User Panel
Posted: 7/14/2022 12:14:10 PM EDT
Potential National Freight Rail Strike Looms
The United States is now on the cusp of a potential freight railroad strike that could hamper an already struggling supply chain. For the past two years, 12 rail unions have been negotiating with major freight railroads to agree to a new national labor contract. The union has demanded a 47 percent wage increase over five years and safer working conditions for the benefit of both workers and bystanders. The National Mediation Board (NMB), the independent government agency tasked with meditating airline and railroad industry labor-management disputes, decided to release both sides from mediation in mid-June. This motion began a 30-day cool-down period where unions would be legally allowed to strike at its conclusion if no federal action is taken. The cool-down period ends on July 18th. Late yesterday, the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen (BLET) voted to authorize a strike after the deadline if it’s deemed necessary to secure a contract. A majority — 99.5 percent — of BLET members voted in favor of the strike authorization. BLET President Dennis R. Pierce heads a ten-union coalition in the contract negotiations. Of the 115,000 workers impacted by negotiations, 23,000 are BLET members. Before the release from mediation, the unions called for the NMB to recommend the appointment of a Presidential Emergency Board (PEB), a binding third-party arbitration body. Now, President Joe Biden faces a decision to either appoint a PEB or let negotiations continue down its current course towards a potential national strike. Even a partial work stoppage could greatly impact the availability and pricing of goods transported by rail. View Quote In before all the small government conservatives demand that bigfedgov and President Biden step in and save them. UPDATE: 7/18 - Crisis averted! President Biden saves us for 60 days! Thank you Joe Biden! Or whoever is programming your teleprompter! Executive Order on Establishing an Emergency Board UPDATE 2: 8/17 - PEB releases recommendation. Strike clock reset to 30 days from now. UPDATE 3: 9/11 - 2 biggest unions still have no tentative agreement. Crisis back on! Possible strike on 9/16 UPDATE 4 9/15 - Railroads and remaining union holdouts reach 11th hour tentative agreements. Strike process stopped pending ratification votes. UPDATE 5 10/20 - 6 of the 12 unions in the bargaining coalition having ratified the agreement. 1 has rejected it. Remaining unions to have ratification votes completed by 11/17. However, if even just one union rejects it, they all strike or the carriers lock everyone out. Potential strike date reset to 11/19. |
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I have all the confidence in the world that Joe Biden will make the situation worse. He will blame the next round of terrible economic numbers, including the upcoming 2Q GDP numbers that will confirm we are in a recession, on the strike. He will blame the strike on Putin, Republicans, corporate greed and the gas stations where locomotives get their fuel.
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The NMB supposedly had a last ditch stakeholder meeting on the 12th, I'm trying to find out what happened with that but am having no luck. I expect we'll see a PEB appointed in short order.
I don't expect a strike to actually occur, it would be a PR nightmare seeing as the current focus is on the carriers themselves fucking up the railroad |
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Good, there will be a lot fewer deaths at the crossings caused by those filthy train bitches.
All they ever haul are those chinese double stacked containers, headed from the port to your local walmart depot,, loaded to the gills with chinese made shit. |
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Quoted: I have all the confidence in the world that Joe Biden will make the situation worse. He will blame the next round of terrible economic numbers, including the upcoming 2Q GDP numbers that will confirm we are in a recession, on the strike. He will blame the strike on Putin, Republicans, corporate greed and the gas stations where locomotives get their fuel. View Quote You forgot Trump. FJB will also blame Trump. |
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Quoted: Good, there will be a lot fewer deaths at the crossings caused by those filthy train bitches. All they ever haul are those chinese double stacked containers, headed from the port to your local walmart depot,, loaded to the gills with chinese made shit. View Quote Maybe up in OH, but around here they're still hauling coal for the 14 coal fired plants in TX. We're having a hard enough time with electricity as it is. |
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Fuck the unions. Damned bastards.
Biden will bail the unions out. Crooks help crooks. |
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Bring it! Burn this shit down!
Another catastrophe brough to you by Xiden and his union puppet masters. |
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Honest question: What is actually shipped by rail these days? I know industrial chemicals are shipped in tanker cars, but what else?
