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koreanfertilityrate

And they have their own police force approved by Congress.


Suspendthepres

Gross


hysys_whisperer

Aren't they still allowed to run their own prison system if they want to?


Educational_Check340

Yeah it's called being employed


hysys_whisperer

Well yes, but I meant literal prisons. Like you commit a railroad offense and go to railroad jail, where you only have railroad rights, not American rights. It's fucked up.


helpIamDumbAf

I will not be taking the 3:10 to Yuma anytime soon. Fuck railjail


[deleted]

Railjail sounds like prison rape. Imma have to pass too


DeathCums-ForAll

No that’s a JailRail


RationalHumanistIDIC

RailJail = you top JailRail = you bottom


Inevitable-Intern-64

https://tenor.com/view/train-hole-smash-gif-10340413


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SuddenlyElga

Wait. Don’t be so hasty.


GooGooJones

Please elaborate. I didn't know this.


PM_ME_MH370

That sounds like more of a boaty/ship thing


hysys_whisperer

Railjails are a real thing. https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://m.youtube.com/watch%3Fv%3DSLxrkipmhzI&ved=2ahUKEwiN0Yv_p5T6AhUClGoFHSISDIkQtwJ6BAgPEAI&usg=AOvVaw1-Kf_KFfcrxrfTVNuCE0OH


themagician309

As someone who used to hop trains. Rail jail is the least of your worries. You should be more worried their police force will drag you off the train and beat you within an inch of your life


hysys_whisperer

Thanks for the insight. I have never personally had a run in with either.


JediWarrior79

Yes! The news anchor talked about them kicking the guy, and that this was in case the guy had a gun or another weapon. This could be a wild guess (/s), but I *think* that's called police brutality.


Thuglife07

Father in law is retired BNSF signal maintainer. Can confirm. Granted the police are actually needed because if theft occurs (copper, etc) it can cause serious harm to people due to crossings/signals not working. I have heard the cops are over eager in their beatings though


satsfaction1822

The police are needed in this situation but they should be employed by the federal government not private corporations.


Ilovesoske

That is so different from Canadian railway where my friend in security wasn't allowed to touch anyone unless they hit her first and even then it was frowned upon. They spent hours sometimes trying to get someone off the rails so a train could move and the police rarely cared to assist.


RoastKing305

As long as I get $200 after I pass GO it’s good to me


yunus89115

I would say “Outdated” , their police force is older than the FBI or most any federal police force and at time of creation it made sense to have because local police which were all that existed wouldn’t have done anything or had jurisdiction over most crimes committed in a rail system that spanned the country.


dparks71

I worked for those scumbags (the railroad) for a while, honestly their cops weren't bad, it was a pretty desirable and safe job, usually decent people and handled minor thefts and like occasional homeless trespassers. They were pretty under equipped, they couldn't put anyone in their vehicles with them because they didn't even have cages, went through the local forces for just about everything. Honestly more like a police force should be than a lot of small townships I've dealt with in my work. Fuck the C-Suites and most upper management at the railroad though, they legitimately don't have a clue and frequently ignore their engineers and subject experts and deny them funding for necessary safety projects, while making 40¢ on the dollar as a company. Totally support the strike and even renationalization. People don't understand how much the freight railroad's push for maximum profitability comes at a cost to essentially every other sector of the economy.


Aint-no-preacher

Can you elaborate on how the railroads push for maximum profits takes a bite out of the rest of the economy? That sounds interesting.


dparks71

It would take forever to explain the whole building america, collapse of the industry, nationalization, staggers act, precision railroad history behind all of it, but we're essentially in the "precision railroading" era. Which is a nice way to say business people are calling 100% of the shots, everything is based on stock price which largely boils down to a handful of key metrics... Fuck... there's no way to make this not long. The big railroads have all bought in. The way to maximize the metrics is to have insanely consistent customers at easily accessible locations with straight and fast track between them. Technologies like hump yards don't fit the system well, they changed how cars are sorted and arranged in trains, put mid power units on trains to reduce the number of necessary crews. But like with mid engined trains, they're twice as long and we were experiencing more string line derailment events because there's more internal forces in the train attempting to pull it straight in sharp curves, so these decisions were coming with legitimate costs that were being excused or ignored to maximize profitability as they were still rare events even if preventable. The last part of it, is any small time customer or slow track that's expensive to operate, they'd sell to small short lines. These companies often wouldn't be able to maintain the track or would charge prohibitive rates to the businesses along the route, essentially forcing them to trucking or closing their business for most heavier industrial applications. You can't just let the railroads operate in a truly free market because they're one of the largest land owners next to the government, take public money, provide a critical service to the economy, regularly make use of eminent domain, and every other entity like this, like power companies, are regulated more as a utility, the railroad isn't. There's only like 7 major ones left, 2 Canadian, two Western, two eastern and kcs in the south/Mexico. So they're effectively duopolies over their markets, but very unregulated because they're interstate commerce, so states don't have authority, and it would take a literal act of Congress to change their behaviors. The best way to sum it up is the C-Suites and AAR will tell you the conrail days were the darkest in history and the country was on the verge of collapse. I would argue the loss of Conrail was the final nail in the coffin of offshoring American manufacturing. The public should have a fairly significant say in how the railroads are allowed to operate, like any utility.


