have their own system.
Not really. There is the Family and Medical Leave Act but small employers are exempt. It is usually the states who have such leave laws, but most do not. Competitive employers offer some kind of leave—sick and vacation or just a number of days used for any reason called Paid Time Off. There are many employers who don’t offer sick leave, however, leaving sick workers no choice but to come to work or lose pay or even their jobs.
There are no federal laws requiring days off, sick days, or vacations. Companies must pay overtime for every hour over 40 worked any given week, but there are so many exemptions and lack of enforcements that workers pretty much dance to the tune of the employer without federal supervision. Absent the protection of a union contract, Americans can be hired, fired, or worked seven days a week, twenty hours a day, if the employer so says.
Some states do mandate sick leave and other benefits, but by and large, we are employer-focused, not worker.
Agreed, Keith. These issues have been with us since the Founding, sadly, and I hate to see any backsliding over these hard-won victories for working people.
There are sick leave requirements for certain schedules of government workers, but AFAIK, no requirement for non-union private business.
In the late 80's to mid-90's, I worked for the DoN. For the first (I think it was ) 3 years, we earned 1 sick day per two-week pay period. After (IIRC) 5 years, it was 2 sick days per pay period, after 10 it went to 3 days per pay period. I left that job after 9 years when the facility was shut down by the BRACC. I was paid for 10 weeks of unused sick leave.
No person I know who works for a non-unionized private corporation has ever gotten a sick-leave benefit like that. Most don't get any sick leave at all.
This whole thing is about the greed of the railroads and what they are doing is wrong. So much that is wrong with the economy including inflation is greed. The railroads are also endangering their employees. However, I am torn as I also agree with Barbara about the effects of a rail strike including that they carry items essential to our safety.
Try shifting your perspective a bit: Imagine that the problem isn't "greed," it's an economic and political system that allows the powerful to increase their profits at the expense of workers and consumers. It also continually rewards people who don't give a damn about anyone but themselves and a "small circle of friends."
Capitalism has no ethical grounds - it's a game like football with owners and rules and refs so the players don't die and one team fairly wins, while the owners make a fortune. Democracy should be the umpire in this case calling out the RR owners so the workers don't, well, die.
Yes indeed! Capitalism thinks dead workers can be replaced, and it seems to think that a dead planet can be likewise, and as HCR has pointed out more than once, everyone who thinks otherwise is a socialist. Arrgghh.
You are correct, sadly. I would like Biden to make the rail companies change their sick leave policies rather than force engineers and mechanics to work when they've got fevers and chills. But if he won't, then the unions are justified in walking off the job.
If their work is so critical to the national interest---and it is---then their insistence on a fair sick leave policy should be enacted, period.
Speak for yourself. I'm not spoiled, and neither are most of the people I know. We correctly argue that the current rail scheduling system harms workers, who are disciplined and fired for the "crime" of calling in sick. That means they go to work while sick, and they run massive, speeding trains loaded with chemicals when sick. Sick means distracted and brain-fogged, a state that can kill thousands of Americans if the train derails.
It's entirely reasonable for American citizens to insist that rail companies change their policies so employees can call in sick without penalty. If rail companies refuse, then Biden needs to force them to do so. If he doesn't, workers will make it happen with a national rail strike, and I support any such strike.
"Competitiveness?" Rail is already the most cost- and time-efficient way to move goods around the country. How is letting engineers call in sick going to affect competitiveness? Answer: It won't.
Shane responding to trolls reinforces them and only goes toward exciting them to make more and more posts. Then they keep posting simply for the purpose of luring in more and more replies. Which then again they’ll get even more excited and post more and more.
While at times it may be difficult to resist replying to a troll it’s better to just ignore them. Even when ignored they will keep trying to suck someone in, but sooner or later they go away.
I understand the nature of trolls and how to make them disappear, George. But life is too short to never make fun of a troll simply for the joy of it, and so I did.
Indeed! At times, one wants to pin a troll down to where all they can do is issue insults, having no factual information at their command. Just the usual mis-statements, distortions and out right lies. And projection. Can't forget that. It's a key ingredient.
Rail workers are allowed to take time off with pay, it's just lumped into their paid vacation.
If rail workers want to allow a union their proxy for negotiation, that is their problem. It's certainly not the business of government. We've already seen how well government runs a rail line.
It does if it is a conspiracy of the Unions. If 100 individuals organically called in sick, then no, the government has no authority to regulate their actions.
You, in your upstate farm, are probably spoiled. How about inviting some Venezuelans to come work there? Then you can let them take off work whenever they want to. The harvest can wait, right? You could also set aside a fund to finance their full retirement when the time comes. Surely you are not unsympathetic to their plight?
But seriously, what makes you think only Blacks and Mexicans work at low wage jobs?
Kinda racist, no?
Minimum wage jobs are designed to be first jobs for school age people to learn the value of work and save some cash while living at home. Very few people stay there as a career.
Mexican American laborers in particular have outcompeted spoiled white unionized workers, and are among the best paid today. The housing industry is nearly entirely Hispanic today. Many have become millionaires. They are not stupid as you may think.
It doesn't do you any good to envy the Mar a Lago crowd. They have as many problems as the average American, if not more.
Having done both, I can assure you that it is better to work for a rich person than a poor one. Be grateful for them.
It seems to be the case with more than the railroads.
My foster sister told me that Pfizer is going to two shifts.
Everyone with work 12 hours a day. A move they told the workers will give them more time off.
Her husband works for Pfizer. He will work two day, have one day off, work two day, have two days off, work three days and have two days off.
One week he'll work 24 hours, the next week he'll work 60.
She showed me his schedule. I told her that employees will never acclimate to their schedule and what happens when someone gets sick? Where do they pull people from?
My foster bil is looking for an hourly position, since they made his job salary.
And if it wasn't for my foster sister having no insurance, he would quit now but needs to stay another 18 months until she can get Medicare.
I remember when Pfizer was UpJohn and they treated their employees well.
That's the problem, big corporations seem to have forgotten that it's the people doing the grunt work who keep companies going.
Beth, you nailed it - big corporations not only have forgotten it's the people doing the work, they want to people to be REAL cogs in the wheel. They obviously haven't followed this line of thinking to its logical conclusion. When all the workers have been replaced by AI, who's going to buy the products AI is producing? Where's your 'virtuous circle' then, huh?
Folks in other countries like China live well on a few dollars a day. That's where pharmaceuticals are manufactured. They are happy not to be working in the fields.
Who will buy the products? The survivors. We are still subject to natural law, including survival of the fittest. Being fit today means being well educated in technology, mechanics and engineering. The rest will be doomed to poverty and even death. If that sounds cruel, remember science does not care how you feel about it.
Big corporations have never cared for anything but their bottom line. Democracy provides the rules, refs and guardrails of the capitalistic game. And unions are a democratic tool to force companies to be fair to workers. In 2016 that went to h....
I agree absolutely that is what Democracy does when it's working properly. What concerns me, and has for a while, is that something seems to be broken, some line seems to have been crossed between the keepers of the rules and the capitalists on the field. There are too many days now when I can't tell which is which. But, yes, you describe the structure precisely. Again, and I am a broken record about it, there's just too darned much money on the table.
Do you think government "cares?" Do you think it is supposed to "care?" Can you pay someone to "care?" Why do we call health care "care" at all? Who started all this redefining of the word "care?"
Yep. You make a good point in the particular case of that word "care," and I agree. I would also say that this is the tip of a darned big iceberg of the debasement and, ultimately, the loss of any precision in language in general. George Orwell wrote that when words start losing their meaning, or begin to mean their opposite, the culture is circling the drain. Thanks for pointing out another instance of this.
The word that sends me right up the spout because it can mean anything and so it means nothing is; "dysfunctional." A phrase that has the same impact on my sensibilities (fingernails on a blackboard) is "reach out." I have heard she comes from a dysfunctional family (does this mean Daddy watches tv all the time or Mama is having a serious relationship with the German Shepherd?) so I'm going to reach out (call, text, email, send up smoke signals, knock on her door and give her a hug??). This is obviously a subject on which it is unwise to get me started :-)
You've inspired me to write a substack article about this. I have a long list of words which have been diluted. It seems to be a result of hyperbolic political rhetoric.
The phrase Climate Change has been demoted to something caused by humans. Many people believe this religiously.
"Care" may depend on whether it is a noun or a verb:
NOUN
"1. The provision of what is necessary for the health, welfare, maintenance, and protection of someone or something.
"the care of the elderly"
"2. Serious attention or consideration applied to doing something correctly or to avoid damage or risk.
"he planned his departure with great care"
VERB
"1. Feel concern or interest; attach importance to something.
"they don't care about human life"
"2. Look after and provide for the needs of."
My profession, nursing, requires I be proficient and compassionate (except of course in certain Nurse Ratchett situations). Federal regulations require that hospitals provide the mechanics and safety ("Take care"). Don't recall anything in the U.S. Constitution that requires "care" but haven't read it lately. As for corporations, they care a lot about their bottom line and getting sued. Perhaps we need a better word. Humane?
Nursing is the part of the industry nearest to the concept of caring. It's an essential part of the role, but many do not really care. The best ones surely do.
I've often said you cannot pay someone to care. It's true, but surely caring is the best motivator for those who chose to work in medicine.
I'm not so sure that there is much "care" in the pharmaceutical industry. In my opinion they have done a huge disservice to humanity by not abiding by the "first do no harm" oath.
That the PEB would dodge issues of working conditions that are creating unsafe rail traffic is irresponsible. Biden should not have accepted their report. And which unions have refused to ratify the contracts? That would give us a truer picture of the situation.
Judith, the Popular Information link provided is an excellent overview of the economics of the issues. Thank you so much for providing the link.
Sky rocketing corporate profits play badly against a lack of movement on improving labor sick leave benefits.
"...Among 22 highly-developed nations, the United States is the only one that does not require employers to provide paid sick leave. Spain requires 16 days of paid sick leave, Belgium provides at least one month, and the UK guarantees at least 28 weeks.
For more than a decade, members of Congress have introduced legislation, the Healthy Families Act, that would require all businesses with at least 15 employees to provide seven paid sick days each year. If the Healthy Families Act were law, there would probably not be a looming strike because the railroad companies would be legally required to provide paid sick leave.
The Healthy Families Act has not passed Congress "largely because corporate lobbyists mounted a fierce effort to block it." In 2014, a column by staffers for the Employment Policies Institute, a corporate front group, asserted that "paid sick leave is a cure worse than the disease." A permanent paid sick leave requirement was initially included in one of the coronavirus relief bills, but it was removed at the insistence of business groups and Republican lawmakers..."
"....Congress could avert a rail strike by passing the Healthy Families Act. Instead, corporate lobbyists are demanding that Congress prevent rail workers from securing paid sick leave through collective bargaining.
Congress has a variety of options. One possibility would be to impose a modified agreement that includes paid sick days. The railroad companies could certainly afford it.
Providing 15 days of paid sick leave would cost the industry roughly $688 million per year, according to the rail companies. But with railroad profit margins at record highs, this cost would hardly harm profitability.
BNSF, one of the largest railroad freight carriers, saw its net income climb four percent to $4.5 billion in the first nine months of this year. Last year, the railway raked in $6 billion in profits, a 16% jump from the year prior.
Its parent company, Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway, also spent at least $32 billion since last year buying back stock. This tactic, which was considered a form of market manipulation until 1982, drives up stock prices by reducing the number of shares in the market. Company executives who derive most of their compensation from stocks have every incentive to invest corporate profits towards buybacks instead of workers.
Last week, Buffett added $1.38 billion to his net worth in a single day after Berkshire Hathaway closed at a high price – that’s twice as much money as it would cost to fund 15 days of paid sick leave for every rail worker in the country. Buffett's BNSF is notorious for penalizing workers for taking time off for “fatigue, family emergencies or illness.” Workers at the railway also say they’re expected to be on call 90% of the time, including throughout the night...."
Clearly, there's a lot at stake for our nation. For me, at this point of my understanding, at the heart of it is the age old conflict over how much of the wealth produced by all corporate workers are corporations willing to share with worker bees. In the US, the answer is, quite often,"not much". While we do not wish to endanger the safety and security of the nation with a strike, forcing the concession of RR workers over this issue seems to be yet another endangerment to national safety and security, doesn't it? The middle ground surely must be that government directs the NRLC to go back to the table until they "find a compromise"? It would seem that the NRLC is using the endangerment of a nation as a bargaining chip to justify "not one penny more" policy. They are holding the nation hostage, not the RR workers. Or am I missing something?
I want to know who these railroad company people are! Don't they make enough money already than to squeeze the life out of their workers? Makes me sick how they make the Union people look like the bad guys capable or shutting down the country, when in reality, they're the ones holding the strings. 60 Minutes should do an expose on them. The public needs to know who these greedy bastards are!
Excellent, Judith, thank you. That spells out the issue. I would like to include this link with my comments. I hope that you don't mind. The more we know the better-off we are!
"But the corporate trade organizations that signed the letter helped create the current crisis.
Among 22 highly-developed nations, the United States is the only one that does not require employers to provide paid sick leave. Spain requires 16 days of paid sick leave, Belgium provides at least one month, and the UK guarantees at least 28 weeks. For more than a decade, members of Congress have introduced legislation, the Healthy Families Act, that would require all businesses with at least 15 employees to provide seven paid sick days each year. If the Healthy Families Act were law, there would probably not be a looming strike because the railroad companies would be legally required to provide paid sick leave. "
Thanks for this link. According to the Popular Info article:
"Providing 15 days of paid sick leave would cost the industry roughly $688 million per year, according to the rail companies. But with railroad profit margins at record highs, this cost would hardly harm profitability.
"BNSF, one of the largest railroad freight carriers, saw its net income climb four percent to $4.5 billion in the first nine months of this year. Last year, the railway raked in $6 billion in profits, a 16% jump from the year prior."
Judith, If you haven't checked out Notes at the end of each Letter, which links sources used in compiling information, I highly recommend it. This article from the Washington Post. listed in Notes. will I believe answer your question.
I read the article you suggested. It says that the LARGEST rail union rejected the contract; there seems to be an effort to make the public believe a minority of workers rejected it. It named one other, the right-of-way maintenance union. It does not name the two others, nor does it explain the govt. rationale for accepting a report that doesn't deal with sick leave. If I have time to dig out that info, I'll come back to this thread and link it.
Had you read the linked article yourself? "Why don't you read the Washington Post article I provided and is Notes? I am sure there is much more detail from the unions Seek and ye shall find, Jeff."
"The deal, rejected by four unions, was negotiated with help from the White House in September and touted by Biden at the time as “a win for tens of thousands of rail workers.”
If it was "negotiated" in September, why are 4 unions just now rejecting it? I haven't seen any explanation of this discrepancy.
The Precision Schedule Railroading (PSR) was kicked down the road in Biden's Biden Presidential Emergency Board (PEB) , but the Unions don't want want the workers to die on the rails as a result. Why don't you read the Washington Post article I provided and is Notes? I am sure there is much more detail from the unions Seek and ye shall find, Jeff.
Isn't that just it in a nutshell? We want no limits on our right to be SOB's but we want, at all costs, to avoid looking like SOB's. Seems like a sensible approach.
Jeff, under labor law rank-and-file workers have the right to vote on any action in which union leadership proposes to involve them, from unionization itself (for instance unionizing a specific Starbucks or Amazon facility) through approving either a strike or a contract that has been negotiated between union leaders and management.
Which begs the question of why American water systems need regular shipments of toxic chemicals to keep the water safe to drink (ignoring the whole point that chemically treated water isn't necessarily the same thing as clean water!).
Ponder the chemicals farmers pour on their crops, people spray on their lawns, icy road treatment chemicals, rain runoff from acres and acres of animal feces, medicines dumped in the toilet. industrial pollution of waterways, etc etc. etc.
As early as the 1800's we had polluted our water and people were dying from malaria and typhoid.
You need the chemicals even more if you dig a hole in the back yard...my patients with home wells out in the country would get sick from contamination and sickness over and over
Especially those with poorly designed septic systems...they were just recycling their bathroom visits
First thing I did in my latest house is kill the septic system and hook up to town sewer
Plumbers and civil engineers save more lives than physicians
So true. I'm waaay out in the country with a pristine well but many in older more dense neighborhoods have faced exactly what you describe. Unfortunately city water/sewer are not yet an option everywhere and pushback from some residents due to connection costs where public service is available has slowed progress.
Is there any plan "B" for critical functions if transportation breaks down for reasons other than a strike? Earthquakes? Terrorism? Whatever. Do we really want to skate on such thin ice?
Shane, This is an important labor issue on which Biden, Pelosi and the Democratic Party appear to be caving in favor of major rail freight carriers over the railroad workers. Does it smell anything like how the working class has moved from Blue to Red? Of course, what kind of alternative is the Republican Party? For what is being addressed, I most strongly recommend, Popular Information, Railroading workers by Judd Legum and Tesnim Zekeria, which subscriber Judith Felsten brought to my attention and has posted.
'The new system, called Precision Schedule Railroading (PSR), made trains far more efficient by keeping workers on very tight schedules that leave little time for anything but work. Any disruption in those schedules—a family emergency, for example—brought disciplinary action and possible job loss. Although workers got an average of 3 weeks’ vacation and holidays, the rest of their time, including weekends, was tightly controlled, while smaller crews meant more dangerous working conditions.' (Letter)
There is less than two weeks before a railroad strike deadline. The following are excerpts from an article in the Washington Post, which is one of the sources linked in the Notes for today's Letter.
