OT: Survey says rail workers overwhelmingly support a strike

PMC · **Joined:** Sat Oct 17, 2015 5:55 pm **Posts:** 2872

Because the other post was hijacked: https://www.trains.com/trn/news-reviews ... -a-strike/

QJdriver · **Posted:** Wed Aug 31, 2022 3:18 pm

Last week I had a doctor visit, and when I mentioned that I was a retired rail, they brought one of the nurses over to talk to me. It so happens that her husband is CMO for the BNSF Denver Division, where I worked for 13 years. The first thing she said to me was "He can't hire anybody anymore. Nobody wants to work for the railroad these days".

PMC · **Joined:** Sat Oct 17, 2015 5:55 pm **Posts:** 2872

QJdriver wrote:

Last week I had a doctor visit, and when I mentioned that I was a retired rail, they brought one of the nurses over to talk to me. It so happens that her husband is CMO for the BNSF Denver Division, where I worked for 13 years. The first thing she said to me was "He can't hire anybody anymore. Nobody wants to work for the railroad these days".

Every so often I will find myself in a conversation with a trucking company owner/manager who invariably will say something like "I can't find anyone who wants to work", which, having worked for trucking companies, I automatically translate into "I can't find anyone who only wants to work." The latter seems to be the situation with railroad managers and railroad operating crafts as well.

PaulWWoodring · **Posted:** Wed Aug 31, 2022 5:58 pm

You want to offer something less than 50 hrs/wk. I might talk to you.

Ed Kapuscinski · **Posted:** Wed Aug 31, 2022 6:32 pm

Every time I hear "Nobody wants to work" I ask them "for what?".

I think the pandemic and the labor supply shadow behind it reminded people that their time is precious.

As soon as labor becomes a slight seller's market the world has seemed to freak out. It's going to take business leaders some time to adjust.

The quicker we do, the better off we are.

superheater · **Joined:** Sun Aug 22, 2004 11:54 pm **Posts:** 2605

Labor issues aren't limited to railroads. Here's aviation enthusiast Coby Explanes contemplating the return of the 747 so airlines can fly fewer flights despite the fact the big bird is less efficient.

If true, the claim that the average pilot age is 56 in a profession where there's a mandatory retirement age of 65 is absolutely astounding. You'd think somebody would be looking at the roster years ago and contemplating a mass superannuation risk.

My cousin's second is enrolled at Auburn. She's majoring in flight and aeronautical engineering. If she survives that guantlet, she's going to be set for life. Already has a private license.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z2n7p7hMQ2s

And here's Sheldon complaining about the pastrami truck

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/qwEjRfkS44Q

superheater · **Joined:** Sun Aug 22, 2004 11:54 pm **Posts:** 2605

Ed Kapuscinski wrote:

Every time I hear "Nobody wants to work" I ask them "for what?".

I think the pandemic and the labor supply shadow behind it reminded people that their time is precious.

As soon as labor becomes a slight seller's market the world has seemed to freak out. It's going to take business leaders some time to adjust.

The quicker we do, the better off we are.

Just as in politics, there are no leaders, there are elected, appointed representatives and judges, in the business world there are no leaders, there are managers, executives, directors and officers.

You want them to adjust? Stop tolerating the pretentious nonsense that being ambitious is the same as being sagacious.

The next time, some C-Suiter starts talking about "the leadership team", interrupt them and say you aren't a leader, you are an (executive/officer). Nobody follows you because of your wisdom, they follow you because you sign their damn check, so check your delusions of grandeur.

If I was in the union, I'd like to insist that everybody in the "C-Suite" spend three months on the roster if they haven't already. Let them find out what it's like to walk a knuckle 70 cars back on a 90 degree day, or to set a "sufficient number" of handbrakes on train that stalled on a grade (a former D&H conductor out of Scranton had to do this) and you are going to have to leave if because the relief crew can't get there before you outlaw.

