Western Railroad Discussion > From the horse's mouth

This is from the BLE-TD website.

Early this morning following nearly three years of bargaining, the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen (BLET), a Division of the Rail Conference of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, and the Transportation Division of the International Association of Sheet Metal, Air, Rail, and Transportation Workers (SMART-TD) reached a tentative National Agreement with the nation’s largest freight rail carriers which includes wage increases, bonuses, and no increases to insurance copays and deductibles. For the first time our Unions were able to obtain negotiated contract language exempting time off for certain medical events from carrier attendance policies. Our Unions will now begin the process of submitting the tentative agreement to the rank and file for a ratification vote by the memberships of both unions.

Bob Krieger
Cheyenne, WY

Full source:
https://ble-t.org/news/blet-smart-td-reach-tentative-agreement-with-railroads/

The inflation rate now is 8% a year. The proposed pay increase is 5% a year. 

Take a look at the proposal real, real closely. . . . . 

Back in the day, at least on CSXT, you had to lay off sick to get off without hassle. Try to lay off on personal business, they would not let you. More to life you may want to be off for that are not medical.
Ball games, weddings, graduations, etc hat are important in your life to be with family.
Don't see any real changes to being off for personal business when you need it.

Steve
 

They put a little bit of lipstick on the pig...  But it's still a pig.

They kicked the can down the road a few months.  Nothing will happen until after midterms now, and then the politicians won't care.  That could be a very good thing, but it could also be very bad.

Never ever vote yes on the first TA.

Well Tyrus, on the Greg Gutfeld Show, must know someone who works for a railroad. Last nights show, while they were talking about the coming rail strik, Tyrus popped in and said, let me tell you all, "what the rail workers want is a day off without being punished." 

Had a buddy who worked for the C&NW way back when.  This was back when the crew callers were not a machine but a real person.  Over the course of time he and other railroaders got to know the people on the other end of the phone.  It started to work out that if there was someting REALLY important adjustments could be made.  Say there was that championhip ball game that should be over around 10pm but it looks like your going to get your call at 9.

He would mention that to them beforehand, and low and behold the pager (remember those) would go off about 10pm.  Conversely sometime he might get paged an hour before he thought he was going to get called.  Now this wasn't a routine thing, he would only mention those really important life events.  Otherwise he juggled things like all railroaders. 

But the guys he worked with were able to attend those important things, and nobody ever asked how it happened. If you were called in a bit early on occasion you didn't ask why.  Even though the C&NW was a big railroad, at least in one corner of it human beings took care of other human beings.

I worked for the CNW and the callers who worked with us were very few and far between.

HardYellow Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Well Tyrus, on the Greg Gutfeld Show, must know
> someone who works for a railroad. Last nights
> show, while they were talking about the coming
> rail strik, Tyrus popped in and said, let me tell
> you all, "what the rail workers want is a day off
> without being punished." 

He was spot on last night about that! Heard it and thought the same thing. 

I hope all of the people in question can get the time off that they so desperately need. Slavery ended in the 1860s but financial slavery is alive and well. NO ONE should be fired for going to the doctor or going to an important life event ( a wedding, a funeral, graduations, etc). And the idea of an endless supply of workers to do a PROFESSIONAL JOB of transportation is simply outrageous on the part of the company. I can't believe they will just throw away people like they do. Believe me when I tell you temporary employees don't work in health care and it won't work anywhere else. The company should show LOYALTY to it's employees just as much as to the shipper AND the shareholder. I hope and pray for the rank and file that they get everything they ask for AND MORE. 

I hear that Grandydancer4!

Posted from Android

Former GOP member (40+ years) checking in here.

I’ve known for many years that work schedules in the RR industry were brutal and inhuman, and wondered why previous union negotiators had seemingly blown that off and traded it (?? Correct me if I’m wrong here...) for higher hourly wages. Several people I’ve known in the industry have basically lost their marriages and their family life because they never knew when and where they’d be away. 

This really sucks. 

I’ve had a mini version of this in my own career, but it’s been for much more limited periods of time (honey, I need to spend the next 3 days, 24/7, in the field somewhere, gathering data for this study I’m working on...). And dear spouse has, as a medical research person, had quite a few similar situations where I had to cover for her. We both knew what our jobs required, and we cut each other a lot of slack. But neither one of us has had to build a life, day in and day out, around this kind of schedule that is routine in the RR industry.  I doubt we would still be together if we had. 

Bravo to to the Union people who made a stand on this issue, and let the public know what a god awful situation it really is. And bravo to Mr Biden, a guy I don’t much agree with, for doing whatever maneuvering he did behind the scenes to bring this about. I suspect there was some serious sausage-making going on behind the scenes. 

But it it ain’t over til it’s over, and convincing the rank and file will be an issue I have no knowledge of.