'That deal was recently voted down by four railroad unions representing most of the union members. The rail workers have said they are angry and frustrated that the deal lacked paid sick days or other substantial changes to an attendance policy that penalizes workers for taking time off while they are sick.'
'Railroad workers do not receive paid sick days and are penalized for taking time off. Carriers have said that their attendance policies are necessary to keep the rail lines staffed and that they allow workers to take time off when needed by using paid vacation time.'
'Congress also has the option to extend a cooling-off period, allowing parties to continue negotiating until they reach an agreement, or force both sides to enter arbitration, where a third-party mediator gets involved.'
Why didn't Biden and Pelosi choose that option?
'Tony Caldwell, president of the Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employees, one of the unions that voted down the agreement, said his members will not ratify a deal unless it includes more expansive sick leave benefits. The union is asking for four paid sick days and has not been offered any. In the latest negotiations last week, the rail carriers “stated that they were unwilling to negotiate over” sick days, Caldwell said.'
'Caldwell said his union, which represents some 23,000 rail workers who maintain rail infrastructure, such as signals, tracks, ballast and rail cars, is among the most frustrated of the 12 unions involved in negotiations. “During [the] pandemic, our members suffered the most,” Caldwell said. “The pandemic spread through our membership like wildfire. We lost members to sickness and death. They aren’t happy with the deal because it didn’t address their main issue: sick leave.”
'But many union members have stressed that the concessions from the railroads do not address their deep-seated concerns about a staffing model that several large carriers have rolled out in recent years. Union members say the model forces workers into grueling, unpredictable schedules. The Bureau of Labor Statistics has reported a more than 20 percent decline in railroad employment since 2018, which may stem in part from the new staffing model, according to the Congressional Research Service.'
“We feel like the deal missed the mark,” said Beau Trego, a 17-year conductor in Galesburg, Ill. “We’re going to work sick, fatigued. You have so many other jobs where people work 9 to 5 and still have sick days, but we don’t. Hopefully, they go back to table and come up with something better.” (WAPO)
The railroad carriers “allow workers to take time off when needed by using paid vacation time”. Yet the workers say they are vulnerable to using that paid vacation time in emergency situations. So what’s the truth? Does it come down to your superior believing you or not? Or in an emergency you can file retroactively for paid vacation time? How nimble is this “vacation-that’s-really-possibly-sick-time” benefit? Do the railroad carrier superiors and administrators themselves work such a Dickensian schedule? Will they, to show how humane it is? I understand that Biden and Pelosi do not want to throw this to the new congress. I understand that they do not want this chaos adding to the debt-ceiling fight we will face in a few weeks. Yet, the union workers are in the best position to leverage their needs NOW. Yes, It will make for a crappy holiday season, but if we believe in workers dignity, don’t we need to side with them right now?
Yes, From my reading the Unions have good reasons not to accept a bad deal. The Precision Schedule Railroading (PSR) was kicked down the road in the president's 'Biden Presidential Emergency Board '(PEB) , but as I replied to subscriber Jeff, the Unions don't want want the workers to die on the rails as a result.
“Yet the workers say they are vulnerable to using that paid vacation time in emergency situations.“
Can the workers take their vacation time on short notice when dealing with an emergency or any health issue requiring immediate attention, or do they have to get prior approval from the railroad carrier/ company for the ‘vacation days’ they want to take off?
"on which Biden, Pelosi and the Democratic Party appear to be caving in favor of major rail freight carriers over the railroad workers."
Hi, Fern, Each negotiation has its own details and flavor, of course, and in general I trust at least the fundamental ethics of the Democrats to a great extent, but don't you think that all of them, Republicans, Democrats, even our beloved Obama, even Biden, good grief, even Bernie Sanders, wrack up tidy sums of money during their years in office, and not one of them negotiates or compromises away the possibility of that. The only president I know of who didn't leave office richer than he came in is Jimmy Carter. Life is life, I guess. And politics in America is a money game.
There are degrees of greed and corruption and their consequences on human beings, which, I do not doubt you are aware of. In addition to their 'flavors' there is the size of the piece to consider. You will forgive me for not going as light on the subject of corruption as some do. While, that may not include you, Dean, there appeared to me to be a ribbon around your summary that I untied a bit.
Hi, Fern, oh no, I don't go light on the subject of corruption. It runs too deep in our roots, in my opinion, for us to have a serious shot at digging it out. I also agree there are degrees, witness the almost unbelievable levels of the last several years--and not just the corruption itself but, to me more frightening, its arrogant exhibitionism. Based on my reading of your comments over a bit of time, I'm not the historian that you are but, although there have been periods of blatant corruption in our short history, the political and social landscape outside my old casement windows is of an order and a degree that I, at least, can't recall. Certainly, there hasn't been anything in my adult lifetime quite like it. I'm not sure I understand your ribbon metaphor, but I am always willing to have my tightly bound opinions loosened a bit. I have a feeling that's not quite what you meant.
In the meanwhile, thank you for more thought-provoking ideas. It's why I love this forum
Dear Dean, I appreciate your beauty and openness. Your summary was neater than my thoughts about America these days, so I wrestled a bit. I'm not a historian, although attentive to public affairs. Our opinions are probably close, Dean, our styles probably not so much. I am more negative than you are about the Democratic Party, since Clinton. Biden. in his presidency, has been brave and true, until this labor issue erupted, which I don't think had to happen. It is a difficult and an old story of ours. Biden continues to deserve respect and support. Could he have done better? Was he committed to the rail workers? I give Biden a low mark on this one.
Dean, I think that you and I have drawn closer. I hope that you feel that way, too. See you in a while.
Thanks for this link, Fern, I already read it. This just confirms what I said at the beginning: the rail system is vital to a functioning America. So why is the federal government not forcing rail corporations to provide sick leave for its employees, the care of whom is paramount to keeping the trains running on time.
In other words, why is Biden protecting rail corporations instead of its workers by insisting that the former not fire the latter for calling in sick?
A strike will harm America, but I support it over this issue.
Clichés can be so likeable. 'Lightning struck' LFAA forum with this labor issue. I had so much to do elsewhere but responses to this baby was a picture of 'Liberal', educated, middle-class, mostly senior America. It was lively! Why did the working class leave the Democratic Party and switch to the Republican Party. Where else did they have to go? I'm having a physical response. Shane, I hope you come back again to delve into that one. Here's to Labor!
Does the word 'TENTATIVE' mean anything to you??? This is an emergency action the President is taking to avert disaster! There's more work to be done and right now is not the time to shut it all down! Geeze!
Have you read the linked articles, WaPo and Popular Information? Biden has punted to Congress now. Popular Info said this:
"Congress has a variety of options. One possibility would be to impose a modified agreement that includes paid sick days. The railroad companies could certainly afford it. "
"Right now is not the right time to shut it all down!"
If not now, then when? Employers don't do anything for employees unless they can make a buck, or they're forced. Without the threat of a national rail strike, the rail companies will never approve a sick leave system.
I rarely have this effect. I don't know why this one took off. Did you notice how many of the comments re-quote the linked articles? Spreading the love beyond the petroleum industry for a change?
As in so many cases the solution is to spend more money on labor, to employ more people. So many problems today have the same solution. Oversized beer trucks clogging city streets? Smaller trucks, more drivers, two person crews to speed unloading. “We’re experiencing unusually long wait times….” at Customer Service? Easy: hire more people to answer calls. What they teach in business schools, apparently, is that literally anything is better than having to pay Americans to work.
That I believe is a temporary condition. And there are many under-employed people, or those who have dropped out due to discrimination or low pay. Finally, the traditional American solution is immigration. In fact, even now labor contractors are bringing in “specialized” crews in construction and other industries. They’re cheaper, and if they’re called “specialized” they get temp work visas.
When you are sitting at a train crossing sometime read the names of what is in those tanker cars rumbling by. Those are the names of the chemicals that go into your drinking water. As a former Buyer for a municipal water utility, I can sincerely tell you that you really don't want a strike. The ramifications are the stuff of a dystopian nightmare.
Water treatment chemicals are administered based on hour by hour conditions in the source water, the weather, demand and what is going in areas feeding the source. It is a finely turned process. The Chemical Engineers are some of the most dedicated, smart people I have ever met.
Those rail cars whizzing by are not carrying Christmas toys. They are carrying disease preventative chemicals used to treat not only your water but hospitals and schools.
About 50 years ago, as a hs student, I applied to and was accepted into a science class sponsored by the Field Museum/Shedd Aquarium which ran for a few weeks over the summer. I believe the title was "Living on the Lake". What a tremendous experience! Behind the scenes in these two institutions! Scientists taught us--we were on the other side of the aquariums and learned how the water was managed in the tanks. We went down into the storage area of the Field that houses thousands upon thousands of specimens and saw fishes that had been preserved decades before. We took a small plane flight to view Lake Michigan and saw the effluent being discharged into the lake from Gary, (I think it was. My first flight ever.) We hiked along the shore at Illinois Beach State Park, and we took water samples off of the shore there and also from alongside the Shedd, and microscopically examined the microscopic life in the samples back at the Shedd. We also were treated to a wonderful educational tour of the Chicago Metropolitan Water facility--that tour itself is probably what made me determine I wanted a career in a laboratory of some type. I was so impressed by the facility and the magnitude of the work done there, the responsibility they had for millions of residents! I apologize for the digression above, but I totally agree with you.
I realize it's human nature to take things for granted. We just can't stop a key component of our infrastructure too casually. I am so deeply relieved President Biden is in Office and is handling this.
Gary, Indiana is built on an estuary that once served to clean the Calumet River and Lake Michigan naturally. Not only did industry foul up the water and destroy the natural habitat, but the air used to be so bad from the factories that the sky was always dark gray green above it, and we kids held our noses on the ride from Michigan City to Chicago. So we solve the polution with more chemicals. As the daughter of one of the principle architects of Super Fund on the chemical manufacturers side, I should be less cynical. But I'm not. Time to get his book published.
Do I WANT a strike? Not only no, but hell no. It would cripple America.
But if the threat of a national rail strike is the only way to force rail corporations to offer a reasonable sick leave policy to its workers, then so be it. Forcing engineers to get behind the throttle of speeding trains while running a fever, immersed in viral brain fog, or other sickness is the height of insanity and dangerous to America.
Yes, chemical and other engineers know they're stuff and are vital to the health of this nation. But I'd bet they all get to call in sick without facing termination. Why not give train workers the same consideration for their vital role in America?
Barbara, I take your point as seriously and you intended it and as I take the country's polluted water and that Precision Schedule Railroading (PSR) issues were kicked down the road in Biden's Presidential Emergency Board (PEB) and not to be dealt with if the unions decide to settle. In August PEB's report called for significant wage increases and health care benefits but kicked down the road the problems associated with PSR. The Unions are rejecting a very bad deal for railroad workers. Why didn't Biden and Pelosi call for a cooling off period to try to work this out? The Washington Post article about the matter is listed in NOTES of today's Letter. I am in a rush or would have provided it. I recommend it to you as a start. I don't want a strike Barbara, I don't think anyone does.
I understand the issues at hand. The working conditions sound draconian. This is one of those rock and hard place situations where morality and ethics bump up against necessity.
I get that people's compassion and empathy have opened up towards these workers. We also need to keep that compassion open for the millions of people who could die because of untreated water. We would also starve. Plants all over the USA use water in preparing and packaging our food.
I was responding to someone who did indeed want a strike.
Interesting to me Barbara that support for the workers is 'empathy' not reality. Why does 'reality' represent the major rail carriers who will not negotiate sick leave or the pharmaceutical industry and I will not count the ways.
I am talking ethical issues here Fern. It's a huge situation for which I have no ready black/white, yes/no answer or judgement. I trust President Biden.
And what in the world difference does it make who said what?
Have a good day. We have picked at the issue enough.
I agree. This makes us face the fact that our country -from its inception - was willing to compromise away some humans’ liberty to be human, like get sick, or care for a sick family member’s emergency situation, without destroying your employment security, which for most humans is their life-support system, and that of those who depend on them. So the railroad ideally wants worker-monks, with a life dedicated only to the one true employer-god. I would love to see that recruitment poster.
Agreed. It seems to me that for railroads to be private is a problem. I think we need to have a national railroad system. Then the railroads would not have to make a profit, they would just need to provide a service. Supposedly my city, Chicago, would be affected by every single railroad stopping because we are such a transportation and shipping hub. I still support it, although I am not eager to drink dirty water, and would not. We would have a hard time getting bottled water too. My daughter just did a presentation on labor unions for her economics class and was talking about the attempts by Starbucks and Amazon workers to form unions and what measures the companies have gone to to block these unions. When I wrote to Starbucks and told them I would be telling my husband and daughter not to frequent any Starbucks that is not unionized the corporation wrote me back that they feel that they can best negotiate the workers conditions for their best interests. I told them not to insult my intelligence with such a response. The next time I wrote this to them they did not give me such a response. I have also written to a local Children's Hospital who was in the papers as trying to prevent their nurses from organizing by saying that it would lower the quality of care for children, and it was important that the nurses be there for the patients. Unionizing was going to disrupt this. I told them that it smacks of sexism, even though I know there are male nurses the implication is that they need to neglect their own families for the well being of the patients, when this same is not being asked of doctors. I suggested that they give some of the doctor's salaries to the nurses. I also said I would not be using them or recommending them to anyone.
“Power always thinks it has a great soul and vast views beyond the comprehension of the weak; and that it is doing God’s service when it is violating all his laws.” -John Adams
Very similar "we know what is best for them" rationales were used to justify slavery and feudalism.
Shane The railroads have been consolidating and with PSR and other ‘cost effective’ moves having been recording record profits on the backs of a sharply reduced work force. This has been the pattern of other corporations.
I strongly believe that Congress should vote more ‘non availability’ benefits to railroaders who currently are forced to work six-day and 60-hour-weeks at the whim of the railroads. If such humanitarian changes leave railroads short staffed, then establish priorities for shipments.
It’s past time for companies to treat workers as human beings, not widgets. Not so incidentally, railroad management has gained massive personal rewards for their ‘widget’ management.
Ever been on strike? If you had, like I have (Eastern Air Lines), you might reconsider your opinion.
Believe me, I want then to strike. I am on their side. But this is the way the law works. Congress (per the RLA - which by the way also governs airline strikes) now has the authority to mandate a new agreement. It could (and should) write PSR out of the contract. Or at least it could give the workers 7 paid sick leave days. The fact that the PEB didn't recommend even this is outrageous.
I was a newspaper union chairman in Chicago for awhile, and a contract negotiator. We never WANTED to strike, but we got very close twice. Fortunately, both sides kept clear heads and contracts were made. I hate strikes. They take on a life of their own thirty seconds after boots hit the sidewalks, and one should never enter them on a whim or for less than compelling reasons.
Paid sick days and an end to the railroads' "efficiency" program, which treats the people who drive the trains and fix the tracks like interchangeable boxcars with no human needs, is worthy of a strike to win relief from those ills. HOWEVER, there is no need to go on strike to get that.
As you say, and as I've said before, Congress can impose a contract that prohibits a strike by forcing rail corporations to accept X number of paid sick days for which employees cannot be disciplined for using. The 30 percent reduction in rail staffing was not due to workers, it was due to rail corporation shareholders interested in every last penny on the sidewalk. Shareholders will need to suck it up for the good of the nation, since they expect workers to do just that.
That national interest requires no rail strike, but also requires a reasonable number of paid sick days for which employees cannot be penalized for using. Impose both and get this over with.
Mine, too, Elisabeth, but we seem to be re-fighting the civil wars all over again. Abortion rights were reasonable for more than 50 years, then boom, gone. Civil rights in voting were finally strengthened from nonexistent to "pretty good," then boom, back to Square One. Our trains ran efficiently and on time until greedy rail shareholders wanted "more," and boom, thirty percent reduction in rail staffing beings monumental grief to rail workers.
It feels like Groundhog Day, the movie, for the working folks of America . . .
Also, the executives made a TON of money during the pandemic. Just as the airlines did with bailouts. It’s never the workers who benefit in these situations. I am with you Rick. OR let Biden et al. step up to the plate and insist on halting the inhuman and stupid practices for the railroad elites to protect THEIR bottom lines….
Agreed, Elisabeth, the solution here is simple: impose a contract that prohibits the strike by MANDATING rail corporations provide X number of paid sick days per year that employees can use even last-minute with no retribution.
If workers have to "suck it up" for the national good, then rail corporation shareholders can make a few pennies less in stock dividends. The federal government has the final say in imposing a contract, so add the sick days and get this over with!
UPDATE: Congress and President Biden intend to impose a contract that bans a strike and rail system shutdown. Whether that's good or bad depends on how workers are treated in the final legislation.
The U.S. House voted to require rail corporations to give workers paid sick days AND require rail workers not to strike. This is fair, because it addresses two legitimate issues:
--A rail strike would cripple America, so avoiding one is paramount.
--Rail workers need paid sick days they can take on a moment's notice without management retaliation.
So, the House version makes a great deal of sense. Media pundits, however, expect the Senate to insist on banning the strike without requiring the paid sick days. That's crap. You do one, Congress, you do the other. Any other solution is wrong.
Some claim workers already have paid sick days because they can use vacation. That's true only on paper. In the real world, workers who call in sick even using vacation days are being disciplined up to and including firing. Why? It's not even the fault of CEO and rail managers. It's the fault of greedy rail stock owners.
In recent years, activist shareholders in rail corporations became so obsessed with grabbing every last penny flattened by a kid on a train rail that it forced CEOs to impose a brutal "efficiency" system. This system reduced rail employment by 30 percent, providing shareholders extra profits. But it also forced rail managers to keep workers on the job at any cost because even one worker calling in sick would screw up the schedules.
