Railroad strike?

I am actually not on the railroad any longer. I left it a couple years ago. This is going to be long. But here you go.


Many of my closest friends and brothers still are. And it is a multi layer cake

The biggest thing is that the administration and owners absolutely take their workers for granted.

The average railroad guy say between 5 and 15 years of time on the railroad gets 2 weeks of vacation that they have to bid for, vs guys that have more tenure and owners that allow very little time off. So generally your vacation has to be planned by October / November of this year. For next year. There is no sick days. Generally for most they can have one day they miss every 45 to 60 days or longer depending on the specific railroad they work for. And I mean you call off 'sick' or personal or whatever and for exactly 22 hours they cannot bother you. But there is no planning in June for your Doctor visit, or Dentist appointment in July. You have to make an appointment, and if you are by chance home that day, cool. If not, or you don't think you will be, you call and cancel and go fishing with another date further down the road.

Outside of that. You are available to them literally 24/7 there is no weekends, there is no holidays. The only way you really know you have the day off is if you get to the end of the day. And they didn’t call you to go to work. There is no schedule. You can have been working in the yard all day. Take care of the house do the things you do. Lay down at 10pm and then your phone rings. And then 2 hours later you are clocking in to work for the next 12 plus hours. Oh and by the way. If you fuck up. You kill people.

I can’t tell you how many birthdays, anniversaries, softball games with the girls, etc etc etc that I got to hear about because I wasn’t there. Every Christmas Eve. Every Thanksgiving, 4th of July all of them I watched from a train.

All the way through Covid. You know who didn’t shut down, especially when everyone was bitching about supply issues. Thats right. Railroaders. On a Monday I would clock in at 3 or 5 in the morning from a middle of the night call. And then work 12 hours. And then sit at my away from home terminal for a day or two. And then get called to bring a train home at 9 or 10 pm and have to be up all night. And that just happens over and over and over. In some unending clown infused insanity version of Groundhog Day.

You want to know how bad the administration treats their workers. On the railroad you have something literally called "Fire Insurance", what is that you ask. Let me show you a story. So this is insurance you buy, for when you get in trouble, you don't get written up, you get 'fired' for a period of time, and this is a way to get paid while you are off the books for the railroad. Why would you need such a thing. That's because Railroaders aren't protected by the national safety net. They don't get unemployment, or Social Security. They do get a much better pension than SSI pays. But that is only if they have enough years worked with the railroad including the last X amount of years that they are employed in their lives. Outside of that, they on they own.

So one year, leading up to Christmas, our administrative guys literally, I kid you not, at a rail yard directly on the south property line of Ohare airport in Chicago put small like little paper cardstock tags inside the switch points on a set of train tracks where two little yard sorting tracks came together. And then would tell crews to run trains over that. If the conductor didn't do his diligence, in the snow, in the middle of the night, to see and remove that little piece of card stock and report it on the radio. They were fired, and the railroad didn't have to pay them their Christmas time.

I can remember one time, and this is excessive but true story, because of a bad snow storm, and mismangement of crews, I ended up working a 23 hour shift. All of it in rural Michigan trying to get back to the S. Bend area, from Windsor Canada. Everything was shut down, and we are stuck in the nowhere land with no way to get anywhere. And no one to come take us off the train. And this kind of story happens every day. So add to that, that for years, the railroaders haven't been allowed to strike, because of contracts and at one point lets call it 'lack of enthusiasm' from the Washington crowd to allow the railroaders to shut down. They are tired of getting kicked around.

I left for exactly those reasons I got tired of watching my family grow up from pictures on facebook they posted. It sucked. Yes I made good money. On average a railroad worker will clear about 75+ a year in his first couple of years and then it will climb some from there, and will level depending on the company anywhere between 95 and 120ish a year, which is amazing for someone that usually doesn't have a college degree and or barely got a GED. But it still isn't worth sucking in diesel for 20+ years, walking up and down that gravel and Lort knows what on the side of the rails. Dealing with more and more assholes that run the crossings and then you have to be the bad guy that unalived someone's kid. And then on top of it all spending all of your working hours trying to figure out how the company is going to fire you.

It is a long time coming. Congress has literally denied the ability for railroads to shut down citing 'national defense and security' BS everytime they have tried since the 90s, and now they just don't care. They are going to do it if they aren't met at the table with a better deal.
 
I haven't hopped on a train and gone from one part of the Country to another in a loooooooooooooong ass time......so it hasn't effected me at all,

LOL.
 
