TLDR: Here soon it will be “legal” for the unionized employees of the largest railroads in the country to strike, and I honestly hope a large strike happens. Congress can “force” us to go back to work, but I hope a large enough strike happens that the rich people sitting at the top realize you cannot continue to treat the people who earn you the money like shit.
I work for one of the largest Class I railroads in the US. Some people may know that we have been without an agreement contract since 2019 (which basically means we have not had any changes to our contract, nor wage increases since that time). Now I am not saying I do not make good money, because I do make decent money. But this job used to be one everyone was jealous of you having. People just wished they could work for the railroad because of how great the job, and the pay, and the retirement was. I can honestly tell you I do not think this is a job that you should be jealous of.
I have been doing this for almost 8 years (not a long time in the railroad world) and this is the second contract I have been through. The first one was settled shortly after I got the job, not a ton of fuss around that one. Some wage increases, insurance price went up, a few minor changes.
This time is very different though. There are at least 12 unions, going against the largest railroads in the country, fighting for changes. The whole things is so screwed up because it is basically comitee groups argueing over wages, and insurance and maybe a few other key points. It is very rare for the actual companies to talk directly with the unions anymore as far as I understand.
Long story short the Unions have had enough of the companies dragging their feet on settling a contract, so most unions signed to strike. The president issued an emergency board who basically steps in to mediate. Once this is issued (this is all my understanding, please correct me if I am wrong) we are not allowed to strike for at least 60 days (30 days for the PEB to hear both sides of the argument and come up with a reccomendation, 30 more days for the Unions and the Organizations to come up with a resolution)
The PEBs recomendations have been released for everyone to see. Once I and other railroaders got a hold of the over 100 page document, we were shocked by a few things. The document includes what the organizations wanted to offer us in terms of wage increases, insurance changes and so on. It also includes what the Unions wanted to see in return. It included documentation of the organizations reasoning for their choice and why we should not get what the Unions want.
It is shocking to see that even though some of these companies are making PROFITS of well over 5 Billion dollars a year (I know that is not a ton compared to some companies, but in my eyes that is more money thank I can truly conceive), they think we as the work force should not share in those profits since we do not share in the risk/reward that the company goes through. According to the document, the organizations think they assume all risks therefore they (and shareholders) should be the only ones entitled to the rewards of that.
However, several of my coworkers have been vocal about this, saying that we (the working class) share in all of the risks, since during hard times we are the first to suffer the most with layoffs and cut backs. We spend most of our lives away from our homes and families for this job in order to keep the entire United States moving. We accept all of the risk, but apparently are not entitled to any of the rewards when the company does well.
I hope that this is the final straw for some of these tyrants. The shareholders and leaders at the company alike need to realize that if the workers stop, the money stops, end of story. They cannot continue to simply dangle their shitty carrots in front of our faces, treating us as if there is no place better than this. They need to realize the people at the bottom are the people who keep those record profits coming in.
There have been ripples of a large scale strike, one of which might make the supply chain issues far worse than they are now. And I hope it happens. I hope the share holders, the CEO, and the government realize this shit is not okay anymore for these already filthy, rich, fat cats to continue to walk all over us for the sake of the “profits”.
I have never understood the “we cannot strike, it is illegal” type of bullshit surrounding a job like mine. It makes no sense to me other than they cannot allow us to strike because the country would grind to a near hault. But that is why you strike, because you want something changed and they do not want to change it. What would they do if we all went on strike when it was “illegal”? Fire all of us on the spot? Arrest us all? No of course not, they would fucking listen. It would have dire consequences down the road I am sure, but you and I both know they would fucking listen after that.
I am sorry this is a horribly long rant, I had to get some of this off of my chest. I do not want to see things get any more difficult for anyone in this country, but a serious supply chain dissruption would certainly gain the attention of the correct people to make these companies do the right thing. I also do not want anyones pity, I just want to see some actual fucking changes in this company and I think this is the perfect time to make them happen.
Reading a lot of the posts on this sub makes me hopeful that there is a serious shift in the bullshit. I can only speak for what I see in the US, but there needs to be some serious change. I think we are seeing the endgame of capitalism as we live. It cannot continue like this, where the rich (a very small amount of people) keep getting more and more rich. And the poor (a vast amount of people) keep getting more poor. We need to realize that we are the majority and that we are the only reason they can have what they have, until we take it away by refusing to help them anymore.