Thus, workers calling in sick even using vacation are being disciplined and fired. Calling it "extortion" is not too strong.
If Congress intends to tell rail workers to "suck it up and drive," it can tell rail shareholders to "suck it up with a few less bucks."
More details in this excellent explainer, which others here have recommended:
UPDATE: It seems likely that Congress and President Biden will impose a contract on the unions and rail companies that bans a strike and shutdown. The House voted to require management to give workers paid sick days in exchange for requiring unions not to strike. I like the House approach. It's the fairest solution to both legitimate issues: rail workers need paid sick days they can take on a moment's notice without management retaliation; and the nation needs to keep the trains running.
Newspaper pundits expect a revolt in the Senate, however, which is pushing to ban the strike without requiring sick days for workers.
I hope the Senate comes to its senses and agrees with the House version, so Biden can sign it, the trains can roll, and we can move on. Avoiding a rail shutdown is in our national interest, but doing it solely on the backs of rail workers is obscene.
Those who claim workers already have paid sick days because they can use vacation? No, they can't, not in the real world of mega-tight scheduling. Activist shareholders in rail corporations became so greedy to be paid every last penny smashed on a railroad track that they forced rail CEOs to impose an "efficiency" system that reduced rail employment by 30 percent (more profits for shareholders!) and forced workers to choose between running a train while sick with flu or calling in sick and getting fired.
That's an obscene "choice" not befitting this nation. If Congress intends to tell rail workers to "suck it up and drive," it can tell rail shareholders to "suck it up with a few less bucks."
This is similar to "just in time" supply chains, in that workers pay for data-driven efficiencies with their health and family security. It stinks, but I don't expect enough Senators to come to their senses to legislate the sick-leave provision into effect.
Perfectly said, Judith. "Just in time" supply chains is what I was thinking of, but couldn't remember the correct term, thanks for the reminder.
The supply chain wreckage wrought by Covid should have destroyed any notion that the JIT system is worth keeping around. But "efficiency" is a vampire that even silver bullets can't kill.
It seems that President Biden is taking prudent action. That said, the treatment of these workers is horrendous because of disgraceful greed. Congress must act to give them a reasonable amount of sick and vacation days, but will it act before Republicans take control of the House?
Tonight, Rachel Maddow rightly complained that the Senate and House will be in session for only 15 and 12 days respectively before the new Congress convenes in January. One would think that Democrats would want to maximize their time in control of both chambers — and with so many priorities.
The siren song of a long holiday break must be louder than the nation's pressing needs.
Yes, as much as I applaud the movement for choice and marriage equality and LBGQT rights, I am appalled at the voting rights being somewhere on the stove, if not the back burner
"That said, the treatment of these workers is horrendous because of disgraceful greed".
But, we are, as a nation, normed out to greed as acceptable. Likewise, for 40 years, we have been normed to the the evils of "unions destroying our country".
So, forcing people into a slave agreement? No big deal.
The US has done that before, no problem. I just hope that if the workers decide not to honor the Federal government forcing them into a slave agreement that the Feds don't jail those who refuse.
It sure would be embarrassing to watch Trump golf while the Feds throw some workers into jail.
This is almost too rich an irony that our lawmakers feel the need of a holiday so urgently they can't pass some laws setting minimums for time off for workers which would help address this trend of firing half the workers and demanding twice the time on duty or twice the work product from the rest.
I couldn't believe the Democrats work schedule either - nor could Rachel! Why aren't they running on all burners between now and January 3rd??? Take your 'holiday break' in January, you lazy bums!
Inventions cannot be undone. Yes, technology is science whether you believe it or not. It does not care how you feel about it.
I am troubled by our ability to produce deadly viruses in a lab. Folks on the Democrat side are ignoring the deadly potential of genocidal biowarfare while whining about workers having to work hard.
No one is being forced to work for the railroad. It's a tough and dangerous job. If someone wants to earn more, they can try the Oil and Gas industry. It's tougher and more dangerous and it pays more. The competitive nature of the business makes unions unnecessary.
People here are whining about corporate profits, when they should be encouraging folks to invest in American corporations. A simple 500 index fund will vastly outperform the scam of social security as a retirement plan.
The rail companies have grown fat on the backs of workers who they treat like units they can place where and when they want them. This is inhumane and if Biden asks Congress to institute the contract rejected by four unions, he will be siding with the rail companies against the interests of the workers.
We see the trend of treating people as work units in large companies like Walmart where I believe workers don't have a regular schedule and cannot make plans for child care etc.
Workers are human beings and it is their labor that makes the money for their employers! We need to support our workers no matter the industry or business!
You hit the nail on the head. All big box stores and all the grocery stores I know have their employees work unpredictable hours. Those workers can't plan for family events nor handle emergencies. They can't even schedule time at a second job to make ends meet. It's a form of slavery. Just like railroad workers' job schedules.
The question remains, though, whether consumers will be will to pay a bit more so the workers that provide their goods and services can have decent working conditions.
Invest wisely and you can own a piece of these companies. Then maybe you will understand why corporate taxes are double taxation. Your profit will be taxed when you sell your stock.
Yes, it's double taxation when an individual is taxed on dividends received from some corporation's after-tax revenue. Would it be more fair to allow those corps to deduct those dividends from taxable income and levy normal tax rates to individuals for that dividend income
Maybe the owners could share some of their record profits with the people whose work creates them? Oh, wait, those profits are actually protected speech that are supposed to be used to buy politicians.
Thank you. I just posted about this as a retired retailer. What drives this is the persistent and insistent requirement that short term profits be paid to shareholders. When employees establish themselves as equal stakeholders with managers and shareholders on the Board of Directors you will see change. Until then, employees in retail are indeed slaves.
The owners have successfully captured the working class. The fight to have union representation was bloodily won back in the 20th century. The demise of it was well orchestrated and methodical with “Right-to-Work” laws passed. I fear we have no stomach to go through that body-mangling fight again, even though daily we are reminded of how much worker’s are in need of collective action.
Mina, you and MLRMI and Fern (all above) hit on what appears to be the current example of a trend Yuval Noah Harari has identified in his book Sapiens as direct results of "the Age of Industrialization" beginning with...you guessed it...the need in the early 1820's (1823?) to set a universal time so that the trains which were just coming into widespread use in England could coordinate their schedules as they traveled through the many different local times that were roughly observed in English communities. These largely agrarian communities had few clocks beyond perhaps a church tower clock as they had little need for them with the rising and setting of the sun dictating most daily activities. This led the government at the time to establish Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) to allow more uniform and therefore more reliable (and useful) train schedules. This use of a universal time scale also allowed early factories more uniform schedules for their workers as well, often 10-12 hrs/day, 6 days a week back then. Harari goes on to detail the many ways in which governments acceded to the requirements of these burgeoning new industries to their further development, usually recognized as an advantage for that country and/or government. Harari also dates the gradual demise of the family as the main source of identification and culture along with governments and industries assuming many of the functions of families under the banner of individual freedom and upward mobility allowed by the new jobs offered by industrialization.
So the current threat of a railroad strike appears to be the most recent and dramatic re-enactment of that 2 century-long battle between the influence of industry vs local communities and families, except that struggle between industry (or corporations if you like) and the family (and localities) has now apparently continued into a turn against the individual as well.
John M, I appreciated your comment replete with history and mention of the book Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind. Imagine us sapiens taking an interest in our families, communities, our health, welfare and each other! Pshew! Thanks for the credit, but I would have liked your comment just as well without it. Here's to labor!
Mina Ah the remembrances of the Railroad Strike of 1877 when federal troops were used against the railroad strikers. At least President Biden is pro union.
As willful an ignoramus as you know Trump is, the reality of his moron stupidity is even moreso. The fooking idiot just confessed to one of the crimes for which he is under investigation! "When will you invade the other Presidents’ homes in search of documents, which are voluminous, which they took with them, but not nearly so openly and transparently as I did?" Those last two words are his confession.
And he's done it before. When he said the picture of confidential docs on his carpet was a fake, because he never left them lying where anyone would see them if they called in. Thick as a brick.
MAGAts just think he is clever. He is, like the ultimate bully who has convinced the cult that he is their protector. Couldn’t be more like the fuhrer with his screaming crowds of idiots. Except the cult is dwindling; sadly, there are plenty of morons driving this train. And this is the train that counts at the moment.
But it doesn't matter because WE KET HIM GET AWAY WITH IT! EVERY. SINGLE. TIME. 😡
I know, we all have hopes that Jack Smith or Fanni Willis, or SOMEONE (!) will finally hold him to account, but from what we've seen so far, it looks like he'll choke on a hamberder first!
I am completely behind the railroad workers and am thoroughly disgusted that Biden, in the same sentence, can crow about his union bona fides while carrying water for the industry. Freight railroads in the United States had a pre-pandemic profit margin of 50 percent (this is not a misprint: https://ajot.com/news/railroads-are-usas-most-profitable-industry-with-a-50-profit-margin). To reap economic gains on the backs of overworked people is the very definition of immorality.
I wish I could find a clear description of the spectrum of economic systems, with totalitarian/communist systems on one end and libertarian/democratic systems on the other. Where would American implementation of capitalism fall?
Then I'd wish for a precise enumeration of basic human rights, not leaving it to future generations to guess at what we think of as "self-evident". This would include basic freedoms such as bodily autonomy and time to live one's life. This should be codified as an expanded Bill of Rights.
Lastly, I'd want a study of which economic/political system satisfies and protects the most people while supporting robust and profitable businesses.
True. I was thinking that as I wrote. Being over-prescriptive would inevitably lead to rights too subtle to be enumerated and that would get to exactly where we are today. Yet, isn't there a set of conditions optimal for businesses to thrive that doesn't keep individuals from thriving at the same time? I come from a history of pro-business / anti-regulation mindset, but I see what that's doing to my children's lives and am looking for a middle road
MaryPat, that is true. However, Capitalism does have a goal: Extract a profit from every opportunity and, thus, considers, for instance, "rules, refs and guardrails" as mere obstacles to overcome.
FWIW, I don't see this as abnormal (or even wrong necessarily) but more along the lines of being aware of what one is dealing with. It is quite obvious that civilization could not have advanced without the conflict between Capitalism and Socialism -- either one by itself (left to its own devices) would have prevented any long-term improvement.
I agree 100%! It's just that this system would collapse into a richer-takes-all oligarchy without rules of competition and fairness, along with guardrails. Capitalism + effective democracy = $ecurity for all, and hard earned prosperity for the business risk takers. I will be retiring and starting another business next month. I am hoping the 3rd time's a charm! (P.S. I pay my staff very well!).
MaryPat Sercu - MI "It's just that this system would collapse into a richer-takes-all oligarchy without rules of competition and fairness, along with guardrails."
I didn't mean to imply that "rules, refs and guardrails" were unnecessary. Of course, they are. Nevertheless, they are anti-Capitalism and must constantly be defended... which is what I was warning of.
Regrettably, elections have consequences. Had the Democrats held the House, I, not to mention the 8 unions, likely would have opposed the decision to reach an agreement with railway management at the expense of stronger protections for workers. I imagine the Biden team (and the unions) underwent a harms/ benefits analysis, wherein they weighed gains (increased wages and health benefits) against loses (paid leave and stronger worker protections) combined with consequences to supply chains and the economy in general, let alone a Republican-controlled House starting January 3rd, and the Biden team plus 8 of the 12 unions chose to settle. As horrendous an impact the “Precision Schedule Railroading” system will have on workers, as stated, I imagine there had been serious discussions with serious people engaged in an honest effort to arrive at a modicum of economic (and social) justice before Republicans retook the House.
Regarding Congress’s decision to reduce the final session to a handful of days before Republicans take back the House, our legislators need to hear from us as we press for at least 4 major priorities: 1) completing their work reforming the Electoral Count Act, 2) prophylactically raising the debt ceiling to block the Republican controlled House in 23 and 24 from leveraging concessions on entitlements like Social Security and Medicare to avert defaulting on the national debt and blaming Biden for the economic calamity that would ensue, 3) advancing legislation already passed in the House banning high capacity assault weapons and instating universal background checks and nationwide red flag laws, and 4) forwarding marriage equality protections, also already passed in the House.
Jeri, Regrettably, neither Manchin nor Sinema has changed their position since last January when they joined the 50 Republican Senators to filibuster a most modest rule change that would have moved the voter protection legislation they had supported to the floor for debate and an up or down majority vote.
Jeri, don't you feel it's little more than a coincidence that this will occupy the remaining days of the calendar than voting rights that will be the silver platter for the GOP in 2024? I can't help but think this has the GOP's hands all over it. No one can convince me differently. Losing the House is devastating for the survival of Democracy.
Linda, Though your reply is not addressed to me, I would note I believe it’s possible that Manchin and Sinema early on met with McConnell and pledged not to modify the Senate filibuster rule, hence blocking passage of voter protection legislation last January. Still, though we can’t afford complacency, I believe we can take heart from the fact that not one election denier won statewide election in any of the battleground states. I, further, would note, aside from likely picking up a 51st Senator, we also made progress in a number of local and state races. Paraphrasing another Substack host, I believe we have good reason to be hopeful, but not complacent.
Barbara, I completely agree that Manchin and Sinema had conversations with McConnell. No doubt.
I do find it disheartening that the elected Insurrectionists all came back to office, with guns loaded. This says that people really aren't ready to turn the page.
I do keep seeing that the Trump endorsed Republicans weren't elected. That isn't accurate. In New York State we had plenty of Trump endorsed candidates that won. Claudia Tenney is a full blown MAGA election denier that Trump endorsed. She won her gerrymandered district. There were a number of others that easily won because of Trump.
Zelden didn't lose by much for Governor. That was beyond frightening.
New York State is turning red and we are the reason we lost the House.
We have to be diligent as hell. The fight is beginning.
Linda, I assure you that I’m in this fight with you. Still, I don’t believe it’s useful or accurate to portray a handful of lost House seats, largely due to gerrymandering, as “devastating for the survival of democracy.”
Barbara, I think the long term shake out will be bad at best. Jim Jordan is already sharpening his teeth to investigate every aspect of the Democratic Party. As that is their announced plan. I really wish they could bring themselves to work on issues for the American People. He is saying his job will be to degrade the Democratic Party so as Trump ( although I expect it will be DeSantis) will win in 2024. He is such an ass. How long before we see an investigation into Bidens dog pooping on the Whitehouse lawn.
@Citizen60, I would note, for some time, West Virginians have been asking for jobs, healthcare, childcare, housing, and tax reform. Additionally, workers affiliated with the United Coal Miners Union have been itching for the training to help them make the transition from the fossil fuel industry to clean energy jobs.
As for Arizona, there have been repeated calls for expanding healthcare as residents also continue to demand Sinema be held accountable for her unseemly corporate ties, especially to Big Pharma.
I agree. But only their constituents can hold them accountable for not bringing to the state what they want/need, or for the amount of money they take.
Big Pharma is behind the Democrat push for single payer. It's much cheaper to bribe congressmen than to pay for advertising on every nightly news program.
We should all be writing, calling texting our Representative and Senators that there should be no leaving Congress this Dec. until all 4 of the above are done! It take engaged citizens demanding our electeds act in our favor!
Sandra, Thank you for writing. While I have been contacting every appropriate party, including Senate plus current and incoming House leadership, I find it odd that several of our legislators don’t seem as juiced to get as much done as possible while they’re still in control.
I just faxed this to my congressman, Steny Hoyer, taking a page from Barbara Jo's Comment:
Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Rep. Steny Hoyer Rep. Jim Clyburn, Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, Rep. Katherine Clark, Rep. Pete Aguilar:
For me it is critical that Congress stay in session until Jan 3 if necessary to address these 4 major priorities:
1) completing your work reforming the Electoral Count Act,
2) raising the debt ceiling to block the Republican controlled House in 2023 and 2024 from leveraging concessions on entitlements like Social Security and Medicare to avert defaulting on the national debt and blaming Biden for the economic calamity that would ensue,
3) advancing legislation already passed in the House banning high-capacity assault weapons and instating universal background checks and nationwide red flag laws, and
4) forwarding marriage equality protections, also already passed in the House.
These are all critical to protecting our fragile democracy and should take precedence over taking a recess. This is a once in a lifetime opportunity to strengthen our democracy.
Sad to see that Democrats are not happy with Democratic elections and a balance of power. They just want total control.
How does this party call itself "Democratic" when it selects nominees with an elite group of "superdelegates". This is just one example of why I will never go back to being a Democrat. The Kavanaugh insurrections were the straw that broke the camel's back. There is no return to any kind of moral standard for the party. It will eventually fail and be replaced by a more centrist party.
GandalGrey, Perhaps you missed that in 2018 the DNC voted to significantly curtail the power of superdelegates. As for Kavanaugh, had the Administration not blocked the FBI from interviewing the witnesses Plaintiff produced, we might have heard stories those in power didn’t want told. Additionally, Kavanaugh’s conduct at his hearing was not worthy of a Supreme Court Justice.
Curtail? That means reduce or restrict. What about eliminate?
As for your Kavanaugh comment, we heard plenty of "stories" during that insurrection. The media has done its job with you as it seeks to do with all women. Thankfully, most are wise enough to read between the lines. Pee tapes and Russian collusion, all a pack of lies.
Kavanaugh's restraint against false accusations from an actress was impressive. Salacious and mischievous rumor is the calling card of Democrats, and people are fed up with their soap operas.