Irishblooded said:
I am actually not on the railroad any longer. I left it a couple years ago. This is going to be long. But here you go.


Many of my closest friends and brothers still are. And it is a multi layer cake

The biggest thing is that the administration and owners absolutely take their workers for granted.

The average railroad guy say between 5 and 15 years of time on the railroad gets 2 weeks of vacation that they have to bid for, vs guys that have more tenure and owners that allow very little time off. So generally your vacation has to be planned by October / November of this year. For next year. There is no sick days. Generally for most they can have one day they miss every 45 to 60 days or longer depending on the specific railroad they work for. And I mean you call off 'sick' or personal or whatever and for exactly 22 hours they cannot bother you. But there is no planning in June for your Doctor visit, or Dentist appointment in July. You have to make an appointment, and if you are by chance home that day, cool. If not, or you don't think you will be, you call and cancel and go fishing with another date further down the road.

Outside of that. You are available to them literally 24/7 there is no weekends, there is no holidays. The only way you really know you have the day off is if you get to the end of the day. And they didn’t call you to go to work. There is no schedule. You can have been working in the yard all day. Take care of the house do the things you do. Lay down at 10pm and then your phone rings. And then 2 hours later you are clocking in to work for the next 12 plus hours. Oh and by the way. If you fuck up. You kill people.

I can’t tell you how many birthdays, anniversaries, softball games with the girls, etc etc etc that I got to hear about because I wasn’t there. Every Christmas Eve. Every Thanksgiving, 4th of July all of them I watched from a train.

All the way through Covid. You know who didn’t shut down, especially when everyone was bitching about supply issues. Thats right. Railroaders. On a Monday I would clock in at 3 or 5 in the morning from a middle of the night call. And then work 12 hours. And then sit at my away from home terminal for a day or two. And then get called to bring a train home at 9 or 10 pm and have to be up all night. And that just happens over and over and over. In some unending clown infused insanity version of Groundhog Day.

You want to know how bad the administration treats their workers. On the railroad you have something literally called "Fire Insurance", what is that you ask. Let me show you a story. So this is insurance you buy, for when you get in trouble, you don't get written up, you get 'fired' for a period of time, and this is a way to get paid while you are off the books for the railroad. Why would you need such a thing. That's because Railroaders aren't protected by the national safety net. They don't get unemployment, or Social Security. They do get a much better pension than SSI pays. But that is only if they have enough years worked with the railroad including the last X amount of years that they are employed in their lives. Outside of that, they on they own.

So one year, leading up to Christmas, our administrative guys literally, I kid you not, at a rail yard directly on the south property line of Ohare airport in Chicago put small like little paper cardstock tags inside the switch points on a set of train tracks where two little yard sorting tracks came together. And then would tell crews to run trains over that. If the conductor didn't do his diligence, in the snow, in the middle of the night, to see and remove that little piece of card stock and report it on the radio. They were fired, and the railroad didn't have to pay them their Christmas time.

I can remember one time, and this is excessive but true story, because of a bad snow storm, and mismangement of crews, I ended up working a 23 hour shift. All of it in rural Michigan trying to get back to the S. Bend area, from Windsor Canada. Everything was shut down, and we are stuck in the nowhere land with no way to get anywhere. And no one to come take us off the train. And this kind of story happens every day. So add to that, that for years, the railroaders haven't been allowed to strike, because of contracts and at one point lets call it 'lack of enthusiasm' from the Washington crowd to allow the railroaders to shut down. They are tired of getting kicked around.

I left for exactly those reasons I got tired of watching my family grow up from pictures on facebook they posted. It sucked. Yes I made good money. On average a railroad worker will clear about 75+ a year in his first couple of years and then it will climb some from there, and will level depending on the company anywhere between 95 and 120ish a year, which is amazing for someone that usually doesn't have a college degree and or barely got a GED. But it still isn't worth sucking in diesel for 20+ years, walking up and down that gravel and Lort knows what on the side of the rails. Dealing with more and more assholes that run the crossings and then you have to be the bad guy that unalived someone's kid. And then on top of it all spending all of your working hours trying to figure out how the company is going to fire you.

It is a long time coming. Congress has literally denied the ability for railroads to shut down citing 'national defense and security' BS everytime they have tried since the 90s, and now they just don't care. They are going to do it if they aren't met at the table with a better deal.
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Wow I suddenly feel like I have a good job now!
 
To be fair, you don't go into this blind. The recruiters and trainers and all that tell you up front this is the life. But it is one thing to talk about it in a class room. It is something different to live it 24/7 - 365 for 20+ years.

