What a feckless, ineffectual and worthless individual we have as POTUS.
Yes, 10000%, Pres Trump would have been able to do something about this and come up with a solution. GUARANTEED.
However, don’t blame CornPop on this one. All the blame rests on the unions, themselves and Mantle Ridge for igniting this disaster.
When Mantle Ridge, Paul Hilal and Hunter Harrison took over CSX, they decimated the company. Typical Wall St/HedgeFund management. Cut everything to the bone. If you don’t like working here, we’ll find someone that will. They did the same thing to Canadian Northern and Canadian Pacific.
Goal is/was to cut everything to the bone, making it more efficient, boost stock prices, then sell it all and leave a disaster.
Norfolk Southern started following the same management style.
Problem....they were not and have not been able to find the workers needed to replace everyone. Folks don’t want those jobs anymore. They’re hard. And in the first few years, you get put to a test. Toss in underpowered trains, accidents, lengthy delays, not enough crews to run the trains or make repairs, etc.
Train crews, engineer and conductor, can only be on duty for 12hrs. Even if 6 or 8 of those hours are idling on a track, unable to move for one reason or another. And they’re afforded mandatory rest, just like a pilot or truck driver. Everything is automated and there’s no cheating.
Hunter Harrison, speaking before a committee in DC, when asked about delays, etc, responded saying that his duty was to the shareholders, not the customers, as they are a captive audience. When a ship is unloaded in Savannah or Charleston, there are only two railroads that can take their stuff, CSX or NS.
Sooooooooo.....when all of that started and the cuts started coming, cuts in the 1000s, who DID NOT say a word? Who kept their mouths shut? Who went along with it all?
The Unions. I guess the union bosses saw what was coming and thought it would be better to start snatching up stock in the railroads rather than look out for the 1000s that were fired.
So, I guess someone in DC, that had a brain and some situational awareness could have avoided all of this. That person was voted out of office in 2020, BTW. But, a considerable amount of this is in the laps of the very unions that are bitching and moaning.
“Problem....they were not and have not been able to find the workers needed to replace everyone. Folks don’t want those jobs anymore. They’re hard. And in the first few years, you get put to a test. Toss in underpowered trains, accidents, lengthy delays, not enough crews to run the trains or make repairs, etc.”
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They won’t be able to replace them because the labor supply issue is global and only going to get worse as boomers continue to retire. Also, there is a plethora of nonessential employment that pays as well or better & isn’t as hard, so people naturally gravitate towards that type of employment.
Companies that can’t utilize labor, have bloated over compensated management, & are over capitalized are going to have ‘tough sledding’ this decade. Businesses that get ahead of the new reality will prosper.(Although it won’t happen overnight)
“Great post BTW.”