Pages


Tuesday, December 06, 2022

Rail workers say deal won’t resolve quality-of-life concerns

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — When BNSF railroad conductor Justin Schaaf needed to take time off from work this summer, he had to make a choice: go to the dentist to get a cavity in his molar filled or attend a party for his son’s 7th birthday.

He chose his son.

“Ultimately I decided to take the day off for my kid’s birthday party,” Schaaf said. “Then when I am finally able to get into the dentist four, five, six months later, the tooth is too bad to repair at that point, so I have to get the tooth pulled out.”

27 comments:

  1. The unions are biden's bitches. Keep voting for pedo joe and that's what you get.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Yea no shit.
    Everyone in media and union leadership latched on to the 'paid' part of paid sick leave.
    Boots on the ground care far less about the pay and more about being able to plan a modicum of life outside the railroad.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Superficially, I am damn sorry the guy lost a tooth in favor of taking his time off for an urgent dental/medical issue.

    When I think it through...I say Tough shit, fuck him/them.

    Why?
    When you compare their benefit package to the private sector, there was plenty of time AND money to handle his busier-than-thou life.
    Salary: $95k/year
    Combined healthcare, disability, pension and 401k: $20k/year
    $120k/year package + bonus = damn good pay for what amounts to a government job.

    The real topper is that he gets 32 (THIRTY TWO) FUCKING DAYS OFF A YEAR. That's right now, and they're threatening to further cripple our economy to get a sweeter package than that!

    WTF happened to the other 31 days he had off?

    Ed

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Meant to link this to my post above:
      https://www.salary.com/tools/benefits-calculator/railroad-engineer

      Ed

      Delete
    2. Maybe you should get a job at the railroad.

      Delete
    3. You get hot many days off or year - not counting any vacation or other paid leave? Most people get two days of per week. 52 weeks. That's 104 days of per year.

      Compare that to the 31 you just complainee about him misusing...

      Delete
    4. Thanks, but I already earn nearly double that amount running my own business with minimal government interference.

      Delete
    5. A federal civil servant with 15 years of service gets per year:
      26 days of annual leave
      13 days of sick leave
      11+ federal holidays depending on year and location.

      Fifty (50) days off annually. That's a far cry from your 32 (THIRTY TWO) FUCKING DAYS OFF A YEAR.

      I know this for a fact as that was me until a year ago.

      Delete
    6. All the days off a year don't matter if you can't take those days off. Lotta railroads require employees to come in when the RR calls them to. Mandatory overtime, mandatory on-call, lots of other abuse.

      Delete
    7. Ed, now do firemen. Your blood will boil.
      Usually, the only city employees allowed to unionize. The other being the cops. Together they use their collective bargaining with city like a muscled bully kicking sand on the proverbial 90 lbs weakling in front of his wife and children. They do this every year, bi-annually at the most. You'd think after a while there'd be no benefirs they don't already have. But they always find something more.

      Even if the city does not resist, in anticipation that there might be even the slimmest hesitancy of the city to cave to their demands, the firemen and cops sing pitiful songs of woe to the public. They even threaten the public with longer response times to 911 calls.

      Delete
  4. πŸ˜‚πŸ˜‚πŸ˜‚πŸ˜‚
    πŸ–•πŸ»πŸ–•πŸ»πŸ–•πŸ»Them

    ReplyDelete
  5. Cry me a river! I don't get paid sick time..definitely won't get a 25% pay raise or a 5k bonus..negotiate with your overpaid fat slob union bosses.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. You get weekends off? Got a raise in your entire life at sometime?

      Delete
    2. Many years ago, I worked for a repair shop that required me to work 50 hours per week and up to 85 hours per week from May thru October (due to their busy season. I was the only person that was capable of doing the work. My boss was paying me $9 for skilled labor with no vacation or sick leave. His attitude was: "why should I pay you if you are not here working? Irony was that he even refused to pay me overtime for several years until his accountant got involved and forced him to. He was paying all of my overtime as "self employed" straight wage "commission". What can I say, I was young and stupid back then.

      Delete
  6. Oh Gee !!!! When I was in a union, I had ZERO paid time off. WAAAAAHHHHHHHH

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Carrer non-union logger here. Zero paid sick days. Two weeks paid vacation, max. Health insurance yes, bare bones. Four paid holidays a year, but only if you worked the day before and the day after the 'paid' holiday, which was tough to do when you worked seasonally, and three of the 'paid' holidays were Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's Day, which were usually during the winter layoff.

      Still, no complaints. No union dues, no fat cat union boss making $500,000 a year off of my sweat. And the best thing about my occupation was the unlimited fresh air in and beautiful views from my office. No regerts.

      Delete
  7. I mean...I feel for the guy...but isn't that exactly what he signed up for?
    Doesn't this match the liberal argument "I got a minimum-wage job and I don't earn enough to feed my family of four"? Yeah. If you can't (or have a mafia-style gang of union members) negotiate a better contract/deal/whatever, it's time to move on.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Nope. Not what he signed up for. Railroads have or the screws on employees being able to take time off. They've changed the job. The government says they can. The unions were trying to get that changed back. Congess told the employees to fuck off.

      Employees are leaving. Can't hire new people. Nobody wants to put up with the bs.

      Delete
  8. https://www.hawley.senate.gov/hawley-rail-strike-vote-side-workers-not-biden

    ReplyDelete
  9. https://www.hawley.senate.gov/new-hawley-op-ed-bidens-bad-deal-railworkers

    ReplyDelete
  10. https://www.vice.com/en/article/g5v9xy/the-freight-rail-labor-dispute-was-never-about-sick-days

    ReplyDelete
  11. Blaming "greedy" unions is the simple knee jerk response. Union bosses are the only people making out on these contracts. Rank and file get screwed regardless of the type of industry.

    ReplyDelete
  12. No sympathy. No group of workers in America are as well compensated as Railroad workers. No one.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Jesus. You haven't read a single article I've posted here, even the one your commenting on, have you? It's not about compensation, it's about quality of life.

      Three more weeks, three more weeks.....

      Delete
    2. Not only hasn't he read it, but his information about compensation is about three to four decades out of date...

      Delete
  13. He chose poorly. I imagine that is probably a regular occurrence.

    ReplyDelete
  14. I had a railroad job for one day : conductor trainee. benefits and pay were fine, railroad pension, etc. got to the first day and "did you bring proof of covid vaccination?"

    told them to pound sand. took a backup offer selling insurance. boring as hell but steady hours and nobody telling me what I "have to" do.

    ReplyDelete

All comments are moderated due to spam, drunks and trolls.
Keep 'em civil, coherent, short, and on topic.