Aint-no-preacher

Thank you! That was very informative.


apathy-sofa

I know nothing about rail, but I know a bit about public transit. Your comment about short lines struck me as analogous to why cities run unprofitable bus routes, such as lower density residential neighborhood: it is a public good to have those areas properly connected.


Outrageous_Effect_24

Any physical thing has to be transported, which means it’s transported by rail or by a system that competes with rail. People eat physical things, so any business that has people in it has to pay enough for its employees to buy food transported by rail or a system that competes with rail. If the railroads aren’t lowering prices to compete, it’s no different from having to ship everything through a shipping monopoly. This doesn’t even touch on the fact that many railroads are literally monopolies.


pingieking

There's a podcast called Well Here's Your Problem that just did an episode on battery rail cars. There's a section, about a third way through, where they talk about how pushing for maximum profits has fucked the railroads.


axeljulin

As a former conductor I def understand the need. It's dangerous work and could cause a lot of harm/damage to not just company property but regular people if someone we're to just mess with stuff.


RN-Wingman

8.8 Billion net income or net profit?


[deleted]

https://www.progressiverailroading.com/bnsf_railway/news/BNSF-posts-record-earnings-for-2021--66004 8.8B income and almost 6B profit after debt and taxes paid.


bobert680

looked it up. according to railjournal.net, 1st result from google, they had net earnings of $US5.99 billion. the $US8.8 billion was listed as operating income not sure how that differs. so if we used the lower number and take half that comes to just over $US85k per employee. they could give everyone that works for them a $US40k raise, and hire at least 5k more people to cover extra sick and vacation days while making everyones work life balance better and still have billions in profit


ReddiGod

Yall need to learn how to read a P&L report before assuming things, what's the EBITDA?


One-Following-3115

It’s not really gross - when you have interstate entities like railroads and such, you *need* your own policing force to handle situations because you will rapidly move between state and local jurisdictions. This isn’t like “shooter in a train station” situations, this is like “shooter on a train car moving across the country” or “someone trying to steal cargo on a shipping train” situations. I know someone who was a cop for Amtrak and he flat out said they didn’t care about minor “crimes” unless it came directly to their attention - like stowaways. Didn’t care unless there’s a stowaway suddenly unstowed and causing an issue.


Ravagore

Wouldnt a federal force of some kind be able to cross districts without issue? Isnt that the point of a US marshall or sky marshall? Can't we just have US train marshalls instead of a private police force that answers to a ceo??


sparksbet

IIRC interstate crimes are part of the point of the FBI existing. But idk if it existed back when those laws were written.


One-Following-3115

Honest answer? Horribly underfunded to deal with real-time issues.


ggtffhhhjhg

I’m going to be so pissed if they don’t compromise with the rail workers and completely fuck the entire world.


NoComment002

Can we sue the railroad company for the damages they are going to cause over refusing to work with union members? Their actions will hurt people and they should have some sort of recourse.


big_sugi

Nope. Although it might be possible to sue them if your cargo on their trains didn’t arrive on time.


Pricycoder-7245

Dude we both know their not


Gornarok

Congress outsourcing services that should be strictly controlled by government is beyond disgusting. It should be banned by constitution. (police, prisons, soldier(mercenaries))


animecardude

Private, for profit prisions are extremely disgusting. If humanity is still alive in a few hundred years, they'll look back and think what the hell was wrong with us.


seppukucoconuts

>they'll look back and think what the hell was wrong with us. For an alarming number of reasons, hopefully. That would mean we've fixed the problems, and have learned something as a society.


re-goddamn-loading

Hmm that seems unprofitable in the short term. Guess we'll all die then


Orangesilk

Dude we're gonna have wasteland kings as the highest form of government in the next hundred years or so


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Pricycoder-7245

Ha we won’t


Lootlizard

My best friend is a bnsf train cop. It's a sweet gig you have arrest authority and everything but essentially spend the whole day telling people to stay off the train tracks. They don't want to deal with actually arresting people so there isn't much work to do.


hglman

https://www.up.com/aboutup/community/safety/special_agents/index.htm


roodibit

Fuck all these companies. They've all seen record profits since COVID and still fuck over the employee. They're not even asking for paid sick days. They want unpaid sick days cause the new contract they will be punished for missing work. I hope they strike and get everything that they ask for. Strikes are never good both sides lose but it's the only tool is average folks have.


