Posted on 12/02/2022 8:48:07 AM PST by ChicagoConservative27
The Republican senators (and DINO Joe Manchin) who voted down the sick leave bill did so safe in the knowledge it would be blamed on Biden.
Please understand the railroad tycoons were in bed with the politicians in a previous time the late 1800’s for example.
The need for some order exists particularly in emergency situations but this started eons ago with the mixing of Big Government and Big Business and when railroads declined the government-taxpayers ended up holding the bag embodied in the law adopted 100 years ago.
Freight railroads operate today on precise schedules. If a locomotive engineer calls out sick, the train doesn't leave on type and the ripple effect through the whole system causes chaos. The only way around this would be to have the railroads schedule backup crews for every scheduled train -- which doubles the labor cost.
This is why the railroads have taken such a hard line against sick time in these negotiations.
This country was founded as an oligarchy, so it should come as no surprise that dominant industries were “in bed” with politicians throughout U.S. history.
Plutocracy. Pluto was the richest king, because he was the only king who never lost a subject.
Well, like the GOP is going to do anything for them.
Exactly. Hope they’re happy with the guy they voted for.
Yep.
Corporations good, unions bad according to a lot of people, on here and elsewhere.
It would be an easy win for GOP to come out in support of the Unions so of course they won’t do that
Dems are party of the non -working class
No, they only need a percentage of backup crews in reserve.
It’s the railroads’ equivalent of “lean manufacturing” and Just-In-time...no slack or allowance for error means things break down when everything doesn’t run precisely according to plan. Other industries (public transit especially) are having the same problem filling service now thanks to the vaccine mandates.
The railroads have nobody to blame for this but themselves.
Those are the realities.
So Joe, is there a good time on the calendar for an economic catastrophe? Just curious.
It was never a free market. The act that allows the legislature to impose “work to rule” for railroads came over a century ago.
Think about what you just wrote. If an Engineer calls out sick the train doesn’t leave on schedule causing a ripple effect. I get that.
Railroads have deemed “backup crews” too expensive and have fought that. I get that too.
However, railroads INSISTING on no sick leave or sick leave only “planned” 30 days in advance would seem to intentionally set in place a SINGLE POINT FAILURE anytime anyone calls out sick. How is that a good plan for success?? I also assume railroads also say get sick twice get fired.
Personally, I think paid sick time is a ludicrous construct of a modern, affluent society.
This idea that a business should pay people even when they contribute ZERO productivity to the company's operations has no basis in any sound economic principles.
George Washington didn't have any sick days. I don't recall reading anything about the Ingalls family getting any paid time off in those Little House on the Prairie books, either.
Railroad workers get sick just like everyone else. Just because we need our goods on time doesn’t give them the ability to stay well all the time.
This was a major issue that the Unions objected to, since COVID is over they want to go back to the way things were, the railroads don't want to have their workers removed from the precarity they're in.
If the railroads were deeply concerned about this they could have invested in hiring more workers instead of spending almost all their record profits in stock buybacks.
They don't have to worry because they know the government will back them to the point of having the National Guard shoot strikers like they always have.
You’d think they’d learn after what happen to the coal mine workers…
But I'm self-employed, so I don't get paid when I don't work. Cry me a river.
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