Rail Strike Avoided. So Much for Rail Workers Rights.

[Old_Me]

We traded some other holiday for the day after thanksgiving. I think memorial day or something.

Speaking of trucking, can someone explain to me why even though every 5 years I have to drive to some place way the hell out of my way, get fingerprinted ( as if they change), show my original birth certificate and some other ID with my address on it in order to pay the TSA $86.50 for a "Threat assessment" so I can renew my Haz Mat endorsement, yet when I go to the DMV to attach it to my CDL I have to bring all that crap with me again ? Clearly I had to show it to the TSA to get the approval so why do I have to drag all that crap up to the DMV too ?

from what i was told, the finger prints get tossed away, since you (and formerly me), were never arrested and charged with anything, it is just a back ground checking process.

funny how we have to prove we are no threat, are Americans, and yet the terrorists can just mosey on in........

 

[Bassbob]

up here Good Friday was never really in the contract that i can recall.

neither was MLK ever.

Veterans Day as well was not in the contract as a day off, but, a driver could take it off, and be paid. most of us worked instead, as then the company gave us the day after Thanksgiving Day, for a 4 day weekend. we really liked that more than 1 single day off.

Columbus Day was not in the contract as well. Labor Day was, July 4th was, Memorial Day was.

They took Labor day awhile back too. Then they had the nerve to send a company wide email asking employees to represent the company at the Labor Day Parade.

We never got Columbus Day. At least since I've been here.

 

[Bassbob]

from what i was told, the finger prints get tossed away, since you (and formerly me), were never arrested and charged with anything, it is just a back ground checking process.

funny how we have to prove we are no threat, are Americans, and yet the terrorists can just mosey on in........

I'm not worried about what they do with them. It's just ridiculous that I have to drive up there and be fingerprinted every 5 years. Fingerprints don't change. The whole thing is ridiculous actually, even the background check. Don't we all have computers these days ? I'm pretty sure a felony conviction would be reported to DOT immediately.

 

[Old_Me]

If railroad workers can not strike, why have a union? Now wonder if the other unions will strike in lieu? What happens if the Teamsters/dock workers etc go on strike for the Rail Road. Today was a major blow to unions. Now I am not Mr Pro Union, but I am Mr Govt stay out of my Business.

Or I hear Covid is real bad around the tracks….and easily caught.

unions have lost a lot of power over the years.

case in point...Hasbro Toy Co.

the employee's are not union but the truckers were, with Teamsters.

one year, they pulled a strike, AFTER all the toys were in the various warehouses, and OUT of the factory.

Hasbro had the teamsters by the "short hairs" the union had no bargaining power.

"they" lost big time, like vacations accrued, time off accrued, salary, health benefits were reduced, early retirement after 25 years, and many more things. retirement was now at 65 years of age, NOT after 25 years of service....someone i personally knew, was "set" to retire at 50 with full bene's.....now he had to work till 65.....and at REDUCED pension....

"they" signed a new contract.....and had to shut up..

UPS changed many years ago, 4 drivers i personally knew, took retirement early and made out great....all others....who could not retire early, not so much.

so much for the union(s)

 

[Old_Me]

They took Labor day awhile back too. Then they had the nerve to send a company wide email asking employees to represent the company at the Labor Day Parade.

We never got Columbus Day. At least since I've been here.

i'd have marched in that parade...as either the competitions driver, or a Burger King worker, tossing out stale burgers.

 

[Bassbob]

unions have lost a lot of power over the years.

case in point...Hasbro Toy Co.

the employee's are not union but the truckers were, with Teamsters.

one year, they pulled a strike, AFTER all the toys were in the various warehouses, and OUT of the factory.

Hasbro had the teamsters by the "short hairs" the union had no bargaining power.

"they" lost big time, like vacations accrued, time off accrued, salary, health benefits were reduced, early retirement after 25 years, and many more things. retirement was now at 65 years of age, NOT after 25 years of service....someone i personally knew, was "set" to retire at 50 with full bene's.....now he had to work till 65.....and at REDUCED pension....

"they" signed a new contract.....and had to shut up..

UPS changed many years ago, 4 drivers i personally knew, took retirement early and made out great....all others....who could not retire early, not so much.

so much for the union(s)

IBEW is the only one left with any pull.

