GOP Sen. Hagerty: Rail Strike ‘Highly Likely’

[ExquisiteGerbil]

GOP Sen. Hagerty: Rail Strike ‘Highly Likely’


IAN HANCHETT
26 Nov 2022

During an interview aired on Friday’s edition of the Fox Business Network’s “Maria Bartiromo’s Wall Street,” Sen. Bill Hagerty (R-TN) said he believes there is a “highly likely” chance there will be a rail strike in the middle of the holidays.



Host Maria Bartiromo asked, “The president tried to act as if he had some kind of a tentative deal before the midterm elections, but we now know that four of the unions have rejected a deal which gave them, by the way, a 24% raise, but only one paid sick day. Senator, what is the likelihood that we have a rail strike right in the middle of the holidays?”



Hagerty responded, “I think it’s highly likely, Maria. I mean, you hit the nail on the head. The union bosses basically forced their union members to buck up and accept this deal just to get them through the…midterm elections. But now we’re seeing the reality of it. They only offered one additional work day — one additional sick day, I should say. The unions were asking for 15. That’s a big, big gap. Joe Biden declared victory, again, before the midterm elections. This was all, I think, part of the plan. But what we’re seeing now, the whole thing is coming unraveled and it’s going to be a real crisis, a $2-billion-a-day economic impact if you believe the economists’ estimates. I actually think it could be much greater, because if you look at the knock-on effects on supply chains, it will be significant.”



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[Berean]

Railroaders Say Morale, Quality-Of-Life At All-Time Low
THURSDAY, DEC 01, 2022 - 01:35 PM

Authored by Clarissa Hawes via FreightWaves.com,



Nearly 115,000 railroaders were closely following two votes Wednesday in the U.S. House of Representatives after President Joe Biden called on Congress to immediately pass legislation to avert a rail strike.


The House voted 290-137 Wednesday to avert a possible rail strike amid debate over the national tentative agreement brokered by the White House between union employees and Class I railroads in September. Nearly 40% of the nation’s freight is moved by rail.



Railroad workers for the 12 freight unions have been operating without a new contract for over three years.



However, strict attendance policies and the lack of paid sick days have been sticking points for the majority of rail workers, including the nearly 60,000 members of four freight rail unions that voted to reject the national contract in mid-November.



“It’s been a long three years, depending on how you look at it,” Jeremy Ferguson, president of the International Association of Sheet Metal, Air, Rail, and Transportation Workers (SMART-TD), told FreightWaves.



“The workforce is cut back to the bone, and those that are left are having to pick up the slack.”



On Wednesday, SMART-TD issued a statement that it “does not support the notion of Congress intervening in our collective bargaining negotiations to prevent a strike.”



“We firmly believe in the workers’ right to fight for their own best interests, as well as the best interests of their families,” according to the SMART-TD statement.



“Unfortunately, threats to the economy have caused this Congress to believe that a strike aversion is the best course for this nation.



Separately Wednesday, the House passed legislation by a vote of 221-207 to add seven days of paid sick leave to the tentative rail agreement. Both pieces of legislation aimed to stop a rail strike now head to the Senate.



None of the railroaders FreightWaves spoke to for this article want to go on strike but said they wanted the rail carriers and shippers “to put employees over record profits” and address some of the major challenges, including precision scheduled railroading (PSR), the attendance policy and lack of paid sick leave, that have resulted in a mass exodus among railroad employees.



Railroaders say morale, quality of life at all-time low

One locomotive engineer says morale is at an all-time low at the Class I railroad where he’s worked for more than 25 years. He’s seen engineers with 15 or 20 years “tie up for the last time” and quit.



He’s among nearly 24,000 locomotive engineers and trainmen who make up the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen (BLET). BLET was among eight freight unions that voted in mid-November to accept the national tentative agreement reached between the unions and railroads in September.



BLET, the second-largest rail union, voted 53.5% in favor of ratifying the national agreement, while 46.5% of its membership voted against it.



While the engineer, who didn’t want to be named in the article for fear of retaliation, wouldn’t say how he voted earlier this month, he understands why four of the 12 freight unions, including SMART-TD, the largest union, rejected the agreement.



“I know some of the younger engineers voted for the agreement so they can receive their back pay because they plan to quit because they don’t have the seniority that I do,” he said.



“I don’t blame them — they want jobs where they are home more, can attend their kids’ events, and some are trying to save their marriages after being on call 24/7 for the past few years.”

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