Bernie: I intend to block rail legislation until roll call vote guaranteeing 7 paid sick days

[Donkees]

Bernie Sanders
@SenSanders
·
49m
At a time of record profits in the rail industry, it’s unacceptable that rail workers have ZERO guaranteed paid sick days. It’s my intention to block consideration of the rail legislation until a roll call vote occurs on guaranteeing 7 paid sick days to rail workers in America.

[blueinredohio]

1. Its hard to believe as long as they've had a union

they have never had sick leave. What were the union reps thinking? Or weren't they?

[Donkees]

2. The Pandemic changed things

[blueinredohio]

3. How would it change a contract?

[Donkees]

5. They were working without a contract, still negotiating, work force was reduced, ...

on demand scheduling put in place

[AllaN01Bear]

26. actually the rrs changed things over the years and now they are using something called

precision railroading. doubling up of trains . less trains . less crews . trains now on mainline are 2 mi long. and crews have to be ready to work or severe consenquences . locos being sidelined and so fourth.

[mike_c]

4. there is no federal mandate for paid sick leave...

...and railroads argue that the interstate nature of their business effectively shields them from state laws mandating that private employers provide minimal standards of paid sick leave. As you suggest, this needs to be resolved in favor of workers, which will require a difficult and divisive strike settlement IMO. Alternatively, congress can mandate sick pay directly, but I doubt that they will.

Oh, and Yay Bernie!

[blueinredohio]

6. I doubt it too but I would think they would mandate it

temporarily to avert a strike. Then the union could say if you can do it when its convenient for you then it should be permanent.

[WhiskeyGrinder]

8. Staffing levels used to be such that a person had a much better idea of what their schedule would

look like, even with low seniority, and if you didn't feel great, it was possible to come to work and have guys help you out. It was also possible to book off sick and it wouldn't hurt the shift. You just wouldn't get paid. Lower staffing and other changes make paid sick days more of an issue.

There are many professions where you don't get paid sick days. Lots of Building Trades don't.

[blueinredohio]

12. Its just hard to believe in this day and age

a job with a union doesn't get these benefits. I could understand if there's no union.

[WhiskeyGrinder]

13. A lot of these industrial unions are rooted in a time where their strength came from

organizing around "X hours work, X hours pay." If you don't work, you don't get paid. There just isn't a tradition of it in blue-collar work. And you see it in white-collar work as a perk, not a required benefit.

[blueinredohio]

15. Thanks everyone for the information.

I didn't know any of this. All I knew was there are people around my area that work for the rail road and make good money.

[WhiskeyGrinder]

16. They can make very good money. But railroad unions, like many unions, have in the past couple

decades focused more on pay and job creation at the expense of some of their strengths. And that's gotten us where we are.

[doc03]

22. I retired in 2010 after 40 years in a steel mill (USWA). I think we got what they called

5 personnel days in our 2003 contract. You had to request a personnel day by Wednesday the week before.
I think we could only take 1 per week. You didn't need a reason, but you can't schedule being sick the week before
you are sick. I used mine for 5 three-day weekends.

I think it depends on what kind of benefits the rail-workers already get. I assume they get paid pretty good, it is a
very dangerous job. How many vacation weeks do they get now? Do they get personnel days like we did?
How many holidays do they get paid for? I think they get some kind of government railroad pension instead of SS.

[WhiskeyGrinder]

23. .

I think it depends on what kind of benefits the rail-workers already get. I assume they get paid pretty good, it is a
very dangerous job. How many vacation weeks do they get now? Do they get personnel days like we did?
How many holidays do they get paid for? I think they get some kind of government railroad pension instead of SS.

They get paid very well, but that doesn't make up for being on-call 24 hours a day in a punitive environment. Last I heard, it was 10 paid vacation days for the first...5 years? You don't automatically get holidays off, but you get double time if you work a holiday. They get Railroad Retirement (and in some cases, other pensions as well) instead of SS. But it's hard as fuck to have a family and a life outside work on all of it.

[AllaN01Bear]

27. yes , railroad pension

https://www.ssa.gov/policy/docs/ssb/v68n2/v68n2p41.html

[former9thward]

29. They do have sick leave.

They are paid after four days. (Which is why some union members are calling for four days sick) They have a retirement plan far superior to that of other unions or the military. Sometimes unions trade things off to get better things.

[leftstreet]

7. DURec

[Donkees]

9. Video Clip:

@SenSanders on potential railroad strike: "I think it's incumbent upon Congress to do everything that it can to protect these workers, to make sure that the railroad starts treating them with the respect and the dignity that they deserve."

Link to tweet

[myohmy2]

21. +1...

...

[Freethinker65]

10. 7 days seems reasonable. How about being able to cash them in at end of year if unused

Or let some roll over into next year?

