The Biden administration reached a tentative deal on Thursday to raise rail employees' salaries by 24 percent, but labor experts say the deal could embolden future strikers.
'This is a very, very contentious time,' Michael Lotito, co-chairman of the Workplace Policy Institute at Littler, told the Wall Street Journal. 'I think that is going to embolden unions to ask for more.'
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And who's going to pay for all those pay increases by the time it's all said and done? That's right, the consumer.
That's NOT how you curb inflation, Biden.
But it looks really good for the unions with the mega ad buys before the next election cycle.
ReplyDeleteRidiculous how the unions portray themselves as the 'common man' and 'little guy' when they can afford to dump millions into politics.
Lol. The 24% was already on the table before Biden's deal.
ReplyDeleteThat was already the number that would have been accepted by the railroads as recommended by the peb.
What Biden's intervention after that did was add one paid day off per year and some undefined "won't be punished for going to the doctor" language.
Even then, it's still 50-50 whether the rank and file will accept it.
Oh, and anon. : The railroads regularly outspend my union even fighting things they know they will lose. They do this because they can and purposely to bankrupt them. Aunt no huge sums of 'union money' for unions that are legally neutered.
Not a big union guy but I'm with the workers on quality of life issues. Tired people make mistakes. The trains are too long, the infrastructure inadequate for the mega consists and the bean counters rule over the operation people.
ReplyDeletewhy is it I get the feeling we are going to know what it was like in 1930 Germany here soon?
ReplyDeleteand the printing press runs on and on
22% (24%compounding) over 5 years, for an average raise of just over 4%, while good is not overwhelming. It doesn't keep up with inflation, and is coupled with raises in healthcare costs that had been capped. This is after the entire industry stonewalled a new contract that should have started in 2020, and have continued to use the federal government to protect themselves from any attempt to strike over all concerns. The primary issue, any form of unpenalized sick leave, was simply given 1 extra Personal Leave Day but those have to be scheduled beforehand if someone doesn't already have it off (we have roughly 2 per state available) and the company can pull them back out if they think they need people. There is no provision for just getting regular sickness like the flu, where you just need to stay home for a day or two and take the good meds, as this is not schedulable and is penalized towards termination. The harshest railroad, BNSF, puts you towards getting fired with only 3(?) or so days marked off the call list. The White House announced Biden had saved the country with a tentative agreement before the chairs had even scraped back from the table, but the whole think is slowly being transferred from the back of a napkin to lawyers, and will then go through a Q&A period during which Management resolves most ambiguity in their favor. Politically, I think the White House threatened both sides to move things till after the midterms so we will see if a lame duck congress gets a stab at it or if Management draws things out till new congresscritters are seated.
ReplyDeleteIf the agreement doesn't include bringing back cabooses it ain't worth shit.
ReplyDeleteFUck Joe Blow
ReplyDeleteMF'er will do anything to buy a vote. They'll wise up when all diesel powered locomotives are banned for electric. Hey, United Mine Workers...how'd that Obama vote work out for ya?
ReplyDeleteI spent 30 years as a Teamster truck driver. I got so tired of hearing that the Democrats are the party of the working man when, in actuality, they're the party of the non-working man. It always cracked me up to see Union management push for Democrats when it was a Democrat that put Jimmy Hoffa in jail and a Republican that got him out.
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