Mongoose
Well-Known Member
Ya these people are "allowed" like 4 days off a year. Like the article says it can be difficult to schedule days off etc.According to VICE, the issue was never about sick pay to start with, but overwork, exhaustion, and safety:
The Freight Rail Labor Dispute Was Never About ‘Sick Days’
Workers were not threatening to shut down the nation’s rail system over a few sick days. They were sounding the alarm on a broken system that affects us all.www.vice.com
It really is just about corporate greed, and control. I'm just skeptical of the government stepping in on things like this. Sure you can argue that they were trying to avoid a catastrophe with the supply chain, but it's also coordinated by the workers. The workers finally have some leverage to the tune of 2 billion a day and the government steps in to strike a deal before they can go on strike. A deal that over half of the union members don't like, they are being forced to accept by the government. However you want to look at it "the government" not republican or democrat "the government" sided with the big corporation over the workers. It's a top vs bottom issue, not a left vs right issue.
I will be interested to see if they do pass more legislation about the sick days and time off. This vice article sure makes it seem unlikely the workers are being heard at all. I could see our government doing some sort of Uber deal here where they later pass legislation for sick days, but they make an exception for the rail company like they did for Uber and Lyft, screwing those folks even worse.