GandalGrey, Because your first question merits a response, I will answer accordingly.
While Bernie Sanders, in particular, did call for eliminating superdelegates, he viewed the procedures enacted in 2018 as “a major step forward.” These new procedures only allow superdelegates to vote in the unlikely event a presidential candidate isn’t nominated on the first ballot and the convention becomes contested on the floor.
GandalGrey, Hunter’s laptop doesn’t interest me. I’m focused on promoting a far more cooperative environment in which there is a modicum of social and economic justice for large numbers of people today who feel oppressed and marginalized by a runaway wild capitalism unwedded to institutions that would help contain its excesses and moderate its self-serving impulses.
I cannot understand Biden's lack of support for the unions. Train accidents carrying chemicals have happened before and are tragic. A long time ago I heard filmmaker Michael Moore say, if you keep choosing the lesser of 2 evils, pretty soon you have evil, and he was right! Thank you HCR for educating us on issues like this that don't make headlines.
I can't find a response from Michael Moore online. I did find more support for Biden's position, including from Transportation Secretary, Pete Buttigieg, whom I highly respect. Maybe this is a case of having to choose battles to win the war. Perhaps an even better outcome re: sick time may be in the offing? Senator Pelosi still has 2 more years.
If the railroad executives want their workers to behave like machines -- no minutes to spare, no days of unexpected life -- then they should install Tesla-like machines in their trains and fire all the humans. Go ahead, let's see how that works. Never demand that humans be machines.
But they do. What they can't do with silicon and hydraulics they will do with brain and muscle. And emerging technologies are not your father's automation. Adaptable machines are beginning to run themselves. Nobody seems to be looking at where this may or may not be taking us, in terms of full employment and the dynamics of society.
It’s only a matter of time until trains are fully automated. BART trains in the San Francisco Bay area have been fully automated since their inception in the 1970’s.
I agree with you, Shane, their working conditions are medieval and intolerable. While a strike may be “potentially crippling,” that’s their only recourse to date -- and they have a right to demand that their grievances be fully met.
“They remain concerned about their lack of paid sick days. More generally, though, they oppose a new staffing system implemented after 2018, which created record profits for the country’s main rail carriers but cost the industry 40,000 jobs, mainly among the people who actually operate the trains, leading to brutal schedules and dangerous working conditions.”
Thank you, Heather, for highlighting their plight.
Why is the only option for action by congress to bring the unions to their knees? If it is a true emergency and an issue of worker safety, why can’t the owners be forced to concede?
Heather, thank you so much for showcasing the railroad workers’ fight for a healthy workplace. Their conditions remind me of the ones a friend experienced after Sam Walton relinquished control. Her schedule varied from week to week, so she could not hold down a second job, even though her job was only 30 hours a week. I hope that the American public is caring enough to support the railroad workers in their quest for a decent work/life balance.
PSR..."created record profits for the country’s main rail carriers but cost the industry 40,000 jobs, mainly among the people who actually operate the trains, leading to brutal schedules and dangerous working conditions."
I am a union member of a different industry, and I support this pending strike. With record profits and safety concerns, this is a no-brainer. Time to write some letters to Nancy Pelosi and my Rep Jared Huffman. No reason they must go on the hook for Joe's poor choices this time.
So the SMART Transportation Division, the International Brotherhood of Boilermakers (IBB), the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen, and the International Brotherhood of Teamsters (BMWED) appear to be the aforementioned "4 of 12 unions" not wanting to be railroaded by the NCCC's record profiteering.
Would it help to know that the SMART TD represents about 30% of the 125,000 workers, BLET represents about 20%, and BMWED represents nearly 10%?
Why do all "news" articles mention the 4 of 12 unions, suggesting a whining minority, instead of the fact that those 4 unions represent a sound majority of the collective? IBB, for example, represents only about 300 workers, if I understand correctly. I find such abuse of numbers extremely disingenuous, and especially on the heels of elections where majorities are supposed win. Thankfully, railroad workers don't have an Electoral College.
You make an very important point in terms of truth in reporting when using statistics. But you still haven't directly address this part of Heather's commentary.
"Railway Age, a trade magazine for the rail transport agency, reported that neither side in the negotiations could find a way to avoid a work stoppage, but since neither side wanted one, they were eager to have Congress overrule the small percentage of workers who opposed the deal and impose the one most workers have accepted. That way, neither side would have to face criticism from those who oppose the deal, and they would not have to deal with a Republican House as they seek to find a solution. "
What we really need to see is a statement like "nnnn workers out of mmmm union members across 12 unions rejected the deal." Along with civics the American education system is woefully inadequate at teaching our kids about statistics and statistical inferences. News reporting totally sucks on statistical inference.
Are we talking about the vote being 50.01% against to 49.99% for of all railroad workers across the 12 unions or 65% to 35%? At what point does it make a difference given the serious and far reaching effects on the country as a whole? Biden is having to face that decision.
I am a retired teacher and union member so I am a firm believer in stronger unions and work actions. The real solution is legislation delineating worker rights that would prevent the the corporate overeach like what the railroad companies, and people like Elon Musk expecting workers to be "hard core" as a matter of course to make him the richest person in the world.
A bill that says that ALL workers have to be paid 2X overtime if they work more than 40 hours a week or must be given comp time AT THE WORKER'S DISCRETION would go a long way to solving the problem. It would force companies to staff adequately. It would also help intorducing flexibility to deal with child and elder care issues.
In professions like teaching and healthcare where there is both extensive prep time as well as face time there should be standards as to ratios of prep time to face time--so say 1.5 hours of prep for a teacher for every hour of face time with your class or doing the other stuff like lunch duty. That lets you plan, grade, prep class materials, deal with parents, deal with with kids special needs, coordinate with colleagues, eat lunch and pee. And there should be standards for maximum student/teacher or patients/healthcare provider ratios so you don't get a teacher with a class of 40 kids or a nurse with 40 patients on a shift.
It would seem that any transportation industry whose employees have the capacity to harm so many when not adequately functional should have similar training requirements and employment safeguards as airline pilots and crews.
Great example of an industry where there are standards for workers in place. Would love to see Heather's take on how we got to the current crazy patchwork of what occupations are covered and why and how.
What does the Occupational Safety and Health Agency have to say about railroad shifts, safety, and scheduling? Are they excluded from railroad matters or AWOL.
Excellent question. I am hoping that is how Biden, Pelosi and Buttigieg will solve this issue for workers: new OSHA regulations and required paid sick time?
Thanks for your post. My daughter, a HS English teacher, spent much of this Thanksgiving "holiday" doing grading as there is a lack of prep time. during her work week. Also, too few substitute teachers out there which in turn requires teachers to cover for them is a real issue.
Teaching was my 4th career--I was a research scientist, a VP at a tech start-up, a stock trader while raising my daughter as a single Mom and finally a HS science teacher. Being a teacher was by far the most mentally, emotionally and physically exhausting profession as well as being the most rewarding both intellectually and personally. HS kids are the most interesting people on earth!
Tell your daughter to hang in there and celebrate those breakthrough moments she has with the kids. One way to get more of them is to have them do small group projects where everyone has a role and has to contribute and to see her role as a coach. That gives you the one on one interactions you need to identify who needs what kind of help and lets you make more personal connections with the kids.
Oh I think I did indeed address the misuse of numbers to sway opinion. So instead of "4 of 12" unions, now there's "either side," or 1 of 2. Well that just dumbs it down even further, and looks even more foolish next to ~60% of union workers rejected being railroaded into an untenable agreement.
Retired union member of a different nature myself. My "industry" (law enforcement) has a "no strike" clause due to the nature and requirements of police work.
I fully support the Railroad Union members who are opposed to the inhumane PRS "system"
I am not happy about Joe's decision either. But I do get that he's in a bad position. I am definitely pro-union, and will not be against them should they choose to strike.
If this had happened in Qatar's building the World Cup infrastructure, America would be up in arms. The response of the objecting unions is what anyone wants: work-life balance, not just money. We may actually need a strike.
My feeling is that the resolution of the strike should favor the rail workers. Biden claims he is pro union, time to show it. If working conditions are unacceptable, then Warren Buffet (a big railroad owner and famous for saying his secretary is underpaid) should look into a solution. As well as all USians. We already have some inflation. Might as well accept a bit more if it means protecting workers and their families.
After all, a big part of the reason inflation has been so low for so long (less than 2% for decades) is outsourcing to cheap labor overseas. And outsourcing hollows out the economy, leading to a loss of diverse and meaningful jobs.
The rail and trucking workforce is crucial, to be sure. But that doesn't mean we should accept poor working conditions for them and their families.
"The new system, called Precision Schedule Railroading (PSR), made trains far more efficient by keeping workers on very tight schedules that leave little time for anything but work. Any disruption in those schedules—a family emergency, for example—brought disciplinary action and possible job loss."
Yes, a national rail strike would harm this nation. [UPDATE: I chose "harm" over "destroy" or "annihilate" because I try to avoid over-the-top rhetoric.] But I'd strike over this if I were a railroader, as it's pretty damn inhuman for the people who run the trains--and dangerous for the public to keep sick engineers behind the throttle of megatons of steel rushing toxic freight through population centers.
So I will support a strike, even though it will hurt me as a citizen and a consumer.
"Yes, a national rail strike would harm this nation. But I'd strike over this if I were a railroader, as it's pretty damn inhuman for the people who run the trains"
Completely agree.
But, we, as a nation, are normed out to greed as acceptable. Likewise, for 40 years, we have been normed to the the evils of "unions destroying our country".
So, forcing people into a slave "agreement"? No big deal.
The US has done that before, no problem. I just hope that if some or many workers decide not to honor the Federal government forcing them into a slave agreement that the Feds don't jail those who refuse.
It sure would be embarrassing to watch Trump golf while the Feds throw some workers into jail because they want some sick time would it not??
But, we have seen that before too.
Saying a strike would "harm" the nation is like saying a nuclear bomb would give a sun burn. I know what's in many of those tanker cars. Not only water treatment chemicals but also polymers for manufacturing, and chemicals used in manufacturing an amazing and essential array of what we depend on.
The disabling of this Country would pose a severe national security risk. These things can't just be loaded into another mode of transportation.
I was raised in a Union household. I am pro-Union. So is Joe Biden.
As I said earlier these aren't Christmas toys. This means the literal health of this Nation. People will die.
Barbara, subscriber, Judith Felsten, linked a very strong piece from: Popular Information,' Railroading workers' by Judd Legum and Tesnim Zekeria. I recommend it to you and all subscribers interested in the issues behind a possible rail strike. It is below.
https://popular.info/p/railroading-workers
Thank you for this link. Yikes. Apt title, also - railroading workers into.....
Thank you for the link-it thoroughly discusses the issue and I've shared it to my FB groups.
Wow, appreciate the link to that article; it really tells the story! (Now subscribing to that publication.)
I understand that, Barbara: stopping the rail system would be a nightmare. But if the scheduling system the railroad corporations use forces engineers, mechanics, and others to work even when they're sick or their heads are not in the game because their child or spouse died---which is exactly what happens under the new system--that's not only obscene for the workers, it's dangerous for our nation.
How else do you propose workers forced the issue if not with a strike? If their work is so critical to the well-being of the United States, then why does President Biden not force the railroad corporations to change the policy, rather than force the workers to labor under such an obscene system?
This is exactly it. The corporations create all the conditions for the "emergency," but it's the workers who reject those conditions who are responsible for the consequences. Anyone who's OK with that is not pro-worker or pro-union.
Or pro-American citizen. We're the ones who will die if a derailment causes a fireball of toxic chemicals to rain upon a city. I want engineers and others whose heads aren't in the game because they're sick to stay home and recover, not get behind the throttle of trains.
Exactly!
Yeah!!! I was thinking the same thing! Why doesn’t the Federal Government make the railroad corporations give the workers what they need and deserve???
Thank you, Judd Legum. Read your article and it was what I would have expected from non-corporate source. Obscene wealth may bring US down.
No other OCED nation allows wholly unfettered capitalism. The upside of unfettered capitalism benefits too few, and the downside leads to strikes or revolutions. Everyone thinks “it can’t happen here; it can.
Yes. Capitalism = exploitation.
Yes rapacious greed is suicidal
They will bring themselves, their posterity and the country down with their visionless myopic selfishness.
Barbara M. I get it.
If the rail cargo is key to the functioning of America then it seems reasonable that sick days would be part of the contract yes?
It seems we may be prioritizing profit over the health of the nation.
Mike, I studied ethics in undergraduate and graduate. What used to drive people nuts was that in the scenarios presented there were no good/bad/, right/wrong, true/false answers.
This is a sad situation all around.
Reuters is doing a good job of reporting just the facts on this.
Anyway, I am signing off for the day. I just wanted to respond to you because you never mansplain here
Thank you.
I always appreciate your thoughts Barbara.
Always.
Always appreciate yours as well.
Well said.
Thanks
Hi, Barbara. I agree as to how much of a nightmare a rail strike would pose, but I try to avoid overly inflamed rhetoric like "destroy the nation" or "end life as we know it." Thus, "harm." Comment sections are overcaffeinated enough, so I try to avoid over-the-top words when I can.
Huh? Please don't put words into my comments. Lecturing other commenters also inflames the conversation.
I didn't put anything into your comments, Barbara. My two quotes were my examples of over-inflamed rhetoric, not a reference to anything you wrote.
You are correct that "lecturing other commenters inflames the conversation." In case you forgot, here's your lecture to me, which prompted my explanation as to why I chose "harm" over more aggressive descriptors. That the CS system plunked it way down here is unfortunate, but not my doing:
Barbara M to Shane Gericke:
"Saying a strike would "harm" the nation is like saying a nuclear bomb would give a sun burn. I know what's in many of those tanker cars. Not only water treatment chemicals but also polymers for manufacturing, and chemicals used in manufacturing an amazing and essential array of what we depend on.
"The disabling of this Country would pose a severe national security risk. These things can't just be loaded into another mode of transportation.
"I was raised in a Union household. I am pro-Union. So is Joe Biden.
"As I said earlier these aren't Christmas toys. This means the literal health of this Nation. People will die."
Does the US have no laws regulating basic working conditions like the provision of sick leave , or just very weak ones?
I don’t know for sure, but I suspect that the railroads are exempt from those laws, carrying over from the days of the Robber Barons who operated the railroads and bought the politicians of the day. As a federal worker, I have a separate pension plan. I know that the entire railroad system also has a totally different pension system. As well as I don’t think they pay into Social Security. They have their own Fromm what I understand. I used to work in a federal building that had a Railroad Workers retirement system office. Completely different than what the regular public has, similar to the Postal workers who also have their own system.
Wrong.
Not really. There is the Family and Medical Leave Act but small employers are exempt. It is usually the states who have such leave laws, but most do not. Competitive employers offer some kind of leave—sick and vacation or just a number of days used for any reason called Paid Time Off. There are many employers who don’t offer sick leave, however, leaving sick workers no choice but to come to work or lose pay or even their jobs.
Only the ones that unions have fought for, won, and have to continually bargain over.
There are no federal laws requiring days off, sick days, or vacations. Companies must pay overtime for every hour over 40 worked any given week, but there are so many exemptions and lack of enforcements that workers pretty much dance to the tune of the employer without federal supervision. Absent the protection of a union contract, Americans can be hired, fired, or worked seven days a week, twenty hours a day, if the employer so says.
Some states do mandate sick leave and other benefits, but by and large, we are employer-focused, not worker.
Shane These issues were first discussed in the Supreme Court in the early 1900s. I fear what the Stench Court might determine these days.
Agreed, Keith. These issues have been with us since the Founding, sadly, and I hate to see any backsliding over these hard-won victories for working people.
State by State laws, which don’t affect railroads as they are interstate commerce
There are sick leave requirements for certain schedules of government workers, but AFAIK, no requirement for non-union private business.
In the late 80's to mid-90's, I worked for the DoN. For the first (I think it was ) 3 years, we earned 1 sick day per two-week pay period. After (IIRC) 5 years, it was 2 sick days per pay period, after 10 it went to 3 days per pay period. I left that job after 9 years when the facility was shut down by the BRACC. I was paid for 10 weeks of unused sick leave.
No person I know who works for a non-unionized private corporation has ever gotten a sick-leave benefit like that. Most don't get any sick leave at all.
This whole thing is about the greed of the railroads and what they are doing is wrong. So much that is wrong with the economy including inflation is greed. The railroads are also endangering their employees. However, I am torn as I also agree with Barbara about the effects of a rail strike including that they carry items essential to our safety.
Try shifting your perspective a bit: Imagine that the problem isn't "greed," it's an economic and political system that allows the powerful to increase their profits at the expense of workers and consumers. It also continually rewards people who don't give a damn about anyone but themselves and a "small circle of friends."
Capitalism has no ethical grounds - it's a game like football with owners and rules and refs so the players don't die and one team fairly wins, while the owners make a fortune. Democracy should be the umpire in this case calling out the RR owners so the workers don't, well, die.
Yes indeed! Capitalism thinks dead workers can be replaced, and it seems to think that a dead planet can be likewise, and as HCR has pointed out more than once, everyone who thinks otherwise is a socialist. Arrgghh.
You are correct, sadly. I would like Biden to make the rail companies change their sick leave policies rather than force engineers and mechanics to work when they've got fevers and chills. But if he won't, then the unions are justified in walking off the job.
If their work is so critical to the national interest---and it is---then their insistence on a fair sick leave policy should be enacted, period.
So would I, Mike. So would I. Not necessarily wisely.
Slave? Astounding rhetoric from the imaginations of the left.