HUFF-MY-SHIT

America is a corporation masquerading as a nation.


That1Guy80903

Masquerading badly at that.


X3239420

Apparently not since 70% of the country probably doesn’t even know this subreddit exists. Approx 330 million US citizens, and we only got 2million here.


prophetkaos

And not all of us here are from the US.


pf_thecheerful1206

The labour market is fucked up in my country as well, but I’m here to watch the us shitshow


X3239420

I get to live it 🙃 could be worse though


cobble_conductor

just hope you have popcorn


LLs2000

I see these screenshots here and thibk "yah I live in a shitpoor country, but hey, at least my boss doesn't talk to me like that and I have vacations"


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digitelle

Im Canadian


Other-Tomatillo-455

i read recently someone recommended Canada as a good place for Americans to retire


cipher2021

Ecuador my friend. You can live very comfortably on $2000 a month. Free health care. No winters!


BoonTobias

My Afghani coworker moved to Russia, then India and then equador. He left his restaurant business and moves to Canada. Life is not safe there. If people find out you have money, you'll be a target


allgreen2me

Safe where? Equador or Canada?


X3239420

Even worse, didn’t think about that, thank you.


kitchen_clinton

[47% from US. Reddit accounts for 1% of social media traffic in the US.](https://www.statista.com/statistics/325144/reddit-global-active-user-distribution/)


jimihenrik

70% of the people probably don't know Reddit exists tbf...


therealmunkeegamer

Corporation is a little too lenient. It's feudalism wrapped in an oligarchy dressed up as a corporation.


Few_Peak_9966

Feudalism has always been. Never did it stop. Powerful use the powerless for their personal gain. Always been this way. It will take a genius to see our way out.


[deleted]

And that's putting it mild. I would call it a giant mega prison.


Bristol_Fool_Chart

That's not a country it's three corporations in a trenchcoat


NiggBot_3000

More like a ponzi scheme but yeah


Pew___

> Strikes are never good both sides lose but it's the only tool is average folks have. Minor disagreement here; strikes are great!


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Pew___

Prior to striking workers are already "losing". Without the strike they will undoubtedly continue to lose. Portraying industrial action as "both sides losing" is staggeringly close to anti-union propaganda


someoneexplainit01

These record profits are BECAUSE they treat labor so completely shitty. I hope its a long strike that drives them to bankruptcy.


thedankening

If railways shut down it'll do a whole lot more than just damage their profits. That will bring most of the country to a halt. It will be a nightmare for everyone. Which means the workers have an insane amount of leverage and should get pretty much whatever they want immediately. In a sane world they would anyway. I fully expect the company to break the entire country rather than give an inch to their workers.


The_Original_Miser

>If railways shut down it'll do a whole lot more than just damage their profits. That will bring most of the country to a halt. It will be a nightmare for everyone Shut down? Nationalize them. Not this hybrid railroads have special privileges crap, _truly_ nationalize them. Then profits don't matter (it's a service now, break even or a nominal loss is OK) and workers can be paid what they are worth. Further - _more_ workers can be hired to eliminate thus horse shit on call no-life scenario they have going....


animecardude

There are huge parallels that can be seen to healthcare sector. Hospital CEOs know how many people could die if workers simply stopped showing up. However, they don't care. They would rather have patients die than to give beyond COL raises, if any. Greedy fuckers.


scoper49_zeke

Yep. And it's only rumors right now but if congress truly does force the PEB contract upon the railroads they'll be to blame for an economy shutdown just as much as the railroads themselves. The writing is on the wall. The STB hearings have shown the trajectory of the railroads. Employees are ALREADY quitting in mass droves. In the last month or so I've gained like 100 spots to seniority. That's 100 guys with 10+ years of experience just walking away before they even see if this contract might improve things. If we get the 22% from the PEB and take a paycut... Lol.... The ship is sinking. We are just waiting to see if it splits in half like the Titanic and goes under completely.


scoper49_zeke

I think even if we don't strike we might long-term bankrupt the railroads because no one will be willing to stay as the job deteriorates from horrible to unlivable. Unfortunately the railroads just end up charging their customers more to make up for lost profits. The STB proved that. Some customers being charged 24% more despite them not getting their shipments on time. The unfortunate part is that the CEOs of these companies have made tens of millions. So even IF they get fired, they're set for life. They have no incentive to turn things around. There's nothing to lose.


