4 ms·

it's hard to find good news coverage of the actual details of the dispute, but it seems to be fairly basic staff reductions intended to increase margin (already

by ruined 4y ago

it's hard to find good news coverage of the actual details of the dispute, but it seems to be fairly basic staff reductions intended to increase margin (already historically massive) the keyword to search is "precision scheduled railroading" as that's the management term recent nymag from last year's attempted strike https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2022/11/rail-strike-why-the-railroads-wont-give-in-on-paid-leave-psr-precision-scheduled-railroading.html https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2022/11/rail-strike-why-the-... wsws coverage has labor complaint details https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2019/02/19/prec-f19.html https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2019/02/19/prec-f19.html https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2017/08/01/rail-a01.html https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2017/08/01/rail-a01.html ttd, a union publication https://ttd.org/policy/precision-scheduled-railroading-threatens-to-gut-americas-freight-rail-system/ https://ttd.org/policy/precision-scheduled-railroading-threa... https://ttd.org/policy/ttd-president-greg-regan-testifies-at-fra-hearing-in-support-of-two-person-crews/ https://ttd.org/policy/ttd-president-greg-regan-testifies-at... notably, workers are forbidden from calling in sick, and are complaining about scheduling that disregards sleep, reduced maintenance, and dangerously increased train length. railroads have laid off about 30% of staff in the last few years, and unions have struggled to achieve rules as basic as forbidding single-person crews.

sclarisse 4y ago
PSR is worth some controversy but the big problem here was ordering the train to proceed after a hot-box detector found a hot axle (saying that if it’s really a problem the next one will detect it, which it did, but it was too late to stop). That’s just bypassing the safeties deliberately.
- iinnPP 4y ago
  And nobody will even go to jail for that. Maybe a adult summer camp, but probably not. Guess what will happen again?
- ruined 4y ago
  yes, there seems to be a lot of management pressure to disregard risks in order to keep schedule.
- dsfyu404ed 4y ago
  Those were line level employees, not fat cat MBAs. It'll be real interesting to see what sort of incentives those people were and weren't subject to. You don't just order a train that might be on fire to keep going unless your equipment is chronically faulty or you are really, really, really sure it won't be your ass. Sounds like a "when everyone is responsible nobody is" situation.

by ruined 4y ago

sclarisse 4y ago

PSR is worth some controversy but the big problem here was ordering the train to proceed after a hot-box detector found a hot axle (saying that if it’s really a problem the next one will detect it, which it did, but it was too late to stop). That’s just bypassing the safeties deliberately.

iinnPP 4y ago
And nobody will even go to jail for that. Maybe a adult summer camp, but probably not. Guess what will happen again?
ruined 4y ago
yes, there seems to be a lot of management pressure to disregard risks in order to keep schedule.
dsfyu404ed 4y ago
Those were line level employees, not fat cat MBAs. It'll be real interesting to see what sort of incentives those people were and weren't subject to. You don't just order a train that might be on fire to keep going unless your equipment is chronically faulty or you are really, really, really sure it won't be your ass. Sounds like a "when everyone is responsible nobody is" situation.