Yesterday rail companies and unions representing tens of thousands of rail workers reached a tentative agreement, narrowly avoiding a strike for the moment. The agreement will now be voted on by the workers, who have agreed not to strike until a vote is tallied. But let’s cut to the chase here, why are the railroad workers striking?
To be clear, this isn’t so much a money issue as it is a quality of life issue, although most of these workers haven’t seen a raise in years. Many of these workers are on call 24/7, with no set schedule otherwise, meaning no weekends, no sick days, and no personal days. Most workers in this country get at least two days a week off (what we commonly refer to as the ‘weekend’), equaling at least 104 days off over the course of a year. Some of these rail workers get fewer than 30 days off annually, and in an industry that’s chronically understaffed, even 30 days off can be a stretch.
Of course here comes ol’ crusty bag of bones Biden himself, sharing his two cents yesterday, “The tentative agreement reached tonight is an important win for our economy and the American people.” What he failed to mention is that he’s been aware of the mistreatment of these workers for months, only intervening in mid-July to avoid a strike by forming a Presidential Emergency Board. This executive action guaranteed a strike wouldn’t happen over the summer, as both sides worked to reach an agreement. However after a two month period we’re back where we started, with the aforementioned tentative agreement as the only thing standing in the way of industry collapse.
The coming days will prove whether the promise of more money and slightly more flexibility is enough to persuade the workers not to strike. Let’s hope they recognize their value and settle for not a penny less than what they’re worth.
Side Items
Earth as a shareholder: Patagonia’s founder Yvon Chouinard decided to give the billion dollar company to a charitable trust focused on battling climate change. He’s the rare breed of human who found himself a billionaire against his best intentions, and Chouinard said, “Instead of extracting value from nature and transforming it into wealth, we are using the wealth Patagonia creates to protect the source." Smart man that Yvon, his life can be spared when the time comes to eat the rich
Queue up for what? In a show of physical endurance that absolutely no one asked for, British boot lickers are lining up by the thousands to see a casket purported to hold their former queen, who is dead. If I’m standing in line for hours to see a casket, there better be a Dracula or a Samsquanch inside
In a move that’s equal parts unsurprising and stupid, the Biden administration has decided to withhold $130 million from Egyptian aid as a result of the governments continued human rights abuses. While this small portion of the money is withheld, the Biden administration will proceed with providing nearly a billion dollars of ‘security aid’ to Egypt’s tyrannical government. Democratic lawmakers argued that money should be withheld until progress was made on the 60,000 political prisoners locked up without charges, but the powers that be thought otherwise
Y’all remember Serial? That boy Adnan Syed really might be innocent, so the prosecutor requested a new trial. Adnan’s case is one of the first I can remember of the so-called “true-crime” genre, and his life has been analyzed and discussed for years. Let’s hope the truth prevails and more people understand how broken this ‘justice’ system truly is