That’s awesome and good for them. The QOL issues are astonishingly bad and a measly CPI pay raise won’t make up for it. I hope (but know it ain’t so) that airline bosses are taking notes.

This^^^^^ My brother is a BLE member. Voted no and I don’t blame him.

From the article, emphasis added

Quote:

---

Quality of life issues took center stage at the end of these negotiations, with unions representing conductors and engineers holding out until the end for three unpaid leave days a year for medical appointments and a promise that railroads will negotiate further about giving those employees regularly scheduled days off when they aren’t on call.

---

Seriously, what is the deal with companies and this visceral hatred of employees taking UNPAID time off! How dare they be able to go to a medical appointment!

Wow, what a huge ask, regularly scheduled days off.

Good for them on voting this down. I still can't believe this is what was negotiated with the threat of a strike and the PEB pressuring them to get this done. It's also worth noting that this is what a pro-union administration was pushing. What kind of contract would another administration have foisted on these rail workers?

Any chance the train management-types pushing this contract aren't allowed unpaid time off to see a doctor? :rolleyes:

[MOD EDIT] damn the comments section of that article is hilarious

Wow, what a groupthink anti-union circle jerk 😂

The article was pretty anti-union too. This quote made me laugh: The railroad negotiators said that "rail employees can and do take time off for sickness," adding that it has been a longstanding agreement between railroads and unions that the time off is unpaid "in favor of higher compensation for days worked and more generous sickness benefits for longer absences."

Basically saying yeah, they can take sick time..they just don't get paid for it at all! It's how it's always been.

and no discussion of how any UNPAID day off requires weeks of 24/7 on-call to “buy back” the points to avoid getting fired.


but they make $65k a year those fatcats!

Send in the Army! This is all *******'s fault 🙄

Edit: B-randon is censored apparently

Literally the only reason to click on any “news” story, regardless of the source, is to read the comment section.

What, after all, is APC except a giant, unfiltered comment section?

I deeply love free-market small government types advocating for using the army to force private sector employees to work

I think that was a joke. However, Harry Truman (a great president) threatened to nationalize the railroads and draft all the railway workers into the Army if they went on strike. There's a "pro labor Democrat" for you!

It’s called free market capitalism when management lowers expenses and maximizes profits but if workers adopt the same pricing power and leverage it’s un-American and greedy. Everyone knows that. ;)

Always believed that an overview of “The Battle of Blair Mountain” during the welcome to Delta-ALPA would be a good tone to set for those who really don’t know anything about the history of unions in the US.

A close second would be BEF WWI veterans who went to Washington DC to protest for their benefits during the Great Depression and were cleared out when MacArthur, Patton and a young Eisenhower gave a snappy salute and cleared out fellow “brothers in arms”, their wives and children at gunpoint with tanks, bayonets, and tear gas.

The anti-union pendulum in this country will swing around eventually. Asking “please”, nicely, doesn’t always work. Hence: unions.

Unions: Kinda like “Please+”

(The second cost Hoover (R) re-election and destroyed (R) prospects for the White House for a long, long time. Ironically, Eisenhower ended the losing streak. History is funny that way. )

In hindsight it would have been for the best. Nationalized rail roads? More trains, easier public transit between cities? Nationalizing some of the largest monopolies dividing the U.S? Inclining a portion of U.S. military investment to actually facilitate U.S. infrastructure? Sometimes you have to call the bluff. I don't think the railroad tycoons would have been keen on it somehow. I get your point though, labor can count on politicians to not be counted on...or to serve capital over labor.

That sounds exhausting.https://media3.giphy.com/media/hDt61i7Bmvs4g/giphy.gif

Say what you want about the tenets of national socialism, at least it’s an ethos.

actually he thinks he's being a clever troll

great movie. My brain went to the parking lot scene.

No, Donny, these men are nihilists, there's nothing to be afraid of.

Straight shot, right to the baby maker.

Nice marmot

You’re going to need this:

https://youtu.be/IDr_SRhJs80

(“Aubade”, by Philip Larkin)

this thread went sideways quick. So are y’all striking?

thanks for this

Yes, tomorrow.

Well, we “struck” the hats, anyway.

I think the strike vote closes soon…
Any word on how that’s going and stuff?

I’m anticipating a resounding yes.

No question it will pass with high 90’s in favor.

The real suspense will be the participation percentage.

So what’s the realistic expectation about how this new leverage changes pace of negotiations at the table? I know alpa says it gives them new leverage but curious what’s realistic expectation here

I think some of it comes down to drawing enough attention to it. If it doesn’t get a lot of coverage, it won’t hurt bookings. If it doesn’t hurt bookings, Ed will keep sleeping at night and all we will have is PB’s hat induced heartburn. If ALPA can really push it out there, holiday travel should be affected by the threat of a strike and we should see some movement.

I have concerns with the PTC mafia.

I just had to hold a Captain’s hand through signing into his ALPA account. Said he didn’t know his information, I showed him how to find it and reset password, etc. I’m pretty sure he ended up voting in favor.

Chairman’s Club right there!

The good news is that there are dozens of captains inbound that just have their ALPA stuff saved in their keychain. Skinny jeans with New Balances, though. Might need to work on that.

Similar experience. “Hey you voted on the strike authorization right?”
”oh, no. How do I do that?”

It truly boggles me how folks can be so non informed in this job.

It’s pretty amazing


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Prepare to be highly disappointed when you see the total percentage of pilots who vote and the yes vote count. There will be a party on the 4th floor when it is announced.

what makes you say that? do you know the percentage of eligible pilots that have voted?

I believe that would be your standard online negativity. Being positive doesn’t play well on the interwebs. Hence all the economy is crashing, pillars of civilization are crumbling that plays in the online sphere. That way as Armageddon starts someone can say I told you so. Same person is super fun to hang out with.