Yes it is...

 

US rail unions decry Biden’s proposal to impose settlement through Congress

“Joe Biden blew it,” said Hugh Sawyer, treasurer of Railroad Workers United, a group representing workers from a variety of rail unions and carriers. “He had the opportunity to prove his labor-friendly pedigree to millions of workers by simply asking Congress for legislation to end the threat of a national strike on terms more favorable to workers. Sadly, he could not bring himself to advocate for a lousy handful of sick days. The Democrats and Republicans are both pawns of big business and the corporations.”

"As railroad carriers have implemented cuts and more grueling scheduling systems, they have also reported record profits and have paid out $196bn in stock buybacks and dividends to shareholders since 2010."

"BNSF and Union Pacific, the two largest railroad corporations in North America, both reported record profits in 2021. BNSF is owned by billionaire investor Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway conglomerate."

"Senator Bernie Sanders hit out at Buffett last week. “Warren Buffett, the owner of BNSF Railway’s parent company, became $1.38bn richer yesterday,” Sanders tweeted, referring to a boost to Buffett’s net worth from a rise in Berkshire Hathaway’s stock price.

“In one day, Mr Buffett made twice as much money as it would cost to guarantee 15 paid sick days a year to every rail worker in America,” Sanders said. “The greed of the rail industry must end.”

Where was the church in fighting back against the greed of Corporations in this country?

“What railroad workers are standing up for is a better quality of life, to get the respect that they deserve, and the benefits that they deserve and have earned. Sick time, reasonable time off to rest when the majority of the railroad workforce works on call 24/7 365 days a year,” Parker said.

(What is the difference between that and being a slave exactly?)

“With the increased demands that the railroads have put on with their personnel cuts and with these draconian attendance policies, railroaders are not given sufficient time off to rest, to recoup, to recover from illness or to spend time with their families,” he added. “That’s what they’re looking for. The failure to address that could have a profound effect in the future on the ability for railroads to hire and maintain workers.”

"In the railroad agreement, workers were provided with one paid day off and the ability to schedule three doctor appointments annually without being penalized, but Kurtz noted the parameters and restrictions make it nearly impossible to use the time off and provide employers with even greater interference and control over their workers’ healthcare. Workers had sought 15 paid days off in the contract.

“The Presidential Emergency Board was just no help whatsoever,” added Kurtz. “I thought it’d be somewhat more labor-friendly than it was, but it could have been written by the carriers as far as I was concerned.”

I hope they do go on strike, even if its illegal. Unfortunately this has become the only way to get corporations to listen.

Sad.