#railway strikes

[miss-vortex]

If you live in the UK, the problems you're experiencing at the moment are most likely a result of greed.

You're freezing in your house because the Tories won't tax billion-pound energy giants.

Your Christmas gift is delayed in the post because Royal Mail bosses who make £758m in profits believe that a measly 2% pay rise is enough for their posties.

You might not be able to visit your family over Christmas because although train companies can hand over £500m to shareholders, they just can't seem to find the money to pay railway staff fairly.

Blame the greedy.

[cathkaesque]

The Landworkers’ Alliance wishes to send a message of solidarity to the 40,000 members of the Union of Rail, Maritime, and Transport (RMT) taking strike action today.

The workers taking this action include guards, signallers, maintenance and catering staff who are striking against a multipronged attack on their working conditions by Network Rail and the 14 Train Operating Companies. These including proposed £2bn of cuts to the rail system which will result in 2,500 fewer maintenance staff and 625,000 fewer hours of maintenance, the closure of 1,000 ticket offices, and an 8% pay rise over two years at a time when the RPI rate of inflation is already running at 11.4%. The RMT is striking against policies that threaten to make the railways less safe and less viable as a system of transport, when the extreme heatwaves of last week have foregrounded the necessity of transitioning to a transport system based on public provision rather than private vehicles.

This comes as likely Prime Minister-to-be Liz Truss pledges to restrict the fundamental right of rail workers to strike, and the introduction of new legislation that will allow companies to hire agency workers to replace strikers. These proposals will make it harder for everyone to defend themselves from companies who care more about their rates of profit than their workers and the people using their service.

These cuts also come shortly after the Train Operating Companies turned a £600m profit. In 2020, the Rolling Stock Companies, who own the trains, paid out almost £1bn in dividends to their shareholders. We recognise the similarities between the relationship that the Train Operating Companies have with the rail system and its workforce to the relationship that industrial agribusiness has with the food system. It is an extractive relationship that seeks to take as much value out of the system as possible, with little care for the damage that this practice does to the railways and the people that work them.

As a union of landworkers, peasants and small farmers, we try to place ourselves in the traditions of the wider labour movement. The Tolpuddle Martyrs, who were famously deported to Australia in 1834 for breaking the Combination Laws that prevented workers from forming trade unions, were agricultural workers themselves. We also recognise the essential role that the fight for better wages and working conditions plays in the struggle for a better food system. For too long cheap, mass- produced food has been used by successive government as an alternative to social policies that would increase incomes for working people. Only through the maintenance of an industrial food system, whose true costs of environmental destruction and superexploitation of agricultural workers are not reflected in their price at the supermarket, can a system that continually seeks to reduce wages sustain itself.

[bisexualgoth]

all workers' strikes are good. yes even if they're inconvenient. even if they're making your life harder. even if you don't get to watch your favourite tv show. workers fighting for their rights is ALWAYS a good thing

[don-lichterman]

Sky News Breakfast: The UK's sixth national rail strike

Sky News Breakfast: The UK’s sixth national rail strike

– Tens of thousands of workers walk out in the sixth national rail strike. – The RAF have been accused of positive discrimination. – Michael Gove criticises Liz Truss over her tax plans. #SkyNews #MichaelGove #railstrikes SUBSCRIBE to our YouTube channel for more videos: http://www.youtube.com/skynews Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/skynews Like us on Facebook:…

[politijohn]

Railway workers: "sick days pls or we'll strike"

CNN: "is a strike worth it? the holidays are just around the corner. think about the economy! now joining us live is the Bank of America CEO to weigh in"

[angelsaxis]

According to the article:

~1/3 of the foods transported in the US are done via train

~50% of the railway workers in America are about to go on strike by like. This Friday lmao. If they don't have their demands for decent PTO/scheduling met (they're working like 24 hour shifts almost, and every day off must be scheduled)

[alanshemper]

Most Americans don't realize that the Railway Labor Act (1926) is the earliest formal recognition of organized labor in the US, and that it predates the National Labor Relations Act (1935) by nine years. Before that, they just sent the national guard to shoot you in the head if you struck. But the rail workers kept striking anyway, so...

[allthecanadianpolitics]

The union representing 9,300 workers at Canada’s two biggest railways says public safety is at stake after contract negotiations ground to a halt this month, with a potential strike on the horizon.

Teamsters Canada president François Laporte said demands by Canadian National Railway Co. and Canadian Pacific Kansas City Ltd. are “non-negotiable.”

“CN and CPKC aim to eliminate all safety-critical rest provisions from our collective agreements. These provisions are necessary to combat crew fatigue and ensure public safety,” he said in a press release on Monday.

