WASHINGTON — Two U.S. senators have introduced a resolution that would require unions and railroads to accept recommendations made in August by the Presidential Emergency Board to settle their labor dispute and avert a strike or lockout.
The news site Roll Call reports Sens. Richard Burr (R-N.C.) and Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) introduced the legislation on Monday.
“A rail strike would be counterproductive for everyone involved and would have devastating impacts on our entire economy,” Wicker said in a statement. “While there is still time for the remaining parties to reach voluntary agreements to end this dispute, it is time to bring this matter to a close.”
The cooling-off period triggered when the Presidential Emergency Board issued its recommendations ends at 12:01 a.m. this Friday, Sept. 16. At that point, unions without an agreement can strike or can be locked out by railroads. Eight of 12 unions involved in national negotiations have announced tentative agreements, though none have yet been ratified.
Freight railroads have already begun embargoing hazardous materials in anticipation of a possible work stoppage, and Norfolk Southern has said it will stop accepting intermodal and automotive traffic today [see “Short lines join call for congressional action …,” Trains News Wire, Sept. 12, 2022]. And Amtrak will begin suspending service on some western long-distance routes as of today to ensure that no trains are stranded en route if a work stoppage occurs.
The personal life of T&E employees is not anything that need concern “the government.” The T&E employees are represented by unions, whose job it is to look after the members. Hopefully the union leaders are actually working for the members and not on the take.
So the government will force them back to work with a contract that they don’t want an the railroad will keep cutting jobs because they have there slaves till they quit. Maybe cutting a few billion form there bottom line will make them sit up and take notice that there employees are the ones that make there money.
It’s apparent that government doesn’t give a damn about excessive attendance that ruins the personal life of T&E employees.