1911user
Veteran Member
They said No Strike and No sick leave.
LEGAL Statement from President Joe Biden on Averting a Rail Shutdown
- Thread starter jward
- Start date
rob0126
Veteran Member
This is gonna get ugly.
et2
Has No Life - Lives on TB
Biden has zero problems having the Supreme Court weigh in on is illegal paying off of school loans.
But he wants to force employees of private companies to … work … under conditions they have a right to vote on. The 25% over a few years is a joke with todays inflation.
Where did the sniffing Commie pervert get all his power all of a sudden? We‘re becoming more like China day by day.
What‘s he going to do if they refuse. FJB the biggest joke that we call a president in all of history. And the fake news says nothing … or Republicants for that matter. They helped him do this.
But he wants to force employees of private companies to … work … under conditions they have a right to vote on. The 25% over a few years is a joke with todays inflation.
Where did the sniffing Commie pervert get all his power all of a sudden? We‘re becoming more like China day by day.
What‘s he going to do if they refuse. FJB the biggest joke that we call a president in all of history. And the fake news says nothing … or Republicants for that matter. They helped him do this.
night driver
ESFP adrift in INTJ sea
Being honest, as I told RELIC this evening, my NORMAL default is opposing labor in these labor negotiations. In THIS one, I am, kinda surprisingly backin' the workin' man.
I remember getting to know some VERY hard working guys who were building all the towers for the Masena to Oriskany 765KV line. I asked RELIC's thought on how THEY would have reacted. She showed me a finger, which was MY memory of those guys.
THIS is gonna be in History Books.
I remember getting to know some VERY hard working guys who were building all the towers for the Masena to Oriskany 765KV line. I asked RELIC's thought on how THEY would have reacted. She showed me a finger, which was MY memory of those guys.
THIS is gonna be in History Books.
tnphil
Don't screw with an engineer
The sick leave issue got voted on and shot down in Congress, I think.
The fat lady is still warming up the pipes.
psychgirl
Has No Life - Lives on TB
Is there a summary from where this all stands?
I’ve been at work all day, so trying to make heads or tails of this mess
tnphil
Don't screw with an engineer
Yep. I'm normally anti-union, as there is a lot of abuse, graft, backroom deals and frankly, a lot of unreasonable demands by short-sighted people. And I would never allow a union to speak for me, I stand on my own merits. I've seen up close those in unions who are completely unable to stand on their own merits, but those who can keep them afloat. Unions don't bring everyone up to the same level, they bring everyone down to the same level. So, the motivated ain't gonna excel when their wages are based upon the least common denominator, they'll sink to what is required of the lazy.
I will continue to be my own advocate.
With that said, unions do have a purpose in preventing abuse.
And the RR situation looks like abuse.
jward
passin' thru
'Turned His Back On The People': Rail Union Worker Lambasts Biden Over Strike Bill
Harold Hutchison
3–4 minutes
A railroad union worker criticized President Joe Biden over the legislation Congress passed to prevent a strike Friday, saying the president “forced” a rejected contract on workers.
The Senate voted Thursday to pass the legislation to avert a strike by the Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employees Division (BMWED) of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters and three other railway unions that rejected the September deal brokered by President Joe Biden. The House of Representatives passed a similar bill Wednesday.
“Well, what we’ve seen with this great rail strike of ’22 that has ended very undramatically is we’ve seen unionized workers right to bargain collectively get trampled on, their voice has not been heard, they voted against the contract,” Reece Murtagh, a roadway worker, told “CNN This Morning” co-host Kaitlan Collins. “We have a pro-labor president who loves to, you know, pat himself on the back for that, and when the going got tough, he turned his back on the people he’s supposed to be looking out for.” (RELATED: Rail Union Boss Blasts Biden’s Deal)
The deal gave railway workers a 24% pay raise over five years and a $1,000 annual bonus according to a joint statement by the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen and SMART Transportation Division unions, but did not address what one union leader called “quality of life” issues. Murtagh, though, said his problem was not about the failure to get paid sick leave.