If we are not more competitive, we will continue to lose jobs. Americans are spoiled.
"Americans are spoiled."
Speak for yourself. I'm not spoiled, and neither are most of the people I know. We correctly argue that the current rail scheduling system harms workers, who are disciplined and fired for the "crime" of calling in sick. That means they go to work while sick, and they run massive, speeding trains loaded with chemicals when sick. Sick means distracted and brain-fogged, a state that can kill thousands of Americans if the train derails.
It's entirely reasonable for American citizens to insist that rail companies change their policies so employees can call in sick without penalty. If rail companies refuse, then Biden needs to force them to do so. If he doesn't, workers will make it happen with a national rail strike, and I support any such strike.
"Competitiveness?" Rail is already the most cost- and time-efficient way to move goods around the country. How is letting engineers call in sick going to affect competitiveness? Answer: It won't.
Shane responding to trolls reinforces them and only goes toward exciting them to make more and more posts. Then they keep posting simply for the purpose of luring in more and more replies. Which then again they’ll get even more excited and post more and more.
While at times it may be difficult to resist replying to a troll it’s better to just ignore them. Even when ignored they will keep trying to suck someone in, but sooner or later they go away.
I understand the nature of trolls and how to make them disappear, George. But life is too short to never make fun of a troll simply for the joy of it, and so I did.
Indeed! At times, one wants to pin a troll down to where all they can do is issue insults, having no factual information at their command. Just the usual mis-statements, distortions and out right lies. And projection. Can't forget that. It's a key ingredient.
Yes, I expect you do know the inner workings of a troll.
Labeling someone a troll is not the greatest way to support an argument.
I couldn’t agree more. That said I’m glad I didn’t label anyone.
But you seem a bit upset. Did someone call you a troll?
I responded to him several times and received no answer. I will assume his remark to me was that of a troll unless he explains himself.
Rail workers are allowed to take time off with pay, it's just lumped into their paid vacation.
If rail workers want to allow a union their proxy for negotiation, that is their problem. It's certainly not the business of government. We've already seen how well government runs a rail line.
If working conditions is not the business of government, as you insist, then the government has no business stopping a national rail strike.
It does if it is a conspiracy of the Unions. If 100 individuals organically called in sick, then no, the government has no authority to regulate their actions.
Which Americans are spoiled?
Black Americans working at McDonalds on long shifts at minimum wage?
Mexican Americans working the fields on 15 hour shifts for minimum wage?
Mexican Americans working in meat packing plants on 12 hour shifts for minimum wage?
White Americans golfing at Mara Lago using Daddy’s money to avoid work?
You, in your upstate farm, are probably spoiled. How about inviting some Venezuelans to come work there? Then you can let them take off work whenever they want to. The harvest can wait, right? You could also set aside a fund to finance their full retirement when the time comes. Surely you are not unsympathetic to their plight?
But seriously, what makes you think only Blacks and Mexicans work at low wage jobs?
Kinda racist, no?
Minimum wage jobs are designed to be first jobs for school age people to learn the value of work and save some cash while living at home. Very few people stay there as a career.
Mexican American laborers in particular have outcompeted spoiled white unionized workers, and are among the best paid today. The housing industry is nearly entirely Hispanic today. Many have become millionaires. They are not stupid as you may think.
It doesn't do you any good to envy the Mar a Lago crowd. They have as many problems as the average American, if not more.
Having done both, I can assure you that it is better to work for a rich person than a poor one. Be grateful for them.
It seems to be the case with more than the railroads.
My foster sister told me that Pfizer is going to two shifts.
Everyone with work 12 hours a day. A move they told the workers will give them more time off.
Her husband works for Pfizer. He will work two day, have one day off, work two day, have two days off, work three days and have two days off.
One week he'll work 24 hours, the next week he'll work 60.
She showed me his schedule. I told her that employees will never acclimate to their schedule and what happens when someone gets sick? Where do they pull people from?
My foster bil is looking for an hourly position, since they made his job salary.
And if it wasn't for my foster sister having no insurance, he would quit now but needs to stay another 18 months until she can get Medicare.
I remember when Pfizer was UpJohn and they treated their employees well.
That's the problem, big corporations seem to have forgotten that it's the people doing the grunt work who keep companies going.
Beth, you nailed it - big corporations not only have forgotten it's the people doing the work, they want to people to be REAL cogs in the wheel. They obviously haven't followed this line of thinking to its logical conclusion. When all the workers have been replaced by AI, who's going to buy the products AI is producing? Where's your 'virtuous circle' then, huh?
Folks in other countries like China live well on a few dollars a day. That's where pharmaceuticals are manufactured. They are happy not to be working in the fields.
Who will buy the products? The survivors. We are still subject to natural law, including survival of the fittest. Being fit today means being well educated in technology, mechanics and engineering. The rest will be doomed to poverty and even death. If that sounds cruel, remember science does not care how you feel about it.
Make America a Slave Nation Again!!
At least some corporations would like that.
Hi, Beth. It seems to me it's worse than big corporations forgetting. I think it's big corporations not caring.
Sociopathy grows in a system in which sociopathy is rewarded. Object examples are endless.
😣
Big corporations have never cared for anything but their bottom line. Democracy provides the rules, refs and guardrails of the capitalistic game. And unions are a democratic tool to force companies to be fair to workers. In 2016 that went to h....
When companies become too powerful:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Bengal_famine_of_1770
Horrid. Any lessons learned...
I agree absolutely that is what Democracy does when it's working properly. What concerns me, and has for a while, is that something seems to be broken, some line seems to have been crossed between the keepers of the rules and the capitalists on the field. There are too many days now when I can't tell which is which. But, yes, you describe the structure precisely. Again, and I am a broken record about it, there's just too darned much money on the table.
Do you think government "cares?" Do you think it is supposed to "care?" Can you pay someone to "care?" Why do we call health care "care" at all? Who started all this redefining of the word "care?"
Yep. You make a good point in the particular case of that word "care," and I agree. I would also say that this is the tip of a darned big iceberg of the debasement and, ultimately, the loss of any precision in language in general. George Orwell wrote that when words start losing their meaning, or begin to mean their opposite, the culture is circling the drain. Thanks for pointing out another instance of this.
Yes, our language is being diluted.
Hero is another word. It should be reserved for those who make the ultimate sacrifice.
The word that sends me right up the spout because it can mean anything and so it means nothing is; "dysfunctional." A phrase that has the same impact on my sensibilities (fingernails on a blackboard) is "reach out." I have heard she comes from a dysfunctional family (does this mean Daddy watches tv all the time or Mama is having a serious relationship with the German Shepherd?) so I'm going to reach out (call, text, email, send up smoke signals, knock on her door and give her a hug??). This is obviously a subject on which it is unwise to get me started :-)
You've inspired me to write a substack article about this. I have a long list of words which have been diluted. It seems to be a result of hyperbolic political rhetoric.
The phrase Climate Change has been demoted to something caused by humans. Many people believe this religiously.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8nOu0WiuSIo
Even the "victim" is claiming to have been "assaulted". Since when is a verbal tirade an assault?
"Care" may depend on whether it is a noun or a verb:
NOUN
"1. The provision of what is necessary for the health, welfare, maintenance, and protection of someone or something.
"the care of the elderly"
"2. Serious attention or consideration applied to doing something correctly or to avoid damage or risk.
"he planned his departure with great care"
VERB
"1. Feel concern or interest; attach importance to something.
"they don't care about human life"
"2. Look after and provide for the needs of."
My profession, nursing, requires I be proficient and compassionate (except of course in certain Nurse Ratchett situations). Federal regulations require that hospitals provide the mechanics and safety ("Take care"). Don't recall anything in the U.S. Constitution that requires "care" but haven't read it lately. As for corporations, they care a lot about their bottom line and getting sued. Perhaps we need a better word. Humane?
Nursing is the part of the industry nearest to the concept of caring. It's an essential part of the role, but many do not really care. The best ones surely do.
I've often said you cannot pay someone to care. It's true, but surely caring is the best motivator for those who chose to work in medicine.
I'm not so sure that there is much "care" in the pharmaceutical industry. In my opinion they have done a huge disservice to humanity by not abiding by the "first do no harm" oath.
Humane is good, but it's not catchy in a phrase. It has to fit well with the word medical.
It's a combination of science and art in my opinion.
Many American-based pharmaceutical companies ran manufacturing lines 24/7 in the 50’s-80’s. Then off-shoring and mergers began.
Thank the unions for offshoring. Thank taxing corporations as well.
Can she get insurance under the ACA?
That the PEB would dodge issues of working conditions that are creating unsafe rail traffic is irresponsible. Biden should not have accepted their report. And which unions have refused to ratify the contracts? That would give us a truer picture of the situation.
And here's a more complete analysis of the history of the negotiations:
https://popular.info/p/railroading-workers
Judith, the Popular Information link provided is an excellent overview of the economics of the issues. Thank you so much for providing the link.
Sky rocketing corporate profits play badly against a lack of movement on improving labor sick leave benefits.
"...Among 22 highly-developed nations, the United States is the only one that does not require employers to provide paid sick leave. Spain requires 16 days of paid sick leave, Belgium provides at least one month, and the UK guarantees at least 28 weeks.
For more than a decade, members of Congress have introduced legislation, the Healthy Families Act, that would require all businesses with at least 15 employees to provide seven paid sick days each year. If the Healthy Families Act were law, there would probably not be a looming strike because the railroad companies would be legally required to provide paid sick leave.
The Healthy Families Act has not passed Congress "largely because corporate lobbyists mounted a fierce effort to block it." In 2014, a column by staffers for the Employment Policies Institute, a corporate front group, asserted that "paid sick leave is a cure worse than the disease." A permanent paid sick leave requirement was initially included in one of the coronavirus relief bills, but it was removed at the insistence of business groups and Republican lawmakers..."
"....Congress could avert a rail strike by passing the Healthy Families Act. Instead, corporate lobbyists are demanding that Congress prevent rail workers from securing paid sick leave through collective bargaining.
Congress has a variety of options. One possibility would be to impose a modified agreement that includes paid sick days. The railroad companies could certainly afford it.
Providing 15 days of paid sick leave would cost the industry roughly $688 million per year, according to the rail companies. But with railroad profit margins at record highs, this cost would hardly harm profitability.
BNSF, one of the largest railroad freight carriers, saw its net income climb four percent to $4.5 billion in the first nine months of this year. Last year, the railway raked in $6 billion in profits, a 16% jump from the year prior.
Its parent company, Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway, also spent at least $32 billion since last year buying back stock. This tactic, which was considered a form of market manipulation until 1982, drives up stock prices by reducing the number of shares in the market. Company executives who derive most of their compensation from stocks have every incentive to invest corporate profits towards buybacks instead of workers.
Last week, Buffett added $1.38 billion to his net worth in a single day after Berkshire Hathaway closed at a high price – that’s twice as much money as it would cost to fund 15 days of paid sick leave for every rail worker in the country. Buffett's BNSF is notorious for penalizing workers for taking time off for “fatigue, family emergencies or illness.” Workers at the railway also say they’re expected to be on call 90% of the time, including throughout the night...."
Clearly, there's a lot at stake for our nation. For me, at this point of my understanding, at the heart of it is the age old conflict over how much of the wealth produced by all corporate workers are corporations willing to share with worker bees. In the US, the answer is, quite often,"not much". While we do not wish to endanger the safety and security of the nation with a strike, forcing the concession of RR workers over this issue seems to be yet another endangerment to national safety and security, doesn't it? The middle ground surely must be that government directs the NRLC to go back to the table until they "find a compromise"? It would seem that the NRLC is using the endangerment of a nation as a bargaining chip to justify "not one penny more" policy. They are holding the nation hostage, not the RR workers. Or am I missing something?
Democrats know so much about running someone else's business, and they are not afraid to tell you so.
Free speech is a wonderful thing. No one should be censored.
I want to know who these railroad company people are! Don't they make enough money already than to squeeze the life out of their workers? Makes me sick how they make the Union people look like the bad guys capable or shutting down the country, when in reality, they're the ones holding the strings. 60 Minutes should do an expose on them. The public needs to know who these greedy bastards are!
Gayle I believe that Warren Buffett is a happy investor in railroads.
You might look at your retirement accounts, if you hold stock, then you might be a co-owner.
Waren Buffett
Warren is idolized by Democrats. He only began preaching higher taxes when he was no longer an "earner". He's just happy to tax the competition.
Excellent, Judith, thank you. That spells out the issue. I would like to include this link with my comments. I hope that you don't mind. The more we know the better-off we are!
I did not know this!
"But the corporate trade organizations that signed the letter helped create the current crisis.
Among 22 highly-developed nations, the United States is the only one that does not require employers to provide paid sick leave. Spain requires 16 days of paid sick leave, Belgium provides at least one month, and the UK guarantees at least 28 weeks. For more than a decade, members of Congress have introduced legislation, the Healthy Families Act, that would require all businesses with at least 15 employees to provide seven paid sick days each year. If the Healthy Families Act were law, there would probably not be a looming strike because the railroad companies would be legally required to provide paid sick leave. "
Thanks for this link. According to the Popular Info article:
"Providing 15 days of paid sick leave would cost the industry roughly $688 million per year, according to the rail companies. But with railroad profit margins at record highs, this cost would hardly harm profitability.
"BNSF, one of the largest railroad freight carriers, saw its net income climb four percent to $4.5 billion in the first nine months of this year. Last year, the railway raked in $6 billion in profits, a 16% jump from the year prior."
Judith, If you haven't checked out Notes at the end of each Letter, which links sources used in compiling information, I highly recommend it. This article from the Washington Post. listed in Notes. will I believe answer your question.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2022/11/28/rail-strike-biden-congress/
I read the article you suggested. It says that the LARGEST rail union rejected the contract; there seems to be an effort to make the public believe a minority of workers rejected it. It named one other, the right-of-way maintenance union. It does not name the two others, nor does it explain the govt. rationale for accepting a report that doesn't deal with sick leave. If I have time to dig out that info, I'll come back to this thread and link it.
Had you read the linked article yourself? "Why don't you read the Washington Post article I provided and is Notes? I am sure there is much more detail from the unions Seek and ye shall find, Jeff."
Yes, I read it. That is why I recommended it, saying I thought it would be helpful.
"The deal, rejected by four unions, was negotiated with help from the White House in September and touted by Biden at the time as “a win for tens of thousands of rail workers.”
If it was "negotiated" in September, why are 4 unions just now rejecting it? I haven't seen any explanation of this discrepancy.
The Precision Schedule Railroading (PSR) was kicked down the road in Biden's Biden Presidential Emergency Board (PEB) , but the Unions don't want want the workers to die on the rails as a result. Why don't you read the Washington Post article I provided and is Notes? I am sure there is much more detail from the unions Seek and ye shall find, Jeff.
Fern, the Substack guru 😊
Hale, a nod and a wink; a smile; a like; or a Hale - whatever that is!
Isn't that just it in a nutshell? We want no limits on our right to be SOB's but we want, at all costs, to avoid looking like SOB's. Seems like a sensible approach.
Because "PSR" is a corporate money grab that endangers employees?
It absolutely endangers the workers. Why are the Unions objecting to a bad deal -- is that the question?
Jeff, under labor law rank-and-file workers have the right to vote on any action in which union leadership proposes to involve them, from unionization itself (for instance unionizing a specific Starbucks or Amazon facility) through approving either a strike or a contract that has been negotiated between union leaders and management.
Indeed, the notes! Also, links within folks' comments - like the one to Legum's post 😉
You work 16 hours, and what do you get...?
Another day older and deeper in debt.
Molly, on the comments to Johnny Cash’s “Sixteen Tons” on YouTube, someone said:
“St. Peter Don’t you call me, ‘cause I can’t go
I owe my soul to the Student Loans….”
Tennessee Ernie Ford
Now you know two! I love both versions. Thank you for mentioning Tennessee Ernie, a great musician!
We always put his Pandora station on Sunday mornings, love his voice!
🎶
J L Graham "You work 16 hours, and what do you get...?"
𝗛𝗼𝘆𝘁 𝗔𝘅𝘁𝗼𝗻 𝗕𝗼𝗻𝘆 𝗙𝗶𝗻𝗴𝗲𝗿𝘀 (𝟭𝟵𝟳𝟰)
Rain coming down and the roof won’t hold her
Well I lost my job and I feel a little older
Car won’t run and our love’s grown colder
Maybe things will get a little better in the morning
Maybe things will get a little better
The clothes need washing and the fire won’t start
Kids all crying and you’re breaking my heart
Whole damned place is falling apart but
Maybe things will get a little better in the morning
Maybe things will get a little better
Work your fingers to the bone and what do you get?
Bony fingers, bony fingers
I’ve been broke just as long as I remember
Well I get a little money; I gotta run and spend her
When I try to save it pretty woman come and take it
Maybe things will get a little better in the morning
Maybe things will get a little better
Work your fingers to the bone and what do you get?
Bony fingers, bony fingers
Grass won’t grow and the sun’s too hot
The whole darned world is going to pot
You might as well like it cause I’m all that you’ve got
Maybe things will get a little better in the morning
Maybe things will get a little better
Work your fingers to the bone and what do you get?
Bony fingers, bony fingers
Rain coming down and the roof won’t hold her
Well I lost my job and I feel a little older
Car won’t run and our love’s grown colder
Maybe things will get a little better in the morning
Maybe things will get a little better
Work your fingers to the bone and what do you get?
Bony fingers, bony fingers
Work your fingers to the bone and what do you get?
