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USA: Clock starts toward rail shutdown

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Adlington

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Not only in the UK trade unions are causing problems on the railways...

The [US] National Mediation Board ) on June 14 set in motion a ticking time bomb toward an economy-jolting national railroad shutdown within 90 days, its two Democratic members agreeing with rail labor that a voluntary agreement to amend unionized rail worker wages, benefits and work rules is not within reach
Railway Age
 
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ainsworth74

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Will this affect southwest chief in August or is it just freight?
Amtrak run over freight railroads almost exclusively outside of the North East Corridor so if their staff go out on strike whether or not Amtrak are on strike they are unlikely to be able to run much of any service. See GTR having their service destroyed despite not voting for a strike because Network Rail signallers are on strike.
 

matacaster

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Amtrak run over freight railroads almost exclusively outside of the North East Corridor so if their staff go out on strike whether or not Amtrak are on strike they are unlikely to be able to run much of any service. See GTR having their service destroyed despite not voting for a strike because Network Rail signallers are on strike.
Oh great! Booked on southwest chief middle of august.
Thanks for info.
 

AlbertBeale

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Not only in the UK trade unions are causing problems on the railways...


Railway Age

Why is it the trade unions causing problems? Surely it's the employers/government changing the goal posts by effectively cutting wages (by not even giving increases matching inflation). That's surely the "cause" factor, not the unions' response.
 

Wolfie

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Why is it the trade unions causing problems? Surely it's the employers/government changing the goal posts by effectively cutting wages (by not even giving increases matching inflation). That's surely the "cause" factor, not the unions' response.
Funny how that was never mentioned when higher than inflation payrises were received..... What makes rail workers believe that they have an entitlement to an ever better standard of living?
 

ac6000cw

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Oh great! Booked on southwest chief middle of august.
Thanks for info.

If you read through the Railway Age article the OP linked to, there's somewhat more water to go under the bridge yet before getting to a shutdown, including the potential involvement of the President and Congress if necessary to mediate or impose compulsory arbitration - the two sides appear to have got to the 'entrenched positions' brinkmanship stage at the moment, and the big US & Canadian (with US subsidiaries) railroads are financially OK so I hope this will get sorted out by the politicians before it gets to a shutdown.
 

AlbertBeale

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Funny how that was never mentioned when higher than inflation payrises were received..... What makes rail workers believe that they have an entitlement to an ever better standard of living?

What makes anyone think they do? Clearly the bosses do (re their income)...

But if society as a whole is getting richer (debatable, I know), then employees should obviously get higher salaries - or better public services - to share in that. What does seem to me to be reasonable is that people in a country as wealthy (albeit the wealth is extremely unevenly spread) as this should at the very least not have an effective wage cut.
 

Wolfie

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What makes anyone think they do? Clearly the bosses do (re their income)...

But if society as a whole is getting richer (debatable, I know), then employees should obviously get higher salaries - or better public services - to share in that. What does seem to me to be reasonable is that people in a country as wealthy (albeit the wealth is extremely unevenly spread) as this should at the very least not have an effective wage cut.
The vast majority of workers in this country have had such a paycut since 2010. The railway industry has not and is still complaining now.
 
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Some chums on an Amtrak fans website have recently reported that their sleeper accommodations were cancelled with just a weeks notice, and they were downgraded to coach seats! Apparently a shortage of sleeper rolling stock, repair issues, and staff shortages?
 

ac6000cw

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Apparently a shortage of sleeper rolling stock, repair issues,
Quite possibly - over the years, Amtrak has often had a sizeable collection of rolling stock at Beech Grove (their heavy maintenance base in Indiana) that they don't have the money to repair.
 

Giugiaro

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Surely it's the employers/government changing the goal posts by effectively cutting wages (by not even giving increases matching inflation).

With everyone and everywhere. It's pathetic how low the purchasing power got.

Everywhere I look, be it the US, UK, Germany, France or Portugal, everyone earns less real income than we did as a collective 14 years ago.
And the more educated or skilled you are, the more significant the drop has been.
 

Wolfie

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With everyone and everywhere. It's pathetic how low the purchasing power got.

Everywhere I look, be it the US, UK, Germany, France or Portugal, everyone earns less real income than we did as a collective 14 years ago.
And the more educated or skilled you are, the more significant the drop has been.
The very rich have got richer. Everyone else has suffered.
 
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My USA rail chums pooh pooh the idea of a US rail strike, it seems there are several legal moves yet to stop any action for a year at least...
 

Shrop

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I hate to say this but watch out for developments after a serious accident on the Southwest Chief today, when a truck was on the line, causing all carriages to derail with some deaths.
 
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