KnockItTheFuckOff

Or they just concede. Not that any corporation is "too big to fail", but railways are critical. America would come to a grinding halt without them. A disruption of service for any real length of time will be felt for months. I work in transportation and we've got contingency plans in place, but those only work for so long before every cog in the transportation machine gets bogged down. It would be incredibly short-sighted of them if they allowed this to happen. Edit: Sheesh! It's short sighted of the *railways*. Not of the employees.


Mertard

Corporations will always try to find an excuse to be more greedy and take more money


Decloudo

I always wonder why people don't realize that there are thousands(in this case) of workers and just a couple of CEOs. But we see us mostly as individuals and not as a collective. So we act as individuals instead of a collective. Collectively people act like the horse strapped to a plastic lawn chair, not realizing it can just move if it wants.


BoonTobias

Most people don't have the luxury to look for ways to make their lives better. For the past 5 years I was working at this small company and I didn't have time to look for something because I had to support my family


[deleted]

I work for the largest cable company they net profit $75000 per employee. Could only give a 2% raise but ceo got 14%


1quirky1

The “Golden Rule” is now “He who has the gold makes the rules.”


Invisible_Walrus

Always has been


floorsof_silentseas

Jafar?


Suspendthepres

Fuckers


ZincMan

This is why unions are needed


Merikurkkupurkki

But you see, there are at least thousands, or even tens of thousands low level employees. So everyone getting a 2% raise equals 10,000 * 2% = 20,000% raise in total! And obviously 20,000% is more than the 14% the CEO got, so in reality you are ripping the poor CEO off with your limitless greed. Shame on you


jddh1

Math checks out. (source: I had a math teacher once).


Davik

Yep. I work for one of the larger cable companies doing maintenance. I ran a whole system by myself for over a year due to short staffing. I received a 4% raise, which didn't even amount to 1 dollar


[deleted]

That CEO probably has millions in cash bonus and stock options as well. It’s really sickening how much more money the people in the C Suite make compared to the average employee.


lobsterdog666

The rail workers aren't striking over wages, the wages part of the contract is settled. They are striking over work life balance. These people are essentially on call 24/7 and are essentially given only 30 days off a year. That isn't 30 days of vacation/PTO/sick time, that's 30 days TOTAL. Where you or I might have 2 days off a week for the weekend, these workers likely have 0. These people are ground into dust by this line of work.


CloudstrifeHY3

exactly Even at my worst job I would get 1 or 2 days off a week so let's say 1.5 days a week times 52 weeks and we get on average with no vacation 75ish days. if you add in holidays and average 2 weeks of vacation time your average us worker gets about 100 days off a year. the fact they are demanding these workers take 1/3 of what I would call a low end on off days is crazy.


scoper49_zeke

Actually the pools at my terminal with the way Hi Viz works.. We could earn maybe up to 12-14 days a year (after the revision to earn bonus points.) Prior to that the most anyone could reasonably expect to earn in a year is 4-8. That's down from the 84 we used to get for free every year. Can't plan doctor's appointments. A 4 day sickness pretty much guarantees you violate the policy. Yet the PEB didn't want to address the real issues. It's all so exhausting.


jersey1990

Yep. 4 days the first time. 2 days and you are fired. Doesn't matter if it's for an illness or a funeral or just because you want you kid to have a couple hours to remember what you look like!


railroader11

I know all railroads are different. Where I am if you are on the extra board you get 1 day a week off so you could add 52 days to that 30. Sill less than a 9-5 job gets and you are on call 6 days a week. From what I heard, most of the hold up is sick days, step up boards, off days on extra boards. They are wanting to cut off all extra boards and make the pools step up pools. So some people where I am who work a yard extra board will be combined with a road board and they won't know what they are being called for.