WATCH:
“The main attraction here is Joe Biden forced a contract on our unionized workers who voted against it. And listen, we don’t want to strike, but the only way we can get a fair contract is to strike, that’s our only leverage. The rail carriers do not negotiate in good faith,” Murtagh said. “The Railway Labor Act does not have time limits on these contracts to negotiate, so that can mean we can be negotiating a contract for five years. And we have no power to get a good contract. Our only leverage is to strike. And I feel like this whole process, the workers have kind of been demonized, words like, ‘Y’all are trying to shut the economy down.’ No, we’re not.”
“We’re out here working 14 hours a day in all weather conditions, most of us work outside. You know, we need some sick days,” Murtagh continued. “Why aren’t you guys talking to the rail carriers? We’re out here every day working, moving freight, making things happen. And when the leaders we vote in, who are supposed to support us, turn their back on us, you know, the system is broken.”
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the Daily Caller News Foundation.
All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.
please go to the source in order to view the video which also recaps the issues at play. . .
‘Turned His Back On The People’: Rail Union Worker Lambasts Biden Over Strike Bill
A railroad worker ripped President Joe Biden over legislation Congress passed to prevent a strike Friday, saying the president “forced” a contract on workers.
dailycaller.com
Granny Franny
Senior Member
I found a faq on the agreements which gives a little more clarity on what they actually have now and what they get with the new agreements. I was getting a little confused about what the agreement actually included, so thought I would share. It varies some for the various unions, but there are components that apply to all unions.
BARGAINING STATUS FAQ – NOVEMBER 2022 - NRLC
Go to news about the latest bargaining round
Q: Who are the parties to national bargaining?
A: The Class I freight railroads are in the final stages of national bargaining with twelve unions that collectively represent all 115,000 employees in the bargaining round.
Q: What is the status of national bargaining?
A: The railroads have reached tentative agreements or ratified agreements with all unions in national bargaining. Ratification votes on the tentative agreements reached following the PEB have been completed by each union, and the results are as follows:
Status (Number of Agreements)
A: The railroads remain willing to enter agreements with all unions that are based on the framework recommended by the Biden-appointed PEB. If that does not happen by the end of the relevant cooling off period, then each side is permitted to engage in self-help (e.g., strikes, lockouts, etc.). Historically, however, Congress has intervened to prevent work stoppages. Should the unions fail to accept agreements based on the PEB recommendations in this round, Congress may impose them through legislation – as it has done in the past – to prevent service disruptions.
Q: What is in the new agreements?
A: All of the new agreements increase wages by 24 percent during the five-year period from 2020 through 2024, with a 14.1 wage percent increase effective immediately. The agreements also include five $1,000 annual lump sum payments, adjustments to health care premiums, and health benefit enhancements, and an additional personal leave day for all employees. A portion of the wage increases and lump sum payments are retroactive, resulting in more than $11,000 on average in immediate payouts to employees.
The wage increases in the new agreements are the most substantial in decades – with average rail worker wages reaching about $110,000 per year by the end of the agreement. When health care, retirement, and other benefits are considered, the value of rail employees’ total compensation package, which already ranks among the highest in the nation, would average about $160,000 per year.
The agreements also include craft-specific rules for operating craft and maintenance of way employees.
Q: What are the adjustments to health care premiums?
A: Commencing in 2023, health care premiums will once again be 15 percent of the carriers’ total monthly payment rate – as they were years ago – meaning that the carriers will pay 85 percent of the health care costs incurred by the plan and employees will pay the remaining 15 percent.
Starting in 2025, when the national agreement is amendable, employee contributions will be capped until new national agreements are reached.
Q: What are the work rules changes?
A: In addition to the additional personal leave day for all employees, the operating craft agreements include provisions addressing several scheduling and related matters. The agreement with the BMWED, which covers track maintenance employees, also adjusts travel and away from home expense reimbursement provisions.
Q: Why did the railroads reject proposals to add benefits on top of the framework recommended by the PEB?
A: The request for additional benefits made by the few unions that have not ratified tentative agreements is similar to a proposal which was carefully considered and rejected by President Biden’s Presidential Emergency Board (PEB). It comes weeks after these same unions entered into tentative agreements that included the most generous wage package in almost 50 years of national rail negotiations.
