The clock is ticking for railroads and unions to avert a strike

[Overmod]

charlie hebdo

BaltACD

Over the past years management has been the horse trainer that has been training his horse to perform without drinking water.  Management is then surprised when the horse drops dead from dehydration

Great metaphor!!  Sadly, all too true.

Incidentally, the story originated with Jonathan Swift, and it was the hay that was gradually cut "until the horse could work effectively on just air".  (Hay costs; water is usually near-free... at least outside the coming Southwest...)

[MP173]

I will jump in here with a few observations/comments.

I am pretty conservative and would be considered "pro management" but my feelings are mostly aligned with labor on this issue. Wont go into details of my thoughts, you rank and file workers know much more than I do on this, but my thoughts are there needs to be a  level of cooperation between labor and management, not only in your industry but all workplaces.  Enough said on that.

All indications are there are 11million available jobs and only 6million workers for those jobs.  Wage inflation is bound to rise.  Take a look at what it takes to hire someone at an entry level job these days...let alone a highly skilled craft.  I work in sales and have had about 15 different CSR's at our company in the past 2 years.  Before that I would often have one for years...sometimes 10 years.  Our company struggled with keeping good people.  My accounts say the same thing.

Regarding the comments on rail rates going up...rates have been increasing for about 20 years as rails understood they had pricing power.  

The truckload industry is hurting now.  Volumes have dropped.  Costs are high and keep increasing.  Yes, there is a driver shortage, but we are at the bottom of the wave at this time.  When things pickup it will be much more pronounced.  

The next big thing in trucking is autonomous (no driver) trucks.  I cannot imagine that happening, but 50 years ago I would never have thought our everyday technology would have been in use.  Back in 1972 I was using a slide rule.  Still use one, but only as a hobby...

If railroad labor does not think the autonomous trucks will affect them, think again.  The push will be on at that time to lower expense (think 1 man crews and ultimately no man crews).  Dont shoot me, I am only the messenger.  I dont like the thought of driverless trucks, nor one man or unmanned trains, but that is the direction I believe we are headed.

Good luck to you operating men and women on your contract negotiations.  Be safe.

 

Ed

[Euclid]

The general thrust of the news seems to ignore the possibility that this deal will not be accepted by Labor.  I would guess that the majority of people hearing the news conclude that the labor dispute has been completely settled; and that means that the threat of a strike is over and done.  The news seems to be intentionally spun that way.  Yet none of that is true.

 

Here is an article that tells it true without the happy spin:

 

 

Biden scores deal on rail strike, but worker discontent emerges

 

White House celebrates agreement in Rose Garden but rank-and-file membership will have final say

 

https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2022/09/15/rail-strike-deal-agreement-biden/

 

 

It sounds like the final union vote to ratify is some weeks into the future.  Indications are that a lot of review will be needed just to understand what the new contract is actually offering.  The spin is that the railroads have given up their hard line on time off.  Yet deeper reading suggests that the railroad concession is very small compared to what Labor wants. 

 

This means that the false perception that the issue has been settled may burst if Labor declines to vote in favor of it.  This will come as a big surprise to those who thought this had all been settled.  It seems to me that if this happens, it is likely to be spun as Labor reneging on their promise to uphold what will be referred as the done deal made on 9/15/22. 

[jeffhergert]

zugmann

Reading that a tentative deal has been reached.  Still has to go to vote, but I guess it starts another 60 day cooling off period.  

 

No details yet. 

 

I don't think it starts a specific cooling off period.  When IAM rejected their contract, they could've conceivable walked out at midnight Eastern time on the 16th.  They set a deadline of Sept 29th to allow other unions to vote on their respective contracts.

I think what will happen is that no union, of those who fail to ratify, will call a strike until all unions have had a chance to vote.  Once the last one is done, any who've rejected their contract proposal will set a deadline.  To allow the locals and divisions to prepare for a strike (We still have to put the strike signs together.) and for further negotiations, if needed.

There's a lot of vocal opposition for ratification right now.  I think if it passes, it will be close.

Jeff