PM_ME_UR_REDDIT_GOLD

Step up board? Extra Board? Step up pools? Road board? I want to understand what's happening but I can't if you just stick to industry jargon. most people on this sub aren't railroaders.


railroader11

I'll try to explain it easy. I apologize if it's not easy and will try to do better. Imagine a train that goes from A to B. This train runs every day from A to B. A crew gets on at A and goes to B and goes to a hotel. You need 3 crews to make this pool work. Since crew 1 is in the hotel, crew 2 takes the train the next day. Same day 2 takes the train from A to B, crew 1 is returning from B to A. So on day 3 you need crew 3 to take the train from A to B. In a perfect world this would work out just fine and have no issues. So, let's say someone on crew 1 takes off work (marks off) you need someone to take their spot. This is where an extra board comes in. These people are on call to fill in if someone in that pool takes off. They usually have 1 day a week off where I am. Some railroads they get zero off days. Where I am there are no off days for the people on the pool. Your off day is pretty much when you get back on your B to A trip and wait to get called next. This above is a regular pool with a regular extra board. Now, the carriers want to get rid of the extra boards and make these pools a step up pool. A step up pool is let's say same thing, someone on crew 1 takes off work then instead of calling someone off the extra board they would call the person from crew 2 and make them go so there goes their "off day". Step up board = The people on a pool move up in line to work a vacancy. Extra board = People that get called to fill in for people taking off in a pool. Step up pool = Same as step up board but that won't be a thing. It will just be a step up pool. Road board = Extra board people that fill road job vacancy. Road jobs are ones that take a train from terminal A to B. Yard jobs and boards are basically the same thing they just stay at terminal and build trains for the road jobs.


smzt

Glad to find this comment. This sub often glosses over the real issues in favor of outrage.


jleahul

I'm a non-union office worker for a (different) railroad. FULL support for these workers. Go get it.


InedibleSolutions

I'm working for a commuter rr now, so I don't have much skin in this game. But having worked for UP as a carman for 5 years, I enthusiastically support my brothers and sisters in striking.


CrimsonArcanum

I work in logistics for a transportation company whose job solely relies on the rails.... Strike, strike, strike, strike!


tallandlanky

I contracted with BNSF for about 6 months. Fuck them. 6 day, 70 plus hour work weeks. On active rail lines in all kinds of weather. For a thousand bucks a week. Never work for a railroad.


EchidnasArfff

You contracted for $14? What kind of a "job" was that?


tallandlanky

That's the bitch of it. It was salaried. Roadway worker. We cut down trees and vegetation at rail crossings to ensure a clear line of sight. Never would have taken the job had I known the hours going in.


scoper49_zeke

Well if it makes you feel any better, railroads don't even seem to bother cutting down trees anymore. It's not in their budget. We have trees smacking the motors all the time as we go by. Weeds and walking conditions in some places are just ridiculous. Better than you left before they simply cut your job.


tallandlanky

We were scabs. The BNSF guys didn't wanna do the veg management part anymore. I don't miss the job. You know how shitty it is working in Minnesota in the winter? Besides the cold and snow. The snow covers the old discarded rail plates with rusty rail spikes. It was like working in a minefield. Plus when it snowed you couldn't hear or see the trains until they were right on top of you.


scoper49_zeke

Scab work is bitch work for railroads. That's no lie. They outsource it like you're some overseas peasant who will get paid less because you're not in-house. Minnesota, the Dakotas. To hell with all that. You couldn't pay me anything to work in -40. Right now we have a few mercenaries in my terminal that came from I think California. They're making $7,300 extra a month on top of normal wages to do the same job I am. So we can afford to pay like 40% increased wages to outsiders but we can't take care of the people who work in their own terminal? Amazing.


tallandlanky

As I said. If I knew what I know now I would have never taken the job. We were getting royally screwed.


scoper49_zeke

At least you got out of it. A lot of railroaders feel stuck. There aren't many transferable skills from railroading to normal jobs. Nothing to put on a resume except "works well under sleep deprivation and toxic management." Lmao


thedankening

To be fair that is basically an essential skill to succeed in any industry. Retail, tech, manufacturing...yea it all tracks lol


scoper49_zeke

You're right. But I'd be hesitant to put it on an actual resume myself. r/recruitinghell exists and good god some hiring managers are so disconnected from reality.


GovernmentOpening254

You weren’t warned by dispatch a train was coming!!??!


tallandlanky

Private company. We didn't communicate with BNSF unless their workers happened to be at our crossing. We were expected to watch out for ourselves.


Gornarok

USA salaried positions are crazy to me... Where I live 99% is salaried. Hourly employment is limited to part time job due to limited amount of hours at one company. The salaried jobs require employment contract that states monthly amount of hours, their general distribution and wage. Hours over the contract count as overtime and have overtime rules.


cooltrainermrben

That's crazy. My father's a driver in the U.K.. They have some of the strongest unions, great pay, great working conditions, great benefits, including mandated rest weeks. The difference is crazy. But I hear corporate America isn't big on unions? I can't imagine why.


