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TailorHour710 t1_j5sp724 wrote

Reply to comment by Ogediah in Major railroad posts record earnings, spends more on share repurchases than on its employees by esporx

Forgive my ignorance, but I must ask this...what would've happened to the railroad workers if they did strike? How can anyone be forced to work against their will? I hope they plan on striking after hearing this news.

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KyurMeTV t1_j5t68k8 wrote

Check out the FAA strike under Regan, they brought in military flight controllers to replace the strikers and the strikers lost their jobs en masse.

I can’t say it’ll be the same for the railroads but if they strike, they loose everything.

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Prophet_Tehenhauin t1_j5t8i37 wrote

It wouldn’t be the same for railroads. The us military has people trained to be flight controllers already. They don’t really have a backlog of trained military train conductors or engineers

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whapitah2021 t1_j5tayv5 wrote

Never heard of the Army Corps of Engineers? /s

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localgravity t1_j5tdaf9 wrote

What would happen if the army corp also refused as a sign of solidarity? I know this would never happen, just curious to see your answer

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whapitah2021 t1_j5tgtti wrote

Haven’t thought about that but….There’s no way this country could operate without railroads for an extended period of time. We could figure ways around it in the long run but machinery that move freight long distances are few and far between: over the road trucks wouldn’t be a solution, they’re already occupied. Pull retired engineers in for service to run the trains? Teach others to do the job? Who would train them? It would be a disaster I’d say. Part of that is our “last second supply chain” as you saw during lockdown and after….take 100K blue collar workers out of work and watch what happens, then do the same thing worldwide…..we’re still seeing the effects of that happening from people dying or quitting shitty jobs….microchips for example, China gets overwhelmed with Covid (and other reasons) and there’s a chip shortage in a few weeks….now Toyota is two years out from delivering your new XYZ model. But…..moving freight is a matter of national security and I would hope there’s a solution already in place if all the locomotive operators quit at once… We’re a resilient bunch of people, traditionally… I hope we still are. (Army Corp comment was a play on words, see wiki link below for their actual function if you don’t already know) Have fun, be safe!!!!

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Army_Corps_of_Engineers

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Ogediah t1_j5u92c7 wrote

It’d be an illegal strike. If sanctioned by labor leaders they could end up in jail. There are also some protections for a legally recognized unions and they’d essentially loose all those protections. Including but not limited to the necessity for the rail company to bargain in good faith. Due to the national infrastructure concerns, the government would also likely step in and may even provide government employees to keep trains moving. For example, when Reagan fired the striking air traffic controllers, military personnel were brought in to fill the gaps of workers that wouldn’t cross the picket line. The workers that crossed the picket line were instrumental in making that possible. And something similar could happen to the rail workers.

Just incase you are wondering, the workers on strike (air traffic controllers) never got their jobs back.

Unfortunately this is the reality of organized labor nowadays. Laws which originally provided protections for collective bargaining have been gutted by things like Taft-Hartley, the railway labor act, executive privilege, etc. We’re at a point where most strike are illegal, “right to work” laws bleed out unions by forcing them to provide services without dues, companies see almost zero repercussions for breaking the law, etc. Its a real shame. The PRO Act would correct many of the issues. However, it’s had trouble making its way through the legislature.

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