#railway workers

[politijohn]

Railway workers: "sick days pls or we'll strike"

CNN: "is a strike worth it? the holidays are just around the corner. think about the economy! now joining us live is the Bank of America CEO to weigh in"

#mass news media #railway workers #strike #unions #unionize #capitalism #current events

[allthecanadianpolitics]

The union representing 9,300 workers at Canada’s two biggest railways says public safety is at stake after contract negotiations ground to a halt this month, with a potential strike on the horizon.

Teamsters Canada president François Laporte said demands by Canadian National Railway Co. and Canadian Pacific Kansas City Ltd. are “non-negotiable.”

“CN and CPKC aim to eliminate all safety-critical rest provisions from our collective agreements. These provisions are necessary to combat crew fatigue and ensure public safety,” he said in a press release on Monday.

Full article

Tagging: @politicsofcanada

#cdnpoli #canada #canadian politics #canadian news #canadian #unions #strike #railways #railway workers #safety #workers rights #workers' rights

[lesbiansandgayssupporttheminers]

General strike?

What are we saying the threshold for a general strike is? The famous general strike in 1926 was 1.7 million workers (yes, smaller population, etc etc).

So when can we call it a general strike?

#uk politics #general strike #strike action #civil servants #teachers #university staff #neu #ucu #railway workers #rmt

[mean-scarlet-deceiver]

I've been thoroughly enjoying Anthony Dawson tweeting out his journey down the U.K. rail uniforms rabbithole, but this one made me fully scream.

'Undetected Crime Stripes'

#real true railway stuff #railway workers #queue some hard work for a change

[dontmean2bepoliticalbut]

#us politics #2022 #twitter #tweet #sen. bernie sanders #vermont #railway workers #railroads #railroad strike #railway unions #union workers #worker's rights #worker's union #warren buffett #bnsf railway #eat the rich #eat the fucking rich

[dontmeantobepoliticalbut]

Earlier this month, a train carrying hazardous chemicals derailed in East Palestine, Ohio, triggering a massive fire and forcing everyone within a 1-mile radius of the crash to evacuate. To avoid a potential explosion, officials conducted a controlled detonation of five tankers three days later, sending carcinogenic vinyl chloride into the air. Two days later, residents of the 4,500-person village were told they could safely return home. Many questioned the safety of the air and water supply.

Since then, reporting has made clear that this environmental disaster was less a freak accident than a predictable outcome of lax safety measures and capitalist greed. Here’s what you need to know about the Norfolk Southern rail company.

NORFOLK SOUTHERN CHOSE NOT TO UPGRADE ITS TRAINS’ “CIVIL WAR-ERA” BRAKES.

A report in The Lever notes that the train that crashed in East Palestine was not equipped with Electronically Controlled Pneumatic brakes—fully electric brakes that experts say could have reduced the severity of the crash. Although Norfolk Southern once touted its use of ECP brakes, it lobbied against requiring them on trains carrying hazardous materials. An Obama-era rule required that HHFTs have ECP brakes, but the Trump administration overturned this rule.

NORFOLK SOUTHERN WORKERS DON’T GET PAID SICK TIME.

Remember when the Senate voted to avert a rail strike and deny workers sick leave? Norfolk Southern workers were among those affected. When investors encouraged Norfolk Southern to offer paid sick leave, the company said, OK, we won’t furlough people as often. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT.) has since demanded that rail companies offer workers at least seven days of paid sick leave.

RAIL COMPANIES REFUSE TO HIRE ENOUGH WORKERS.

Unions say that the rail industry’s use of furloughs to reduce the workforce stretches staff too thin. As Timothy Noah wrote in the New Republic, the 141-car train that crashed in East Palestine carried just two crew members and one trainee:

"On February 10, Anya Litvak of The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported that security camera footage 20 miles short of where the derailment occurred showed a rail car axle that appeared to be on fire. Why this information was not transmitted quickly to the train crew remains unknown, but it seems likely that the answer has something to do with the number of people who were in a position to sound the alarm."

NORFOLK SOUTHERN HAS SPENT BILLIONS ON STOCK BUYBACKS.

Norfolk Southern made $4.8 billion in operating profit in 2022, More Perfect Union reported, and paid shareholders $4.7 billion in stock buybacks and dividends.

