As the D's control all 3 branches they will not let the Congress dictate a settlement until they've let the unions have a strike of a few days to make their point. My guess is that the pressure from everywhere will reach such an unbearable point by a week or so that they'll give in and Congress will issue a back to work order and a settlement largely based upon the PEB's recommendation.

Then it will be a question of whether or not the Brotherhoods will go back to work.

Time will tell. Ross Rowland

From The Hill:andLink to the full September 14, 2022 article:
Sanders blocks proposal to force rail unions to accept labor deal

Disclaimer: This board is not for discussing politics, so mods, please remove this post if you think necessary.

Which Country are you in, Ross? The Dems have a marginal lead in congress, and don't hold the S.C. by any measure (See the recent Row ruling). Three branches isn't too high to count, and that's most certainly not control over all three.

The current administration is between a rock and a hard place. They campaigned on, and were arguably elected by the union vote. Yet simultaneously, they have faced unbelievable amounts of scrutiny over the state of the economy the last couple years.

They can support the railroad unions, which, if the strike lasts for long will inevitably NOT be good for the economy, or, they can lead a strong arm deal which isn't necessarily in the unions' favor to restore a smooth running supply chain should the strike move forward this week.

It will be interesting to see what they choose to do, and who they will maintain their promises too- Wallstreet or the people they promised to protect. Either way, it is my humble opinion that this is an issue between the unions and the companies, and the government should not intervene at all.

This is politics, so inevitably I am sure they will manage to screw both. Guess we'll wait and see.

Given precedents, I'm now taking a pool on how soon the current Administration will proceed to "cannonball" right into the thick of this morass............

.

You weren't wrong about that Kelly. Like the Sunday I had a personal day off to go to the RyPN get together at SRC about 2004 or '05, and was out of cell range on the train until I got back to the car. Found about four messages from the CSX callers trying to call me for a job on that day off, miscalled me, and caused me a lot of hassle trying to explain that this, in-fact, was a legit personal day off and to take the miscall off my record and put me back on my personal day. That was before they did away with crews taking personal days on Friday, Saturday, or Sunday - permanently. I do not disagree with anything any of the current union guys are saying about their working conditions. Shut 'em down, they deserve it.

https://www.theguardian.com/business/20 ... cific-bnsf

“If Congress imposes the results of the PEB, or imposes a bad contract down our throat without addressing the attendance policy, or quality of life issues, or our taxable meal issues, without addressing any of that, then people are just going to leave. They already are, but people are just going to continue leaving the industry,” said Michael Paul Lindsey, a locomotive engineer for Union Pacific in Idaho for 17 years.

“They can try to force us out of a strike, but they can’t force us to not quit, and that could result in an even bigger effect on the economy. Congress needs to think long and hard before they force it within the strike, because if they do, it will have a much bigger strike as people resign and leave the industry,” he said.

It's certainly nice to start a new day with some good news out of Washington DC.

To nearly everyone's surprise the all night bargaining session in the Sec'y. Labor's office has resulted in a deal subject now to membership ratification, thus avoiding a nationwide strike.

On TV this morning both sides gave a lot of the credit to the 9pm call by President Biden that lasted nearly 30 minutes and led to a meeting of the minds on the issue of sick days and days off for personal reasons.

When the fine details come out let's hope they satisfy the majority of the members.

As everyone loses in a strike this is certainly good news.

Ross Rowland

https://www.railwayage.com/freight/clas ... e-for-now/
"Demands by the BLET and SMART-TD for scrapping of individual carrier attendance policies and more predictable work schedules are not included in the tentative national agreements, but are subjects for so-called “local handling.”"

"The early reaction from the BLET and SMART-TD rank and file is not encouraging." https://www.trains.com/trn/news-reviews ... -analysis/

This is an excerpt of an email my General Chairman sent out to the membership. What he says seems to fly in the face of what is written there in Trains and Railway Age.

"....As a result, this agreement includes agreement provisions that will create voluntary assigned days off for members working in thru freight service, and all members will receive one additional paid day off. Most importantly, for the first time ever, the agreement provides our members with the ability to take time away from work to attend to routine and preventive medical care, as well as exemptions from attendance policies for hospitalizations and surgical procedures."

That last part is big, to me. Since the carrier has seen fit to trim the pool turns and extra boards to the bare minimum, it's impossible to use these "personal leave days" that they like to crow about allowing us.

Sure, your seniority may have allowed you to earn up to 9 or so PL days.. that, in theory, let you lay off to take care of whatever.

The part they don't explain is that if you decide that you're going to lay off to go camping with the family this Friday, when you call up Thursday to lay off.... the caller will tell you "sorry, manpower shortage.. no layoffs."
In effect, you have no personal leave days. They won't man the railroad, trying to save money.. so, you can't lay off. That forces the men to lay off "sick" or "FMLA". They've made it nearly impossible to qualify for FMLA, so you can't lay off that way... so, you're forced to lay off sick.. .and THEN they charge "points" against you.. build up enough points for laying off sick... you're fired.

They've fired a few men in our division for this, but so far they've all got their jobs back... and even had the demerit points removed!!!

This is the big sticking point with train crews... no time away from this railroad.. because the RR cut everyone off... to increase their operating ratio!!!

They've created a monster.

Denying time off for medical procedures is management cutting off their noses to spite their faces. I had my nose straightened out while I was with CSX (wish I had had it done decades earlier, but waited until the sinus infections I occasionally got became really bad), which in the long run saved me sick days, even though I was off two weeks recovering from it. I realize they really don't care about employee health much, just hire another body. I just can't fathom that. 20 years ago I was told it cost about $50K to train a new-hire to the point of qualified engineer, I'm sure it's more now. Why would they not want to keep them, and in good health, for as long a possible?

The can has been kicked beyond the mid-terms.

Sounds like the beatings will continue until the morale improves.

That may have been the point of the verbal agreement. IMHO I think the railroads will have less leverage after the midterms, and may be forced to back down even further from their mulish defense of their Dickensian working conditions.

Only if people realize what's at stake and vote accordingly.

Otherwise, expect to get sold down the river.