 

[Old_Me]

IBEW is the only one left with any pull.

in my previous posting about marching in a parade..??

i had known another driver, that had worked at R+L Carriers, when i was at NEMF...we used to meet up in CT for coffee and roller dogs at the Sunoco gas station..

he gave me a new baseball cap, with his company name on it...

i wore it to work several times, but the guys at central dispatch in Elizabeth, NJ, never noticed...


but the next night, when i showed up for work at my home terminal, my dispatcher told me never to wear another company's cap again....

i didn't listen, got to Elizabeth and caught hell from the lead dispatcher in the office, i actually got to SEE the inside of that office.....

he gave me 2 new NEMF caps.....and sent me on my way...

 

[Keystone19250]

When I worked for Marlin Firearms it was around my 10th year when some new employees started to talk about having a union come in and pressed for everyone to vote yes, the owner of the company waited to a week before the vote then put out a simple straightforward notice. It read……..

If a union is voted in the next day I will close and lock the doors.

The union vote failed and over the next couple months all those that started the union vote conversation were let go for various undisclosed reasons.

 

[Bassbob]

When I worked for Marlin Firearms it was around my 10th year when some new employees started to talk about having a union come in and pressed for everyone to vote yes, the owner of the company waited to a week before the vote then put out a simple straightforward notice. It read……..

If a union is voted in the next day I will close and lock the doors.

The union vote failed and over the next couple months all those that started the union vote conversation were let go for various undisclosed reasons.

That's a lot nicer than what Henry Ford did to union agitators. He had his mob enforcer security guy kick the crap out of them. Even going as far as to "Hot" tar and feather some. Ford was the last of the big 3 automakers to go union. Largely because his employees enjoyed shorter work days ( he, among other things, invented the 8 hour work day) and better pay than the union workers in the other plants. His philosophy was " A happy employee will buy Ford cars". He also sent people down to the southern U.S. to entice southern blacks to move to Michigan to work for him.

Of course he also required employees to maintain "high moral standards" going as far as pulling them out of bars and requiring them to go to church, etc..

 

[Keystone19250]

That's a lot nicer than what Henry Ford did to union agitators. He had his mob enforcer security guy kick the crap out of them. Even going as far as to "Hot" tar and feather some. Ford was the last of the big 3 automakers to go union. Largely because his employees enjoyed shorter work days ( he, among other things, invented the 8 hour work day) and better pay than the union workers in the other plants. His philosophy was " A happy employee will buy Ford cars". He also sent people down to the southern U.S. to entice southern blacks to move to Michigan to work for him.

Of course he also required employees to maintain "high moral standards" going as far as pulling them out of bars and requiring them to go to church, etc..

Although beating them up and tar and feathering worked back then it goes without saying in the year 2000 that wouldn’t fly.

As far as high moral standards, now I’m guessing known as “ethical behavior” that’s not happening as Ford upper management is the worst I’ve encountered in all my 45 years of working in all my employment.
They honestly don’t care about people and although they cater to union employees lower management employees are treated like and basically threatened daily if assembly of vehicles drops below a certain threshold. The absolute worse working environment I’ve ever been a part of.

 

[Bassbob]

Although beating them up and tar and feathering worked back then it goes without saying in the year 2000 that wouldn’t fly.

As far as high moral standards, now I’m guessing known as “ethical behavior” that’s not happening as Ford upper management is the worst I’ve encountered in all my 45 years of working in all my employment.
They honestly don’t care about people and although they cater to union employees lower management employees are treated like and basically threatened daily if assembly of vehicles drops below a certain threshold. The absolute worse working environment I’ve ever been a part of.

When did you work there or do you work there still ?

 

[Keystone19250]

When did you work there or do you work there still ?

I worked there, (Kentucky Truck Plant) from October 2019 until April 2020 when the Covid lockdown shut down the plant, I was hired as a
“process coach”
A fancy name for production supervisor.

An example from my last post…….
Being in management as a supervisor I was not in the union so supervisors had no protection from upper management in how we were treated.
I worked frame line 1 which took a bare frame and added all the components up to when it was flipped over and the engine was installed. While working with another supervisor one day a machine broke down that required maintenance, (maintenance employees were union employees) to fix, the end result was a major component could not be installed and when the plant manager showed up to investigate he proceeded to berate myself and the other supervisor in front of roughly 50 union employees on how we were useless and how a machine breaking down was our fault. Keep in mind because we were not union employees we could not touch ANYTHING related to what a union employee touches or works on or they would file a grievance and get you fired. So while the plant manager literally screamed at the two of us for 15 minutes I eventually walked away and was approached by my boss asking me what I was doing?
I told him I refused to be treated like that over something I had absolutely no control over affecting.
After the PM calmed down he came over to us and attempted to apologize, “which was lame” when he held out his hand I again walked away. After Covid when the plant reopened I wasn’t called back. Go figure.
Some history on the plant manager.
He was at one point a supervisor and was fired for sexual harassment, he sued Ford who hired him back as the plant Manager including a fat settlement.

