If you see Tesla buying CSX or Union Pacific, you will know what’s up.
Railroad companies cut staff in 2020 when the pandemic slowed down shipping, then they took their extra cash and gave it to investors via stock buy-backs and dividends (around $10b worth). Then as supply chains ramped back up again, they tried to just push their current staff to cover the normalizing volume of shifts. (They started trying to desperately staff up again in July of this year, way too late.) If you can’t handle flexibility in staffing because of unpredictable illnesses (in an environment where colds, RSV, flu, and COVID are all active), then you’re understaffed. But the stockholders had a good couple years!
Biden chickened out. He could have held the companies’ feet to the fire for the sake of his stated priorities for better sick time policies for workers. Instead, he left that out of his supposed “rescue deal” and touted how pro-worker he was before the midterms, ignoring the fact that there was at least 50/50 odds that workers would reject it. He says he had the support of the unions, but he had the support of the negotiators. The actual workers rejected his supposed compromise because it didn’t support them where they needed it most.
There’s not much more to say. Do you think railroad workers want to be on the picket line in December? Do you think they don’t know how important their jobs are to the country’s economy? If they’re holding out for sick time it’s because they’re feeling the pain.
Congress could totally vote on an amended deal that improves sick policies. Let Republicans sink the deal. It’ll probably expose the “pro-labor” frauds like Josh Hawley. Unfortunately, it’ll probably also expose how many Democrats are more pro-corporation than pro-worker.
Honestly, that adds up to me and seems like a fairly standard labor dispute scenario.
Now maybe they were abusing sick days. Heck they probably were. I’ve worked places where you need X people on staff at time Y and we weren’t hauling trains of freight to places. If Bob and Jeff both want Super Bowl Sunday off and Bob gets the day off, then Jeff calls in and no one can drive a mile of train someplace at Time Y, then that’s a huge problem (especially, as Scuzz noted, railways aren’t the sky, so you need to really orchestrate their usage).
Of course even in that, likely, scenario, the biggest problem is likely that Bob and Jeff are the only fuckers available to do the job. The railway should have 4 people, not 2 in this hypothetical, but then they might be paying Steve to not do something once in a while and that’s money that could be more profits for the shareholders. Which is very much a “same as it ever was” scenario to me.
More legislating going on in this here Biden presidency.
I’m truly shocked they found 11 Republican votes for this.
Yeah, I think there must be some hidden part of the bill that requires the clubbing of baby seals.
Well it’s not passed yet. The vote is tomorrow, all republicans could vote against it at that point.
One of those “pro-labor” Republican frauds might actually be about to prove me wrong.
I can’t believe Biden opened the door to Republicans demonstrating how much they care for workers.
What a fuck up.
So, re: the Respect for Marriage Act, I have a Republican/Conservative friend who thinks the proposed law is bound to be overturned in court because something called the “Lee Amendment” wasn’t made part of the Act. What’s that about, for our legal eagles?
Moreover my misguided friend believes that “marriage isn’t a federal issue” nor is protecting/supporting it because “a right to marry is not in the Constitution” so that would mean that he thinks the SCOTUS should never have ruled on Loving or Obergefell. Now I believe strict constructionism of that kind is nonsense because Common Law assumes that marriage is pretty much a right, unless I’m mistaken, and that it informs the Constitution to begin with. Am I wrong about that?
I wonder if he’s trying to Dark Brandon this?
If Republicans and Bernie lead a revolt that leads to an act that gives the rail workers guaranteed sick days, Biden’s going to sign it with a grin, and that’s what folks will remember in the end.
Either this is going to come up, and Republicans will kill it, in which case they can get the blame, or Republicans try to own the libs by helping rail workers, and Biden gets something that’s popular and bipartisan.
The IRS says otherwise.
…and my friend is one of these guys who probably thinks that is an overreach by the IRS, but he’s also a realist who isn’t going to declare himself a “sovereign citizen” or such nonsense.
In the end, SCOTUS decides what is and isn’t a federal issue, and what is and isn’t in the constitution.
Obergefell ruled that the right to marriage was located in the 14th amendment, in the due process and equal protection clauses, as previously cited in Loving and other marriage-related cases. If your friend believes Loving was wrongly decided, then he’s going to believe that Obergefell was wrongly decided, at least with respect to the right to marry.