Bony fingers, bony fingers
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cgLbQX46yBg
Hello J L, Here is what you get:
https://youtu.be/tfp2O9ADwGk
Which begs the question of why American water systems need regular shipments of toxic chemicals to keep the water safe to drink (ignoring the whole point that chemically treated water isn't necessarily the same thing as clean water!).
Ponder the chemicals farmers pour on their crops, people spray on their lawns, icy road treatment chemicals, rain runoff from acres and acres of animal feces, medicines dumped in the toilet. industrial pollution of waterways, etc etc. etc.
As early as the 1800's we had polluted our water and people were dying from malaria and typhoid.
Because unless you want to dig a hole in your backyard chlorine and/or other chemicals are necessary to keep water systems uncontaminated.
You need the chemicals even more if you dig a hole in the back yard...my patients with home wells out in the country would get sick from contamination and sickness over and over
Especially those with poorly designed septic systems...they were just recycling their bathroom visits
First thing I did in my latest house is kill the septic system and hook up to town sewer
Plumbers and civil engineers save more lives than physicians
So true. I'm waaay out in the country with a pristine well but many in older more dense neighborhoods have faced exactly what you describe. Unfortunately city water/sewer are not yet an option everywhere and pushback from some residents due to connection costs where public service is available has slowed progress.
Attempted like
Is there any plan "B" for critical functions if transportation breaks down for reasons other than a strike? Earthquakes? Terrorism? Whatever. Do we really want to skate on such thin ice?
Shane, This is an important labor issue on which Biden, Pelosi and the Democratic Party appear to be caving in favor of major rail freight carriers over the railroad workers. Does it smell anything like how the working class has moved from Blue to Red? Of course, what kind of alternative is the Republican Party? For what is being addressed, I most strongly recommend, Popular Information, Railroading workers by Judd Legum and Tesnim Zekeria, which subscriber Judith Felsten brought to my attention and has posted.
https://popular.info/p/railroading-workers
'The new system, called Precision Schedule Railroading (PSR), made trains far more efficient by keeping workers on very tight schedules that leave little time for anything but work. Any disruption in those schedules—a family emergency, for example—brought disciplinary action and possible job loss. Although workers got an average of 3 weeks’ vacation and holidays, the rest of their time, including weekends, was tightly controlled, while smaller crews meant more dangerous working conditions.' (Letter)
There is less than two weeks before a railroad strike deadline. The following are excerpts from an article in the Washington Post, which is one of the sources linked in the Notes for today's Letter.
'That deal was recently voted down by four railroad unions representing most of the union members. The rail workers have said they are angry and frustrated that the deal lacked paid sick days or other substantial changes to an attendance policy that penalizes workers for taking time off while they are sick.'
'Railroad workers do not receive paid sick days and are penalized for taking time off. Carriers have said that their attendance policies are necessary to keep the rail lines staffed and that they allow workers to take time off when needed by using paid vacation time.'
'Congress also has the option to extend a cooling-off period, allowing parties to continue negotiating until they reach an agreement, or force both sides to enter arbitration, where a third-party mediator gets involved.'
Why didn't Biden and Pelosi choose that option?
'Tony Caldwell, president of the Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employees, one of the unions that voted down the agreement, said his members will not ratify a deal unless it includes more expansive sick leave benefits. The union is asking for four paid sick days and has not been offered any. In the latest negotiations last week, the rail carriers “stated that they were unwilling to negotiate over” sick days, Caldwell said.'
'Caldwell said his union, which represents some 23,000 rail workers who maintain rail infrastructure, such as signals, tracks, ballast and rail cars, is among the most frustrated of the 12 unions involved in negotiations. “During [the] pandemic, our members suffered the most,” Caldwell said. “The pandemic spread through our membership like wildfire. We lost members to sickness and death. They aren’t happy with the deal because it didn’t address their main issue: sick leave.”
'But many union members have stressed that the concessions from the railroads do not address their deep-seated concerns about a staffing model that several large carriers have rolled out in recent years. Union members say the model forces workers into grueling, unpredictable schedules. The Bureau of Labor Statistics has reported a more than 20 percent decline in railroad employment since 2018, which may stem in part from the new staffing model, according to the Congressional Research Service.'
“We feel like the deal missed the mark,” said Beau Trego, a 17-year conductor in Galesburg, Ill. “We’re going to work sick, fatigued. You have so many other jobs where people work 9 to 5 and still have sick days, but we don’t. Hopefully, they go back to table and come up with something better.” (WAPO)
https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2022/11/28/rail-strike-biden-congress/
The railroad carriers “allow workers to take time off when needed by using paid vacation time”. Yet the workers say they are vulnerable to using that paid vacation time in emergency situations. So what’s the truth? Does it come down to your superior believing you or not? Or in an emergency you can file retroactively for paid vacation time? How nimble is this “vacation-that’s-really-possibly-sick-time” benefit? Do the railroad carrier superiors and administrators themselves work such a Dickensian schedule? Will they, to show how humane it is? I understand that Biden and Pelosi do not want to throw this to the new congress. I understand that they do not want this chaos adding to the debt-ceiling fight we will face in a few weeks. Yet, the union workers are in the best position to leverage their needs NOW. Yes, It will make for a crappy holiday season, but if we believe in workers dignity, don’t we need to side with them right now?
Yes, From my reading the Unions have good reasons not to accept a bad deal. The Precision Schedule Railroading (PSR) was kicked down the road in the president's 'Biden Presidential Emergency Board '(PEB) , but as I replied to subscriber Jeff, the Unions don't want want the workers to die on the rails as a result.
“Yet the workers say they are vulnerable to using that paid vacation time in emergency situations.“
Can the workers take their vacation time on short notice when dealing with an emergency or any health issue requiring immediate attention, or do they have to get prior approval from the railroad carrier/ company for the ‘vacation days’ they want to take off?
"on which Biden, Pelosi and the Democratic Party appear to be caving in favor of major rail freight carriers over the railroad workers."
Hi, Fern, Each negotiation has its own details and flavor, of course, and in general I trust at least the fundamental ethics of the Democrats to a great extent, but don't you think that all of them, Republicans, Democrats, even our beloved Obama, even Biden, good grief, even Bernie Sanders, wrack up tidy sums of money during their years in office, and not one of them negotiates or compromises away the possibility of that. The only president I know of who didn't leave office richer than he came in is Jimmy Carter. Life is life, I guess. And politics in America is a money game.
There are degrees of greed and corruption and their consequences on human beings, which, I do not doubt you are aware of. In addition to their 'flavors' there is the size of the piece to consider. You will forgive me for not going as light on the subject of corruption as some do. While, that may not include you, Dean, there appeared to me to be a ribbon around your summary that I untied a bit.
Hi, Fern, oh no, I don't go light on the subject of corruption. It runs too deep in our roots, in my opinion, for us to have a serious shot at digging it out. I also agree there are degrees, witness the almost unbelievable levels of the last several years--and not just the corruption itself but, to me more frightening, its arrogant exhibitionism. Based on my reading of your comments over a bit of time, I'm not the historian that you are but, although there have been periods of blatant corruption in our short history, the political and social landscape outside my old casement windows is of an order and a degree that I, at least, can't recall. Certainly, there hasn't been anything in my adult lifetime quite like it. I'm not sure I understand your ribbon metaphor, but I am always willing to have my tightly bound opinions loosened a bit. I have a feeling that's not quite what you meant.
In the meanwhile, thank you for more thought-provoking ideas. It's why I love this forum
Dear Dean, I appreciate your beauty and openness. Your summary was neater than my thoughts about America these days, so I wrestled a bit. I'm not a historian, although attentive to public affairs. Our opinions are probably close, Dean, our styles probably not so much. I am more negative than you are about the Democratic Party, since Clinton. Biden. in his presidency, has been brave and true, until this labor issue erupted, which I don't think had to happen. It is a difficult and an old story of ours. Biden continues to deserve respect and support. Could he have done better? Was he committed to the rail workers? I give Biden a low mark on this one.
Dean, I think that you and I have drawn closer. I hope that you feel that way, too. See you in a while.
Thanks for this link, Fern, I already read it. This just confirms what I said at the beginning: the rail system is vital to a functioning America. So why is the federal government not forcing rail corporations to provide sick leave for its employees, the care of whom is paramount to keeping the trains running on time.
In other words, why is Biden protecting rail corporations instead of its workers by insisting that the former not fire the latter for calling in sick?
A strike will harm America, but I support it over this issue.
Clichés can be so likeable. 'Lightning struck' LFAA forum with this labor issue. I had so much to do elsewhere but responses to this baby was a picture of 'Liberal', educated, middle-class, mostly senior America. It was lively! Why did the working class leave the Democratic Party and switch to the Republican Party. Where else did they have to go? I'm having a physical response. Shane, I hope you come back again to delve into that one. Here's to Labor!
Does the word 'TENTATIVE' mean anything to you??? This is an emergency action the President is taking to avert disaster! There's more work to be done and right now is not the time to shut it all down! Geeze!
Have you read the linked articles, WaPo and Popular Information? Biden has punted to Congress now. Popular Info said this:
"Congress has a variety of options. One possibility would be to impose a modified agreement that includes paid sick days. The railroad companies could certainly afford it. "
"Right now is not the right time to shut it all down!"
If not now, then when? Employers don't do anything for employees unless they can make a buck, or they're forced. Without the threat of a national rail strike, the rail companies will never approve a sick leave system.
So this IS the right time to shut it all down.
I do not get your point, and it was made so emphatically with an absolutely unforgiving tone. Who doesn't understand whom?
Yikes. Is everybody just having a bad day? Why the attitude?
I rarely have this effect. I don't know why this one took off. Did you notice how many of the comments re-quote the linked articles? Spreading the love beyond the petroleum industry for a change?
As in so many cases the solution is to spend more money on labor, to employ more people. So many problems today have the same solution. Oversized beer trucks clogging city streets? Smaller trucks, more drivers, two person crews to speed unloading. “We’re experiencing unusually long wait times….” at Customer Service? Easy: hire more people to answer calls. What they teach in business schools, apparently, is that literally anything is better than having to pay Americans to work.
While I agree with you, my thought was "good luck finding that labor pool"
That I believe is a temporary condition. And there are many under-employed people, or those who have dropped out due to discrimination or low pay. Finally, the traditional American solution is immigration. In fact, even now labor contractors are bringing in “specialized” crews in construction and other industries. They’re cheaper, and if they’re called “specialized” they get temp work visas.
When you are sitting at a train crossing sometime read the names of what is in those tanker cars rumbling by. Those are the names of the chemicals that go into your drinking water. As a former Buyer for a municipal water utility, I can sincerely tell you that you really don't want a strike. The ramifications are the stuff of a dystopian nightmare.
Water treatment chemicals are administered based on hour by hour conditions in the source water, the weather, demand and what is going in areas feeding the source. It is a finely turned process. The Chemical Engineers are some of the most dedicated, smart people I have ever met.
Those rail cars whizzing by are not carrying Christmas toys. They are carrying disease preventative chemicals used to treat not only your water but hospitals and schools.
About 50 years ago, as a hs student, I applied to and was accepted into a science class sponsored by the Field Museum/Shedd Aquarium which ran for a few weeks over the summer. I believe the title was "Living on the Lake". What a tremendous experience! Behind the scenes in these two institutions! Scientists taught us--we were on the other side of the aquariums and learned how the water was managed in the tanks. We went down into the storage area of the Field that houses thousands upon thousands of specimens and saw fishes that had been preserved decades before. We took a small plane flight to view Lake Michigan and saw the effluent being discharged into the lake from Gary, (I think it was. My first flight ever.) We hiked along the shore at Illinois Beach State Park, and we took water samples off of the shore there and also from alongside the Shedd, and microscopically examined the microscopic life in the samples back at the Shedd. We also were treated to a wonderful educational tour of the Chicago Metropolitan Water facility--that tour itself is probably what made me determine I wanted a career in a laboratory of some type. I was so impressed by the facility and the magnitude of the work done there, the responsibility they had for millions of residents! I apologize for the digression above, but I totally agree with you.
Your comment captured it all. Thanks for this.
I realize it's human nature to take things for granted. We just can't stop a key component of our infrastructure too casually. I am so deeply relieved President Biden is in Office and is handling this.
Gary, Indiana is built on an estuary that once served to clean the Calumet River and Lake Michigan naturally. Not only did industry foul up the water and destroy the natural habitat, but the air used to be so bad from the factories that the sky was always dark gray green above it, and we kids held our noses on the ride from Michigan City to Chicago. So we solve the polution with more chemicals. As the daughter of one of the principle architects of Super Fund on the chemical manufacturers side, I should be less cynical. But I'm not. Time to get his book published.
Do I WANT a strike? Not only no, but hell no. It would cripple America.
But if the threat of a national rail strike is the only way to force rail corporations to offer a reasonable sick leave policy to its workers, then so be it. Forcing engineers to get behind the throttle of speeding trains while running a fever, immersed in viral brain fog, or other sickness is the height of insanity and dangerous to America.
Yes, chemical and other engineers know they're stuff and are vital to the health of this nation. But I'd bet they all get to call in sick without facing termination. Why not give train workers the same consideration for their vital role in America?
Barbara, I take your point as seriously and you intended it and as I take the country's polluted water and that Precision Schedule Railroading (PSR) issues were kicked down the road in Biden's Presidential Emergency Board (PEB) and not to be dealt with if the unions decide to settle. In August PEB's report called for significant wage increases and health care benefits but kicked down the road the problems associated with PSR. The Unions are rejecting a very bad deal for railroad workers. Why didn't Biden and Pelosi call for a cooling off period to try to work this out? The Washington Post article about the matter is listed in NOTES of today's Letter. I am in a rush or would have provided it. I recommend it to you as a start. I don't want a strike Barbara, I don't think anyone does.
I understand the issues at hand. The working conditions sound draconian. This is one of those rock and hard place situations where morality and ethics bump up against necessity.
I get that people's compassion and empathy have opened up towards these workers. We also need to keep that compassion open for the millions of people who could die because of untreated water. We would also starve. Plants all over the USA use water in preparing and packaging our food.
I was responding to someone who did indeed want a strike.
Interesting to me Barbara that support for the workers is 'empathy' not reality. Why does 'reality' represent the major rail carriers who will not negotiate sick leave or the pharmaceutical industry and I will not count the ways.
Who wanted a strike?
I am talking ethical issues here Fern. It's a huge situation for which I have no ready black/white, yes/no answer or judgement. I trust President Biden.
And what in the world difference does it make who said what?
Have a good day. We have picked at the issue enough.
The crows are calling.
Wow. What a good point about empathy.
I believe President Biden will do what's good for the Country while continuing to work for the Union resolution.
I agree. This makes us face the fact that our country -from its inception - was willing to compromise away some humans’ liberty to be human, like get sick, or care for a sick family member’s emergency situation, without destroying your employment security, which for most humans is their life-support system, and that of those who depend on them. So the railroad ideally wants worker-monks, with a life dedicated only to the one true employer-god. I would love to see that recruitment poster.
The railroad isn’t unique in their desires. The US would have paid leave for new families, illness, etc otherwise
I’m with you, Shane. 100%.
Thank you, Elisabeth, much appreciate that.
Agreed. It seems to me that for railroads to be private is a problem. I think we need to have a national railroad system. Then the railroads would not have to make a profit, they would just need to provide a service. Supposedly my city, Chicago, would be affected by every single railroad stopping because we are such a transportation and shipping hub. I still support it, although I am not eager to drink dirty water, and would not. We would have a hard time getting bottled water too. My daughter just did a presentation on labor unions for her economics class and was talking about the attempts by Starbucks and Amazon workers to form unions and what measures the companies have gone to to block these unions. When I wrote to Starbucks and told them I would be telling my husband and daughter not to frequent any Starbucks that is not unionized the corporation wrote me back that they feel that they can best negotiate the workers conditions for their best interests. I told them not to insult my intelligence with such a response. The next time I wrote this to them they did not give me such a response. I have also written to a local Children's Hospital who was in the papers as trying to prevent their nurses from organizing by saying that it would lower the quality of care for children, and it was important that the nurses be there for the patients. Unionizing was going to disrupt this. I told them that it smacks of sexism, even though I know there are male nurses the implication is that they need to neglect their own families for the well being of the patients, when this same is not being asked of doctors. I suggested that they give some of the doctor's salaries to the nurses. I also said I would not be using them or recommending them to anyone.
“Power always thinks it has a great soul and vast views beyond the comprehension of the weak; and that it is doing God’s service when it is violating all his laws.” -John Adams
Very similar "we know what is best for them" rationales were used to justify slavery and feudalism.
Shane The railroads have been consolidating and with PSR and other ‘cost effective’ moves having been recording record profits on the backs of a sharply reduced work force. This has been the pattern of other corporations.
I strongly believe that Congress should vote more ‘non availability’ benefits to railroaders who currently are forced to work six-day and 60-hour-weeks at the whim of the railroads. If such humanitarian changes leave railroads short staffed, then establish priorities for shipments.
It’s past time for companies to treat workers as human beings, not widgets. Not so incidentally, railroad management has gained massive personal rewards for their ‘widget’ management.
Ever been on strike? If you had, like I have (Eastern Air Lines), you might reconsider your opinion.
Believe me, I want then to strike. I am on their side. But this is the way the law works. Congress (per the RLA - which by the way also governs airline strikes) now has the authority to mandate a new agreement. It could (and should) write PSR out of the contract. Or at least it could give the workers 7 paid sick leave days. The fact that the PEB didn't recommend even this is outrageous.
