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

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

#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.

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

#4

It's hugely in the public interest to not have sick rail workers infecting their passengers

That applies to freight railroads how?

Notice the names of the railroads involved: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2022_United_States_railroad_la...

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

#6
post #4

It's hugely in the public interest to not have sick rail workers infecting their passengers

That applies to freight railroads how? Notice the names of the railroads involved: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2022_United_States_railroad_la...

Well, this sounds crazy, at least looking from Europe:

  In February 2022, BNSF Railway implemented a points attendance system named "Hi Viz" that a union president called, "the worst and most egregious attendance policy ever adopted by any rail carrier." In the system, each worker starts with 30 points and loses points for taking a day off. Workers can accrue 4 points by being on-call for 14 straight days, but any time off, even for illness or a family emergency, resets the clock. Unions representing about 17,000 workers threatened to strike over the points system, but BNSF Railway sued and won a restraining order to prevent the unions from striking.

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

#9

It's hugely in the public interest to not have sick rail workers infecting their passengers

There's no passengers involved as PSR refers exclusively to freight rail. It's still in the public interest to not have sick rail workers die on the job because they are not given time off to access health care or recuperate from illnesses. This is what the dispute is about.

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

#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.

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