BNSF = Bitching Nagging Screaming Fighting

This is endless. The best derogatory name for the company is so politicly incorrect that I'm going to omit it here. Maybe if you're twisted enough, you can figure out what it is. It attacks everybody either racially or sexually in four words --- An equal opportunity insult.

My WAG is that there will be a strike and that the Congress will let it run 7-10 days despite the HUGE screaming coming from all corners ( sharp stocks decline, world coming to an end etc.) as the D's need to show their support for the Unions who in turn overwhelmingly vote for them.

Eventually the Congress will impose a settlement that probably won't sufficiently address the union's big issue of draconian attendance policies ( especially on BNSF ) and there will be endless complaining from both sides about the terms set by Congress.

IMHO-Ross Rowland

That's your idea of "best"? Racial and sexual insults for all? Weird flex...

"It attacks everybody either racially or sexually in four words --- An equal opportunity insult."

Was that really necessary here?

Howard P.

I'm not entirely sure the link will work, but here is a perspective on the potential strike from the conservative National Review:

https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/t ... term=first

Apparently the Machinists Union has rejected the tentative contract.

https://i.redd.it/q1cnnc8niun91.jpg

Brian

Necessary, no.

Of course, we are talking indirectly about Warren Buffett and his giant train set here, the pompous rent-seeker who likes to masquerade as a great national uncle, interested only in our welfare.

Let's limit our insults to Warren Gould, I mean Buffett.

I really have no quarter for his sanctimony, and when he was doing his "I should pay more taxes" shtick a few years ago, I wish just one supine imbecile in the press would have said, you know you could demonstrate your sincerity by sending a little extra.

The government will happily cash a check to relieve the burden of the public debt.


How do you make a contribution to reduce the debt?
There are two ways for you to make a contribution to reduce the debt:

At Pay.gov, you can contribute online by credit card, debit card, PayPal, checking account, or savings account.

You can write a check payable to the Bureau of the Fiscal Service, and, in the memo section, notate that it's a gift to reduce the debt held by the public. Mail your check to:

Attn Dept G
Bureau of the Fiscal Service
P. O. Box 2188
Parkersburg, WV 26106-2188

Sure, it's like draining an ocean with a teaspoon, but its the thought that counts.

And if he really wanted to be generous and give our great and powerful Oz the fullest latitude possible to use the money for any of the wonderful and edifying projects that they always expend our money for, he could have made a gift to the United States.


At pay.gov, you can contribute online from your bank account (ACH), PayPal, debit or credit card.
You can write a check or money order, payable to the United States Treasury, and in the memo section notate that it's a gift to the United States. Mail your check or money order to the address below.

Gifts to the United States

U.S. Department of the Treasury
Reporting and Analysis Branch 2
P.O. Box 1328
Parkersburg, WV 26106-1328


Why West Virginia? Well let's just say the ghost of a certain Cicero quoting Klans, er I mean Senator haunts those hills.

Boo.

By the way, if the SEC was on the ball (they're not, that's why they missed Madoff and bagged Martha Stewart), they'd be paying really close attention to see if insiders are shorting NSC, CSX. find out who is betting on a strike.

The deeper the short, the more they are betting on a long and protracted strike.

It would be especially problematic if railroad executives or union officials had these sorts of positions, as they are the people who could affect the occurrence of a strike and its duration.

I just had a little confab with my BMWE & BRS brothers at the yard office.

None of their unions have signed... everything that the companies are putting out is misleading... they have "tentatively agreed", but haven't actually signed anything.

They're all going out with us....

They were a little perplexed that all the national news fails to mention their brotherhoods... only the BLE and SMART unions...

We're (trainmen and enginemen) holding out to get the company to change their attendance "policy"... it's something they arbitrarily imposed on us, there wasn't anything negotiated.

The m-of-w guys.... they're hung about "per diem". Traveling gangs get paid so much a day for them to pay for rooms and buy food. Can't remember what it currently was. The company offered to, instead, allow them to choose a hotel to stay at while they're on the road working and the company would pay for it, but they'd still give them money to eat and whatever with.... something like $48 a day.

Lots of the traveling guys want to keep it like it is. They'll sleep 3 or 4 to a room in some fleabag shithole... splitting the cost and pocketing the rest under the assumption that they'll make more money in the long run. That's where the split is... those guys vs. the guys who'd rather sleep in a nice place, by themselves.

There are other things, but that is where the unrest is on the MofW side as far as everyone agreeing.

We've already got our picket signs stockpiled... and we'll all be out there.

Some people called it "Big New Santa Fe". I prefer "Burlington Northern's Still F-----"......

SD70dude, thank you for getting the point...

I've been 'getting the point' for the last decade on Canadian National in western Canada (I hired on just after Hunter left CN, but the work environment was still the same). We have much better rest provisions in our Canadian agreements but we still have the same problems with toxic management and fatigue from working unpredictable long hours without regular schedules. I'm saying that as politely as possible.

The companies have been making this bed for many years. Looks like it might finally be time to sleep in it.

SD70dude, I figured you might actually work for a real railroad.

OK, perhaps an unknown trainman phrased it better than I have:

"Uphill slow,
Downhill fast,
Profit first and
SAFETY LAST"

--- scribbled on the electrical cabinet doors of a battered Burlington SD9, about 35 years ago.

Amtrak just cancelled long distance trains.

https://www.zerohedge.com/political/rai ... ress-steps

https://www.trains.com/trn/news-reviews ... -thursday/
"Unions and railroads, not Congress, should settle dispute, press secretary says

In comments Wednesday morning aboard Air Force One, with President Joe Biden en route to an appearance in Detroit, the president’s press secretary confirmed that Labor Secretary Marty Walsh was meeting with unions and railroads today. And while Jean-Pierre said a work stoppage was unacceptable, she also said the “onus of resolving differences is on the parties themselves.

“Our continued message … stays the same, which is that they need to continue to negotiate at the table and in good faith,” Jean-Pierre told reporters.

“This is an issue that can and should be worked out between the rail companies and the unions, not by Congress. … They have been able to come together and negotiate in the past. And that’s what we’re expecting this time around as well.”

So maybe the Brotherhoods won't get the shiv in the back from Washington that many are expecting.