Railroad workers may go on strike.
The railroads have been running like clockwork. That is the problem. Human beings aren't clocks.
Railroad workers want to strike. Congress may not let them. The country needs the railroads and the railroads need workers. Railroads don’t want real, live humans to be those workers.
If the railroad workers go on strike, supply chains get interrupted once again. It isn't Santa's Christmas gifts that would be delayed getting to the stores. Toys are already in stores. It is a matter of boxcars of grain getting to cargo ships, tank cars of chemicals getting to manufacturers, fertilizer getting to farmers, and coal getting to power plants. Railroads carry big stuff that the American economy needs. A rail strike could push us into a recession.
The railroad strike hinges on the issue of paid sick days. The context of that sticking point is PSR, the railroad industry abbreviation for Precision Scheduled Railroading. Railroad consolidation meant that railroad lines have near-monopoly power to squeeze shippers. Railroads are profitable. However, profitable railroads were still under pressure to perform for stockholders. Investors noted that the OR--the Operating Ratio--of some railroads was better than others. Ones that needed 80 or 90 cents in costs to make a dollar in revenue were presumed slackers and poorly managed compared with ones that recently achieved an OR of 60. Those high-achievers had instituted Precision Scheduling. That means longer trains, more point-to-point deliveries, and most importantly, fewer employees. They got rid of employee slack. They put fewer employees on trains. They instituted employee practices that strongly disincentivized unscheduled sick days or personal days. Humans needed to service the schedule, 24-7-365.
In day-to-day work-life for railroad employees it meant sick days, family emergencies, or unscheduled anything brought instant demerits on an employee scorecard, with demerits leading to prompt termination. Workers were essentially always on-call in case they were needed on short notice. Vacation time needed to be scheduled in concert with other employees, meaning it was scheduled at the railroad's convenience, not the workers'. Scheduled time off could be overruled on short notice. The PSR system worked well for railroad companies' Operating Ratio. It was efficient and profitable.
PSR is miserable for employees. It works because employees are treated as a capital good, an inanimate cog in a machine. This labor struggle wasn't about money for salaries. The railroads offered 30% increases in pay. They are busy automating as much as possible and are continuing to reduce headcount, so salary cost was secondary. The railroads' sticking point was worker flexibility. PSR means running lean. Don't get sick without notice. Don't go to a doctor at unscheduled times. Be available on short notice anytime.
There is a 19th Century feel to this moment: The heartless machine pitted against the worker. I don't expect Pinkerton guards with baseball bats, but the moment has the drama of the clash of two great forces. It pits the imperative of capitalism versus the reality of human lives in 21st Century America. Workers have an expectation of something better than grinding poverty servicing an inflexible system. The invisible hand of capitalism keeps seeking how to do more with less, and we call it progress.
But humans have bodies. They have parents who die. They have kids who want to go to Disneyland on a school vacation. Their needs can only be accommodated if the railroad labor force has slack capacity.
Strikes are a form of body language. It is a way for workers to send a message of power. You need us. We need maintenance as do the grease fittings for the axels of rail cars. Our needs must be considered and accommodated. It takes humans to safely run a 100-car train. Without us, you cannot operate. Without competent employees, you get accidents, and if an accident happens and toxic chemicals spill, the railroad might have a billion dollar cleanup and liability for a thousand deaths. Or maybe a $10 billion accident. Ask Exxon and BP and Union Carbide about the cost of accidents.
In 21st Century America strikes are rare and they come across as a blunt instrument of persuasion, but they make a point. Railroads need humans, with all their complications. Our economic system is intended to serve humans, isn't it?
Which humans? Certainly not the workers or their families.
What happens if employees don’t show up for work on a train, or to dispatching? Seems like the train won’t roll without required (by law, I suspect) workers at critical locations.
Re sick leave, easy solution: single payer health care. (In my dreams):(
There are plenty of on call jobs. I imagine these rr workers get very generous pay rates, and maybe they (some of them anyway) are willing to take the inconvenience if the pay is high enough.
Besides, the strike doesn’t just affect the rr owners/stockholders. It will affect multi millions of innocent americans who aren’t at fault. Example: I understand that a strike will prevent waterpurification plants' getting the chlorine they need to produce potable water. Great. Let’s all boil water. If the water lines don’t break.
It may not sound like it, but, in general, I’m a a big supporter of unions. I was in a carpenters' union before I became a general contractor. But I have concerns about some union issues. Unions aren’t angels.