What's maddening is that the legislature was ready to force them back to work, because railroad workers are nationally-critical, but not so critical that they can't be treated like dirt.
There was a bill that required the rail to have enough staffing to give sick days (not 15 but real sick days non-the-less) and required that the workers keep at it.
Then the bill got split into, workers go back to work, and workers get real sick days.
Obviously, only one passed. The argument I guess is that they couldn't pass the first bill that included sick days for workers, so they should have stayed out of it.
Rail workers didn't actually need the legislature to give them sick days, just get out of their way and let them cost the business enough that it's worth paying them what they are worth.
Pretty fucked up.
The railroad doesn't negotiate in good faith because they always get bailed out by Congress.
Change that dynamic and you won't have this problem again. Doing the right thing is hard and this is no exception.
The fact is, you are too soft to stomach a minor inconvenience that we'd rather take it out of someone else's Christmas than be patient for two weeks and give everyone a better life.
And with that, we turn into Russia where everyone hates the ruling class but would rather play the game against each other because it's easier.
If you think a rail strike could end with anything other than a forced contract you're more naïve than a third grader.
What the fuck man.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2022_United_States_railroad_la...
It has been interesting to learn about the history of why railroad workers have mostly separate but parallel labor laws.
But there may come a point where Labor can flip the narrative, if only briefly.
After decades of teachers being demonized, the mood in West Virginia, of all places, shifted enough for teachers to win historical gains, with broad public support.
We'll see how long that lasts. The revanchists controlling corporate media always regroups and retakes the initiative. But I respect those teachers for seizing the moment and scoring some wins.
The railroad union needs a cunning strategy. PR, lobbying, alliances, direct action, etc. It's hard to pull off. For all the reasons. Structural disadvantages, exhaustion, competing for limited attention, yadda yadda. Whereas capital never sleeps, has effectively infinite resources, and clarity of purpose.
Congress can hope they'll pay attention to some law they pass, but that sort of thing has failed in the past.
"The average employee receives 25-29 days of paid time off depending upon craft, with the most senior employees receiving 37-39 days of paid time off."
How is this treated like dirt?
The leave isn't really usable between needing 30 days notice, possibly still being on call anyway, more senior people having precedence, and point systems that effectively fire you if you take a few consecutive days off.