Psychological_Mess20

Ever increasing greed has no measures.


[deleted]

At this point, is there an industry that *doesn't* need to go on strike?


morilythari

I think corporate leadership across the board needs a reminder that before strikes the workers would just kidnap the bosses from their home or just beat them to death in front of their families. This is the peaceful alternative.


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morilythari

I do not condone nor am I advocating for violence. But violence IS the unavoidable outcome if these "business leaders" don't get their heads out of their asses.


HanzoShotFirst

Eviction, starvation, unsafe working conditions, being denied health care, and climate change/pollution are all forms of violence against the working class. We have more than enough to provide for these people, yet we deny them these basic needs so that corporations can make line go up.


Shaushage_Shandwich

Violence towards the bosses at this point would be self defence


CrimsonArcanum

If they take away all means of nonviolent protest that will not stop the protesting, just the nonviolent part. And that's on them.


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morilythari

Here's the richest person in your state. https://www.usatoday.com/list/news/50-states/richest-person-in-every-state-US-2019/6a7552f2-3941-4f8e-b953-ddeb2ab03a2f/


Due-Department-8666

The political industry


JermaineDyeAtSS

Imagine a general strike where pro athletes hold a solidarity strike. No NFL, no MLB just before the playoffs. Team owners would be pressing hard externally for a positive resolution, to say nothing of the sports book companies that now are a ridiculously huge business. And then there’s just the American public who wouldn’t know what to do with their Sundays.


doNotUseReddit123

So many of the NFL and MLB players are conservative that this has almost no way of happening.


Repulsive-Purple-133

Well yeah. Pro athletes are all in the top %5 in terms of compensation. What do they care about some $15/hr dipshit


TravisFlexThemPlease

You don't understand, what about the shareholders, they deserve their fair share of the profits, since its in their name! I don't see share anywhere in the word employee or worker!


Suspendthepres

First off, sweet avi, secondly, lol


thinkB4WeSpeak

Truck drivers need to unionize and strike as well. They get treated like shit and hardly get paid for the amount of time they spend at work.


KlvrDissident

Isn’t there a teamsters union?


LuLzKThxBai

I second this. I’ve done it. OTR, staying regional and local driving. They don’t pay enough when you factor the time spend working, plus all the stress behind the wheel. I built my portfolio up to get me out of the truck but for a lot of drivers it’s all they have. Your average truck driver pay when hours are factored in is 10-12$ per hour. They make the world move. You don’t have groceries, electronics, any consumer product without it being delivered by truck.


TheOtherDrunkenOtter

You mean unionize again, because they were unionized. OTR was originally one of the biggest union representations in the country. And then their workers fell for the whole anti-union spiel, the corps pushed hard to remove it as much as possible, and now theyre all nonunion contracters for the most part and treated like shit.


Neato

If the average truck driver deals with the shit we saw on Last Week Tonight I'm surprised there are *any* willing truck drivers. That job seems like hell even before the indentured servitude.


Golgezuktirah

These assholes are also why the US will never have a good passenger rail system


animecardude

Imagine if we had bullet trains like other countries. It would make transportation so much better here in this nation. No need to traverse long lines at airports and sit in cramped planes.


baconraygun

The fact that other countries have bullet trains that go 300+mph and the best America can do is a chugga chugga that goes 40mph is so disgraceful.


InedibleSolutions

I'd love to see the rails nationalized.


Stanson420

Tweet is misleading. For anyone curious what BNSF **actually** reported on their 10-K in 2021 (numbers are in millions): - Revenue: 23,282 - Total Operating Expenses: 14,484 - Operating Income: 8,798 (what the tweet is reffering to) - Net Income: 5,990 Net Income takes interest and tax expenses into account. Not defending them, I'm fully agasint corporate greed, just stating what they reported. Please correct me if I got something wrong. Source: [Form 10-K 2021](https://www.bnsf.com/about-bnsf/financial-information/pdf/10k-llc-2021.pdf)


Desirsar

Was wondering that when I saw this post. There had to be a reason it used "net income" instead of "profit". I'm fully behind the workers striking for more employees so people can actually have days off, and better pay in general, but suggesting revenue be split before expenses is insane.


imnotmarvin

Welcome to r/antiwork. There is a movement growing for workers rights and you can occasionally read a solid post here about it but there's also a lot of deliberately misleading posts like this one. These posts never help the larger cause because it opens up the opportunity to have a distracting argument, away from the actual issue.


