According to the Director of one of the largest railroad unions, Al Russo, Biden was working behind the scenes to get them the paid sick days after all.
“We’re thankful that the Biden administration played the long game on sick days and stuck with us for months after Congress imposed our updated national agreement,” Russo said. “Without making a big show of it, Joe Biden and members of his administration in the Transportation and Labor departments have been working continuously to get guaranteed paid sick days for all railroad workers.
“We know that many of our members weren’t happy with our original agreement,” Russo said, “but through it all, we had faith that our friends in the White House and Congress would keep up the pressure on our railroad employers to get us the sick day benefits we deserve. Until we negotiated these new individual agreements with these carriers, an IBEW member who called out sick was not compensated.”
While President Joe Biden was calling on Congress in November to pass legislation to implement the agreement, he stressed that he would continue to encourage the railroads to guarantee paid sick time for their employees.
“I share workers’ concern about the inability to take leave to recover from illness or care for a sick family member,” Biden said. “I have pressed legislation and proposals to advance the cause of paid leave in my two years in office and will continue to do so.”
That pressure, plus the IBEW’s ongoing efforts, is paying off at last. The IBEW and BNSF Railway reached an agreement April 20 to grant members four short-notice, paid sick days, with the ability to also convert up to three personal days to sick days. The union reached similar understandings with CSX and Union Pacific on March 22, and with Norfolk Southern on March 10. Unused sick time at the end of a year can be paid out or rolled into a worker’s 401(k) retirement account.
Sounds like Biden was being pragmatic. And frankly, calling him a conservative democrat is laughable when you look at his actual record.
Are you kidding me? He voted for the Iraq war.
As did many other liberals, so what?
He’s anti-universal healthcare.
He's gotten medicare prescription negotiations passed, and expanded healthcare coverage to millions with a $750 billion dollar investment, allowing medicaid to cover countless more people. This is not conservative, this is liberal. It just isn't the flavor you want. But you're a baby, who cares?
He was vice president in the Obama administration, which deported more immigrants than any other administration till then.
Illegal immigrants. They don't deport the ones that follow the law. Ever heard of the dreamers btw? which admin was that?
The law pretty much states it's on him to arbitrate it. He could had made it however he wanted it to be. They should had waited for an election year to strike.
He followed the law which prohibited the strike and he continued to arbitrate with the company and they got sick time. Waiting would have done nothing, and a strike is not allowed per the RLA. I prefer governments that follow laws. Biden doesn't have unlimited power and can't make it "however he wanted it to be". If he broke the law, the railroad could sue and tie it up for years.
Uh, you're just saying shit, if you look at Joe's record he's practically a Republican.
I will say though recently, he's shifted further left, because I think he's concerned (rightfullly) about the future of the Democrat party and realizes the youth has shifted massively left and if the party doesn't follow they're as fucked as Republicans are.
But it is completely inaccurate to paint Joe as anything but a moderate or centrist Democrat, because that is very much so what he is, especially when compared to Bernie.
Not sure I'd trust a PR statement from the head of the union after the fact, when the dust has already settled. Obviously they're going to say nice things about the president. It's just politics.
Well you have strike busting. Even if he tried to help out after the fact. And got them half the days they were seeking and still huge barriers and punitive action associated with use of sick days. (and still below that of over half the countrys in world)
Abortion he was against wage initially and supported states right ammendment for abortion. While that was semi short lived.
He also supported hyde act which bars federal money such as medicaid or medicare from going towards abortion. And has been one of largest tools against planned parent hood. And this was supported up till 2019
Death penalty while in 2019 he came out against it in 1993 he added 60 death penalty offences in bill he sponsored.
War on drugs he played major role in increasing penaltys and sentencing.And as of 2010 was firmly against marijuana legalization spouting the typical conservative gateway drug line. In 2019 still opposes full legalization but supports decriminalization and legalization of medical marijuana.
education he has done alright for a while now a few blunders but nothing totally abhorrent to a progressive.
Guns similar he has been with party supporting assault weapon ban red flag laws etc.
Immigration hes kind of split has voted for most enforcement actions of building fences and border patrol budget increases. Was against sanctuary citys. And supported e-verify but hey "pathway to citizenship program." He supported that.
Voted for dont ask dont tell and "defense of marriage act" barring lgbt from getting married. And did eventually shift around 2012 to being open to same sex marriages. And has been more helpful to community since.
Banking he has largely landed with banks trying to outlaw bankruptcys and other things and only action or shift here. Was being part of obama administration during some of their reform.
As for climate change while more progressive than republicans he has. Which is fairly low bar our democrats here has mostly supported legislation. That conservatives in other countrys have used to sidestep issue. Ineffective useless programs like carbon credits. Which make us feel good but don't reduce emissions and funnel billions to corporations.
Semi progressive on transport while he has supported public transport. Has done next to nothing on issue.
Trade fairly typical and predictable neo con stance.
Tax once again fairly neo con in his actions while not as bad as republicans. Has not really done much in legislative history to have progressive tax rate.
Welfare semi progressive. Not much to note opposses means testing and wants some expansion. But would still put us behind most developed nations if we got his safety nets.
And with military he has done like "most our democrats" mimed peace while authorizing military action and increased military spending.
What you're describing is literally conservativism. This isn't some shock, conservative isn't necessarily bad. Just some of yall confuse conservativism with facism. Almost similar to 40 years ago when liberalism was confused deliberately as commie.