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Quoted: Fuck the unions. Damned bastards. Biden will bail the unions out. Crooks help crooks. View Quote View All Quotes View All Quotes Quoted: Fuck the unions. Damned bastards. Biden will bail the unions out. Crooks help crooks. Going to go ahead and disagree with you here. The railroads really do treat employees like shit - used as hard as possible as often as possible past all reason and then dumped. Going from one bleary-eyed day long shift into another with a "lovely' two or four hour break in between isn't exactly uncommon. Hire more people? Perish the thought. Pay more to encourage more applicants? We're not made of money! You need sick/bereavement leave? Prepare to be punished heavily. It's bad. It's really goddamn bad. ETA: Here's the comment from the last thread's linked article that really lays it all out. I work for BNSF as an engineer. The policy punishes individuals for ANY kind of layoff, be it “union business” (for union local chairman), people using FMLA, DIF (death in family), Jury Duty, even using your paid layoffs, such as vacation or paid leave days. What it comes down to in my opinion, is the company HATES FMLA and has no control over it. They feel doctors hand it out “like opioids in the 90’s” and they cannot do anything about it. Under the old attendance policy, you had a “rolling 90 day” of which you were required to be available in “unassigned service” 75% of the time. So in essence, one was allowed 5 weekday layoffs and 2 weekend layoffs each month for a total of 7 unpaid layoffs. Under this new “points system”, there is no “rolling 90 day period”. Instead, you’re given 30 points. Every layoff adds points. For example Mon – Thurs layoff = 2 points, Fri & Sat = 4 points, Sun = 3 points. Holidays and “high impact days” (Mothers Day, Father’s Day, Halloween, Black Friday, along with every holiday day prior and day of basically) = 8 points. Missed call or layoff on call = 15 points. Points only go up, never down, unless you work 15 straight days without ANY KIND OF LAYOFF WHATSOEVER, in which case you earn 4 points. Once you reach 30 points, you’re in violation and subject to discipline and dismissal. After violation the first time and discipline, they reduce you from 30 points to 15 points. So for example, if I layoff one day every 14 days, two layoffs each month, spaced 2 weeks apart, I’d be in trouble within a 2 – 4 month time frame, JUST FOR TAKING 2 DAYS OFF EACH MONTH !!!!!! This Policy is heinous and will bring 80%+ of employees in trouble at some point, many sooner rather than later. |
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Fire everyone and start over with .gov employees?
Federalize? Could the RR industry become any more screwed up? |
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Quoted: In before all the small government conservatives demand that bigfedgov and President Biden step in and save them. View Quote You think 'small government conservatives' should support labor unions?? |
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Quoted: I have nothing to add other than I had to spend a couple of days in the shithole of North Platte, NE a few weeks back and went to the railroad museum. The museum itself was a sad gift shop but the observation deck was cool. Giant rail yard. Giant maintenance ‘hangar’ (I don’t know the train lingo.) must have been 100 or more locomotives in the yard. https://www.ar15.com/media/mediaFiles/131934/C8980D6A-C713-4E5D-9E33-955D8AD7E59D-2452599.jpg View Quote A shitload of things, including tractor trailer boxes that are unloaded and sent on their way. Its cheaper to ship via rail, though I guess its slower. If you enjoy having electricity, coal is shipped via rail. If you enjoy having corn, wheat, etc, to eat, it is typically shipped via train. Great way to really hose the already strained national economy. I don't know enough about the grievances of the railroad workers to have an informed opinion, but from what I've seen posted here it looks to be really messed up. |
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Mav, do you remember the number of that truck driving school that was on TV the other night
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No problem, trucks will pick up the freight
I'll take driver shortage for a dollar Alex.... |
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I for one look foward to the Feds forcing them back to work under the color of slav errr law
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Quoted: Everything. Well - almost everything. Few people travel by rail any more but for goods? Everything. View Quote View All Quotes View All Quotes Quoted: Quoted: Honest question: What is actually shipped by rail these days? I know industrial chemicals are shipped in tanker cars, but what else? Everything. Well - almost everything. Few people travel by rail any more but for goods? Everything. Yep, trucks are for "local" deliveries. When you gotta move hundreds and thousands of tons of goods across the country, you use locomotives. |
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Pull up the tracks, sell it for scrap and deed the property back to the states for roads and park trails.
