By now, we should know whether or not a railroad strike in the US has been averted.
I haven't heard all the details of the newest tentative agreement but based on what I've read, it doesn't sound like there's nearly enough to address the quality of life issues caused by a 24/7 on-call system combined with huge job cuts over the past six years.
The railroad unions pointed to workload and attendance rules after the major railroads cut nearly one-third of their workforce — some 45,000 jobs — over the past six years.
The railroad industry has aggressively cut costs everywhere and shifted its operations to rely more on fewer, longer trains, which use fewer locomotives and fewer employees. The unions said the remaining workers, particularly engineers and conductors, were on call 24-7 because of jobs cuts and could hardly take any time off under strict attendance rules.
https://apnews.com/article/biden-economy-strikes-congress-94089be6a4f469444da99fec9dde1b3e
It's the kind of miserable situation that people with a few decades on the job stick around because they're half way to their pension - but keeping new employees is a lot harder. They could at least do some sort of rotating on-call where you get a guaranteed week or two each month when you can plan things. Plus there's the whole host of safety issues that crop up when workers are burnt out and exhausted.
Anyway, sorry to start your Friday morning with a rant. I've got to get off the twitter. Too much news is bad for my soul.
EDIT: Apparently it's only averted for now. It will be weeks or months until it gets voted on so it may only be a temporary reprieve. Also fix gif.
How's your soul doing these days? Any plans this weekend to that may help nourish it?
No comments:
Post a Comment