Average salary to $110,000.
Sweet.
Sounds like longshoreman pay. About five years ago the crane operators at the Port of Seattle were getting $125,000 a year - before overtime.
“Railroads also agreed to let workers take unpaid time off for doctor’s appointments or medical procedures without being penalized under their attendance rules.”
I am not a pro union guy. Mostly because my dad was a Teamster. However, the way workers were docked for taking sick days and going to doctors appointments was BS.
The major railroads have cut the amount of employees to the minimum. To the point that eventually they did not have enough crews to run the trains. It has effected their ability to provide equipment in a timely manner to their customers.
I have seen this first hand for the last three years in the lumber industry. Sawmills were not getting empty flatcars to load on. To the point that many had to adjust how to sell their lumber on trucks and vans rather than rail cars. The service on the CN, BNSF, UP has gotten so bad that sawmills had to reduce production in Canada because of the reduced amount of rail cars being delivered to them at British Columbia sawmills.
There are only six class one railroads left in North America:
BNSF, UP, NS, CSXT, CN, CPRS
The larger they have gotten, the worse their service has become. In many markets they have a monopoly. So, your shipping options are limited to a choice of ONE. Some markets have two choices. Almost none have three except a few major gateways.
In many markets it is the same price to ship on a truck as it is on a car.