I was a newspaper union chairman in Chicago for awhile, and a contract negotiator. We never WANTED to strike, but we got very close twice. Fortunately, both sides kept clear heads and contracts were made. I hate strikes. They take on a life of their own thirty seconds after boots hit the sidewalks, and one should never enter them on a whim or for less than compelling reasons.
Paid sick days and an end to the railroads' "efficiency" program, which treats the people who drive the trains and fix the tracks like interchangeable boxcars with no human needs, is worthy of a strike to win relief from those ills. HOWEVER, there is no need to go on strike to get that.
As you say, and as I've said before, Congress can impose a contract that prohibits a strike by forcing rail corporations to accept X number of paid sick days for which employees cannot be disciplined for using. The 30 percent reduction in rail staffing was not due to workers, it was due to rail corporation shareholders interested in every last penny on the sidewalk. Shareholders will need to suck it up for the good of the nation, since they expect workers to do just that.
That national interest requires no rail strike, but also requires a reasonable number of paid sick days for which employees cannot be penalized for using. Impose both and get this over with.
Shane, beautifully said. Why, oh why are workers STILL fighting this battle??? My mind is blown...😭
Mine, too, Elisabeth, but we seem to be re-fighting the civil wars all over again. Abortion rights were reasonable for more than 50 years, then boom, gone. Civil rights in voting were finally strengthened from nonexistent to "pretty good," then boom, back to Square One. Our trains ran efficiently and on time until greedy rail shareholders wanted "more," and boom, thirty percent reduction in rail staffing beings monumental grief to rail workers.
It feels like Groundhog Day, the movie, for the working folks of America . . .
Also, the executives made a TON of money during the pandemic. Just as the airlines did with bailouts. It’s never the workers who benefit in these situations. I am with you Rick. OR let Biden et al. step up to the plate and insist on halting the inhuman and stupid practices for the railroad elites to protect THEIR bottom lines….
Agreed, Elisabeth, the solution here is simple: impose a contract that prohibits the strike by MANDATING rail corporations provide X number of paid sick days per year that employees can use even last-minute with no retribution.
If workers have to "suck it up" for the national good, then rail corporation shareholders can make a few pennies less in stock dividends. The federal government has the final say in imposing a contract, so add the sick days and get this over with!
Yeah, I have been on two strikes, both led by the Hollywood Bourgeois Bolsheviks of the Wanker's Guild, both of which fucked the union in its ass.
Could you manage to write in English occasionally, so we understand WTF you are talking about?
UPDATE: Congress and President Biden intend to impose a contract that bans a strike and rail system shutdown. Whether that's good or bad depends on how workers are treated in the final legislation.
The U.S. House voted to require rail corporations to give workers paid sick days AND require rail workers not to strike. This is fair, because it addresses two legitimate issues:
--A rail strike would cripple America, so avoiding one is paramount.
--Rail workers need paid sick days they can take on a moment's notice without management retaliation.
So, the House version makes a great deal of sense. Media pundits, however, expect the Senate to insist on banning the strike without requiring the paid sick days. That's crap. You do one, Congress, you do the other. Any other solution is wrong.
Some claim workers already have paid sick days because they can use vacation. That's true only on paper. In the real world, workers who call in sick even using vacation days are being disciplined up to and including firing. Why? It's not even the fault of CEO and rail managers. It's the fault of greedy rail stock owners.
In recent years, activist shareholders in rail corporations became so obsessed with grabbing every last penny flattened by a kid on a train rail that it forced CEOs to impose a brutal "efficiency" system. This system reduced rail employment by 30 percent, providing shareholders extra profits. But it also forced rail managers to keep workers on the job at any cost because even one worker calling in sick would screw up the schedules.
Thus, workers calling in sick even using vacation are being disciplined and fired. Calling it "extortion" is not too strong.
If Congress intends to tell rail workers to "suck it up and drive," it can tell rail shareholders to "suck it up with a few less bucks."
More details in this excellent explainer, which others here have recommended:
https://popular.info/p/railroading-workers
UPDATE: It seems likely that Congress and President Biden will impose a contract on the unions and rail companies that bans a strike and shutdown. The House voted to require management to give workers paid sick days in exchange for requiring unions not to strike. I like the House approach. It's the fairest solution to both legitimate issues: rail workers need paid sick days they can take on a moment's notice without management retaliation; and the nation needs to keep the trains running.
Newspaper pundits expect a revolt in the Senate, however, which is pushing to ban the strike without requiring sick days for workers.
I hope the Senate comes to its senses and agrees with the House version, so Biden can sign it, the trains can roll, and we can move on. Avoiding a rail shutdown is in our national interest, but doing it solely on the backs of rail workers is obscene.
Those who claim workers already have paid sick days because they can use vacation? No, they can't, not in the real world of mega-tight scheduling. Activist shareholders in rail corporations became so greedy to be paid every last penny smashed on a railroad track that they forced rail CEOs to impose an "efficiency" system that reduced rail employment by 30 percent (more profits for shareholders!) and forced workers to choose between running a train while sick with flu or calling in sick and getting fired.
That's an obscene "choice" not befitting this nation. If Congress intends to tell rail workers to "suck it up and drive," it can tell rail shareholders to "suck it up with a few less bucks."
This is similar to "just in time" supply chains, in that workers pay for data-driven efficiencies with their health and family security. It stinks, but I don't expect enough Senators to come to their senses to legislate the sick-leave provision into effect.
Perfectly said, Judith. "Just in time" supply chains is what I was thinking of, but couldn't remember the correct term, thanks for the reminder.
The supply chain wreckage wrought by Covid should have destroyed any notion that the JIT system is worth keeping around. But "efficiency" is a vampire that even silver bullets can't kill.
I agree with you!
It seems that President Biden is taking prudent action. That said, the treatment of these workers is horrendous because of disgraceful greed. Congress must act to give them a reasonable amount of sick and vacation days, but will it act before Republicans take control of the House?
Tonight, Rachel Maddow rightly complained that the Senate and House will be in session for only 15 and 12 days respectively before the new Congress convenes in January. One would think that Democrats would want to maximize their time in control of both chambers — and with so many priorities.
The siren song of a long holiday break must be louder than the nation's pressing needs.
If they don’t pass voting rights, they can piss on 2024. There should have been NO holiday break…
Yes, as much as I applaud the movement for choice and marriage equality and LBGQT rights, I am appalled at the voting rights being somewhere on the stove, if not the back burner
"Consider a congressman, then consider an idiot. Bah, I repeat myself." - Mark Twain, 1873
He also said "It is better to keep your mouth closed and be thought a fool than to open it and remove all doubt".
For the win, Steve, for the win.
"That said, the treatment of these workers is horrendous because of disgraceful greed".
But, we are, as a nation, normed out to greed as acceptable. Likewise, for 40 years, we have been normed to the the evils of "unions destroying our country".
So, forcing people into a slave agreement? No big deal.
The US has done that before, no problem. I just hope that if the workers decide not to honor the Federal government forcing them into a slave agreement that the Feds don't jail those who refuse.
It sure would be embarrassing to watch Trump golf while the Feds throw some workers into jail.
But, we have seen that before too.
Give us an example of this "horrendous" treatment.
Agreed.
This is almost too rich an irony that our lawmakers feel the need of a holiday so urgently they can't pass some laws setting minimums for time off for workers which would help address this trend of firing half the workers and demanding twice the time on duty or twice the work product from the rest.
And with those few days remaining, several must now be burned up dealing with the profiteering NCCC trying to screw their union workers. Coincidence?
I couldn’t believe those numbers given what the Democrats have to and could do.
I couldn't believe the Democrats work schedule either - nor could Rachel! Why aren't they running on all burners between now and January 3rd??? Take your 'holiday break' in January, you lazy bums!
WTF?
Isn't it Democrats who always say "Trust the Science?" I guess that works until it gets a little inconvenient, then the violins come out.
Inventions cannot be undone. Yes, technology is science whether you believe it or not. It does not care how you feel about it.
I am troubled by our ability to produce deadly viruses in a lab. Folks on the Democrat side are ignoring the deadly potential of genocidal biowarfare while whining about workers having to work hard.
No one is being forced to work for the railroad. It's a tough and dangerous job. If someone wants to earn more, they can try the Oil and Gas industry. It's tougher and more dangerous and it pays more. The competitive nature of the business makes unions unnecessary.
People here are whining about corporate profits, when they should be encouraging folks to invest in American corporations. A simple 500 index fund will vastly outperform the scam of social security as a retirement plan.
Seriously?????????????
The rail companies have grown fat on the backs of workers who they treat like units they can place where and when they want them. This is inhumane and if Biden asks Congress to institute the contract rejected by four unions, he will be siding with the rail companies against the interests of the workers.
We see the trend of treating people as work units in large companies like Walmart where I believe workers don't have a regular schedule and cannot make plans for child care etc.
Workers are human beings and it is their labor that makes the money for their employers! We need to support our workers no matter the industry or business!
You hit the nail on the head. All big box stores and all the grocery stores I know have their employees work unpredictable hours. Those workers can't plan for family events nor handle emergencies. They can't even schedule time at a second job to make ends meet. It's a form of slavery. Just like railroad workers' job schedules.
The question remains, though, whether consumers will be will to pay a bit more so the workers that provide their goods and services can have decent working conditions.
Consumers pay a bit more, it goes to the TOP. Just wait til repubs get in charge, the TOP salivating
Envy is one of the seven deadly sins.
Invest wisely and you can own a piece of these companies. Then maybe you will understand why corporate taxes are double taxation. Your profit will be taxed when you sell your stock.
Yes, it's double taxation when an individual is taxed on dividends received from some corporation's after-tax revenue. Would it be more fair to allow those corps to deduct those dividends from taxable income and levy normal tax rates to individuals for that dividend income
Any tax on a corporation is a tax on the consumer. It's always recovered from the consumer.
Maybe the owners could share some of their record profits with the people whose work creates them? Oh, wait, those profits are actually protected speech that are supposed to be used to buy politicians.
Thank you. I just posted about this as a retired retailer. What drives this is the persistent and insistent requirement that short term profits be paid to shareholders. When employees establish themselves as equal stakeholders with managers and shareholders on the Board of Directors you will see change. Until then, employees in retail are indeed slaves.
Time for some Norma Rae!
The owners have successfully captured the working class. The fight to have union representation was bloodily won back in the 20th century. The demise of it was well orchestrated and methodical with “Right-to-Work” laws passed. I fear we have no stomach to go through that body-mangling fight again, even though daily we are reminded of how much worker’s are in need of collective action.
Mina, you and MLRMI and Fern (all above) hit on what appears to be the current example of a trend Yuval Noah Harari has identified in his book Sapiens as direct results of "the Age of Industrialization" beginning with...you guessed it...the need in the early 1820's (1823?) to set a universal time so that the trains which were just coming into widespread use in England could coordinate their schedules as they traveled through the many different local times that were roughly observed in English communities. These largely agrarian communities had few clocks beyond perhaps a church tower clock as they had little need for them with the rising and setting of the sun dictating most daily activities. This led the government at the time to establish Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) to allow more uniform and therefore more reliable (and useful) train schedules. This use of a universal time scale also allowed early factories more uniform schedules for their workers as well, often 10-12 hrs/day, 6 days a week back then. Harari goes on to detail the many ways in which governments acceded to the requirements of these burgeoning new industries to their further development, usually recognized as an advantage for that country and/or government. Harari also dates the gradual demise of the family as the main source of identification and culture along with governments and industries assuming many of the functions of families under the banner of individual freedom and upward mobility allowed by the new jobs offered by industrialization.
So the current threat of a railroad strike appears to be the most recent and dramatic re-enactment of that 2 century-long battle between the influence of industry vs local communities and families, except that struggle between industry (or corporations if you like) and the family (and localities) has now apparently continued into a turn against the individual as well.
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2022/11/supreme-court-west-virginia-v-epa-liberty/672250/ This Atlantic article delves into the current Supreme Court's protection of liberty only as it relates to major corporate players, sacrificing regulations that protect the liberty of the general population.
John M, I appreciated your comment replete with history and mention of the book Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind. Imagine us sapiens taking an interest in our families, communities, our health, welfare and each other! Pshew! Thanks for the credit, but I would have liked your comment just as well without it. Here's to labor!
Mina Ah the remembrances of the Railroad Strike of 1877 when federal troops were used against the railroad strikers. At least President Biden is pro union.
As willful an ignoramus as you know Trump is, the reality of his moron stupidity is even moreso. The fooking idiot just confessed to one of the crimes for which he is under investigation! "When will you invade the other Presidents’ homes in search of documents, which are voluminous, which they took with them, but not nearly so openly and transparently as I did?" Those last two words are his confession.
And he's done it before. When he said the picture of confidential docs on his carpet was a fake, because he never left them lying where anyone would see them if they called in. Thick as a brick.
MAGAts just think he is clever. He is, like the ultimate bully who has convinced the cult that he is their protector. Couldn’t be more like the fuhrer with his screaming crowds of idiots. Except the cult is dwindling; sadly, there are plenty of morons driving this train. And this is the train that counts at the moment.
He loves to brag about his crimes, hope somebody taking notes…
Yes, Jeri but, there is an umpire that calls balls, strikes & balks.
did and doing?
But it doesn't matter because WE KET HIM GET AWAY WITH IT! EVERY. SINGLE. TIME. 😡
I know, we all have hopes that Jack Smith or Fanni Willis, or SOMEONE (!) will finally hold him to account, but from what we've seen so far, it looks like he'll choke on a hamberder first!
Hopefully he chokes and goes to hell ASAP
TaDa!!
I am completely behind the railroad workers and am thoroughly disgusted that Biden, in the same sentence, can crow about his union bona fides while carrying water for the industry. Freight railroads in the United States had a pre-pandemic profit margin of 50 percent (this is not a misprint: https://ajot.com/news/railroads-are-usas-most-profitable-industry-with-a-50-profit-margin). To reap economic gains on the backs of overworked people is the very definition of immorality.
And slavery.
Mark Proulx "To reap economic gains on the backs of overworked people is the very definition of immorality."
And of "Capitalism."
I wish I could find a clear description of the spectrum of economic systems, with totalitarian/communist systems on one end and libertarian/democratic systems on the other. Where would American implementation of capitalism fall?
Then I'd wish for a precise enumeration of basic human rights, not leaving it to future generations to guess at what we think of as "self-evident". This would include basic freedoms such as bodily autonomy and time to live one's life. This should be codified as an expanded Bill of Rights.
Lastly, I'd want a study of which economic/political system satisfies and protects the most people while supporting robust and profitable businesses.
Jerry, I am not sure I have an answer for you. However, a good start would be to watch some of these videos on PBS:
https://search.yahoo.com/yhs/search?p=pbs+america%27s+socialism&hspart=iba&hsimp=yhs-syn_sn¶m2=9dUI1n2R0BLDxNuWfiP4aSFOTltNdSPoIx38%2BUf%2FiXrvPdoGmStdlfwLFZYDvqkAJrWWk4yNReCLnBD%2FqPsDZd7olTZcV8HMx1G%2Fk786sE2Tis1g8dJd8zxVWs%2BbKztBnq1TfqUiqPYK9pXifXmJFyorDuCsYXJE71Y6G5tfejB5RvhVpZuEfgJortQz5SnnqkFDTzBYESr2mtsTdV8rdF%2FR4PHBax2IkrAyCQJhuBY3rGviVLq1YxCNLBUcMZFsp%2FCuHmznt2g3a3empVtu16426owmLsFGFFRZ78Gs7VPBO0x7m%2FjkbFSpVjk5XDOo¶m3=HpCyCT2cXaKG4CVDR00rqmMgn2LSthaxmnFtfuqzARbHlAJRPGf8vbxJHOtwKEhsplQW%2BY8iyh4J7Xmes%2FU1q9%2BZKM5yaytyqjd%2FaiR%2F7kaRvxaICRCZzeKl6pZ5ifDBFyuVg1PxU9S8t7TliV5Bwn590%2FQTirq40DvSNoHicl0feWu%2FlU55A%2FIOjTzA1oM1%2BEyJiem2MhhGMFqSciN3rQR6MkHR4LAFLFfWZaTteymGS%2FY6SoNsp7FQ%2Fg4Y0NxmUuY3M8iruCfJRszKYSFkTYInGtb4B8pwiaArgu2%2BqzHK%2FA3SW48IUWy4haatg2qx&type=f2%3A%3B.6850610d4680680b2811f3dcdca6be379af%3B5.ac48556fb007f46475dbf8a8e3b01611ec4ceacc0ec9b045cb6540e238ceb2df8111e71e5bfd184b31544c5aaf2ed391302b3451d
And what if you forget something while preparing your "list of rights"?
Your rights do not emanate from a committee and they are too numerous to list.
True. I was thinking that as I wrote. Being over-prescriptive would inevitably lead to rights too subtle to be enumerated and that would get to exactly where we are today. Yet, isn't there a set of conditions optimal for businesses to thrive that doesn't keep individuals from thriving at the same time? I come from a history of pro-business / anti-regulation mindset, but I see what that's doing to my children's lives and am looking for a middle road
Capitalism has no more conscience than professional football. Democracy provide the rules, refs and guardrails.
MaryPat, that is true. However, Capitalism does have a goal: Extract a profit from every opportunity and, thus, considers, for instance, "rules, refs and guardrails" as mere obstacles to overcome.
FWIW, I don't see this as abnormal (or even wrong necessarily) but more along the lines of being aware of what one is dealing with. It is quite obvious that civilization could not have advanced without the conflict between Capitalism and Socialism -- either one by itself (left to its own devices) would have prevented any long-term improvement.
