Bad moon maybe rising on the railway front.
From NBC:
Workers at two of the country’s biggest rail unions split over a tentative contract their leaders had hashed out with freight rail companies — leaving open the possibility of a debilitating rail strike in the middle of the holiday season.
The 28,000-member SMART-TD union, which represents rail conductors, rejected the contract after one of its divisions voted it down.
Members of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen, which represents some 24,000 freight train engineers, voted in favor of the deal….
…But if any one of the unions decides to strike, all 12 unions will honor it, bringing the system to a standstill. A strike could also affect the country’s commuter rail system, with the potential to halt some lines serviced by freight rail workers, and cause backlogs and traffic snarls on others.
Shutting the railways down is bad mojo for an economy already being held together with unicorn farts and duct tape. What is worse is that a strike would deepen the recession but it would take a little time to be felt fully, at which time the media could lay the blame at the feet of the new Republican House instead of the Biden administration. Since the union bosses are completely sold out for the Democrats, it wouldn’t surprise me if they struck just so they can screw over the incoming House majority ahead of the 2024 elections.
Moves within moves.
RR’s don’t get to just strike. It’s all governed by lots and lots of rules and Congress can (and has multiple times) said “nope you can’t go strike”. Lots of RR guys here, with 30+ years and none of them remember ever going on strike for more than a few hours before being ordered back to work. Its’ already happened a few times in this case. This also, of course, gives all the power to the companies since they know they can’t really be shut down.
What can happen is the unions start working to rule. Malicious compliance. Nope, rule says I can only do X and that’s all I do. I need approval from C to do Y so I”m waiting for approval from C. etc. So perfectly legal but massive slowdown. But most of the RR guys I know are all like “meh, this just happens or doesn’t and we go on”
Not even on my top 1000 things to worry about and this is a RR town.
I’ll defer to you on that
So that’s now 4 of 12 unions that have rejected the deal. Surprised the engineers passed it.
I was too but I also don’t know the politics of the RR unions, it seems very complicated
Hello Art! Don’t count on the leadership of private sector labor being sold out to the Dems. Government sector for sure, but relatively skilled private sector unions have been backstabbed over and over again by the Dems since the rise of the Obama regime, parts 1,2,and3…Hence the reasons for a strike and the hoops of the Railway Labor Act ( with which I am painfully familiar) may be ultimately surprising. They may want not only gains in the economic sense but some payback to embarrass the emperor.
My last interaction with private sector unions was in the early 2000s and the local business managers were mostly OK guys but the AFl-CIO guy was a piece of shit, using quasi-Marxist language
Yes, private sector union leadership is just as sold out to dems as .gov unions.
Always has been, always will be.
Supply chain, empty shelves, increased security and anti-theft at the stores, Bidenflation.
No one burns it all down better than Brandon’s puppetmasters.
Stocking up now even if it means checking the dumpster behind the Sack-N-Save.
When the railway guys are not working their shift, they are required to be on call.
The rules the FRA imposes is really crazy. When we work out on the track and hear the FRA is in the area we pretty much shut down and lay low. You can be fined up to 25,000 dollars for certain safety violations if you get caught and the fine is applied to you personally not the company you work for.
They were ready to strike a couple months ago but Biden bribed them to hold off until after November.
I am Anti-Union.
They have become as Abusive as Employers once were.
Ok…lemme have it.
I know many of you will want to.
Once were? Where do you live, in a Fox News vacuum? I resigned from my 13 year tenure on my union’s executive board not because they were abusive but because they became eager to kiss management’s ass and become junior partners.
Management’s MO might not be that of the robber barons of old but they’re still avaricious psychopaths!
At least they don’t pretend to be standing up for the workers, I guess I prefer an honest robber baron to a dishonest union boss
Yes, I get it. You prefer being reamed by people who make no qualms about their capacity to do so while others prefer to be lied to.
I’m very much opposed to the “work rules” aspects of unions. They are purposely designed to be inefficient and impede progress. And punctilious adherence to them can be used as a work slowdown or damn near shutdown. I’m nit a fan of what unions have become in this country, especially as to work rules. In this case it dies seem that the scheduling system used by the railroads is not fair or reasonable.
Unions are like most institutions, started with a good faith reason but lost their way
It’s like the companies are forcing this for no reason. Oh, wait, Cloward and Piven . . . ?
Faster. Harder.
CIII