Submitted by arrogant_ambassador t3_z2usuh in nyc
Comments
ViolatedGhost t1_ixirtft wrote
That’s city workers as well. I could have 200+ hours sick leave and be out of annual leave hours. If i take more than 2 undocumented sick days within a 6 month period i will be penalized through a points system. They want you to use your annual/vacation if you’re feeling sick but cant/don’t want to force yourself to grovel to a Dr for a note.
penguincrazy123 t1_ixl4ng2 wrote
Airlines are the same way- I just got terminated for documented sick leave with sick hours with a major airline as a flight attendant. It’s wild how you can spend years accumulating PTO to have it all squandered for an antiquated points system
Wowzlul t1_ixitr6i wrote
> fuck them and Congress should nationalize them
Like ConRail 2.0 or on a more permanent basis? Either is fine by me. No way could it be worse than what the railroads have turned into.
TellMeYMrBlueSky t1_ixj03xi wrote
> Like ConRail 2.0 or on a more permanent basis?
I guess? I'll be honest, I don't really care if the solution is nationalization or simply just better anti-trust/competition regulations and better labor protections (with actual enforcement). Because right now both all of us in American society and the railroad workers are getting fucked. Especially the railroad workers.
As you said, no way could it be worse than what the railroads have turned into.
crowbahr t1_ixkh1k7 wrote
Conrail but make it permanent instead of selling it as soon as it turned a profit.
Because seriously why the fuck would you sell it off as soon as it started to stand on its own.
Gotta be sure to protect it from the same antagonism the post office experiences though.
aattanasio2014 t1_ixj8m7n wrote
Also, as we are coming out of a global pandemic that killed hundreds of thousands of people and corporations are now trying to persuade commuters and travelers that it is a good idea to go back to in person life, maybe it’s not a great idea to force public transport employees to be in spaces with the public while sick?
Idk just a thought.
crochet_du_gauche t1_ixkydjg wrote
This is about freight trains, nothing to do with public transit.
smuckola t1_ixlwbpf wrote
Some parts of Amtrak such as Kansas City go via shared freight lines and so are rarely exactly on time.
invertedal t1_ixm4yej wrote
Some parts of Amtrak?? No, pretty much all of it! Or at least that's what an off-duty Amtrak driver told me while he was on his way home. He said the only track actually owned by Amtrak is a few hundred miles somewhere in Michigan, so delays are frequent nation-wide. It was during one of these delays that he and I got into a conversation. He also told me that the number of crew members on all US trains has been massively reduced since the 1970s, with just one or two guys now doing what used to be considered a job for five.
crochet_du_gauche t1_ixmetxs wrote
Amtrak owns most of the Northeast Corridor and only small sections of it are shared with freight lines.
invertedal t1_ixp4hup wrote
Some sections of the Northeast Corridor are also shared with commuter rail - both Metro North and New Jersey Transit, and probably other lines as well, but these two are the only ones with which I have personal experience of delays related to track sharing.
libananahammock t1_ixlvfag wrote
Amen
brenton07 t1_ixmrmdv wrote
I would also like to point out that, according to the Unions, the cost of this request is $0.01 for every $1.00 of PROFIT. Not revenue. Profit.
Let them strike and create chaos. I support them.
[deleted] t1_ixj7epx wrote
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Emotional_Age5291 t1_ixjd30h wrote
That’s where the greed comes in bru. If they have enough workers someone taking time off wouldn’t be a problem bc u get someone to cover them... except there’s not enough workers
[deleted] t1_ixk3t4b wrote
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OverlordXenu t1_ixkmcn4 wrote
damn then maybe instead of lean staffing they should have enough staff to cover totally normal and expected time off needs!
[deleted] t1_ixkz002 wrote
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RyuNoKami t1_ixl2dx7 wrote
don't you see? you should be rewarded for doing more work but that isn't the case, is it? instead your coworkers are being penalized for being out using their own PTO and you are stuck doing their work for no increase in pay. every worker loses.
if they were simply rewarding those who are not using their PTO then thats one thing but they ain't doing that. the company should have more employees to cover employees being out but they won't because they rather 100 people doing 150 people's worth of work than 175 people to do 150 people's worth of work and cover those that are out.
