Pragmatist third parties (ie. voters)? Sure but it doesn’t make them right.
Politicians? lol
It hurts the economy for sure but you really think it lasts long enough to lead to two consecutive quarters of negative growth? Has any massive nationwide strike ever last anywhere near that long?
Right, ITT the true leftists are arguing that the people making single incomes in the 75th percentile of household income on a deal their unions signed off on are being fucked over by (checks notes) AOC and Bernie Sanders.
And that we should fuck over the entire country, including the bottom 75%, to get a better deal for these workers.
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It’s a deal that union management signed off on, not union membership.
My position is that supporting a railroad strike and supporting imposing an agreement on the unions are both morally valid positions (depending on your reasons why) that can be held by people of good will and that at least some Democrats in Congress are voting for this agreement because they sincerely believe it to be the right thing to do and it’s not obvious that they are wrong.
(It is left up to the reader as to whether or not there is some meta-political argument in there that can be applied to forum drama.)
I don’t know enough on the rail workers schedule or hiring practice, I’m highly skeptical on that article though.
The quote isn’t great, “many” is doing a lot of heavy lifting; I’m guessing he means newly hired employees don’t hit the hours requirements, which is expected, since they are new. but earlier on the article says they work 12 hour days. if they’re not hitting 1250 hours per year when working 12 hours per day - wtf we upset about?
from my initial research, too, most companies aren’t firing workers for missing a single day, they have a points system where you start with a certain amount of points and lose them by calling out and accrue them by working. when you get to zero points you get some level of discipline but that generally isn’t termination. for employees who qualify for fmla and have an fmla qualifying absence; you won’t lose points.
all that to say - these workers should still get sick time. the jobs sound like they suck.
*You’re right about fmla, too, it can be a massive pain in the ass to use/know when it qualifies.
i can see a week easily erase any quarter growth yes. if the strike lasted into a second week, companies would immediately plan to shut things down for another quarter.
the recession definition is flaky, but rail is very fucking essential to us all
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Agreed that the term “most” is imprecise and it would help to have a better sense of actual percentages. Also, I’m curious about how the “on call” system works. The quote makes it sound like a lot of the folks who didn’t meet the hours requirement because on call time didn’t count towards the requirement… if that is the case, I’d want to know more about what other benefits that might impact, and also why there is the need for so many people to be on call, but not being called in. I know nothing about railroad operations, but, as a complete outsider, it just seems weird.
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I agree, would be interested to know how all that works. seems really strange.
Here’s how it works at one railroad.
Even before the system was introduced, railroad conductors and engineers were essentially on call most of the time, outside of paid vacation and personal leave days (which they do accrue in amounts determined by seniority). When they get called to work, they generally have either 90 minutes or two hours to report to work.
Under Hi-Viz, if they are unavailable to report to work in that window, they are docked points from a starting balance of 30. Deductions range from 2 to 25 points, depending on the day. The more valuable the day, the higher the deduction.
That means Fridays, Saturdays, holidays and so-called “high-impact days,” including Mother’s Day and Super Bowl Sunday, result in larger deductions. When their point balance falls to zero, they face a 10-day suspension.
After that, their points are reset to 15. If their balance falls to zero again, it’s a 20-day suspension. If there’s a third time, the worker faces termination.
There are several ways workers can earn back points, including by being available to work for 14 consecutive days.
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If they are that important, the let‘s give them sick days and hire more workers
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how does hiring more workers happen at a union? i genuinely dont know, who does the interview the union or the employer? when do candidates have to join the union? is seniority and points a detriment for new recruits?
that’s not to say that paying more for more workers doesn’t work, but once a CBA is in play, the hiring environment changes.
Unions are strictly necessary to mitigate the power imbalance between employer and employees. I am always baffled by how many people are anti-union in the US.
The very concept of a limited number of sick days is alien to me.
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Unions are not involved in the hiring process under almost every CBA I’m aware of, that would be very unusual. There is nothing stopping a unionized employer from hiring more people.
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they all have to join the union to work though? like employer cannot just offer more money to people off the street, there’s an agreed scale and levels?
Everyone deserves sick days, even if the entire country including mostly good politicians and professional message board users can’t figure that out. True friends to labor are hard to find. Try being one.
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Of course everyone deserves sick days, but if people want to bargain for more money in lieu of sick days, that’s on them. These workers are going from what? $135K to $160K on this deal? And several deals in a row they’ve just decided not to go for sick days?
Seems to me that there’s a beyond reasonable wage at which the railroads would give them the sick days, but they decided to bargain for more money instead.
Im not sure the railroads would give up the sick days tbh.
I see your point, but its also a dangerous road to start going down the “well they make enough anyways” for rank and file workers.
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Everyone deserves a raise right now. I’m not going to sit here and tell them they don’t. Who cares about what your pay is when you can be fired for taking sick leave? That is what is happening right now. When workers ask for more, you support them. Full stop. Don’t bust out your calculator and your scales to compare them to the next guy. give them all they are asking and then give it to the bottom 75 percent too, since you care so much. Don’t whine about their historical negotiation tactics, as if union rank always has the file completely in mind.
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