As my colleague Hannah Levintova explained last year:

"A buyback is when companies purchase shares of their own company from investors, driving up the value of the remaining stock because there are fewer shares circulating. Buybacks are taxed at the lower capital gains rate, which maxes out at 20% for the wealthiest households. But for those investors who don’t sell their shares back to the company, there’s no tax—even though the value of their holdings has increased. Until that investor sells the asset, their wealth will grow tax-free. And thanks in part to a tax code loophole that enables the wealthy to pass shares on to their heirs, who can then skip paying capital gains taxes on them altogether, buybacks play a role in building untaxed generational wealth."

THE TRAIN THAT CAUSED THE CLOUD OF SMOKE OVER EAST PALESTINE WAS NOT CATEGORIZED AS A “HIGH-HAZARD FLAMMABLE TRAIN.”

Thanks to pressure from industry lobbyists, the “high-hazard flammable train” categorization applies only to trains carrying a narrow set of materials, like crude oil, The Lever also reported. That designation would have required that the train follow specific speed and braking restrictions.

DESPITE MAKING BILLIONS IN PROFIT, NORFOLK SOUTHERN INITIALLY OFFERED JUST $25,000 TO EAST PALESTINE.

Norfolk Southern managed to scrape together $25,000 for the town that’s been doused in toxic chemicals. People who fled their homes under fear of death can claim $1,000 per person per household. Since then, the company has announced increases in charity.

#us politics #news #mother jones #2023 #east palestine #ohio #norfolk southern #vinyl chloride #carcinogens #Electronically Controlled Pneumatic brakes #railway workers #railroads #railway unions #furloughs #paid sick leave #stock buybacks #high-hazard flammable train #charity #train derailment #hazardous chemical spill #corporate greed

[thatquietsong]

The Pullman Strike of 1894, led by the American Railway Union, was one of the greatest strikes in American history. Workers were protesting layoffs, low wages, and the high cost of rent in company towns, and it spanned across more than half the states. It was the first time the federal government intervened and (literally) stomped out a strike by sending 10,000 federal troops, and legislation was enacted to make it harder for strikes to occur in big industries like this going forward. But because capitalists doubled down the way they did, it essentially kickstarted the modern American labor movement, which, as we know, led to historical improvements in the workforce. It directly led to Labor Day becoming a federal holiday. And Eugene Debs, who had led the strike, would go on to win nearly a million votes when running for president in prison on the Socialist Party ticket.

#eugene debs #eugene v. debs #pullman strike #railway #railway workers #strike #history #leftist #radical #socialist #communist #capitalist #capitalism #revolt #revolution #reform #union #working class #rent #living wage #labor day #American history

[if-you-fan-a-fire]

""The Smith a Mighty Man Was She…" Toronto Star. October 10, 1942. Page 3. --- Holding transportation to be as vital to victory as shells, tanks and guns, attractive Beatrice McKelvey of Washington, D.C., has become a railroad worker for the duration, and is developing a fine set of muscles in the process.

#washington dc #railway workers #women workers #war workers #women at war #women's empowerment #united states history #world war ii #muscular women #women in history

[millionmovieproject]

After B*den shut down the railway worker's strike (which--wtf?? how is that a thing), with all of these other unions striking, couldn't they just re-call a strike? Their demands weren't met, and negotiations shut down, so it shouldn't have anything to do with contract-negotiation timing.

#strike #labor rights #worker's right #wga strike #sagaftra strike #sag aftra #sag aftra strike #teamsters strike #ups strike #unions #railway workers #like that would kick ass so hard #all unions need to strike #all workers need unions

[groovyblackcoffee]

Railway Worker

#photography #street photography #photographers on tumblr #trains #railway #railway workers #my photography

[kiraleighart]

"A rail traffic stoppage could freeze almost 30% of US cargo shipments by weight, stoke inflation & cost the US economy as much as $2B/day"

GOOD

#railway workers #strike #unions #unionize #capitalism #current events #workers #policy #labor #news #america #democracy #revolution

[woodsfae]

[Image ID: BeauTFC tweeted

If an industry is critical infrastructure and can’t keep its employees working, you don’t penalize the workers, you nationalize the company. ]

#twitter #tweet #railway crisis #railway workers #image id #described

[saltypiss]

https://v.redd.it/znwq8ull42ia1

You listen to the workers because they actually do the shit CEOs claim.

You don't listen to the CEOs because they're harsly involved in anything but marketing and sales, otherwise full of shit.

The president, both of them, chose to listen to the CEOs.