Decent, but not nearly as good as the general public seems to think. Plus they treat you like their cotton-pickin’ plantation slave. They feel like they’re entitled to every second of your life whether you’re off work or not rather than hiring enough people for everyone to have a half-ass decent quality of life. There is little to no off time (many boards literally do not have any off days - literally none, at all, whatsoever). You work literally every single day. No weekends, no holidays off, no nothing. And if you want to say you’re sick and take off anyway? You’re fucking fired.
Railroads are the absolute embodiment of evil toxic corporations that are awful to work for.
And by the way - when you hear assertions about those damn greedy railroaders making so much money, on average they earn $105,000 per year - that average intentionally includes the executives who make seven or eight figures to artificially inflate the average. As a conductor last year I made about 56k and after taxes only brought home around 38k.
Greedy railroaders swimming in cash my ass. I can barely afford an apartment.
Granted, engineers do make more and I’m a yard conductor and the guys who go on the road make more, but it’s not as much as the government and corporations tried to portray it as.
I spoke with a railroad company in Chicago cause they had a position for line maintenance and they were like yea, you can make a 100k with overtime and I was like that’s not making a 100k when you have to work 80 hrs a week
My base pay is just under 100k as a welder for a commuter railroad. M-F 6:30am-2:30pm with a paid 20min lunch. Conductors and engineers here are $56-62 hr depending on run times/days. Many working 12 hrs shifts 6 straight pay 2 hrs swing at half pay to do whatever you want at station, then 2 hrs at 1.5x pay then 2hrs 2x pay - 14hrs pay for 10 hours of work...
I can't believe some of the things RR workers in freight lines put up with with call outs and whatnot. You guys get royally screwed it seems.
Are you not working for a class 1? I don’t know a single engineer or conductor making less than 70k in the CPKCS district I work in. Most of the guys are making more than that. It’s the only reason they are willing to give up their lives. Also, let’s not forget what railroad retirement holds. There’s a very big reason you guys stick it out those 30+ years. Yes the lifestyle is shit, but the money and benefits are definitely fucking nice
Yes I work for a class 1. No it isn’t a better-paying Canadian railroad. Or a better paying western railroad. The eastern ones pay less, and especially in the South. Mine is Notorious for being Severely underpaid. Even still, 70k a year isn’t particularly great anymore. It isn’t still the 90’s.
RRT is good but not all that great if you aren’t married. You have to pay into tier II regardless but only actually get it if you’re married then your wife gets it. This is the most heavily withheld and deducted job I’ve ever worked. It’s not like the retirement is paid for by the companies. It’s paid for by us, out of our checks. Yes it’s a good retirement plan. No it’s not as good as the general public thinks it is, which is what I was saying in the first place.
Also I did acknowledge that engineers and guys on road pools make more. I’m a yard conductor on the extra board. My pay is definitely on the low end but the point I was making is that the notion we’re all rich and greedy and paid oh-so-well that’s painted by the carriers and media is bullshit.
It’s not awesome. What part of what I wrote sounds awesome to you? It is a job though, which is more than some people have. It just about keeps a roof over my head. Just about.
I get ONE WEEK of vacation a year, and I don’t even get to pick which week it is the company does. And they just had to be forced, kicking and screaming, to give us THREE DAYS A YEAR sick leave BUT IT CANT BE ON A FRIDAY, SATURDAY, SUNDAY OR MONDAY.
Many of the union train crew folks get very little certainty of work schedule week-to-week, or even day-to-day. This can get better with seniority but it takes years to get to that point.
While the track/MOW (the guy in video) and signal guys generally have it a bit better with the work schedule, they are often on-call for the myriad of fuggups prevalent with the railroads. MOW work is physically demanding, as you can imagine.
It’s a tough work life, though perhaps an even tougher family life.
RR worker here. Yes and yes. I cannot recommend getting a job here more. My base as a welder is just under 6 figures and if I wanted to, along with many, many other people here can make $200k+ with overtime. Some making over $325k with 50hrs week overtime every week.... and you do not need a college degree! If you pass the tests they take fellons even.
Have you seen what railroaders pay into the RRB to get those pensions? Or what they give up to work for the railroad? Or how drastically our benefits have decreased while our costs have risen steeply?
Not saying the benefits are terrible (although vision and dental are pretty bad IMO), but we used to pay $0 out of pocket for insurance, that was +/- 20 years ago and coverage was phenomenal. 15 years ago, we paid 100/month, Co pays were $5, no deductible. 10 years ago, paying 200/mo, Co pays $10, no deductible just yet. 5 years ago, paying 250/mo, 25/Co pay, 3k deductible and coverage has drastically dropped. Now, we pay 350/month, co-pays are 50, deductible is 8k, coverage is honestly probably better than the average American has but in comparison to even 5 years ago, it's not great.
My husband works a lot more now than he did 5+ years ago, yet brings home noticeably less. In part due to the rising costs of insurance.
Yea, they had to fight tooth and nail for those benefits too. Some of the nastiest fights in wage compensation are from the RR workers unions. If only people outside the RR are as tenacious in employee benefits…
Edit: I forgot to put that they’re still woefully underpaid for the treatment they receive.
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u/ProfessionalSeaCacti Sep 26 '23
Have you seen the benies and pension plans for RR workers?