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Quoted: You think 'small government conservatives' should support labor unions?? View Quote View All Quotes View All Quotes Quoted: Quoted: In before all the small government conservatives demand that bigfedgov and President Biden step in and save them. You think 'small government conservatives' should support labor unions?? We can’t be having people having too much freedom now, can we? |
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Besides all the containerized freight a lot of produce that crosses the country goes most of the way by rail. I'd guess a stoppage of rail freight would cause a backup all across the board. I don't think there's enough trucking capacity to make up for it, especially right away. Trucking might be able to ramp up if the strike runs on for a long time. They'd have to lure more drivers in to the career, which is what the industry has had problems doing in the first place.
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Our facility would shut down in the matter of days without rail. Would be interesting to see what would happen.
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Quoted: Honest question: What is actually shipped by rail these days? I know industrial chemicals are shipped in tanker cars, but what else? View Quote Walk through your house, garage, and shed. Look around. Do you see anything that was made from scratch locally? Like, probably within a hundred miles or something, that you bought at a local retailer or directly from the manufacturer? Ignore that stuff. The rest was shipped by rail. |
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25 years ago they had a giant backlog/traffic jam in Houston of trains. The rocks they were shipping for bridge construction sat in a yard/side rail there for months. I think it finally cleared up after over 6 months. Not sure what the problem was. One of the shops I do work for gets all their steel via rail and have a spur. Had a huge impact on them and had to have it all shipped in via truck.
My biggest customer is an Exxon refinery. They have a lot of track and associated stuff inside the fence itself. The rail going out over the interstate has a train on it 90% of the time. Chem plant and refinery adjacent to each other. A lot of stock going to smaller chemical plants as well as their end product cause they have a packaging plant their as well for lubricants and such. |
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As a healthcare person I find pay/staffing issues in fields like this fascinating.
Whereas my field is 67%ish of expenditure going towards the staff, I can't imagine a system that has under 30% of capital going towards all workers being an issue with hiring/raises. The last discussion we had told of a life of living for your job and family coming in second with 85% divorce rates. |
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figures, my new fucking trucks are somewhere on one right now
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Quoted: Potential National Freight Rail Strike Looms The United States is now on the cusp of a potential freight railroad strike that could hamper an already struggling supply chain. For the past two years, 12 rail unions have been negotiating with major freight railroads to agree to a new national labor contract. The union has demanded a 47 percent wage increase over five years and safer working conditions for the benefit of both workers and bystanders. The National Mediation Board (NMB), the independent government agency tasked with meditating airline and railroad industry labor-management disputes, decided to release both sides from mediation in mid-June. This motion began a 30-day cool-down period where unions would be legally allowed to strike at its conclusion if no federal action is taken. The cool-down period ends on July 18th. Late yesterday, the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen (BLET) voted to authorize a strike after the deadline if it’s deemed necessary to secure a contract. A majority — 99.5 percent — of BLET members voted in favor of the strike authorization. BLET President Dennis R. Pierce heads a ten-union coalition in the contract negotiations. Of the 115,000 workers impacted by negotiations, 23,000 are BLET members. Before the release from mediation, the unions called for the NMB to recommend the appointment of a Presidential Emergency Board (PEB), a binding third-party arbitration body. Now, President Joe Biden faces a decision to either appoint a PEB or let negotiations continue down its current course towards a potential national strike. Even a partial work stoppage could greatly impact the availability and pricing of goods transported by rail. View Quote In before all the small government conservatives demand that bigfedgov and President Biden step in and save them. View Quote Leave the Gov out. Just let the RR replace anyone that strikes and let them all pay SS. |
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How are we going to
'You need to get to go and need to be able to get where you need to go to do the work and get home' View Quote |
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Quoted: Honest question: What is actually shipped by rail these days? I know industrial chemicals are shipped in tanker cars, but what else? View Quote |
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Quoted: Quoted: Honest question: What is actually shipped by rail these days? I know industrial chemicals are shipped in tanker cars, but what else? Fuel. Lumber. Food. Other things. Oh okay. Nothing important then. |