And while they're at it. six months for every petty dictator in "HR".

PMC · **Joined:** Sat Oct 17, 2015 5:55 pm **Posts:** 2872

I would be very wary of turning preserved equipment over to the Class Is for movement right now as it is likely to be stranded after 9/16:

"The unions are poised to go on strike on September 16, a move that could bring nearly 30% of the nation's freight to a grinding halt, according to data from the Bureau of Transportation Statistics."

https://www.cnn.com/2022/09/09/economy/ ... index.html
https://www.trains.com/trn/news-reviews ... ion-a-day/

Bad Order · **Joined:** Sun Jun 23, 2013 1:16 pm **Posts:** 230

Well, what used to happen when there was a strike.... officials running trains.... probably wouldn't fly these days. Around here, they go through managers/officers like I go through socks.
I just don't think that there are enough officials that can run an engine. They've done away with the "MOP"s (road foreman of engines) save for a few senior ones... so that tells me that if they DO manage to find officers capable of running the trains, there won't be enough for the amount of traffic/cars clogging up our system.
On our part of the division, from the midwest to the gulf...we're always just a stubbed toe away from a melt down. We built two trains today that were held for crews for 3 hours... which kept trains held out of the yard, and caused recrews.... and there's really nothing causing it except manpower shortage...nobody laying off for holidays, not nothing... just not enough men and too many trains.... everywhere.

At first, I was under the impression that the Men/Unions were in the drivers seat... but after seeing how the republicans stonewall and sabotage everything... I think they and the companies WANT us to go on strike, so Biden will have to step in.. which will turn the rank and file against him. Poor bastard... he can't win, and the companies and their republican allies in government will laugh all the way to the polls this November, and in 2024.

QJdriver · **Posted:** Fri Sep 09, 2022 7:00 pm

No matter how much a person may love to drive trains, or how badly they may want to have that experience, PLEASE, I trust nobody will even think about crossing a picket line so they can get the chance.

msrlha_archivist · **Joined:** Sat Mar 02, 2013 3:33 pm **Posts:** 151

Bad Order wrote:

At first, I was under the impression that the Men/Unions were in the drivers seat... but after seeing how the republicans stonewall and sabotage everything... I think they and the companies WANT us to go on strike, so Biden will have to step in.. which will turn the rank and file against him. Poor bastard... he can't win, and the companies and their republican allies in government will laugh all the way to the polls this November, and in 2024.

You're worried about an election? Our Brothers who are out working in the crafts everyday are trying to not just live, but thrive at the moment. We're suffering mid-life crises and trying to weigh options between new careers and loosing our families. The rug was pulled out from under everyone. Regardless of whomever railroaders vote for in elections, this is a larger labor issue. Remember who controls the legislative and executive branches right now. Remember the current approval ratings. I don't foresee any strike having a detrimental effect to an already submerged ship. Most of us have put petty differences aside and are a united front.

PMC · **Joined:** Sat Oct 17, 2015 5:55 pm **Posts:** 2872

I'll bet Biden and his team are considering all sorts of options, I think they have had it with the Class I's' Wall Street bosses and don't want to reduce the Brotherhoods' bargaining power, but want freight to keep moving. I'm not positive but I believe some sort of directed service order a la the Rock Island in 1979 would allow them to cut out the carriers and negotiate a fair deal with the Brotherhoods, not to mention an USRA-style takeover. Far-fetched, but I don't expect Biden to stand still.

Tails · **Joined:** Fri Mar 29, 2013 11:14 pm **Posts:** 139

Nobody wants to work for the railroads because management's attitude is "labor does not contribute to profits"

I have a few friends working class 1s, and in the last several years things have gone from bad to worst.

I hope they strike, maybe wall street will figure out what their actions have caused

J3a-614 · **Posted:** Sat Sep 10, 2022 3:26 am

There is a proverb attributed to the Chinese--"Fire is a good servant but a bad master."

