Someone feel free to correct me, but aren't pilot work/union rules connected to the Railway Labor Act as well?

You can almost hear the rush of air as that joke fly by you. :)

Yeah. But I got your "fly" pun...

If you think the seniority at your airline sucks, my old man has been a Union Pacific engineer since 1978 and still can't hold a 1200-1800 callout period. That's how their schedules work, reserve with a two hour call.

Amtrak Engineers start at 20.86/hr (training pay-no pun intended) when I was there. I don't remember top out and I don't have the pay scale in front of me. Top engineers can make WELL into the six figures! BUT the hours are rough. Even for those holding a schedule. Fun job though...

Aw man! The sarcasm got me!!

I've been thinking of making a temporary shift to the railroad for a year or two. Conductors make around $70k per year at most places, while engineers make roughly $80k-$150k hinging upon which company they work for. QOL is much akin to working at a regional airline from what I hear.

Be alot cooler if they still used kabooses.

Seniority is different on the railroad as well. Each domicile has it's own list. You may have been in one place for 10 years, but junior on the list. If the railroad furloughs, they do it out of the base that's losing the work. You may end up on the street while someone who's been there 2 years stays employed at another base.

All the RR contracts are different just like the airlines so that might not hold true everywhere.

I used to know some guys who worked for Norfolk Southern. They bid trips just like we do. The senior guys I knew would operate a train from Sheffield to Chattanooga, overnight, then operate it back the next day, day off, then rinse and repeat. Junior guys were on the "extra board". That was exactly as described earlier in this thread. You go to the bottom of the list and the railroad picks the next assignment from the top of the list.

I got bored once and spent some time on a railroad employee message board. You think airline pilots complain...... Every trainmaster was out to get you. Everyone in management sucks, the union sucks, etc. The best one I saw was BNSF was sending guys out on 4 day trips. One post said "*** do they think we are? Airline pilots? Those guys get paid for that stuff!". Another one I saw was two engines that stopped on a burning bridge forcing the crew to walk through flames out in the middle of nowhere. Both guys survived for a while waiting on a rescue which took several hours. They both died in a hospital within a few days. The burned out engines were towed back to a railyard and left for a while with everyone having to see where their buddies got burned up.

We had at least one guy from Netjets go to work for the railroad after getting furloughed. Last I heard he liked it.

If there's one axiom that can be counted upon, it's that people like to complain, no matter how well their fortune seems to be.