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Quoted: Besides all the containerized freight a lot of produce that crosses the country goes most of the way by rail. I'd guess a stoppage of rail freight would cause a backup all across the board. I don't think there's enough trucking capacity to make up for it, especially right away. Trucking might be able to ramp up if the strike runs on for a long time. They'd have to lure more drivers in to the career, which is what the industry has had problems doing in the first place. View Quote Isn't there a truck driver shortage as well? Between trucks and trains this country is going to be fucked six ways to Sunday if we don't change something soon. |
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Quoted: Isn't there a truck driver shortage as well? Between trucks and trains this country is going to be fucked six ways to Sunday if we don't change something soon. View Quote View All Quotes View All Quotes Quoted: Quoted: Besides all the containerized freight a lot of produce that crosses the country goes most of the way by rail. I'd guess a stoppage of rail freight would cause a backup all across the board. I don't think there's enough trucking capacity to make up for it, especially right away. Trucking might be able to ramp up if the strike runs on for a long time. They'd have to lure more drivers in to the career, which is what the industry has had problems doing in the first place. Isn't there a truck driver shortage as well? Between trucks and trains this country is going to be fucked six ways to Sunday if we don't change something soon. Honestly even if the driver/operator shortages were instantly fixed we're pretty well set on the path labeled "You Are Fucked Blvd." |
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Quoted: Potential National Freight Rail Strike Looms The United States is now on the cusp of a potential freight railroad strike that could hamper an already struggling supply chain. For the past two years, 12 rail unions have been negotiating with major freight railroads to agree to a new national labor contract. The union has demanded a 47 percent wage increase over five years and safer working conditions for the benefit of both workers and bystanders. The National Mediation Board (NMB), the independent government agency tasked with meditating airline and railroad industry labor-management disputes, decided to release both sides from mediation in mid-June. This motion began a 30-day cool-down period where unions would be legally allowed to strike at its conclusion if no federal action is taken. The cool-down period ends on July 18th. Late yesterday, the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen (BLET) voted to authorize a strike after the deadline if it’s deemed necessary to secure a contract. A majority — 99.5 percent — of BLET members voted in favor of the strike authorization. BLET President Dennis R. Pierce heads a ten-union coalition in the contract negotiations. Of the 115,000 workers impacted by negotiations, 23,000 are BLET members. Before the release from mediation, the unions called for the NMB to recommend the appointment of a Presidential Emergency Board (PEB), a binding third-party arbitration body. Now, President Joe Biden faces a decision to either appoint a PEB or let negotiations continue down its current course towards a potential national strike. Even a partial work stoppage could greatly impact the availability and pricing of goods transported by rail. View Quote In before all the small government conservatives demand that bigfedgov and President Biden step in and save them. View Quote No fucks given. either the strike is justified based on treatment of the employees by the corporation, OR it's greedy union members trying to fleece the corporations in an economic downturn. I hope it works out for whoever is on the side of the angels. |
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Quoted: Going to go ahead and disagree with you here. The railroads really do treat employees like shit - used as hard as possible as often as possible past all reason and then dumped. Going from one bleary-eyed day long shift into another with a "lovely' two or four hour break in between isn't exactly uncommon. Hire more people? Perish the thought. Pay more to encourage more applicants? We're not made of money! You need sick/bereavement leave? Prepare to be punished heavily. It's bad. It's really goddamn bad. ETA: Here's the comment from the last thread's linked article that really lays it all out. View Quote Sounds horrible. I thought my jobs points system were bad. Whats the base pay thats going to go up by 47% in 5 years? |
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If you want actual food shortages, this is how you get them in a matter of days.
Instant political suicide. |
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Quoted: Sounds horrible. I thought my jobs points system were bad. Whats the base pay thats going to go up by 47% in 5 years? View Quote View All Quotes View All Quotes Quoted: Quoted: Going to go ahead and disagree with you here. The railroads really do treat employees like shit - used as hard as possible as often as possible past all reason and then dumped. Going from one bleary-eyed day long shift into another with a "lovely' two or four hour break in between isn't exactly uncommon. Hire more people? Perish the thought. Pay more to encourage more applicants? We're not made of money! You need sick/bereavement leave? Prepare to be punished heavily. It's bad. It's really goddamn bad. ETA: Here's the comment from the last thread's linked article that really lays it all out. Sounds horrible. I thought my jobs points system were bad. Whats the base pay thats going to go up by 47% in 5 years? Twenty two dollars a fucking hour. ETA: Assuming you work only the "standard" hours. Which you can't. The average salary - again going by 160 hour months - is $27. |
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