With railroad companies refusing to offer employees a favorable contract, 115,000 railworkers could soon launch a nationwide strike. We spoke with a train engineer about the industry’s brutal working conditions — and why a strike could spread like wildfire.

Might be a good time to stock up on non-perishable foods.

  • UlyssesT
    ·
    2 months ago

    deleted by creator

    • DirtbagVegan [he/him]
      ·
      2 years ago

      Nah, this is only affecting rail freight. The rules that are squeezing labor are really specific to freight. A lot of stuff that's shipped by train is basically impossible to ship economically by truck, like coal, and grain. and the trucking industry is already having a lot of trouble getting drivers as is. Keep in mind as well, that every single rail car you see as a rule of thumb is equivalent to about three trucks.

  • Frogmanfromlake [none/use name]
    ·
    2 years ago

    It really is just like the gilded age! I just hope it's not an exact repeat because that means the military will be sent in soon.

    • Soap_Owl [any]
      ·
      2 years ago

      I don't think we have it in us to pull that off anymore

    • Commander_Data [she/her]
      ·
      2 years ago

      They will just do them like they did the air traffic controllers and completely break up the union. Taft-Hartley is garbage.

  • buh [she/her]
    ·
    2 years ago

    the one time hexbear users are happy to see trains out of service

    • DirtbagVegan [he/him]
      ·
      2 years ago

      Yes, indeed there's a big rail strike in the UK, but the industries and the practices, as well as the complaints of labor are very different. The UK rail strike is very focused on pay, while US rail workers get paid pretty decently all things considered, but it's the draconian attendance policies and scheduling that are making the industry a nightmare.

    • DirtbagVegan [he/him]
      ·
      2 years ago

      Yes, this is the real situation. Rail strikes are essentially illegal, we could seriously see like 18th century style US soldiers breaking up picket lines at gunpoint.

      • 20000bannedposters [love/loves]
        ·
        2 years ago

        People that like trains andbeing abused cuz they are wired like that have to be a stupid small majority.

        If you Google, where are railroad jobs, almost all of them are in very populated places. These aren't rural jobs. Why would they be? Train hubs are all in huge populated areas by design. So the majority of them most likely live near areas of plenty of other jobs. It's not like truck stops.

        There probably isn't many left that had good benefits and sticking it out. Maybe there is.

        Maybe there is just 119k train nuts that the corps know they can abuse. It makes no sense to me .

        No schedule, no weekends, no constant work. Like what? Do you get long stretches off and you're still salary? But even if you have to be at the hub in an hour if being called that means you have no actual free time. The interviewee says some people like that aspect uhhhh what.

  • Coca_Cola_but_Commie [he/him]
    ·
    2 years ago

    In two months time:

    Citing climate concerns and the ongoing rail strike, the Biden administration has purchased an order of 100 million Tesla Model 3s. The admin states that Tesla approached them with an innovative proposal to have their cars, driven by immigrants or those from underprivileged backgrounds—which the President has hailed as a hallmark victory of the Build Back Better movement—, transport all goods previously hauled by rail.

  • Flinch [he/him]
    ·
    2 years ago

    :whywhywhywhywhy: "actually striking is illegal" Arrests the rail workers, then uses prison labor to run the trains like a boss