Full article

Tagging: @politicsofcanada

[theinconvenientlifestyle]

[lesbiansandgayssupporttheminers]

General strike?

What are we saying the threshold for a general strike is? The famous general strike in 1926 was 1.7 million workers (yes, smaller population, etc etc).

So when can we call it a general strike?

[dontmean2bepoliticalbut]

[dontmeantobepoliticalbut]

Sen. Bernie Sanders said late Tuesday night that it was time to "put up or shut up" for any U.S. lawmaker who claims to fight for the working class as he and other progressives in Congress vowed to insert paid sick leave into a labor agreement between railway workers and the nation's rail companies.

With a vote in the U.S. House as early as Wednesday morning, Sanders was asked by MSNBC host Chris Hayes whether Congress has the authority to mandate that sick leave—the final key demand of railway workers unions who have battling the carriers for months—be added to the deal that congressional lawmakers have been asked by President Joe Biden to force through as a way to avert a strike by the workers that would have huge impacts on the national economy.

"Congress has the power to come up with an agreement in order to protect the economy," said Sanders. While he said that he doesn't know anybody who wants a strike—and acknowledged that such a work stoppage would hurt the broader economy—Sanders said the "bottom line" in this fight is quite clear.

"The bottom line," said Sanders, "is that the American people and workers throughout this country are profoundly disgusted by the kind of corporate greed that we are seeing. Everybody knows that billionaires are getting richer, working people are struggling, corporate profits are at an all-time high, and they're making goods unaffordable for ordinary Americans—that's the overall reality. And what you're seeing in the rail industry is that phenomenon in spades."

Citing statistics that show the major rail carriers have made an estimated $21 billion in profits over the last three quarters, another $25 billion in stock buybacks to enrich their wealthy investors, and multi-million dollar salaries to top executives, Sanders slammed the fact that the railway workers themselves "have zero—underline zero—guaranteed sick leave."

Watch the full interview:

On Tuesday night, Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-N.Y.) introduced an amendment in the House that would add seven paid sick days to the labor contract proposal that was negotiated with the assistance of the White House earlier this year, but subsequently rejected by a number of the railway unions for lack of sick leave. With the strike deadline looming, Biden on Monday angered many rank-and-file union members and outside progressives by asking Congress to force through the previous contract deal without pushing for the inclusion of sick leave.

While House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Monday backed Biden's call to push through a vote on the contract "with no poison pills or changes to the negotiated terms," but in a Dear Colleague letter issued Tuesday evening she adjusted that course by indicating that two votes would be held, explaining to members:

• First, we will consider the strike-averting legislation to adopt the Tentative Agreement, as negotiated by the railroad companies and labor leaders.

• Next, we will have a separate, up-or-down vote to add seven days of paid sick leave for railroaders to the Tentative Agreement.

• Then, we will send this package to the Senate, which will then go directly to President Biden for signature.

With Sanders vowing to fight for the same kind of inclusion in the Senate, reporting from Capitol Hill indicated that there may be enough Republican support for adding the paid sick leave to bypass the 60-vote threshold and overcome a filibuster in the upper chamber.

Asked if he thought he could get the ten necessary votes from the GOP in the Senate, Sanders said, "Well, who knows?" as he mentioned that Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas), the party caucus' whip, has indicated "significant" support for the amendment among Republicans.

"Look, you have a number of Republicans who claim—claim—to be supporters of the working class," he added. "Well, if you are a supporter of the working class how are you going to vote against the proposal which provides guaranteed paid sick leave to workers who have none right now? So I am cautiously optimistic that we can get this done."

Asked by Hayes if this represents a "put your money where your mouth is" moment for a Republican Party that has tried to claim the mantle of being the authentic blue-collar party, Sanders nodded in agreement.

"Put up or shut up," said Sanders. "If you can't vote for this, to give workers today—who really have hard jobs, dangerous jobs—if you can't give them paid sick leave, don't tell anybody that you stand with working families."

[mbrainspaz]

your average american really does not comprehend what they are missing with functional public transit. I just started googling a trip back to Germany and found out I can get pretty much everywhere I want to go (in and out of the big city) in a week for about 30 dollars total without ever getting in a car. Can you imagine??? I can't even drive myself in to Houston from the suburbs for less than $20 (+$10 for parking), and it's death-defying stunt traffic all the way. OR in the same amount of time that that takes I could take a train (A TRAIN!!!) directly from a hostel in munich to my home village in rural bavaria--for 15 buckaroos.

[naurasweetarudesu]

Handel smoking doodle

Someone give this man brown contacts pls

"It is not easy to love one self...

However, I promise...

I'll ease up as I should..."

[gall0pingsausage]

4:30 am time to post human scott concept

[postcard-from-the-past]

Railway strike in Paris

French vintage postcard