I actually did miss that, thank you for replying. I had been working for a passenger rail company at the time, but ended up leaving my job a little after the big event and didn’t keep up on the news.
That being said, I still think the union could have gotten a much better deal had they been permitted to strike. They were originally asking for 15 paid days (note: I think they would’ve settled lower, but higher than 4). While the deal that was negotiated does help people, it is a far cry from what’s needed. I worked at the best of the railroads (in terms of contract), and that was too much for me. I was on call 6 days a week and worked all 6 of those days for several months straight. I got sick a lot more often in my year on that job than ever before and it’s becuse I didn’t have rest. But again, that was the best contract in the RR, freight workers (at the time at least) were on call for up to 2 weeks at a time, sometimes being called in more than once a day.
I haven’t looked at the new contracts that freight workers are getting now, but I know that 4 days sick leave (7 if you convert your personal days), is not enough, even if they got contracts as good as we had at my company. The railroads use and abuse their employees, and employees should’ve gotten a lot more than they did. A strike would have ground things to a halt, but that’s literally the point. That’s the only card we have as workers and Biden took that away at a pivotal moment.
So I personally still think it was a shit deal, and it still leaves a bad taste in my mouth. I’m glad that workers are getting more now than they were, but they could have gotten more had they not been kneecapped.
I actually did miss that, thank you for replying. I had been working for a passenger rail company at the time, but ended up leaving my job a little after the big event and didn’t keep up on the news.
That being said, I still think the union could have gotten a much better deal had they been permitted to strike. They were originally asking for 15 paid days (note: I think they would’ve settled lower, but higher than 4). While the deal that was negotiated does help people, it is a far cry from what’s needed. I worked at the best of the railroads (in terms of contract), and that was too much for me. I was on call 6 days a week and worked all 6 of those days for several months straight. I got sick a lot more often in my year on that job than ever before and it’s becuse I didn’t have rest. But again, that was the best contract in the RR, freight workers (at the time at least) were on call for up to 2 weeks at a time, sometimes being called in more than once a day.
I haven’t looked at the new contracts that freight workers are getting now, but I know that 4 days sick leave (7 if you convert your personal days), is not enough, even if they got contracts as good as we had at my company. The railroads use and abuse their employees, and employees should’ve gotten a lot more than they did. A strike would have ground things to a halt, but that’s literally the point. That’s the only card we have as workers and Biden took that away at a pivotal moment.
So I personally still think it was a shit deal, and it still leaves a bad taste in my mouth. I’m glad that workers are getting more now than they were, but they could have gotten more had they not been kneecapped.