#Railroad workers

[tjtevlin]

Station Stop! Bloomfield NJ 🚂

Photos by @patrickkoconnor

[dontforgetukraine]

Yesterday, Ukraine's Railways honored the railroad workers that have helped keep the country moving as well as the ones lost since the start of russia's full-scale invasion.

On the Railwaymаn's Day, the "Iron Train of Railway Memory" #751 departed from six Ukrainian stations. In memory of 751 railwaymen who sacrificed their lives for Ukraine. All locomotives sounded the horn of honor for their fallen colleagues. We remember everyone. Always. —Ukrzaliznytsia

[fuckyeahmarxismleninism]

By Stephen Millies

Every worker has the right to withhold their labor. Concerted action and collective bargaining by workers are supposed to be protected by law. That hasn’t stopped President Biden from demanding on Nov. 28 that Congress stop over 100,000 railroad workers from striking. Biden insisted that Congress enforce a tentative deal “without any modifications or delay.”

[capricorn-0mnikorn]

Spoken Intro: Joe Hill was the most famous, by far, of the many people who wrote songs for the I.W.W.: The Industrial Workers of the World. They wanted one big union, where all of Labor would be in the same union. And, uh, this song is a good example of why. It's about a strike that happened 1911/1912, where, uh, the people who repaired the trains, keeping the trains in shape for the S.P.: the Southern Pacific Railroad Conglomerate went on strike. And the engineers refused to join it.

Lyrics:

The workers on the S.P. line for strike sent out a call But Casey Jones the engineer, he wouldn’t strike at all His boiler it was leaking, and the drivers on the bum And the engines and the bearings, they were all out of plumb

Casey Jones, kept his junkpile running Casey Jones, was working double-time Casey Jones, got a wooden medal For being good and faithful on the S.P. line

The workers said to Casey, “Won’t you help us win this strike?” But Casey said, “Let me alone, you’d better take hike” Well Casey’s wheezy engine ran right off the wheezy track And Casey hit the river with an awful smack

Casey Jones, hit the river bottom Casey Jones, broke his blooming spine Casey Jones, became an Angelino He took a trip to heaven on the S.P. line

[Musical interlude]

Well Casey got up to heaven to the pearly gate He said, “I’m Casey Jones, the guy that pulled the S.P. freight” “You’re just the man,” said Peter, “our musicians are on strike You can get a job a-scabbing any time you like”

Casey Jones, got a job in heaven Casey Jones, was doing mighty fine Casey Jones, went scabbing on the angels Just like he did to workers on the S.P. line

Well the angels up in Heaven, they said it wasn’t fair For Casey Jones to go around a-scabbing everywhere The angels Local number forty-three, they sure were there They promptly fired Casey down the Golden Stairs

Casey Jones, went to Hell a-flying Casey Jones, the devil said “Oh fine" "Casey Jones, get busy shoveling sulfur. It’s what you get for scabbing on the S.P. line"

[Musical coda]

Spoken: And let that be a lesson for all of us.

[thoughtportal]

East Palestine

[eelhound]

"More than one hundred thousand workers employed at America’s railways do not currently receive paid sick days and face strict and punitive attendance policies that leave many with no weekends and little time off. At the Warren Buffett–owned BNSF, for example, workers are allotted a point balance that diminishes if they’re unavailable for work — even in cases of illness or emergency. Those who reach a balance of zero can incur a ten- or twenty-day suspension, with a subsequent zero balance resulting in termination.

These are degrading terms of work no reasonable person would accept as fair. As engineer Ross Grooters put it to Mother Jones in September, workers are essentially 'fighting for the basic right to be able to be people outside of the railroad.' Michael Baldwin, president of the Brotherhood of Railroad Signalmen — one of four unions that rejected the deal now likely to be imposed — explained that the problem has been long-standing but, for obvious reasons, has been of particular concern to workers over the past two years: 'This became a glaring issue during the pandemic when we had members who were forced by their employers, the railroads, to stay home and quarantine without pay. But really it comes down to simple things like the flu for a day or two, or a sick child, and the ability to take a day or two paid.' In a series of testimonials published by More Perfect Union, worker after worker said much the same.