[deleted] t1_ixjmga5 wrote
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pseudochef93 t1_ixiaq45 wrote
> But when the open-air containers—filled with 10 million pounds of excrement—once got stuck in Alabama for two months in 2018, the smell grew so strong that residents resorted to wearing masks.
That’s funny because two years later most in AL refused to wear one
mahabraja t1_ixiwbps wrote
That's amazing. But their precious freedom to keep masks off because how else would they stuff their faces with ranch dressing?
san_serifs t1_ixjqi28 wrote
COVID didn’t smell bad enough for them to want to wear masks.
grambell789 t1_ixjsatw wrote
so if enough people died from covid and started rotting in the street they would wear a mask?
urbanlife78 t1_ixlgyyt wrote
If only Covid made people shit themselves to the point of nauseating stink.
totalyrespecatbleguy t1_ixmegzj wrote
Got it, we need a cholera epidemic
ctindel t1_ixijgbt wrote
The writers of Billions need new plotlines come on people lets give them something
cum-chatka t1_ixipqqw wrote
It’s the final season
TwinCessna t1_ixkcy5a wrote
CORPORATE GREED could lead to a literal shitshow….ftfy
dust1990 t1_ixit77x wrote
Clickbait article. 2.4m pounds of 💩 sounds like a lot but is probably at most a 10-20 railcars full.
Shortthelongs t1_ixj1k8b wrote
There seems to be a lot of missing details in this reporting... How does the poo freight leave NYC to begin with? Via the commuter rail/Amtrak tunnels?
Or does all this poo go to NJ or upstate freight yards first via barge and truck anyway?
OverlordXenu t1_ixkmhtf wrote
> Or does all this poo go to NJ or upstate freight yards first via barge and truck anyway?
how does this matter if there aren't rail cars to unload to… it's still a clog in the system that will result in a backup.
Shortthelongs t1_ixkrlxi wrote
Pretty big difference if the clog in the system is a large rail yard in the port of Newark, as opposed to the tunnels under Hudson yards.
OverlordXenu t1_ixl3zub wrote
someone else mentioned the rail transfer station is in east williamsburg. but even then, if the clog is in newark, it's still going to back up in the city…
Shortthelongs t1_ixlpp2w wrote
How does freight from east williamsburg make it off long island? By truck?
OverlordXenu t1_ixmxc6r wrote
We’ll all I can find is the Brooklyn transfer Llc at 115 thames, can’t tell if that’s by rail or not, but you do know there’s an active freight rail line in bushwick, right? There are… rail bridges and stuff. And the city just reopened the train barges… https://nynjr.com/
Wowzlul t1_ixogcd9 wrote
How the freight rail connections with upstate all fit together is kinda mysterious. The car float is very limited, but it might carry the garbage. The only other way out of East Williamsburg is via Queens and the Hell Gate, and that would of course involve sharing track with Amtrak's passenger trains.
Hunts Point is connected to the broader freight network, though, so I'm reasonably certain there's a connection between the NYA (LIRR freight operations) and the outside world that doesn't involve the car float. Operationally it might be kinda limited, tho.
OhGoodOhMan t1_ixlzi7o wrote
Garbage from trucks gets loaded into containers and then onto either a barge or train. There's one facility to transfer garbage from trucks to trains in a marshy corner of SI; from here the trains go over a bridge to NJ, and then probably to landfills in the South. There's another such facility in Mott Haven. If that garbage also goes to the South, then trains travel along Metro North's Hudson line to Albany, cross the river, then head south/west. And one more in East Williamsburg, in which case trains would have to go through the Bronx and Albany.
No freight trains are allowed through the tunnels leading to Penn, nor GCT.
