5 ms·

Agreed on the strike. Hearing they have 0 sick days (plus penalties for missing) was unbelievable to me. Strike and make it so the rail company shareholders hav

Agreed on the strike. Hearing they have 0 sick days (plus penalties for missing) was unbelievable to me. Strike and make it so the rail company shareholders have to live with completely fucking the US economy over their profit margins. And if they do, we all have a duty to point the finger at them.

lotsofpulp 4y ago
FYI, many, many millions of people in America that work low paying jobs have zero paid sick days (or paid time off in general). As evidenced by the fact that there is no federal law about it, and only a handful of states required a small number of paid sick days.
- bestcoder69 4y ago
  Very aware of that (I’m American), so I should have mentioned that it’s surprising to me given their critical & central role in keeping our whole-ass system functioning. ie even these workers get 0.
- caseysoftware 4y ago
  I think the rules are shocking because these are NOT low paying jobs. These are "good union jobs."
francisofascii 4y ago
But they get PTO days, right? Many people in tech don't have sick days, just PTO days which include vacation, sick, etc. Unless I am missing something.
- p0pcult 4y ago
  From the article: >if such workers wish to recuperate from an illness or make time to see a doctor about a nagging complaint, they need to use vacation time, which must be requested days in advance. In other words, if a worker wants to take time off to recover from the flu, they need to notify their employer of this days before actually catching the virus.
  - francisofascii 4y ago
    Ahh, you can't really call off sick when you are actually sick. Yeah, that's a problem. There has to be some slack in the system for unscheduled time off. We should have learned that by now.
tomrod 4y ago
Strike, and turn it into a general strike. Some things in the US need to change, and the formerly convenient routes of legislation or lawsuit are perceived as nonfunctional by a large and growing portion of the population. Clear the constipated logjam of current politics.
- notch656a 4y ago
  Looking forward to the general strike. It will open up some great position for scabs. I'll be moonlighting in your job; sure I'll probably be shit at it but they'll be desperate to fill the seat.
  - yamtaddle 4y ago
    Careful. Not so safe to be a scab if labor gets serious about keeping capital from fucking it so hard.
    - notch656a 4y ago
      Sweet the risk will command an even higher premium for the labor. Not the first time I've been shot at.
  - the_only_law 4y ago
    And when the dumbasses crashes the train they’ll realize that that was actually a lot more expensive and wasteful of an option.
treis 4y ago
This is just a political talking point supported by a friendly media. From the union's mouth: >Q: Why did the railroads reject proposals to add benefits on top of the framework recommended by the PEB? >A: The request for additional benefits made by the few unions that have not ratified tentative agreements is similar to a proposal which was carefully considered and rejected by President Biden’s Presidential Emergency Board (PEB). It comes weeks after these same unions entered into tentative agreements that included the most generous wage package in almost 50 years of national rail negotiations. >The health, safety, and wellbeing of rail employees is a top priority for all railroads, and any suggestion that rail workers cannot take time off when sick is easily disproven. Rail employees can and do take time off for sickness and have comprehensive paid sickness benefits starting, depending upon craft, after as few as four days of absence and lasting up to 52 weeks. The structure of these benefits is a function of decades of bargaining where unions have repeatedly agreed that short-term absences would be unpaid in favor of higher compensation for days worked and more generous sickness benefits for longer absences. https://raillaborfacts.org/news/bargaining-status-faq-2022/ https://raillaborfacts.org/news/bargaining-status-faq-2022/ What's happened is that the unions negotiated higher pay for worse benefits. Now some of them are leaning on friendly politicians to get the benefits they traded away back without having to give up the higher pay.
- p0pcult 4y ago
  Why is it that only management/ownership gets monotonic increases to their total compensation?
- cool_dude85 4y ago
  >What's happened is that the unions negotiated higher pay for worse benefits. Now some of them are leaning on friendly politicians to get the benefits they traded away back without having to give up the higher pay. They didn't negotiate anything with the current contract being imposed on them. The contracts have been voted down by membership, hence the union does not agree with the terms. The group who has "leaned on friendly politicians" is in fact management, who got Biden and the spineless Dems to impose this not-agreed-to contract via legislation.