Ford and ethical behavior?
Absolutely not.

 

[southtex]

My shift schedule gives me 14 off out of every 28 and 26 days of PTO. Bassbob I agree with you. It drives me batshit crazy having to constantly drag my same information to every license renewal.

 

[Blackmesa96]

We traded some other holiday for the day after thanksgiving. I think memorial day or something.

Speaking of trucking, can someone explain to me why even though every 5 years I have to drive to some place way the hell out of my way, get fingerprinted ( as if they change), show my original birth certificate and some other ID with my address on it in order to pay the TSA $86.50 for a "Threat assessment" so I can renew my Haz Mat endorsement, yet when I go to the DMV to attach it to my CDL I have to bring all that crap with me again ? Clearly I had to show it to the TSA to get the approval so why do I have to drag all that crap up to the DMV too ?

Better question: why in the hell do we have to be fingerprinted  every time we renew our license and TWIC card? Geez, it's not like they change.

The answer is "because we CAN". Imagine what it will be like should the gun grabbers ever manage to get more "common sense" restrictions on your rights. Naturally, they will use the success of all this type of crap as an example of how it's preventing a terrorist from using a truck to commit a crime to justify their tyranny.

 

[Blackmesa96]

If railroad workers can not strike, why have a union? Now wonder if the other unions will strike in lieu? What happens if the Teamsters/dock workers etc go on strike for the Rail Road. Today was a major blow to unions. Now I am not Mr Pro Union, but I am Mr Govt stay out of my Business.

Or I hear Covid is real bad around the tracks….and easily caught.

Didn't Mr. Biden campaign on how union jobs are the best? Why then would they feel the need to strike since they are top of the food chain?

 

[Tenbones]

Twenty-eight percent of our freight is moved by rail. With the Mississippi river water levels at its lowest since they started keeping records cargo transportation on it has to be rerouted or cancelled altogether; diesel prices are through the roof and coupled with a shortage of drivers, this country does not have the infrastructure to sustain a rail strike.

Consider the affects of a rail strike on the supply of heating fuel alone. not to mention food and other essentials. We are approaching the winter months in most of the United States. Heating fuel prices are already at an all-time high in some portions of this country and couple that with the possibility of not being able to get any heating fuel at all and you have a major economical catastrophe in the making.

No, I don't have any sympathy for any union or organization that would put this country at that kind of risk for the sake of a few sick days.

 

[Oaktree45]

Twenty-eight percent of our freight is moved by rail. With the Mississippi river water levels at its lowest since they started keeping records cargo transportation on it has to be rerouted or cancelled altogether; diesel prices are through the roof and coupled with a shortage of drivers, this country does not have the infrastructure to sustain a rail strike.

Consider the affects of a rail strike on the supply of heating fuel alone. not to mention food and other essentials. We are approaching the winter months in most of the United States. Heating fuel prices are already at an all-time high in some portions of this country and couple that with the possibility of not being able to get any heating fuel at all and you have a major economical catastrophe in the making.

No, I don't have any sympathy for any union or organization that would put this country at that kind of risk for the sake of a few sick days.

More like the rail executives of an extremely profitable company being willing to let a union go on strike over a few sick days.

 

[Old_Me]

More like the rail executives of an extremely profitable company being willing to let a union go on strike over a few sick days.

companies and execs are no longer afraid of the 'Big bad wolf" anymore....

they can decertify a union nowadays by closing the doors, and opening in a new location. or any other union busting maneuver.

 

[Area52]

We would find that the local city officials would ”shop” for favorable arbiters whenever there was a contract stalemate, somehow they always won 99% of arbitration. Midterms done, pow ! Contract dispute gets force-resolved afterwards. Nothing to see here, All Aboard w/amtrack joey baby.

 

[Annihilator]

Just another example of this current administration overstepping their authority and congress falling right into the pile……