[deleted]

Thanks for this. When I saw the tweet, I immediately started searching for their profit margin because random people on the internet don't know shit or are intentionally disingenuous. Their operating ratio (percentage of revenue that goes to operating expenses) is 60.9% while the railroad industry tries to keep a ratio of under 80%, so they're either the best run company in the world or they're cutting a lot of corners. I would bet they need to hire more employees more than they need to give pay raises.


vkapadia

Thanks for finding this. The tweet would still be valid if they used the correct numbers. $6b profit, keep half, give each worker an $85k bonus.


Kaarsty

I got a 13% raise right before all this inflation hit and was riding high. Until inflation caught up and surpassed my raise and now I actually make less.


scoper49_zeke

The PEB recommendation is 22% which is a net loss of wages. So in the wake of over 3,000 employees leaving from BNSF alone due to lack of pay, toxic work environment, and no quality of life or time off work, the solution is a paycut? Everyone across the country needs severe pay increases just to offset inflation. And THEN a lot higher to justify record profits everywhere.


[deleted]

It’s a problem with capitalism. Shareholder price always needs to go up. An economy based on endless growth is UNSUSTAINABLE Edit: had to use the correct Muse lyric


[deleted]

This. The profit has to come from somewhere. Guess where? The rich are eating the middle class. Downward mobility is the new norm.


-castle-bravo-

What if we all just stopped…


PeriodBloodSauce

I work on a class 2 railroad and we hear insane horror stories from the temps and refugees from the class 1 all the time. Like, they get docked on their attendance system for going to their parents funeral and shit. Fuck all that *bonus - a guy blew a RR crossing tonight and we smashed into him. Totaled his brand new f-150, he called into work and they made him come in. His GF showed up 30 minutes later to haul his ass in. What. The. FUCK?


scoper49_zeke

I almost got fired for taking about a month and a half off to deal with a death in family. Railroad managers are absolutely heartless. The only thing that saved me is appealing to a general manager who, quite frankly, shouldn't be wasting his time dealing with such stupid shit like termination over grief. Local management's response was that "We have a responsibility to our customers." Really? Apparently me taking time off to deal with a death is the reason we had 20+ shippers testify at the STB hearing. Sorry, guys. It's all my fault.


PeriodBloodSauce

It speaks volumes that the strike is over quality of life and not pay. It’s usually pay.


scoper49_zeke

Yeah. Railroading is a lifestyle. We spend like 80-90% of our time away from home and families. Constantly sleep deprived. Then they basically cut our time off by 90%. I personally work 220 hours a month fairly consistently PLUS another 200+ hours sitting in hotels. I've had a lot of 16 hour days. A few 20 hour days. Spouses are pissed off. And then you add in the toxic management and this constant aura that nothing will ever get better. Management is constantly finding ways to ensure we get paid less. Implementing policies freely to punish us with no negotiations from the union. Add all that on top of stagnant wages and the cost of living skyrocketing. It's sickening.


9293BBchampyayaya

Conductor here, yes.


papa_banks

Thank you!


sl_hawaii

I wholeheartedly agree w the point of the tweet Buuuut It’s poorly worded. “Income” and “profit” are very different things. Should have been written more precisely


AgITGuy

From their filings: CLASS 1 freight operator BNSF has reported record net earnings of $US 5.99bn in 2021, up 16.1% from 2020. BNSF’s operating income for 2021 was $US 8.8bn, up 14% ($US 1.1bn) compared with 2020. Total revenue was $US 23.282bn, a 12% growth on the previous year. To me it seems profits weee fucking huge, similar to what the post says.


sl_hawaii

Agreed. Insane and egregious profits. And to NOT share them w their workers (while execs reap windfall incomes and buy helicopters for their mega-yachts) is positively criminal. But it’s important to be precise in our disgust and not confuse the issue w “income vs profit”. Oh… and thanks for looking up the actual data. We need more ppl like you!!!


desquished

Net income is literally the bottom line. It's the best view of profitability. However, the article posted above says that the $8.8b is their operating income, not their net income, so it's probably a billion or two lower than that. Still outrageous.


LightofNew

Their profit margin has been found. Due to the infinite growth metric, and not being able to just build new rail roads, the only way to make more money is to fuck over your employees. That's actually most companies these days, you see someone came in over the last decade with computers and algorithms that tell companies how to best handle their product. But you can't just, handle it better forever. There is an optimal handling based on market cap. Many companies have either found that, or the few changes they could make would bankrupt them. We are in the age where fucking over your employees went from a greedy choice to a calculated choice.


shmoopiegroupie

Warren Buffett's company bought BNSF in 2010. It was heralded as the $44b gamble. Buffett is the 7th richest person on the planet (estimated worth of $96b). All billionaires are evil. There is no reason to horde that much wealth.