The health, safety, and wellbeing of rail employees is a top priority for all railroads, and any suggestion that rail workers cannot take time off when sick is easily disproven. Rail employees can and do take time off for sickness and have comprehensive paid sickness benefits starting, depending upon craft, after as few as four days of absence and lasting up to 52 weeks. The structure of these benefits is a function of decades of bargaining where unions have repeatedly agreed that short-term absences would be unpaid in favor of higher compensation for days worked and more generous sickness benefits for longer absences.
The PEB’s recommendations remain the framework for an agreement. Now is not the time to introduce new demands that rekindle the prospect of a railroad strike. The carriers have therefore advised the unions that the latest proposal will not be accepted and that they must accept agreements based on the PEB-recommended framework. If they fail to do so, however, Congress may implement the PEB’s recommendations before the agreed-upon cooling off period ends, as it has in the past, to prevent service disruptions.
Crew Size FAQs
Q: What is the status of negotiations over crew size?
A: The carriers have proposed to redeploy conductors from the cab of the locomotive to ground-based positions in PTC-enabled territory. This is an important issue for both the railroads and the employees. For the railroads, redeploying conductors will allow the carriers to continue to operate safely but more efficiently while maintaining customer service levels. On the employee front, ground-based conductor positions are expected to be regular assignments with predictable schedules. This type of scheduling will significantly enhance employee quality of life by eliminating the need for many conductors in through-freight service to overnight away from home.
The carriers invited SMART-TD to negotiate nationally over the crew size issue at the outset of the bargaining round, but this invitation was rejected. As a result, direct bargaining over crew size (which was delayed almost two years until SMART-TD legal and procedural objections could be resolved) has taken place on a carrier-level basis. The NCCC believes crew size must be addressed across the industry and views resolution of the carriers’ crew size and redeployment proposals as a matter of the highest priority. The national agreements were structured to allow local discussions regarding crew size to continue.
Q: What is the impact of the FRA’s Notice of Proposed Rulemaking on crew size negotiations?
A: It remains our position that train crew size should be determined through collective bargaining – just as it has in the past. The regulatory proceeding recently initiated by the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) is separate from and does not impact the collective bargaining process. We continue to believe that crew size rules in existing agreements should be modified to allow for redeployment of conductors to ground-based position in PTC-enabled territory, and we expect local negotiations with SMART-TD to continue.
National Issue Fact Check FAQs
Q: Do operating craft employees receive time off for things like annual medical exams?
A: Yes. Rail employees receive up to five weeks of vacation in addition to up to 14 paid holidays and/or paid leave days (all depending on craft and seniority). They also participate in a carrier-funded federal sickness benefit program, and many have access to other benefits under existing labor agreements.
Operating craft employees also can “mark off” – or temporarily remove themselves from service – for any reason, as long as they maintain a reasonable level of overall availability under carrier attendance policies.
The new tentative agreements with the operating craft unions also include provisions regarding time away from work for routine and preventive medical care and provide that absences related to hospitalizations and surgeries are not counted toward normal attendance handling.
Q: Are railroads having trouble hiring?
A: As has been widely reported in the media, employers across the nation have faced challenges attracting and retaining qualified employees. The railroads, however, are far outperforming the broader labor market. The carriers reported more than 42 applicants per hire during 2021 – well above the benchmark ranges of 3:1 to 25:1 that normally are considered to be sufficient by workforce planning experts. Preliminary numbers from 2022 remain strong, with a similar number of applicants and even more hires.
Although the carriers’ overall recruiting data remains strong, they have been affected in certain local labor markets by some of the same forces that are impacting other employers. As a result, the railroads have ramped up their hiring efforts in those specific areas, including by offering the type of targeted incentives that are increasingly common in areas where the labor market is most challenging. The railroads currently are meeting or making progress toward their hiring goals.
The new tentative agreements also increase compensation significantly, maintain platinum level healthcare benefits, and improve employee quality of life – factors that should further enhance the industry’s ongoing recruiting and retention efforts.
