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Share buybacks should be capped at minimum and probably be made illegal. They only enrich the C-suite and the shareholder class. It's grotesque.

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Nov 29, 2022·edited Nov 29, 2022

"CRX profits up 15%, spent 3.7 BILLION on stock buybacks" and resists granting sick leave to workers that they work like dogs? Like no one can see what's wrong with this picture. I didn't realize that sick leave was at the heart of the conflict until reading this article. Not because I haven't been paying attention, quite the contrary. One more example of how poorly news is reported.

Thanks again Judd. You and your crew are making a real difference sir!!!

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Out here in Botswana (Southern Africa) employers are required to provide for 14 days of paid sick leave per year. I have never heard anyone question or complain about this law. It's what normal people do, you know, normal human beings who understand that people get sick sometimes.

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The corporate greed in this country is out of control. The people 'elected' to Congress are owned by these corporations. 4 paid sick days is nothing. The fact that they are unwilling to give 4 days says everything you need to know. This is disgusting and sad.

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To quote Spock, "The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few."

In this case the Railroad companies need much and their employees get railroaded to provide it. Biden is caught between a rock and a hard place and the GOP knows it. The lesser of evils is still evil, yes.

The winter of '22 might not be the mountain to die on and Biden knows it. Many industries like real estate sales are suffering due to interest rate hikes that aren't changing inflation because it is a worldwide choke hold, but the US economy is still steaming along. Add a rail strike for 116,000 workers compared to the millions of others who will be affected and the economy will derail. BTW, someone needs to state the obvious:

Where the hell has the Rail Union been over the last 20 years?? This problem didn't manifest in 2022. The pandemic exacerbated a problem that has been here along time with paid sick leave in many industries. With rail workers their companies hold them like slave labor with reduced staff meaning long hours, less pay, poorer benefits and a law that Congress can use to make them work.

A little history as I know it.

My grandfather was replaced on the Norfolk and Western by Scabs after a strike in the 1930s ? Most of my family remained on the job and worked through the 2nd world war and into the 60s. They had their own Railroad pension fund and retirement through the federal govt instead of social security and I am reasonably sure that came from the ripples of same strike. I assume it still exists.

Anything Buffett touches turns to crap except for him. Look at the newspapers he has ruined. One layoff here in our paper lead to many and it came close to ruining me. I have personal experience with his business acumen.

But more than anything this whole scenario from US Chamber of Commerce and railroad corporations is just another facet of the Darth Vadar march to rule by the 1% of corporations and billionaires. Cue the music. I will scream unfair and resist anyway that I can, but the railway workers are likely going to take one for the team.

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I’m in total support of the nation’s overworked and brutally treated railroad workers’ right to strike and protest their barbaric employers’ insane lack of any sick leave. However, as Heather Cox Richardson states in her “Letters From An American” Substack column yesterday,

“More generally, though, they [railroad workers] oppose a new staffing system implemented after 2018, which created record profits for the country’s main rail carriers but cost the industry 40,000 jobs, mainly among the people who actually operate the trains, leading to brutal schedules and dangerous working conditions.”

“The new system, called Precision Schedule Railroading (PSR) made trains far more efficient by keeping workers on very tight schedules that leave little time for anything but work. Any disruption in those schedules—a family emergency, for example—brought disciplinary action and possible job loss.

“Although workers got an average of 3 weeks’ vacation and holidays, the rest of their time, including weekends, was tightly controlled, while smaller crews meant more dangerous working conditions.”

I’m angry and appalled that the vile PSR system was not strongly criticized by the Presidential Emergency Board (PEB), Nancy Pelosi and Joe Biden -- who loves to think of himself as a strong pro-union president.

Given the U.S.’s wretched and hugely inequitable capitalist system, I shouldn’t be at all surprisedI that the PEB, Pelosi and Biden have disregarded railroad workers’s very dangerous work conditions and want to keep the nation’s trains running -- regardless of the resulting emotional and physical toll on America’s struggling railroad workers.

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It would appear, Warren Buffet talks out of both sides of his mouth and is not really that genial, nice guy, who plans to leave his money to charity. In the end, it would appear, it IS all about the money.

Everyone benefits from more humane working conditions, especially if an employee doesn't show up sick, infecting others at work, including customers. Not penalizing them & receiving some sick pay is both humane & smart business, especially if it averts a strike. WE don't need further disruptions to the supply chain, especially after covid.

All other highly developed countries provide paid sick leave & recognize the wisdom of this. Four or five sick days isn't a big ask imo. Thanks Judd for the story behind the story.

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If Congress blocks railroad workers from striking I think we should have a general strike instead.

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I don’t use trains for commutes, but I use Amtrak from Maryland to NYC and back a few times per year and have for the past decade or so. The trains, the employees and the facilities have improved drastically in that time, especially since the pandemic. Focusing in on the employees on the trains, I have been astounded by the positive changes in presence and interaction.

Biden helped to negotiate the cooling off period, and he is a long-time supporter of rail travel. I find his position on this both expected - we can’t afford a shutdown - and shocking - this seems to work against much of what he’s stood for. I would like to see him and Buttegieg answer questions about this.

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Yet the myth continues that the Democrats are on the side of labor. This is one of those ideas that even a stake through the heart can't kill, simply because the other side is even less on the side of labor. It's distressing that American workers continue to put up with this farce.

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My husband worked for UP which he called “Utterly Pathetic “ for over 25 years first as a a fireman then a Conductor and then Engineer. He had no schedule except 8 hrs off then work he worked every holiday once not getting home till the afternoon of Christmas Day. He worked in all kinds of weather was put up in dive hotels and his meal allowance wasn’t enough to buy a decent breakfast. He also got “silica “ in his lungs which aided in his early death. Silica comes from the sand they put on the rails and is pulverized into tiny bits of Silica which could have been avoided had the rail companies had decent modern engines.

The pay for what they and their families go through is not great. In addition there is no reason why any company does not provide paid sick leave especially large ones that pay their CEO’s excessive salaries and Bonuses!

Every time you get discussed going on strike a federal judge ordered them back to work and do the abuse continues.

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Nov 29, 2022·edited Nov 29, 2022

We are in another era of GREED, all in capital letters. Greed was also a big deal right before the Great Depression. Greed eventually devours itself.

I should add that greed makes poor the very people who feed the greed. It's called a recession or depression when there is too little left to feed the greed.

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Greed and selfishness win again over responsible worker conditions. The rail companies are among the worst employers.

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So it sounds like railroads are essential and that railroad workers are essential. We learned that essential workers were, in a word essential during the days of 2020 and 2021. Seems that we recognized their contribution and vowed not to forget all that they did. We forget easily. We still want our $5 tee shirts and next day delivery. We need to come to grips with the way so many essential workers are treated. So what if it costs $$ to increase sick leave. Raise freight prices or take less profit. Something is very wrong with our culture and its institutions. Other countries seem to recognize the need for sick leave. Why not our country. Is all and always a matter of $$$$$ ? BTW one thing mentioned in the media coverage is the need for “chemicals” to be delivered to keep our drinking water safe. That is really an indictment of corporate practices.

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Never forget, "Labor does not contribute to profits." THAT is the official view of the companies. The current staffing system in place results in super tight schedules and sometimes entire trains run by one person. Under this system, anyone calling off disrupts things immensely. The real problem is of course the system. But because other systems would be less profitable, they aren't going to happen without outside intervention.

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But the corporate trade organizations that signed the letter helped create the current crisis. It. Is unacceptable that they have no paid sick leave. Hire/train more people. Preposterous!!

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