BREAKING: Rail Strike AVOIDED In Emergency Meeting | Breaking Points with Krystal and Saagar

The gall of members of Congress to act as if rail workers are being unreasonable by complaining about being fired for being sick, not getting any time off, etc. when they get paid exorbitantly while having the best health care coverage in the world for free and taking 3/4 of the year off is absurd.

I can't be the only one in all this highly skeptical of any law or provision that tries to assert when and how labor is allowed to strike. Labor owns itself.

Every year that the workers did without, the bosses pay rose. Remember that

These companies that have zero attendance wiggle room are also the first to complain about “retention issues”

The fact they can't even get a few days off just to relax is insane.

Working for the railroad was like making a deal with the devil. I started in 2015 and lasted until 2020. I was laid off 3 different times during my tenure. Usually around the holidays for reasons I assume had to do with shareholders and stock price. Each layoff got progressively worse. During one year of work in early 2018 my mother suffered a TBI that disabled her. Laying in a hospital bed with her skull exposed I received my call to take a train back from Chicago to home. Shortly thereafter I received a text from a relative informing me my mother had a seizure, and I should get to the hospital as soon as possible. I was 200+ miles away. I called dispatch explained to them the situation aware I was already on the job. I even tried to negotiate with them. Pleading I will get the train halfway, stop in Indiana and please cab me back the rest of the way to the home terminal. For those that work on the railroad we know all too well it takes them 6 hrs. to move us 100 miles most of the time. I ended up taking the train all the way. Phone off, not knowing if my mother was brain dead. 11 hours later I am in my car driving on the highway to the hospital to see if she made it and if anything at all of her was still there. 1 year later the day after missing thanksgiving I was laid off. Railroaders sacrifice their lives for this. We give up so much, and in return we get very little. I learned from that experience that money truly isn't everything. Life is not work. Work is not dignity. WE do not work to pay bills. WE should be working and being compensated enough so that each individual may prosper to pursue their actual lives and the things they are deeply passionate about. I sold my soul to the devil; the price was low. I was laid off again during the pandemic for the final time and forgotten. I have since rebounded into the Electrical Trades with the union. Thank goodness for that, because the devil contractually still owes me a job and If I hadn't found a way to bargain for my soul back, I would have been waiting for that call to come back, and sadly I would have had to take it.

To give you an idea what the working conditions are like here on the railroad they are offering new hires a $20,000 sign on bonus and they’re still having a hard time finding people who want to work here. Once they figure out what their schedule/life will be like they quit or don’t finish the hiring process. Everyone who works for the railroad goes through this when they first hire out. No schedule, being on call and having to work various shifts, weekends and holidays. No one wants to work like that voluntarily anymore. Especially the younger generations coming into the workforce. Something needs to drastically change or we’re hosed.

My favorite is always... 'not subject to punishment' - however... your manager is gonna remember. Whatever you claw back they claw back harder - and they leave scars.

I would be shocked if my union brothers voted in favor.

Not even kidding that schedule sounds like a deployment schedule. Horrible