A separate analysis by MPU also made clear that the dispute is in many ways a microcosm of the broader shift of power away from labor and toward capital that has increasingly defined the American economy in recent decades.

Financial filings of several major US rail companies reveal not only that the industry is incredibly profitable but also that profits have grown without a commensurate share of the gains going to workers. Since 2001, margins have almost tripled at major carriers, while the share of revenue going to labor has dropped by double digits. Twenty years ago, investors in major freight companies could expect $15 in profit for every $100 in revenue. Today, that figure is more than $41. Companies are also employing many fewer workers today, leaving those who are employed with longer hours and even less time off. Many are expected to be on call more or less around the clock and can be required to report for shifts of nearly eighty hours on only ninety minutes’ notice. Shareholders, meanwhile, have received bigger and bigger payouts.

As MPU’s Eric Gardner concluded, 'the data suggest that the money once spent on fully staffing locomotives is now spent on enriching shareholders through dividend payments and stock repurchases.' In other words, rail companies have cut jobs in order to spend less on wages and boost profits while forcing workers on understaffed trains to accept punitive conditions, longer hours, and little time off."

- Luke Savage, from "By Forcing a Contract on Railworkers, Joe Biden Is Betraying Workers Everywhere." Jacobin, 29 November 2022.

[sniperct]

This is a big deal, said Railroad Department Director Al Russo, because the paid-sick-days issue, which nearly caused a nationwide shutdown of freight rail just before Christmas, had consistently been rejected by the carriers. It was not part of last December’s congressionally implemented update of the national collective bargaining agreement between the freight lines and the IBEW and 11 other railroad-related unions.

“We’re thankful that the Biden administration played the long game on sick days and stuck with us for months after Congress imposed our updated national agreement,” Russo said. “Without making a big show of it, Joe Biden and members of his administration in the Transportation and Labor departments have been working continuously to get guaranteed paid sick days for all railroad workers.

“We know that many of our members weren’t happy with our original agreement,” Russo said, “but through it all, we had faith that our friends in the White House and Congress would keep up the pressure on our railroad employers to get us the sick day benefits we deserve. Until we negotiated these new individual agreements with these carriers, an IBEW member who called out sick was not compensated.”

“Biden deserves a lot of the credit for achieving this goal for us,” Russo said. “He and his team continued to work behind the scenes to get all of rail labor a fair agreement for paid sick leave.”

[liberaleffects]

“We demand that Biden sign an Executive Order that he apparently has the capacity to do and allow for 7 days sick time for RR workers like other Government contractors. Done, end of story,” a spokesperson for the Railroad Workers United labor caucus said in a statement to The New Republic. “Why not? And if he refuses, he owes us an explanation for sure.”

[makingdonalddrumpfagain]

[mypatchworkreflection]

"An inter-union alliance of rail workers argued Tuesday that the massive freight train crash in East Palestine, Ohio late last week was a predictable consequence of Wall Street-backed policy decisions that have hollowed out the industry's workforce, pushed remaining employees to chronic exhaustion, and sacrificed safety for profits."

[tjtevlin]

Working on the Railroad! 🚂

[thatcollateraldamage]

this blog supports workers rights to unionize, unions right demand fair wages adjusted with inflation, fair benefits that allow decent quality of life and all labour movements!

[fuckyeahmarxismleninism]

By Stephen Millies

Nobody should be fooled by pseudo-populist attacks on rail companies by right-wingers. The railroad monopolies are envied by other capitalists for their above-average profits. The real answer to the East Palestine disaster is a people’s takeover of the railroads. They’re a public utility that should be run in the interests of people, not super-profits.

[almostfini]

[thoughtportal]

Norfolk Southern accountability

[fuzzynecromancer]

Photographed? I thought this was a painting!

“Female railroad workers employed during wartime eat in the break room of the Chicago and Northwestern Railroad in Clinton, Iowa.” Photographed by Jack Delano in June 1943.