I think we're finding out that we can say the same about money--and it'll be the hard way, as usual.

I'll go so far as to say capitalism shouldn't eve be called capitalism anymore. A good name could be "Potterism," for Henry Potter, the villain from "It's A Wonderful Life."

It wasn't always like that.

It once was that business--capitalism--wasn't just worried about money. Oh, you had to make profits, make no mistake, but the CEOs in the past were also concerned about being good citizens, good members of their community, of being "pillars" of that community.

Just look at the architecture of old. How many of us recall factories of brick, with the company name set in stone in the front, or in white tiles against a red brick smokestack? That name, that identity, was a statement by the management that they were proud of their enterprises, that they wanted them to last.

The identity could not be easily erased on the building. In the case of the stack, it would not be removed short of demolition.

It wasn't just the architecture.

In the 1930s, the Norfolk & Western built about ten or so 2-8-8-2s that they didn't really need at the time. While the engines would be newer and an improved version of what they had (and would improve the bottom line with their improvements), there was also the motive of avoiding layoffs in the shop at Schaefer's Crossing and eventually having to call the employees back or find replacements.

Today a factory or other building is made of tin, with a plastic sign in front. The sign is important, because the business will change. It maybe started five years ago as ABC, Inc., then two years back was sold to XYZ Group, and three months ago got sold to PFFFTT LLC, which has closed the plant and is moving everything to China.

No, everything is about money. Everything is about profits--at all costs.

J3a-614 · **Posted:** Sat Sep 10, 2022 3:32 am

It's not limited to railroads:

Quote:

Nearly two decades before Boeing’s MCAS system crashed two of the plane-maker’s brand-new 737 MAX jets, Stan Sorscher knew his company’s increasingly toxic mode of operating would create a disaster of some kind. A long and proud “safety culture” was rapidly being replaced, he argued, with “a culture of financial bullshit, a culture of groupthink.” 

Sorscher, a physicist who’d worked at Boeing more than two decades and had led negotiations there for the engineers’ union, had become obsessed with management culture. He said he didn’t previously imagine Boeing’s brave new managerial caste creating a problem as dumb and glaringly obvious as MCAS (or the Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System, as a handful of software wizards had dubbed it). Mostly he worried about shriveling market share driving sales and head count into the ground, the things that keep post-industrial American labor leaders up at night. On some level, though, he saw it all coming; he even demonstrated how the costs of a grounded plane would dwarf the short-term savings achieved from the latest outsourcing binge in one of his reports that no one read back in 2002.*

Sorscher had spent the early aughts campaigning to preserve the company’s estimable engineering legacy. . . . A return to the “problem-solving” culture and managerial structure of yore, he explained over and over again to anyone who would listen, was the only sensible way to generate shareholder value. But when he brought that message on the road, he rarely elicited much more than an eye roll. “I’m not buying it,” was a common response. Occasionally, though, someone in the audience was outright mean, like the Wall Street analyst who cut him off mid-sentence: 

“Look, I get it. What you’re telling me is that your business is different. That you’re special. Well, listen: Everybody thinks his business is different, because everybody is the same. Nobody. Is. Different.” 

Source:

https://newrepublic.com/article/154944/ ... revolution

Quote:

Over the last few years, however, Shaich [Ron Shaich, founder of Panera Bread] has come to believe that the current business environment is far less amenable to the process of building companies like his. Wall Street has embraced the idea that companies exist solely to serve the holders of their stock. Under this way of thinking, managers of companies should focus their actions on driving short-term value for their shareholders, and should pay far less (or no) regard to other constituents who may have a stake in the business, such as employees, customers, or members of the community. Shaich partly blames activist hedge funds, many of which buy shares in companies with the aim of pushing their management to make decisions that drive their stock prices up within a few months. According to Shaich, this makes it more difficult to invest in long-term projects, and create sustainable jobs.

Source:

https://www.newyorker.com/business/curr ... ha8uNCW3MY