lotsofpulp 4y ago

FYI, many, many millions of people in America that work low paying jobs have zero paid sick days (or paid time off in general). As evidenced by the fact that there is no federal law about it, and only a handful of states required a small number of paid sick days.

bestcoder69 4y ago
Very aware of that (I’m American), so I should have mentioned that it’s surprising to me given their critical & central role in keeping our whole-ass system functioning. ie even these workers get 0.
caseysoftware 4y ago
I think the rules are shocking because these are NOT low paying jobs. These are "good union jobs."

francisofascii 4y ago

But they get PTO days, right? Many people in tech don't have sick days, just PTO days which include vacation, sick, etc. Unless I am missing something.

p0pcult 4y ago
From the article: >if such workers wish to recuperate from an illness or make time to see a doctor about a nagging complaint, they need to use vacation time, which must be requested days in advance. In other words, if a worker wants to take time off to recover from the flu, they need to notify their employer of this days before actually catching the virus.
- francisofascii 4y ago
  Ahh, you can't really call off sick when you are actually sick. Yeah, that's a problem. There has to be some slack in the system for unscheduled time off. We should have learned that by now.

tomrod 4y ago

Strike, and turn it into a general strike. Some things in the US need to change, and the formerly convenient routes of legislation or lawsuit are perceived as nonfunctional by a large and growing portion of the population. Clear the constipated logjam of current politics.

notch656a 4y ago
Looking forward to the general strike. It will open up some great position for scabs. I'll be moonlighting in your job; sure I'll probably be shit at it but they'll be desperate to fill the seat.
- yamtaddle 4y ago
  Careful. Not so safe to be a scab if labor gets serious about keeping capital from fucking it so hard.
  - notch656a 4y ago
    Sweet the risk will command an even higher premium for the labor. Not the first time I've been shot at.
- the_only_law 4y ago
  And when the dumbasses crashes the train they’ll realize that that was actually a lot more expensive and wasteful of an option.

treis 4y ago

This is just a political talking point supported by a friendly media. From the union's mouth: >Q: Why did the railroads reject proposals to add benefits on top of the framework recommended by the PEB? >A: The request for additional benefits made by the few unions that have not ratified tentative agreements is similar to a proposal which was carefully considered and rejected by President Biden’s Presidential Emergency Board (PEB). It comes weeks after these same unions entered into tentative agreements that included the most generous wage package in almost 50 years of national rail negotiations. >The health, safety, and wellbeing of rail employees is a top priority for all railroads, and any suggestion that rail workers cannot take time off when sick is easily disproven. Rail employees can and do take time off for sickness and have comprehensive paid sickness benefits starting, depending upon craft, after as few as four days of absence and lasting up to 52 weeks. The structure of these benefits is a function of decades of bargaining where unions have repeatedly agreed that short-term absences would be unpaid in favor of higher compensation for days worked and more generous sickness benefits for longer absences. https://raillaborfacts.org/news/bargaining-status-faq-2022/ https://raillaborfacts.org/news/bargaining-status-faq-2022/ What's happened is that the unions negotiated higher pay for worse benefits. Now some of them are leaning on friendly politicians to get the benefits they traded away back without having to give up the higher pay.

p0pcult 4y ago
Why is it that only management/ownership gets monotonic increases to their total compensation?
cool_dude85 4y ago
>What's happened is that the unions negotiated higher pay for worse benefits. Now some of them are leaning on friendly politicians to get the benefits they traded away back without having to give up the higher pay. They didn't negotiate anything with the current contract being imposed on them. The contracts have been voted down by membership, hence the union does not agree with the terms. The group who has "leaned on friendly politicians" is in fact management, who got Biden and the spineless Dems to impose this not-agreed-to contract via legislation.