I agree 100%! It's just that this system would collapse into a richer-takes-all oligarchy without rules of competition and fairness, along with guardrails. Capitalism + effective democracy = $ecurity for all, and hard earned prosperity for the business risk takers. I will be retiring and starting another business next month. I am hoping the 3rd time's a charm! (P.S. I pay my staff very well!).
MaryPat Sercu - MI "It's just that this system would collapse into a richer-takes-all oligarchy without rules of competition and fairness, along with guardrails."
I didn't mean to imply that "rules, refs and guardrails" were unnecessary. Of course, they are. Nevertheless, they are anti-Capitalism and must constantly be defended... which is what I was warning of.
Yup.
And, yes, "socialism" in the original definition,
Regrettably, elections have consequences. Had the Democrats held the House, I, not to mention the 8 unions, likely would have opposed the decision to reach an agreement with railway management at the expense of stronger protections for workers. I imagine the Biden team (and the unions) underwent a harms/ benefits analysis, wherein they weighed gains (increased wages and health benefits) against loses (paid leave and stronger worker protections) combined with consequences to supply chains and the economy in general, let alone a Republican-controlled House starting January 3rd, and the Biden team plus 8 of the 12 unions chose to settle. As horrendous an impact the “Precision Schedule Railroading” system will have on workers, as stated, I imagine there had been serious discussions with serious people engaged in an honest effort to arrive at a modicum of economic (and social) justice before Republicans retook the House.
Regarding Congress’s decision to reduce the final session to a handful of days before Republicans take back the House, our legislators need to hear from us as we press for at least 4 major priorities: 1) completing their work reforming the Electoral Count Act, 2) prophylactically raising the debt ceiling to block the Republican controlled House in 23 and 24 from leveraging concessions on entitlements like Social Security and Medicare to avert defaulting on the national debt and blaming Biden for the economic calamity that would ensue, 3) advancing legislation already passed in the House banning high capacity assault weapons and instating universal background checks and nationwide red flag laws, and 4) forwarding marriage equality protections, also already passed in the House.
What about voting rights, is this to be jettisoned, with the most dire consequences
Jeri, Regrettably, neither Manchin nor Sinema has changed their position since last January when they joined the 50 Republican Senators to filibuster a most modest rule change that would have moved the voter protection legislation they had supported to the floor for debate and an up or down majority vote.
Jeri, don't you feel it's little more than a coincidence that this will occupy the remaining days of the calendar than voting rights that will be the silver platter for the GOP in 2024? I can't help but think this has the GOP's hands all over it. No one can convince me differently. Losing the House is devastating for the survival of Democracy.
Linda, Though your reply is not addressed to me, I would note I believe it’s possible that Manchin and Sinema early on met with McConnell and pledged not to modify the Senate filibuster rule, hence blocking passage of voter protection legislation last January. Still, though we can’t afford complacency, I believe we can take heart from the fact that not one election denier won statewide election in any of the battleground states. I, further, would note, aside from likely picking up a 51st Senator, we also made progress in a number of local and state races. Paraphrasing another Substack host, I believe we have good reason to be hopeful, but not complacent.
Barbara, I completely agree that Manchin and Sinema had conversations with McConnell. No doubt.
I do find it disheartening that the elected Insurrectionists all came back to office, with guns loaded. This says that people really aren't ready to turn the page.
I do keep seeing that the Trump endorsed Republicans weren't elected. That isn't accurate. In New York State we had plenty of Trump endorsed candidates that won. Claudia Tenney is a full blown MAGA election denier that Trump endorsed. She won her gerrymandered district. There were a number of others that easily won because of Trump.
Zelden didn't lose by much for Governor. That was beyond frightening.
New York State is turning red and we are the reason we lost the House.
We have to be diligent as hell. The fight is beginning.
New York was helped in turning red by Democratic gerrymandering and poor Democratic turnout.
Without question. Democrats are not the proactive party they sometimes fancy themselves as.
Linda, I assure you that I’m in this fight with you. Still, I don’t believe it’s useful or accurate to portray a handful of lost House seats, largely due to gerrymandering, as “devastating for the survival of democracy.”
Barbara, I think the long term shake out will be bad at best. Jim Jordan is already sharpening his teeth to investigate every aspect of the Democratic Party. As that is their announced plan. I really wish they could bring themselves to work on issues for the American People. He is saying his job will be to degrade the Democratic Party so as Trump ( although I expect it will be DeSantis) will win in 2024. He is such an ass. How long before we see an investigation into Bidens dog pooping on the Whitehouse lawn.
Don’t know if Manchin and Sinema met with McConnell, but they are playing to their constituencies—who are basically Republicans.
@Citizen60, I would note, for some time, West Virginians have been asking for jobs, healthcare, childcare, housing, and tax reform. Additionally, workers affiliated with the United Coal Miners Union have been itching for the training to help them make the transition from the fossil fuel industry to clean energy jobs.
As for Arizona, there have been repeated calls for expanding healthcare as residents also continue to demand Sinema be held accountable for her unseemly corporate ties, especially to Big Pharma.
I agree. But only their constituents can hold them accountable for not bringing to the state what they want/need, or for the amount of money they take.
Big Pharma is behind the Democrat push for single payer. It's much cheaper to bribe congressmen than to pay for advertising on every nightly news program.
https://youtu.be/L2LQW1TY0lY
This message is not sponsored by Pfizer.
100%
Thank you, Barbara.
The forum is experiencing a quake today. My preference is that your comment had led and started the discussion.
I agree that this situation is more regrettable because elections (especially midterms) do have consequences of this timeline nature.
Salud!
🗽
Christine, Thank you for writing. Affirming comments from you mean a great deal.
You are welcome.
🗽
We should all be writing, calling texting our Representative and Senators that there should be no leaving Congress this Dec. until all 4 of the above are done! It take engaged citizens demanding our electeds act in our favor!
Sandra, Thank you for writing. While I have been contacting every appropriate party, including Senate plus current and incoming House leadership, I find it odd that several of our legislators don’t seem as juiced to get as much done as possible while they’re still in control.
Sorry to hear that, Barbara Jo, as we want to make the most of this Lame Duck!!!
There should be no leaving Congress (both Houses) except for Christmas Eve & Day. Get the job done, Democrats!
I just faxed this to my congressman, Steny Hoyer, taking a page from Barbara Jo's Comment:
Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Rep. Steny Hoyer Rep. Jim Clyburn, Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, Rep. Katherine Clark, Rep. Pete Aguilar:
For me it is critical that Congress stay in session until Jan 3 if necessary to address these 4 major priorities:
1) completing your work reforming the Electoral Count Act,
2) raising the debt ceiling to block the Republican controlled House in 2023 and 2024 from leveraging concessions on entitlements like Social Security and Medicare to avert defaulting on the national debt and blaming Biden for the economic calamity that would ensue,
3) advancing legislation already passed in the House banning high-capacity assault weapons and instating universal background checks and nationwide red flag laws, and
4) forwarding marriage equality protections, also already passed in the House.
These are all critical to protecting our fragile democracy and should take precedence over taking a recess. This is a once in a lifetime opportunity to strengthen our democracy.
In gratitude for your service,
Sad to see that Democrats are not happy with Democratic elections and a balance of power. They just want total control.
How does this party call itself "Democratic" when it selects nominees with an elite group of "superdelegates". This is just one example of why I will never go back to being a Democrat. The Kavanaugh insurrections were the straw that broke the camel's back. There is no return to any kind of moral standard for the party. It will eventually fail and be replaced by a more centrist party.
GandalGrey, Perhaps you missed that in 2018 the DNC voted to significantly curtail the power of superdelegates. As for Kavanaugh, had the Administration not blocked the FBI from interviewing the witnesses Plaintiff produced, we might have heard stories those in power didn’t want told. Additionally, Kavanaugh’s conduct at his hearing was not worthy of a Supreme Court Justice.
Curtail? That means reduce or restrict. What about eliminate?
As for your Kavanaugh comment, we heard plenty of "stories" during that insurrection. The media has done its job with you as it seeks to do with all women. Thankfully, most are wise enough to read between the lines. Pee tapes and Russian collusion, all a pack of lies.
Kavanaugh's restraint against false accusations from an actress was impressive. Salacious and mischievous rumor is the calling card of Democrats, and people are fed up with their soap operas.
GandalGrey, Because your first question merits a response, I will answer accordingly.
While Bernie Sanders, in particular, did call for eliminating superdelegates, he viewed the procedures enacted in 2018 as “a major step forward.” These new procedures only allow superdelegates to vote in the unlikely event a presidential candidate isn’t nominated on the first ballot and the convention becomes contested on the floor.
If so, that is a good step forward.
While we are being honest, If you had know in 2020 that the contents of Hunter's laptop was real, would you still have supported his nomination?
If not, how do you feel about the media intentionally suppressing the information for two election cycles?
GandalGrey, Hunter’s laptop doesn’t interest me. I’m focused on promoting a far more cooperative environment in which there is a modicum of social and economic justice for large numbers of people today who feel oppressed and marginalized by a runaway wild capitalism unwedded to institutions that would help contain its excesses and moderate its self-serving impulses.
I cannot understand Biden's lack of support for the unions. Train accidents carrying chemicals have happened before and are tragic. A long time ago I heard filmmaker Michael Moore say, if you keep choosing the lesser of 2 evils, pretty soon you have evil, and he was right! Thank you HCR for educating us on issues like this that don't make headlines.
Michael Moore usually has his finger on the national pulse. He's a smart cookie.
I can't find a response from Michael Moore online. I did find more support for Biden's position, including from Transportation Secretary, Pete Buttigieg, whom I highly respect. Maybe this is a case of having to choose battles to win the war. Perhaps an even better outcome re: sick time may be in the offing? Senator Pelosi still has 2 more years.
If the railroad executives want their workers to behave like machines -- no minutes to spare, no days of unexpected life -- then they should install Tesla-like machines in their trains and fire all the humans. Go ahead, let's see how that works. Never demand that humans be machines.
But they do. What they can't do with silicon and hydraulics they will do with brain and muscle. And emerging technologies are not your father's automation. Adaptable machines are beginning to run themselves. Nobody seems to be looking at where this may or may not be taking us, in terms of full employment and the dynamics of society.
It’s only a matter of time until trains are fully automated. BART trains in the San Francisco Bay area have been fully automated since their inception in the 1970’s.
Same is happening in, ironically, the healthcare industry. I'd like to see national standards set for sick time that no corporation can evade.
Ironic, isn’t it? One would think people in health care would appreciate that sick people need to stay home and not bring germs to work or school.
😔 Healthcare systems were desparate during the pandemic, hooefully better now.
Thank you for keeping us informed on the railroad strike potential.
I agree with you, Shane, their working conditions are medieval and intolerable. While a strike may be “potentially crippling,” that’s their only recourse to date -- and they have a right to demand that their grievances be fully met.
“They remain concerned about their lack of paid sick days. More generally, though, they oppose a new staffing system implemented after 2018, which created record profits for the country’s main rail carriers but cost the industry 40,000 jobs, mainly among the people who actually operate the trains, leading to brutal schedules and dangerous working conditions.”
Thank you, Heather, for highlighting their plight.
Why is the only option for action by congress to bring the unions to their knees? If it is a true emergency and an issue of worker safety, why can’t the owners be forced to concede?
AMEN!
Where is OSHA?
Heather, thank you so much for showcasing the railroad workers’ fight for a healthy workplace. Their conditions remind me of the ones a friend experienced after Sam Walton relinquished control. Her schedule varied from week to week, so she could not hold down a second job, even though her job was only 30 hours a week. I hope that the American public is caring enough to support the railroad workers in their quest for a decent work/life balance.
PSR..."created record profits for the country’s main rail carriers but cost the industry 40,000 jobs, mainly among the people who actually operate the trains, leading to brutal schedules and dangerous working conditions."
I am a union member of a different industry, and I support this pending strike. With record profits and safety concerns, this is a no-brainer. Time to write some letters to Nancy Pelosi and my Rep Jared Huffman. No reason they must go on the hook for Joe's poor choices this time.
So the SMART Transportation Division, the International Brotherhood of Boilermakers (IBB), the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen, and the International Brotherhood of Teamsters (BMWED) appear to be the aforementioned "4 of 12 unions" not wanting to be railroaded by the NCCC's record profiteering.
Would it help to know that the SMART TD represents about 30% of the 125,000 workers, BLET represents about 20%, and BMWED represents nearly 10%?
Why do all "news" articles mention the 4 of 12 unions, suggesting a whining minority, instead of the fact that those 4 unions represent a sound majority of the collective? IBB, for example, represents only about 300 workers, if I understand correctly. I find such abuse of numbers extremely disingenuous, and especially on the heels of elections where majorities are supposed win. Thankfully, railroad workers don't have an Electoral College.
You make an very important point in terms of truth in reporting when using statistics. But you still haven't directly address this part of Heather's commentary.
"Railway Age, a trade magazine for the rail transport agency, reported that neither side in the negotiations could find a way to avoid a work stoppage, but since neither side wanted one, they were eager to have Congress overrule the small percentage of workers who opposed the deal and impose the one most workers have accepted. That way, neither side would have to face criticism from those who oppose the deal, and they would not have to deal with a Republican House as they seek to find a solution. "
What we really need to see is a statement like "nnnn workers out of mmmm union members across 12 unions rejected the deal." Along with civics the American education system is woefully inadequate at teaching our kids about statistics and statistical inferences. News reporting totally sucks on statistical inference.
Are we talking about the vote being 50.01% against to 49.99% for of all railroad workers across the 12 unions or 65% to 35%? At what point does it make a difference given the serious and far reaching effects on the country as a whole? Biden is having to face that decision.
I am a retired teacher and union member so I am a firm believer in stronger unions and work actions. The real solution is legislation delineating worker rights that would prevent the the corporate overeach like what the railroad companies, and people like Elon Musk expecting workers to be "hard core" as a matter of course to make him the richest person in the world.
A bill that says that ALL workers have to be paid 2X overtime if they work more than 40 hours a week or must be given comp time AT THE WORKER'S DISCRETION would go a long way to solving the problem. It would force companies to staff adequately. It would also help intorducing flexibility to deal with child and elder care issues.
In professions like teaching and healthcare where there is both extensive prep time as well as face time there should be standards as to ratios of prep time to face time--so say 1.5 hours of prep for a teacher for every hour of face time with your class or doing the other stuff like lunch duty. That lets you plan, grade, prep class materials, deal with parents, deal with with kids special needs, coordinate with colleagues, eat lunch and pee. And there should be standards for maximum student/teacher or patients/healthcare provider ratios so you don't get a teacher with a class of 40 kids or a nurse with 40 patients on a shift.
Love this, logic and sanity
Well-stated Georgia!
It would seem that any transportation industry whose employees have the capacity to harm so many when not adequately functional should have similar training requirements and employment safeguards as airline pilots and crews.
Great example of an industry where there are standards for workers in place. Would love to see Heather's take on how we got to the current crazy patchwork of what occupations are covered and why and how.
What does the Occupational Safety and Health Agency have to say about railroad shifts, safety, and scheduling? Are they excluded from railroad matters or AWOL.
Excellent question. I am hoping that is how Biden, Pelosi and Buttigieg will solve this issue for workers: new OSHA regulations and required paid sick time?
Thanks for your post. My daughter, a HS English teacher, spent much of this Thanksgiving "holiday" doing grading as there is a lack of prep time. during her work week. Also, too few substitute teachers out there which in turn requires teachers to cover for them is a real issue.
Teaching was my 4th career--I was a research scientist, a VP at a tech start-up, a stock trader while raising my daughter as a single Mom and finally a HS science teacher. Being a teacher was by far the most mentally, emotionally and physically exhausting profession as well as being the most rewarding both intellectually and personally. HS kids are the most interesting people on earth!
Tell your daughter to hang in there and celebrate those breakthrough moments she has with the kids. One way to get more of them is to have them do small group projects where everyone has a role and has to contribute and to see her role as a coach. That gives you the one on one interactions you need to identify who needs what kind of help and lets you make more personal connections with the kids.
Great comment!!!! Thank. You for posting!
Oh I think I did indeed address the misuse of numbers to sway opinion. So instead of "4 of 12" unions, now there's "either side," or 1 of 2. Well that just dumbs it down even further, and looks even more foolish next to ~60% of union workers rejected being railroaded into an untenable agreement.
Retired union member of a different nature myself. My "industry" (law enforcement) has a "no strike" clause due to the nature and requirements of police work.
I fully support the Railroad Union members who are opposed to the inhumane PRS "system"
I am not happy about Joe's decision either. But I do get that he's in a bad position. I am definitely pro-union, and will not be against them should they choose to strike.
If this had happened in Qatar's building the World Cup infrastructure, America would be up in arms. The response of the objecting unions is what anyone wants: work-life balance, not just money. We may actually need a strike.
My feeling is that the resolution of the strike should favor the rail workers. Biden claims he is pro union, time to show it. If working conditions are unacceptable, then Warren Buffet (a big railroad owner and famous for saying his secretary is underpaid) should look into a solution. As well as all USians. We already have some inflation. Might as well accept a bit more if it means protecting workers and their families.
After all, a big part of the reason inflation has been so low for so long (less than 2% for decades) is outsourcing to cheap labor overseas. And outsourcing hollows out the economy, leading to a loss of diverse and meaningful jobs.
The rail and trucking workforce is crucial, to be sure. But that doesn't mean we should accept poor working conditions for them and their families.
The January 6 report in a month - Merry Christmas
And then a happy New Year??