But the Court in Obergefell was also asked to answer a second question: must states give full faith and credit to gay marriages made in other states? The answer to that question seems inarguably ‘yes’, as the Full Faith and Credit clause of Article IV seems very clear:
Full Faith and Credit shall be given in each State to the public Acts, Records, and judicial Proceedings of every other State. And the Congress may by general Laws prescribe the Manner in which such Acts, Records and Proceedings shall be proved, and the Effect thereof.
So if any state permits gay marriage, then Congress has the power to determine how every state treats those marriages, for the purpose of ensuring those marriages receive full faith and credit wherever the couple choose to go. It’s basically impossible — unconstitutional— to have a state regime which refuses to acknowledge a gay marriage legally performed in another state.
Also, your friend sounds bad. Arguing that e.g. interracial marriage is a matter for the state and that Loving was wrongly decided is like wearing a large button on your lapel that says ‘Racist’. Of course the same kind of bigotry applies to Obergefell, but Loving is so far settled law and so obviously egalitarian that there’s basically no reason to question it unless you feel rather strongly that your neighbors shouldn’t be a mixed race couple.
Also, too, this:
I think it’s basically a textbook example of what Article IV Section 1 provides for: a federal law making clear how states must honor the lawful marriages performed in other states.
The bill heads back to the House for final passage. Dem legislative majorities are good!
On the other hand, 36 Republicans voted against it. Republicans keep telling us who they are, don’t they?
One view on Biden and the railroad labor dispute:
I think the real question is not should Biden push for an RLA bill or not, but what contents he should encourage that bill to have. The “most pro-union president you’ve ever seen” should be aware of the fact that this is his opportunity to not just force a compromise on the workers, but also on the companies.
He also needs to get 60 votes in the Senate for it. Conryn has already backed off on his support once he realized it might actually pass.
I don’t really understand all the details or nuances of the sick time issue. Everything I’ve read seems to point to it actually being a staffing issue, e.g. not enough staffing capacity to accommodate paid time off requests; which then results in people calling in sick for holidays that they couldn’t schedule. I’m not sure how adding sick days to their paid time off pool actually solves that problem. Maybe it does, but I don’t see how.
Well right now, when the railroad workers call in sick without preapproval, they lose points in a point system, which is allegedly so onerous that even 2 sick days can result in a 10 day suspension and repeated “offenses” can result in termination. So workers will intentionally NOT call in sick, both in terms of wanting a popular day off and also for legitimate sickness as well. My understanding is that the whole point of the “sick leave days” is that these days would be exempt from the point system. This would allow the workers to call in sick, no excuses, no punishment, up to 4 times per year. So adding 4 days of sick leave per year, which is the union demand, would mean more people calling in sick randomly for legit sick days and also, almost certainly more often on high demand days. This would in turn force the railroad companies to hire additional folks and have some slack “on call” to make up for the sick days, both the random and the high demand.
That, appears to the true issue here. It’s not a pure “sick leave or not” issue - there is a heavy scheduling component, and also a legitimate sick leave component as well.
In an ideal world, this should be something that could be compromised. To my technocratic brain, Biden’s appointed experts on the commission should have figure this out over the summer. I’m still kind of gobsmacked by the fail on that point. Biden’s commission apparently dismissed this concern as a “local issue” when it is manifestly a serious working condition / scheduling / sick leave issue. It may well be that the 4 days demanded by the union is the right answer, or maybe just reverting to the pre-COVID system, or some other compromise.
On the one hand, I think this is more complicated than a mere “sick leave or not” issue, but on the other hand, the railroad’s refusal to make any kind of reasonable counteroffer makes me unwilling to support their position, at all.
The problem is, the way the politics of this are likely to play out, the Biden self-own on the commission is likely to mean that in the immediate crisis, the unions get screwed. OTOH, if the GOP weren’t a bunch of fuckers, a compromise could be had. But we knew going in they were fuckers.
Edit: by “high demand days” I mean the days everybody wants off and that workers in pre-approval systems fight over like cats and dogs: Friday before Labor Day, Friday after Turkey Day, Christmas Eve, New Year’s Eve, Fridays and Mondays in high summer, Fridays and Mondays for popular 3 day weekends, you guys know the drill. In my years of experience I’ve definitely seen that issue being a “thing” so I do actually understand the issue here. I just don’t find the railroad position of “talk to the hand” to be compelling. One more thing: you guys might think the railroads are making this stuff up but I’ve seen workers do all kinds of crazy shit, up to and including faking workers’ comp claims, to get that key Friday off. That 4th day of the weekend, man, it’s precious.