ABSOLUTELY 'KREKKT . . .
people mention Reagan and the Air Traffic Controllers . . . tell you why that's not even in the same universe. air traffic controllers are "cheap" . . . meaning they are reasonably plentiful (for instance the armed forces spit them out with fair regularity) and they can be found easily and/or quickly replaced - or educated and replaced.
try doing that with a locomotive engineer. or a track maintenance crew. do you know how many HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS of miles of track there are in this country? who's gonna watch all of that? do you know how absolutely sideways these people are capable of becoming when you start FVKing with them?
more personal experience - in '72 I was hauling steel for JV McNicholas out of Youngstown Ohio during the teamsters strike. pulled two loads of rim stock (for truck tire rims) 6 nights a week between US STEEL's 14 mill in McDonnald Ohio and our terminal in Columbus where I'd drop it in the yard and pull a trailer of pipe back home to Youngstown Sheet and Tube.
I was a SCAB. I had to WORK because I was in undergrad at the time. I had tuition and rent to pay and groceries to buy. I had a goal in mind- and I was NOT going to be deterred from it. I'd just finished 4 years in the service that I considered
a complete and utter waste of time. in that strike they (my brother teamsters) were in the habit of throwing concrete blocks off of bridges into the windshields of tractors. I can tell you I was SCARED TO DEATH.
once again - there are people here on this board who are familiar with that time and that history in the area. these people (RR) are NOT going to comply with sum BULLSHIT "THOU SHALL NOTS" issued from "on high" in ASSKLOWN CENTRAL
its that kind of history, that kind of individual personal experience (and that's just part of my own personal experience - a tiny and insignificant bit of it ) that shapes attitudes and fuels the ABSOLUTE RAGE and CONTEMPT that many of us here and across the country have for TPB and ASSKLOWN CENTRAL in particular.
I'M NOT ALONE in those kinds of experiences. we are finding our voice in this country. I'M THANKFUL FOR THAT. make no mistake this strike -
should it materialize - will add fuel to the fire. IMHO they would like NOTHING MORE - its THE perfect reason to let loose the jackboots and - its THE perfect TIME to do so