With rail workers on the verge of going on strike, Amtrak will cease long haul train service starting Thursday and also shutting down most California service beginning Thursday and accelerating Friday.
Several commuter rails are also pausing service because of the way a strike would impact them, especially where they share track. Amtrak’s Northeast services are not affected.
Pay isn’t a primary issue in the freight rail labor dispute. Rail workers are well paid, and receive several weeks a year of vacation time and personal leave. However they generally have to schedule this time in advance, which makes dealing with unscheduled life events difficult.
The sick policy actually sounds a lot like that of American Airlines, which has controversially assigned attendance points for unscheduled call outs even where union contracts provide for sick time.
Under a policy launched in February, BNSF assigned each employee 30 points, with points deducted for each unplanned time off. An employee can earn points back for working extra days or holidays. If employees lose all their points they can be disciplined.
“The policy is designed so that people have flexibility and can use their points when something unexpected comes up in their lives and they must take unplanned time off,” said Zak Andersen, a spokesman from BNSF.
A White House advisory board supported the railroads on handling sick time, and the White House is involved in mediation efforts trying to head off a strike.
While not going anywhere since the Senate is controlled by Democrats, Republican Senators seek legislation that would impose contract terms “brokered by a Biden-appointed panel if parties don’t reach agreement by the Friday deadline.” Remember when Republicans were against government dictating employment terms to private companies?
A freight rail strike is expected to cost the economy $2 billion per day and make numerous goods scarce. Already hazardous and sensitive materials shipments are being halted in case they can’t reach their destination before a strike goes into effect.
The timing of a rail strike is the result of two of the President’s appointees to the National Mediation Board terminating mediation two months early.
Biden has no choice but to keep a wholesale shutdown of freight rail services if he has any desires of seeing his party hold onto anything. The economy is still the top issue and supply shortages on top of price hikes from a devastating rail strike will keep any possible recovery from happening.
The larger implication for airlines is that the railroad and airline labor relations are governed by the Railway Labor Act which limits the ability of oligopolistic interstate transportation companies from harming the US economy.
Airline labor is looking for big gains to offset inflation even though airlines were heavily subsidized during the pandemic by keeping hundreds of thousands of airline employees employed (and paying union dues) while airlines were flying a fraction of their schedules.
Biden has the ability to not allow a strike, to order workers to provide at least some essential services, or to allow labor to strike.
Biden’s reputation for coddling labor is going to be challenged by his need to protect the US economy from significant economic harm.
What happens to the railroads has significant implications for what airline labor can expect – minus the factor of airlines receiving significant government aid during the pandemic.
We need to do away with any protections for unions. Fire any that don’t show up and replace them like Reagan did with air traffic controllers. Granted you can’t backfill all these jobs but unions have to know they will be fired if they don’t want to work under conditions set by the company.
Hopefully Brandon and Congress get over their love affair with unions and stop this action. Sure they will catch flack from their base but the disruption to the unions get all economy warrants it and they will get much more flack politically for not doing anything.
We are governed by morons.
@ac
I’m guessing you weren’t around when president Ron R fired everyone. It created lots of chaos for frequent flyers.
You should read the bellyaching on the various Amtrak Facebook pages ie Friends of the California Zephyr and Empire Builder to name two.
AC is so rude , make your comment & don’t turn into a political issue.
In the 80’s when Reagan fired air traffic controllers it created massive disruption. You don’t like union’s AC don’t join one.
just a reminder that the air traffic controllers were and are federal employees; railroad employees are private employees so the government cannot fire them.
The RLA does provide alot of mechanisms that make it much harder for airline and railroad labor unions to inflict damage on the US economy but most of those mechanisms require action by the President.
Since Biden has repeatedly touted his support for labor, the next 24 hours will be critical in determining how he balances his loyalty to labor to his responsibility to protect all of the American economy.
It is also worth noting that, although teachers’ unions backed Biden’s covid actions, they will receive nowhere near the pay raises necessary to overcome inflation esp. since the most heavily unionized parts of the country are also some of the same parts of the country that are losing residents and home values – which impact property taxes which fund education – are not growing near as fast as in other parts of the country.
Airlines can replace virtually all of the rail services that Amtrak operates esp. this time of the year.
Just checking some of the Bay to Basin and back schedules and fares this weekend, a number of flights are already sold out and others are selling for much higher than usual.
@Dhammer53 and @Aida Flamm – I was around when Reagan fired the air traffic controllers. Sometimes you can’t be held hostage and have to accept short term pain for long term gain.
Aida- Not rude but a bottom line fact. Unions had a place many years ago with no benefits, 60 hour work weeks, no OHSA, etc but times have changed. If you don’t like the job with what it pays and its benefits get another one but don’t hold the rest of us hostage. I realize the freightlines could bring in replacement workers but finding them on short notice is basically impossible. However, plenty of others would like that job so Congress should intervene, block the strike and allow a period to train others for the jobs. IMHO, there should be NO protection of union workers that go on strike.
There’s some details missing. How many points is a sick day worth?
One? Two? Five?
Also I was reading where the freight companies have cut staff to minimal levels leading to massive profits.
Doesn’t Warren Buffett own a bunch of them? At least he used to (kind of a non sequitur I know).
Overburdened employees lead to more sick days disrupting the massive profits. A problem
for the fat cats because reasons…..
As much as I dislike politics in my travel blogs, this is certainly relevant to the transportation infrastructure and I am learning some fascinating details about the RLA I was not aware of. As I am hearing this information is is especially interesting to learn that the classic grievances of labor unions such as wages and actual working conditions are not the primary issues.
It will be fascinating to see how the federal government balances the interests of the unions against the consequential effects upon the US economy.
Tim Kelly,
just to be clear, the railroad unions are asking for significant double digit increases, the railroads rejected the size of increases, and labor is willing to strike over all terms of the deal. Wages ARE part of the issue.
In a highly inflationary environment, labor cost increases that go out multiple years because of the length of contracts will result in much larger inflation across the entire economy, in part because the government is essentially blessing large pay raises for a select group of employees for which it controls the negotiating process.
if inflation weren’t a decades-high levels, it would be easier for the government to just let labor have the pay increases but the ripple effect of blessing high wage increases for railroads will lead to continued cost increases throughout the economy including among non-unionized labor.
@Tim Dunn “Biden has no choice but to keep a wholesale shutdown of freight rail services if he has any desires of seeing his party hold onto anything.”
From your other comments, did you mean “avoid” instead of “keep”?
yes
TY
In an environment where inflation is high, labor cost increases that are spread over several years due to the length of contracts will cause much higher inflation throughout the entire economy, in part because the government is essentially endorsing significant pay raises for a select group of workers over whom it has negotiating control.
@AC:
“ If you don’t like the job with what it pays and its benefits get another one but don’t hold the rest of us hostage.”
Exactly why unions are still needed.
The Republican Party has lost sight of reality. Lindsey Graham proves my point.
Unions don’t care if the company is competitive in the global marketplace. Each situation is unique. I am pro labor provided it makes rationale business sense to pay the wage and benefits being demanded. I’ve seen instances where labor bankrupt a company by being short sighted
The railroad companies should be ordered to hire more workers, not hold it against workers who need to take time off for unscheduled doctor or dentist appointments, and require the railroad companies to make do with lower profit margins.