Wowzlul t1_ixogt01 wrote
> There's one facility to transfer garbage from trucks to trains in a marshy corner of SI
I am 99% sure there's another one in East Williamsburg because I've seen it with my own eyes.
edit: Oh you actually mentioned it
> No freight trains are allowed through the tunnels leading to Penn, nor GCT.
IIRC the Pennsylvania Railroad experimented with this during World War 2, running a test freight train through the Hudson tubes.
I think it became disconnected and immobilized.
doodle77 t1_ixj58t1 wrote
A bit more than that, it's not as dense as scrap metal so a full railcar isn't close to max weight.
tamere2k t1_ixkk74x wrote
Yeah...if it ends quickly thats not that serious....if it doesn't....
gigawort t1_ixktqeb wrote
That's daily. It adds up fast.
Apprehensive-Log4125 t1_ixkhxcb wrote
I always think about what would happen if mta workers decides to strike like NY would litterally shut down wonder how this railroad strike will end up
Few-Artichoke-2531 t1_ixkosl5 wrote
MTA has striked in the past. We drove, car pooled, took cabs, and a lot of companies organized private buses and van service. It wasn't easy but most people made it work.
tamere2k t1_ixkketw wrote
The most important thing is that the railway workers get everything they want in these negotiations. But I really hope that a deal is reached because this sounds not great.
regularbusiness t1_ixkm880 wrote
A Literal Shitshow? I think I saw that off-off Broadway a few years ago.
anna_is_a_toy t1_ixic1sd wrote
Not swag.
DaBadFeelingGoesAway t1_ixm752f wrote
BLACK ROCK is the exact reason why UNIONS are the needed Now More then Ever! UNION STRONG! ✊🏻
[deleted] t1_ixj2use wrote
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kryptosthedj t1_ixl1ov6 wrote
Literal shitshow, hey?
Edit: Okay, your were mostly right.
bsanchey t1_ixioh6x wrote
We let people walk by trash mountains daily. How much worse could the city smell at this point
Wowzlul t1_ixitaku wrote
I accidentally ran by the main garbage transfer point in East Williamsburg once where trash is placed on the trains the article talks about.
It can get so much worse than this.
TellMeYMrBlueSky t1_ixinzbe wrote
> The main sticking point among rank-and-file union members comes down to a points-based attendance system, which penalizes them for taking personal and sick time, according to The Washington Post. Warren Buffett’s BNSF Railway company already has a notorious policy within the industry, penalizing workers for taking time off for family emergencies, illness, and fatigue, according to FreightWaves.
Wow it's almost like corporate greed is to blame for this mess. That can't possibly be right! /s
I need to take a moment to reiterate what the article said, because it's truly outrageous. The railroads penalize workers for taking time off for family emergencies, illness, and fatigue. What is the point of PTO, sick leave, and family leave if you get punished for using it!? How unsafe are the railroads willing to make us all by forcing workers to work while fatigued!?
The private freight railroads want to have their cake and eat it too. They have spent years slimming down their workforce and abusing those who remain in the name of cost cutting (pay freezes, unpredictable schedules, penalizing those who use sick time or PTO!). They have reduced service, skimped on maintenance, and forgone capital improvements under the guise of "efficiency". All this while they have simultaneously raised prices and raked in record profits, especially during a global pandemic.
Where do all those profits go? Definitely to raises, hiring more workers, capital & service improvements, or a less brittle supply chain, right? Nope. The profits were used for stock buybacks. In the first 6 months of 2022 the big four railroads (Union Pacific, CSX, Canadian National Railway, and Norfolk Southern) doled out more than $10 billion in stock buybacks!
The railroads want to keep privatizing all the profits of being critical infrastructure while shouldering zero responsibility for doing anything to ensure it keeps operating. If the railroads don't want to put some of that $10 billion in profits towards hiring and benefits rather than buybacks, then I say fuck them and Congress should nationalize them.
Fucking ridiculous how we as a country are held hostage by modern day robber barons and the headlines are all about how "if the workers strike it'll be bad for the economy." How about "if the railroads keep cutting workforces and abusing people for profit, we all suffer" instead