Over the years, the carriers have reduced the number of crews and workers while at the same time making longer, heavier, trains that require more labor on any specific worker. Walking a 1.5 mile grain train in the dead of night in nowhere N Dakota in the snow and cold to prep it to be able to go is labor intensive, and if you catch a cold because of it, or get the flu, you basically have to honestly weight going to work vs losing your job and paycheck.

It is a hard life. Like any trade, but it is unique that you spend so much of your 'working time' away from home. Really the way the railroad works is to think of the Pony Express you have a 'stretch of rail' you are responsible for knowing and you move freight across. So I would get on a train here near S. Bend, and take it up to Windsor Canada. And then get off the train, hand it off to the next crew. They would take it to the next stop, etc. And then I would sleep in a hotel for however long I was kept waiting on a west bound train to get from a Canadian crew, to bring back home. So half of the days you aren't working you also aren't anywhere near home. So while the pay is good. It is hard to justify the extent of bad work / life balance to go with it.

Anytime you guys have questions let me know. Was a fun but tough life.
 
I didn't get to pull this specific train, but it did cross my territory and the crew that ran it through here, had to give multiple depositions, but here is an example of what happens when trains don't run right. This was a train from the frack oil fields that traveled from N Dakota through places like Chicago, Detroit, the Twin Cities, Windsor, etc. And then because of about 10 things going wrong, literally removed a town from the map. It burned so hot for so long it reverted rocks and bricks to powder. There are multiple articles, websites, YouTube videos, etc.

Lac-Mégantic rail disaster​

 
Irishblooded said:
To be fair, you don't go into this blind. The recruiters and trainers and all that tell you up front this is the life. But it is one thing to talk about it in a class room. It is something different to live it 24/7 - 365 for 20+ years.

Over the years, the carriers have reduced the number of crews and workers while at the same time making longer, heavier, trains that require more labor on any specific worker. Walking a 1.5 mile grain train in the dead of night in nowhere N Dakota in the snow and cold to prep it to be able to go is labor intensive, and if you catch a cold because of it, or get the flu, you basically have to honestly weight going to work vs losing your job and paycheck.

It is a hard life. Like any trade, but it is unique that you spend so much of your 'working time' away from home. Really the way the railroad works is to think of the Pony Express you have a 'stretch of rail' you are responsible for knowing and you move freight across. So I would get on a train here near S. Bend, and take it up to Windsor Canada. And then get off the train, hand it off to the next crew. They would take it to the next stop, etc. And then I would sleep in a hotel for however long I was kept waiting on a west bound train to get from a Canadian crew, to bring back home. So half of the days you aren't working you also aren't anywhere near home. So while the pay is good. It is hard to justify the extent of bad work / life balance to go with it.

Anytime you guys have questions let me know. Was a fun but tough life.
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Reminded me of something. Some years ago while I was in Fargo, ND on a job I struck up a conversation with a former railroad worker who did his time in Minnesota. To have to be out in that kinda cold for periods of time, good grief.
 
LyquidMetal said:
Reminded me of something. Some years ago while I was in Fargo, ND on a job I struck up a conversation with a former railroad worker who did his time in Minnesota. To have to be out in that kinda cold for periods of time, good grief.
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I was based here in Northern Indiana, and got pushed because of senority to a little town in N Dakota named "Enderlin" that has the population of like a small high school. And spent MONTHS up there working grain and oil trains. In the wrong part of the year to be up there doing such a thing. That is when the famous 99 year ban happened on Rivals ;)

I remember when I would take a train to my 'away from home terminal' up there. The hotel we slept in was a true flop house of a place, the doors had huge like 3 inch gaps on the bottom and overnight you would literally have snow build up at the base of your entry. it isn't like the recruiting video lol.
 
AlaskaGuy said:
www.foxnews.com

Country should brace for economic 'disaster' if rail strike moves forward, manufacturer group warns

President and CEO of the National Association of Manufacturers said a rail strike would disrupt the supply chain even further and have devastating consequences on the economy.
www.foxnews.com www.foxnews.com
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Are you old enough to remember the air traffic controller's strike back in the 80's? President Reagan terminated the union workers and hired non union workers. I had someone tell me this happened.
 
Meadowlark said:
Are you old enough to remember the air traffic controller's strike back in the 80's? President Reagan terminated the union workers and hired non union workers. I had someone tell me this happened.
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Doable because he was able to get military guys in there to substitute on a temporary basis...
 
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