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Freight rail workers may strike over bosses' outrageous scheduling demands [1]
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Date: 2022-09-13
A Presidential Emergency Board appointed by Biden in July called for significant raises and bonuses, but did not address the scheduling and quality of life issues that loom large for the conductors and engineers left with no control over their time. The National Railway Labor Conference, which represents the companies, insists that the companies must be able to “unilaterally establish attendance policies,” even though those attendance policies are making it difficult to retain workers.
“We’re facing the potential of a strike, because the railroad refuses to grant one single day of sick time,” Ron Kaminkow, a member of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen, told The Washington Post. “It’s about the phone rings at 2 a.m. to be at work at 4 a.m., after just 10 hours of rest prior. It’s about not knowing when you’re coming home and being penalized with discipline—up to firing—if you need to go to the doctor.”
A strike could make existing supply chain issues much, much worse, and the threat of a strike has already prompted Amtrak to cancel some long-distance trips that use tracks owned by freight companies. Those tracks probably won't be available to Amtrak during a strike.
The freight rail companies have also started a slowdown—strategically, the unions argue.
x Stopped BNSF containers as far as the eye can see in DC on the tracks between Brookland and Fort Totten ... Apparently warren buffett is on strike
https://t.co/uIKzTUkx68 pic.twitter.com/UjFOW9xuja — moe tkacik (@moetkacik) September 12, 2022
Congress could step in to delay or avert a strike, and House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer said Monday that might happen. The politics are complicated, though, since labor allies among Democrats may not want to weaken the unions’ position, while Republicans may want a strike that they would see as helping them politically through its disruptions and costs to the economy.
What would solve all this, of course, is if the rail companies would allow workers the right to go to the doctor—unpaid—without risking penalties or even their jobs.
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[1] Url:
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2022/9/13/2122600/-14-days-on-call-12-hour-days-No-sick-days-No-wonder-freight-rail-unions-are-ready-to-strike
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