#biden #railway workers #train derailment #ohio train #ohio

[tweetingukpolitics]

#grant shapps #political twitter #uk news #conservative party #uk politics #trade unions #unionise #p&o ferries #railway workers #fundamental rights #working rights

[dontmean2bepoliticalbut]

#us politics #news #twitter #tweet #2023 #daivd pakman #norfolk southern #east palestine #ohio #train derailment #hazardous chemical spill #railway workers #railroads #railroad unions #conservatives #republicans #gop #gop policy

[dontmeantobepoliticalbut]

Sen. Bernie Sanders said late Tuesday night that it was time to "put up or shut up" for any U.S. lawmaker who claims to fight for the working class as he and other progressives in Congress vowed to insert paid sick leave into a labor agreement between railway workers and the nation's rail companies.

With a vote in the U.S. House as early as Wednesday morning, Sanders was asked by MSNBC host Chris Hayes whether Congress has the authority to mandate that sick leave—the final key demand of railway workers unions who have battling the carriers for months—be added to the deal that congressional lawmakers have been asked by President Joe Biden to force through as a way to avert a strike by the workers that would have huge impacts on the national economy.

"Congress has the power to come up with an agreement in order to protect the economy," said Sanders. While he said that he doesn't know anybody who wants a strike—and acknowledged that such a work stoppage would hurt the broader economy—Sanders said the "bottom line" in this fight is quite clear.

"The bottom line," said Sanders, "is that the American people and workers throughout this country are profoundly disgusted by the kind of corporate greed that we are seeing. Everybody knows that billionaires are getting richer, working people are struggling, corporate profits are at an all-time high, and they're making goods unaffordable for ordinary Americans—that's the overall reality. And what you're seeing in the rail industry is that phenomenon in spades."

Citing statistics that show the major rail carriers have made an estimated $21 billion in profits over the last three quarters, another $25 billion in stock buybacks to enrich their wealthy investors, and multi-million dollar salaries to top executives, Sanders slammed the fact that the railway workers themselves "have zero—underline zero—guaranteed sick leave."

Watch the full interview:

On Tuesday night, Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-N.Y.) introduced an amendment in the House that would add seven paid sick days to the labor contract proposal that was negotiated with the assistance of the White House earlier this year, but subsequently rejected by a number of the railway unions for lack of sick leave. With the strike deadline looming, Biden on Monday angered many rank-and-file union members and outside progressives by asking Congress to force through the previous contract deal without pushing for the inclusion of sick leave.

While House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Monday backed Biden's call to push through a vote on the contract "with no poison pills or changes to the negotiated terms," but in a Dear Colleague letter issued Tuesday evening she adjusted that course by indicating that two votes would be held, explaining to members:

• First, we will consider the strike-averting legislation to adopt the Tentative Agreement, as negotiated by the railroad companies and labor leaders.

• Next, we will have a separate, up-or-down vote to add seven days of paid sick leave for railroaders to the Tentative Agreement.

• Then, we will send this package to the Senate, which will then go directly to President Biden for signature.

With Sanders vowing to fight for the same kind of inclusion in the Senate, reporting from Capitol Hill indicated that there may be enough Republican support for adding the paid sick leave to bypass the 60-vote threshold and overcome a filibuster in the upper chamber.

Asked if he thought he could get the ten necessary votes from the GOP in the Senate, Sanders said, "Well, who knows?" as he mentioned that Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas), the party caucus' whip, has indicated "significant" support for the amendment among Republicans.

"Look, you have a number of Republicans who claim—claim—to be supporters of the working class," he added. "Well, if you are a supporter of the working class how are you going to vote against the proposal which provides guaranteed paid sick leave to workers who have none right now? So I am cautiously optimistic that we can get this done."

Asked by Hayes if this represents a "put your money where your mouth is" moment for a Republican Party that has tried to claim the mantle of being the authentic blue-collar party, Sanders nodded in agreement.

"Put up or shut up," said Sanders. "If you can't vote for this, to give workers today—who really have hard jobs, dangerous jobs—if you can't give them paid sick leave, don't tell anybody that you stand with working families."

#us politics #news #2022 #sen. bernie sanders #vermont #biden administration #railway workers #railroads #railroad unions #railroad strike #paid sick leave #us house of representatives #us senate #msnbc #chris hayes #common dreams #progressives #progressivism #worker's rights #union workers #working class #YouTube #videos #Rep. Jamaal Bowman #twitter #tweet #speaker nancy pelosi #rep. nancy pelosi