I know from experience sick days can be abused, but 7 seems a good compromise and being able to cash out unused days helps where I work.

[patphil]

25. 7 days is definitely reasonable.

[Donkees]

11. Sen. Hickenlooper: Any bill should include the SEVEN days of sick leave rail workers have asked for.

Democratic Sen. Hickenlooper says of averting rail strike: “Any bill should include the SEVEN days of sick leave rail workers have asked for.”


Burgess Everett
@burgessev

[brooklynite]

14. I think we're arguing about two different things...

Sanders wants a federal requirement rather than leaving it to the union contract negotiation.

[wackadoo wabbit]

17. Go, Bernie! ... n/t

[helpisontheway]

18. It is terrible. My husband was a freight conductor and

he could not take off sick without accumulating a lot of points. Even if you get a doctor’s note they give you points (think it is a lower amount). This led to many getting FMLA so that they could get time off. My husband left in 2020 but I heard they are now struck with FMLA. I don’t know how they expect their employees to be on call 24/7 and never get sick. The penalties encourage them to go in sick and get others sick. My husband did not care if he was paid for the time off. He just needed the time off.

[Donkees]

19. BMWED: ''Thank you, Senator Sanders! We appreciate your unwavering support.''

Link to tweet

[Donkees]

20. Schumer says: 'We're going to work it out and get it done.'

Igor Bobic
@igorbobic

Asked about Bernie’s demand for an amendment vote on the railway bill, Schumer says: “We’re going to work it out and get it done.”

[CloudWatcher]

24. This should be a safety issue ...

This makes sense from a safety perspective. For a comparison, would you want your pilot to be flying with a fever because they didn't have paid-time-off?

I would have thought their insurance companies would require this.

[LAS14]

28. Good!!!! nt

[Gore1FL]

30. When I clerked for Union Pacific we got 10 days a year sick. Vacation was based on service.

I don't know the deals other unions had.

After I was promoted to a non-union job, I had no official sick days, but could call in as necessary without using other PTO. Again, I did IT stuff at that point, I have no idea how other departments handled it.

Their holiday-observance rules were stupid as fuck.

[Donkees]

31. UPDATE: Sanders' amendment to guarantee 7 days of paid sick leave is building momentum

More Perfect Union
@MorePerfectUS
·
39m
UPDATE: Bernie Sanders' amendment to guarantee 7 days of paid sick leave to rail workers is building momentum

- Rubio, Cruz, Hawley indicate they may support
- Cornyn suggests it may have enough GOP votes to pass Senate
- Pelosi says House will vote on Sanders proposal tomorrow

[James48]

32. See, here is the thing.

Workers would likely be able to win sick leave if they went on strike.

But corporations don’t want any disruptions, and corporate entities are the ones asking Congress to intervene and prevent a strike.

Personally, I think there should be laws protecting ALL workers with a minimum amount of sick leave.

I am firmly with Bernie. No sick leave, no settlement. Let the workers strike, if necessary, to win sick leave.

[littlemissmartypants]

33. Quoting myself here: The schedules they are expected to follow are brutal.

It's a wonder anything at all reaches its destination without incident.

Potential Rail Worker Strike Caused by Erratic Scheduling
Workers must be constantly on call to work, making it impossible to live their lives.

BY MIKE ELK SEPTEMBER 14, 2022
It’s Hugh Sawyer’s 65th birthday, and he is pissed off. A 35-year veteran of Norfolk Southern, he had spent the day before working 12 hours, driving a train from Chattanooga to Atlanta. When Sawyer started his career in the mid-1980s, the average train trip between Chattanooga and Atlanta took five to six hours. Due to understaffing and negligence of rail infrastructure, today it often takes 12 hours to make the same journey.

When Sawyer got home around 7:30 Monday morning, he was able to sleep for only five hours. Now, he is spending his 65th birthday evening constantly refreshing his computer, to see if he is being called into work. It’s 8 p.m., and if Sawyer makes it to midnight without getting called in, he will get a day off.

“Snip...they are only guaranteed ten hours off from work every 24 hours—barely enough time for most railroad workers to sleep.
Scheduling is chaotic, with most workers expected to be on call on their off days to see if they get called into work.

“You miss birthdays, you miss your kid’s plays, you miss doctor’s appointments because you never quite know when you are going to have one day off,” says Sawyer, who serves as the treasurer of Railroad Workers United.

...snip...

More...
https://prospect.org/labor/potential-rail-worker-strike-caused-by-erratic-scheduling/

Go Bernie!!

❤️

[Voltaire2]

34. The democratic leadership is maneuvering to make this separate legislation

and forcing the vote on the 'get back to work' bill before the 'yes you can have sick days bill'.

The opportunity to stand in solidarity with workers must be avoided at all costs.