Q: Are claims that mid-career employees are “quitting in droves” accurate?
A: No, claims that employees are quitting in droves are not accurate. In the first part of 2022, each individual carrier’s voluntary attrition rate was between 2.0 percent and 3.7 percent. This is just a fraction of the 13.1% quit rate during the same time period reported in the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ JOLTS survey for the transportation, warehousing, and utility sector.
Moreover, among employees with more than five years of service, the carriers have voluntary attrition rates among employees that are a small fraction of the rates currently experienced on average by other employers. For employees with more than ten years of service, the carriers’ voluntary attrition rates are even lower – meaning that the retention rate for mid-career rail employees remains among the best of any industry.
Q: Do the carriers believe that capital investment and risk, rather than contributions by labor, are the only reasons for railroad profits?
A: The railroads value the significant contributions made by the employees who make the railroads run every day, and the performance of the railroads would not be possible without the efforts of our employees. Our presentation to the PEB repeatedly emphasized our firmly held view that employees are essential to the industry’s success and should receive compensation increases that appropriately reward their contributions. We are aware that questions have been raised about a sentence in the PEB report that, in attempting to summarize the railroads’ position regarding the role that profitability should play in determining the size of fixed wage increases, suggests that employees do not contribute to rail industry profits. This sentence does not accurately reflect the carriers’ views on the matter or the presentation that we made to the PEB.
Presidential Emergency Board No. 250 FAQs
Q: What is a PEB?
A: The RLA provides that the President of the United States may appoint a PEB to investigate and make recommendations for settlement of any labor dispute that threatens to substantially interrupt interstate commerce. A PEB has 30 days to conduct hearings and issue its report and settlement recommendations. Work stoppages are prohibited during this time and for another 30 days following the issuance of the report.
Q: Were the PEB’s recommendations final and binding?
A: No. However, the new agreements that the carriers have reached with each union implement the PEB’s recommended terms. A copy of the PEB’s report can be found on the National Mediation Board’s website.
BARGAINING STATUS FAQ – NOVEMBER 2022 - NRLC
BARGAINING STATUS FAQ – NOVEMBER 2022
Updated Nov. 22, 2022Go to news about the latest bargaining round
Q: Who are the parties to national bargaining?
A: The Class I freight railroads are in the final stages of national bargaining with twelve unions that collectively represent all 115,000 employees in the bargaining round.
Q: What is the status of national bargaining?
A: The railroads have reached tentative agreements or ratified agreements with all unions in national bargaining. Ratification votes on the tentative agreements reached following the PEB have been completed by each union, and the results are as follows:
Status (Number of Agreements)
- Agreement ratified (9)
- Not ratified / status quo maintained (4)
- TCU – Ratified
- BRC – Ratified
- IBEW – Ratified
- ATDA – Ratified
- BMWED – Not ratified / status quo maintained until 12:01 a.m. ET on December 9
- SMART-M – Ratified
- NCFO – Ratified
- BRS – Not ratified / status quo maintained until 12:01 a.m. ET on December 9
- IAM – Ratified
- IBB – Not ratified / status quo maintained until 12:01 a.m. ET on December 9
- BLET – Ratified
- SMART-TD – Not ratified / status quo maintained until 12:01 a.m. ET on December 9
- SMART-TD (Yardmasters) – Ratified
A: The railroads remain willing to enter agreements with all unions that are based on the framework recommended by the Biden-appointed PEB. If that does not happen by the end of the relevant cooling off period, then each side is permitted to engage in self-help (e.g., strikes, lockouts, etc.). Historically, however, Congress has intervened to prevent work stoppages. Should the unions fail to accept agreements based on the PEB recommendations in this round, Congress may impose them through legislation – as it has done in the past – to prevent service disruptions.
Q: What is in the new agreements?
A: All of the new agreements increase wages by 24 percent during the five-year period from 2020 through 2024, with a 14.1 wage percent increase effective immediately. The agreements also include five $1,000 annual lump sum payments, adjustments to health care premiums, and health benefit enhancements, and an additional personal leave day for all employees. A portion of the wage increases and lump sum payments are retroactive, resulting in more than $11,000 on average in immediate payouts to employees.
