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Why America’s Railroads Refuse to Give Their Workers Paid Leave

nymag.com

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Re: Why America’s Railroads Refuse to Give Their Workers Paid Leave

#31

Post by gz5 »

>Four of those companies collectively control more than 83 percent of the freight market. And the vast majority of train stations in the U.S. are served by exactly one railroad.

Monopoly behaving like a monopoly. The only real power the employees have in this situation is to leave, especially when the government's interests are also not aligned with employee interests.

Numbers tell us there are 10M open jobs in the US. Obviously leaving the devil you know for the devil you don't is not an easy decision, but I wonder how possible it even is? Are the rail employees in a position in which those 10M open jobs are not viable alternatives for them and how 'real' is the 10M number?

Re: Why America’s Railroads Refuse to Give Their Workers Paid Leave

#32

Post by treis »

voisin wrote: post #10

Companies want employees rather than contractors in the sense that they want to have a locked in wage rather than negotiate new contract rates for each contract, but companies want contractors rather than employees because employees get benefits in exchange for their relatively slower growing incomes. Here, we see the tug of war and companies trying to have it both ways.

This seems like a place for a union to do something actually economically useful. Take the burden of dealing with malingers and fakers while providing some rostering flexibility for sick workers.

Re: Why America’s Railroads Refuse to Give Their Workers Paid Leave

#33

Post by bestcoder69 »

mauvehaus wrote: post #19

Fuck the shareholders. Strike. Yes, I am absolutely willing to pay more in the short term for things so that people are treated with a little basic human decency. Moreover, I'm more than happy to pay a little more for things in the long term to ensure that there's enough slack in the system to absorb the shocks that periodically come around. We've just spent almost three years slowly killing everyone in healthcare be…

Agreed on the strike. Hearing they have 0 sick days (plus penalties for missing) was unbelievable to me. Strike and make it so the rail company shareholders have to live with completely fucking the US economy over their profit margins. And if they do, we all have a duty to point the finger at them.

Re: Why America’s Railroads Refuse to Give Their Workers Paid Leave

#34

Post by jccalhoun »

chiefalchemist wrote: post #2

Given what we we've went though with Covid (i.e., "if you're the least bit sick, stay home...") this makes zero sense. Such double standards don't do well to mend confidence. That said, I won't be surprised if there are sick outs in the coming weeks. This negotiation might be over for now, but it's not over for good.

I heard a report on npr where the workers claimed they were supposed to come to work all throughout the pandemic because they were essential workers and of course they didn't have sick days.

Re: Why America’s Railroads Refuse to Give Their Workers Paid Leave

#35

Post by danielvf »

rowls66 wrote: post #18

This problem does not seem unique to railroads. Any business that depends on human labor to deliver a service would have this problem. Airlines, restaurants, theatre companies. The way to deal with this is to have excess labor available (slack in the system). Are railroad profit margins so small that paying for excess labor will bankrupt them? Maybe labor in the railroad industry is so highly regulated that labor fle…

From stats I can look up, the average US railroad worker earns $130,000 year in total comp in 2021.

Railroad retirement begins full strength at age 60, and looks to be $4,838/mo for an ex railroad employee and spouse. In contrast, Social Security on $130,000 earnings would be $1,919/mo if you retired at age 62. The railroads pay for the retirement expense via tax.

So yes, by US labor standards, railroad employees are quite expensive.

Re: Why America’s Railroads Refuse to Give Their Workers Paid Leave

#36

Post by danaris »

This "PSR" is just another name for lean staffing, which is one of the biggest cancers on our society right now.

Aggressively cutting staffing levels to the bare minimum required to operate leads very directly to worse service, more disruptions, and more sick and injured workers.

It leads less directly to lower wages, via higher unemployment, a catastrophic loss of institutional memory, as there's rarely anyone in your position when you're hired—you're just expected to figure it all out once you get there, rather than have anyone who can train you.

Lean staffing is devastating the middle and working class, and it needs to die a thousand deaths.

Re: Why America’s Railroads Refuse to Give Their Workers Paid Leave

#37

Post by jccalhoun »

mynameishere wrote: post #15

Sickness is kind of a red herring in the discussion. Everyone uses sick days as surprise vacations and that is more disruptive for railroads than, say, my desk job.

If a business depends on no one ever taking a day off without warning maybe that business shucks.

Re: Why America’s Railroads Refuse to Give Their Workers Paid Leave

#39

Post by danaris »

mauvehaus wrote: post #19

Fuck the shareholders. Strike. Yes, I am absolutely willing to pay more in the short term for things so that people are treated with a little basic human decency. Moreover, I'm more than happy to pay a little more for things in the long term to ensure that there's enough slack in the system to absorb the shocks that periodically come around. We've just spent almost three years slowly killing everyone in healthcare be…

They should absolutely strike. And they're in a good position to do so: my understanding is that, unlike, say, the air traffic controllers' strike in the '80s, there's no supply of trained rail operators ready to be brought in as scabs to keep things going.

If they strike, the trains just won't run.

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