[OHPatriot]

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.

[Alberta's Child]

My understanding is that the railroads allow anyone to call out sick, but require the person calling out sick to make arrangements with his own replacement.

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.

[Shadow44]

The railroads started implementing a points based attendance policy during COVID thanks to these downsizing firms like Bain Capital and McKinsey Consulting where you do get fired for missing too much time automatically regardless of circumstances.

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.