The wage increases in the new agreements are the most substantial in decades – with average rail worker wages reaching about $110,000 per year by the end of the agreement. When health care, retirement, and other benefits are considered, the value of rail employees’ total compensation package, which already ranks among the highest in the nation, would average about $160,000 per year.
The agreements also include craft-specific rules for operating craft and maintenance of way employees.
Q: What are the adjustments to health care premiums?
A: Commencing in 2023, health care premiums will once again be 15 percent of the carriers’ total monthly payment rate – as they were years ago – meaning that the carriers will pay 85 percent of the health care costs incurred by the plan and employees will pay the remaining 15 percent.
Starting in 2025, when the national agreement is amendable, employee contributions will be capped until new national agreements are reached.
Q: What are the work rules changes?
A: In addition to the additional personal leave day for all employees, the operating craft agreements include provisions addressing several scheduling and related matters. The agreement with the BMWED, which covers track maintenance employees, also adjusts travel and away from home expense reimbursement provisions.
Q: Why did the railroads reject proposals to add benefits on top of the framework recommended by the PEB?
A: The request for additional benefits made by the few unions that have not ratified tentative agreements is similar to a proposal which was carefully considered and rejected by President Biden’s Presidential Emergency Board (PEB). It comes weeks after these same unions entered into tentative agreements that included the most generous wage package in almost 50 years of national rail negotiations.
The health, safety, and wellbeing of rail employees is a top priority for all railroads, and any suggestion that rail workers cannot take time off when sick is easily disproven. Rail employees can and do take time off for sickness and have comprehensive paid sickness benefits starting, depending upon craft, after as few as four days of absence and lasting up to 52 weeks. The structure of these benefits is a function of decades of bargaining where unions have repeatedly agreed that short-term absences would be unpaid in favor of higher compensation for days worked and more generous sickness benefits for longer absences.
The PEB’s recommendations remain the framework for an agreement. Now is not the time to introduce new demands that rekindle the prospect of a railroad strike. The carriers have therefore advised the unions that the latest proposal will not be accepted and that they must accept agreements based on the PEB-recommended framework. If they fail to do so, however, Congress may implement the PEB’s recommendations before the agreed-upon cooling off period ends, as it has in the past, to prevent service disruptions.
Crew Size FAQs
Q: What is the status of negotiations over crew size?
A: The carriers have proposed to redeploy conductors from the cab of the locomotive to ground-based positions in PTC-enabled territory. This is an important issue for both the railroads and the employees. For the railroads, redeploying conductors will allow the carriers to continue to operate safely but more efficiently while maintaining customer service levels. On the employee front, ground-based conductor positions are expected to be regular assignments with predictable schedules. This type of scheduling will significantly enhance employee quality of life by eliminating the need for many conductors in through-freight service to overnight away from home.
The carriers invited SMART-TD to negotiate nationally over the crew size issue at the outset of the bargaining round, but this invitation was rejected. As a result, direct bargaining over crew size (which was delayed almost two years until SMART-TD legal and procedural objections could be resolved) has taken place on a carrier-level basis. The NCCC believes crew size must be addressed across the industry and views resolution of the carriers’ crew size and redeployment proposals as a matter of the highest priority. The national agreements were structured to allow local discussions regarding crew size to continue.
Q: What is the impact of the FRA’s Notice of Proposed Rulemaking on crew size negotiations?
A: It remains our position that train crew size should be determined through collective bargaining – just as it has in the past. The regulatory proceeding recently initiated by the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) is separate from and does not impact the collective bargaining process. We continue to believe that crew size rules in existing agreements should be modified to allow for redeployment of conductors to ground-based position in PTC-enabled territory, and we expect local negotiations with SMART-TD to continue.
National Issue Fact Check FAQs
Q: Do operating craft employees receive time off for things like annual medical exams?
A: Yes. Rail employees receive up to five weeks of vacation in addition to up to 14 paid holidays and/or paid leave days (all depending on craft and seniority). They also participate in a carrier-funded federal sickness benefit program, and many have access to other benefits under existing labor agreements.
