The Rail Strike
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@Mik said in The Rail Strike:
Good news. I wonder how much money the government is kicking in.
Yup, LOL.
A game of who is going to "blink" first. I think in this case, the overall economy was in the worse position vs. the railroad workers.
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https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2022/09/13/rail-strike-economy-impact/
Rail strike averted.
This passage under the heading “Why were railroad workers prepared to strike” caught my attention:
“All we’re asking is folks to be able to go to routine doctor’s visits without pay, but they have refused to accept our proposals,” Dennis Pierce, president of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen (BLET), said before the deal was struck. “The average American would not know that we get fired for going to the doctor. This one thing has our members most enraged. We have guys who were punished for taking time off for a heart attack and covid. It’s inhumane.”
The workers asked for 15 sick days per year, the tentative deal that averted the strike gives them just one sick day per year.
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@Copper said in The Rail Strike:
@George-K said in The Rail Strike:
24% pay raise over the next 5 years.
Will that cover inflation?
Not a chance…
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@Copper said in The Rail Strike:
@George-K said in The Rail Strike:
24% pay raise over the next 5 years.
Will that cover inflation?
we'll track it.
but, good point, it won't.
I think they got railroaded. -
The threat of a freight railroad strike is back
A union of railroad track maintenance workers has rejected a tentative agreement with the nation’s freight carriers, renewing the threat that there could be a strike that shuts down this vital link in the nation’s already struggling supply chain.
The vote, announced Monday by the Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employes Division, was 43% in favor of the proposed five-year contract, and 57% opposed.
About 12,000 of the 23,000 members of the BMWE participated in the vote. It is the third largest of the major freight railroad unions. The two largest freight unions, which represent the more than 55,000 engineers and conductors who make up the two-person train crews, are conducting the their own rank-and-file ratification vote by mail.
The BWME said it will now enter negotiations with the association that represents management at the nation’s major freight railroads in an effort to reach a new deal. Without a new deal there could be a strike, but not until at least Nov. 19, according to the union. Things will remain status quo with the union’s contract until then.
A statement from the association negotiating on behalf of railroad management said it was “disappointed” with the vote, but given that the two sides had decided to maintain the status quo, “the failed ratification does not present a risk of an immediate service disruption.”
But the two largest unions, the Sheet Metal, Air, Rail, Transportation union, which represents conductors, and the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen, which represents engineers, have yet to vote — throwing those outcomes into question.
“It’s a toss-up,” said a union source with one of the ‘big two’ unions.
The engineers and conductors union votes are cause for “apprehension on all sides,” said the source. Online chatter among the conductors union and engineers union members signal they want a strike before even seeing the contract, while some are calling for reason, the source said. Conductors union and engineers union members will be mailed ballots later this month with a 21-day voting period. Results of those votes should be known in mid-November, just before the BMWE could be going on strike without a new deal.
The deals last month between railroads and unions were reached just hours before the deadline last month after a 20-hour marathon negotiating session.
“It could be a big letdown” if members reject the deal, said the source of all the time and work that went into reaching the deals.
Even if the members of the two larger unions vote in favor of their deals, they would not report to work if the BMWE were to go on strike. And the fact that the BMWE voted down the contract is probably a sign that rank-and-file anger towards railroad management could lead to no votes at the two larger unions as well.
“I think this is the canary in the coal mine for the engineers’ and conductors’ votes,” said Todd Vanchon, professor of labor studies at Rutgers University. “They were the ones you anticipate would reject a deal. The fact that the BMWE voted no suggests a no vote [by train crew members] is more likely.”
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Strike During the Holiday Season Would Risk $2 Billion.
Four of the 12 unions representing workers on America's freight rail lines have voted to reject a new contract proposed by a special presidential mediation board, once again raising the possibility of an economy-crippling strike next month. The unions that rejected the deal are now indicating that they want additional concessions from the railroads beyond what was negotiated by the Biden administration during the summer, The Wall Street Journal reports.
Those last-second negotiations by the Presidential Emergency Board (PEB) seemed to have averted a threatened strike. Though the details of the proposed contract were not made public, the unions reportedly scored several of their top priorities, including graduated pay increases of 24 percent that will be doled out over several years and five annual payments of $1,000 to all union members (a major carrot to get workers to approve the new deal). However, the unions did not receive paid sick leave—which the Biden administration opposed for being "very costly."
The lack of paid sick leave in the contract seems to be the major sticking point for the unions that are once again threatening to strike.
"This is the railroads' last chance to do the right thing by voluntarily agreeing to provide paid sick leave to all employees," warned the Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employes (BMWE), one of the four unions that rejected the deal, in a statement. "If the railroads fail to give up one penny of every dollar of profit for paid sick leave for their highly valued employees by December 8th, and there is either a strike or lockout or both, then the railroads will be responsible for the imposition of a shutdown of their operations and the economic harms to its customers, the country's economic supply chain and the entire U.S. economy."
The unions have asked for 15 paid sick days per year, but the railroads settled on giving one additional personal day on top of existing vacation allowances, Reuters reports. A potential shutdown—the result of either a strike or a lockout—could cost the U.S. economy as much as $2 billion per day, according to the news agency.
15 sick days per year sounds like a lot to me - 3 weeks. How do other industries compare?
Indeed, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce responded to the new strike threats by immediately asking Congress to get involved. "Congress must now impose the deal President Biden negotiated, and the railroads and union leadership agreed to," Suzanne P. Clark, president and CEO of the chamber, said in an emailed statement. "If Congress fails to do so, a rail strike would substantially exacerbate inflation and the economic challenges Americans are facing today."