Operating craft employees also can “mark off” – or temporarily remove themselves from service – for any reason, as long as they maintain a reasonable level of overall availability under carrier attendance policies.
The new tentative agreements with the operating craft unions also include provisions regarding time away from work for routine and preventive medical care and provide that absences related to hospitalizations and surgeries are not counted toward normal attendance handling.
Q: Are railroads having trouble hiring?
A: As has been widely reported in the media, employers across the nation have faced challenges attracting and retaining qualified employees. The railroads, however, are far outperforming the broader labor market. The carriers reported more than 42 applicants per hire during 2021 – well above the benchmark ranges of 3:1 to 25:1 that normally are considered to be sufficient by workforce planning experts. Preliminary numbers from 2022 remain strong, with a similar number of applicants and even more hires.
Although the carriers’ overall recruiting data remains strong, they have been affected in certain local labor markets by some of the same forces that are impacting other employers. As a result, the railroads have ramped up their hiring efforts in those specific areas, including by offering the type of targeted incentives that are increasingly common in areas where the labor market is most challenging. The railroads currently are meeting or making progress toward their hiring goals.
The new tentative agreements also increase compensation significantly, maintain platinum level healthcare benefits, and improve employee quality of life – factors that should further enhance the industry’s ongoing recruiting and retention efforts.
Q: Are claims that mid-career employees are “quitting in droves” accurate?
A: No, claims that employees are quitting in droves are not accurate. In the first part of 2022, each individual carrier’s voluntary attrition rate was between 2.0 percent and 3.7 percent. This is just a fraction of the 13.1% quit rate during the same time period reported in the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ JOLTS survey for the transportation, warehousing, and utility sector.
Moreover, among employees with more than five years of service, the carriers have voluntary attrition rates among employees that are a small fraction of the rates currently experienced on average by other employers. For employees with more than ten years of service, the carriers’ voluntary attrition rates are even lower – meaning that the retention rate for mid-career rail employees remains among the best of any industry.
Q: Do the carriers believe that capital investment and risk, rather than contributions by labor, are the only reasons for railroad profits?
A: The railroads value the significant contributions made by the employees who make the railroads run every day, and the performance of the railroads would not be possible without the efforts of our employees. Our presentation to the PEB repeatedly emphasized our firmly held view that employees are essential to the industry’s success and should receive compensation increases that appropriately reward their contributions. We are aware that questions have been raised about a sentence in the PEB report that, in attempting to summarize the railroads’ position regarding the role that profitability should play in determining the size of fixed wage increases, suggests that employees do not contribute to rail industry profits. This sentence does not accurately reflect the carriers’ views on the matter or the presentation that we made to the PEB.
Presidential Emergency Board No. 250 FAQs
Q: What is a PEB?
A: The RLA provides that the President of the United States may appoint a PEB to investigate and make recommendations for settlement of any labor dispute that threatens to substantially interrupt interstate commerce. A PEB has 30 days to conduct hearings and issue its report and settlement recommendations. Work stoppages are prohibited during this time and for another 30 days following the issuance of the report.
Q: Were the PEB’s recommendations final and binding?
A: No. However, the new agreements that the carriers have reached with each union implement the PEB’s recommended terms. A copy of the PEB’s report can be found on the National Mediation Board’s website.
Zagdid
Veteran Member
Why does a new agreement reference the year 2020 when it's 2022? 24% over 5 years is likely less then COLA. SSA for 2023 is 8.7%. They make it sound like they are getting a lot.
Granny Franny
Senior Member
My understanding is the 24% increase spans a period from 2020 to 2024, with retroactive pay to 2020, and gradual increases through 2024.
While this year's SSA is 8.7, that's due to the inflation rate this year - last year, I believe it was 5.9%, 2021 was 1.3%, and 2020 was 1.6%. The agreement also provides for increased health coverage, while Medicare costs have gone up when SSA COLA was added. Last year, it barely covered the COLA increase.
ETA: Nobody on Social Security averages $110,000 per year. Also, I'm not suggesting they shouldn't get more sick pay or more anything. I only posted to share, as I was confused about what the agreement actually said.