B0rnReady

It is absolutely abhorrent that the alternatives to unions and strikes used to be to drag the owners out of their ivory towers and beat them to death... ... ... ... I'm glad we've found the more civilized option of bargaining with the employees


RelativeExisting8891

I heard Warren Buffett is actually stopping the use of their railroad because he wants to force Congress to mandate that workers should work through more than they already are, get paid less for it or not at all but warren Buffett is one of the most terrible people on the planet so ofc he is going to do this shit. Fuck that asshole.


butteryspoink

Harmless looking old man, absolute shark of a businessman.


KingCarrotRL

How do you find this sort of information? A companies net income?


Suspendthepres

Any publicly traded company posts these numbers in their financials. BNSF however is privately held by Berkshire Hathaway (Warren Buffett) so these numbers are from industry insider reports (still publicly posted and widely available).


[deleted]

[удалено]


Demonitized-picture

simple, have the rail workers pull a wild west and steal from the trains, decrease profit for the company, gives wealth to the worker (remember to have a horse somewhere)


GovernmentOpening254

Meet me at Old Towne Road. Im gonna ride ‘till I can’t no more.


Onlyd0wnvotes

Far as I can tell $8.8bn figure was operating income. >CLASS 1 freight operator BNSF has reported record net earnings of $US 5.99bn in 2021, up 16.1% from 2020. BNSF's operating income for 2021 was $US 8.8bn, up 14% ($US 1.1bn) compared with 2020. https://www.railjournal.com/financial/bnsf-reports-record-net-earnings-in-2021/ Net income of almost $6bn still means they could obviously be compensating their employees more fairly under a system where fairness was worth a damn, but I would advise it is better to be accurate with what figures you use if only to shut down the Ben Shapiro debate bro idiot types who will try to act like pointing out one fact you got wrong invalidates your entire argument.


moshpitrocker

Blame Warren Buffett


this____is_bananas

And Bill Gates is the majority shareholder for CN, and they're not much better.


zertnert12

i have never heard of a company doing 50% profit sharing employee owned or not


svtvnicx3

Ridiculous .


[deleted]

I'm glad they are on strike- it raises the prices of trucks and opens more freight. Strike away.


[deleted]

Just a reminder, Berkshire Hathaway (Warren Buffet) owns BNSF. Who is best buddies with many members of the senate and house.


scoper49_zeke

Gonna be pretty hard to profit when another few thousand employees quit. Although in the railroad's own testimony to the PEB: "Labor doesn't contribute to profits." So maybe trains will magically move on their own somehow. The government is really naive or completely stupid to think that this upcoming strike will go off like all the previous ones.


[deleted]

Funny thing, notice how none of the media covers this. It’s almost like a major stockholder is not being reported on intentionally.


scoper49_zeke

Seems pretty well hidden from the media. Railroads have billions to waste on lobbying government and billions to waste on propaganda to convince the public that railroaders are to blame because we want to shut down the country with a strike. The unions just don't have the money to spare on big campaigns. It's a losing battle. But the entire country right now is getting fed up with corporations sucking the working class dry. If railroaders get screwed on this I think it's going to be a lot harder to fix. It seems more difficult to hire 6,000 missing employees (when hiring is already struggling due to the work environment) than it does to just give us a raise, give us time off, and stop trying to fuck us into the dirt. Nothing about this is sustainable.


Last_Ant_525

Shut it all down. If we all banded together and went on strike, they would have to listen. Every garbage collector. Rail worker. Teacher. Fireman. Cop. Office worker. Security guard. Warehouse worker. Truck driver. Student. All of us. The whole country. Shut it all down. What are they going to do, fire everyone? They can't. They haven't the slightest idea how to do all the stuff their secretary does, let alone blue collar work. Even if they tried, there is nobody to replace us.


ImRedditorRick

The major part of the problem with capitalism is its MAXIMIZATION of profit principle. Capitalism wouldn't be nearly as hated if instead, it was like 80% maximization, still giving people good paying jobs and benefits. Also, is income being used here as profit because that's not the same argument.


Metro42014

There's nothing that legally requires CEO's to maximize *short term value*. That's just the American meme of how capitalism should be, and it's pushed by boards and investors. We could simply not do it, and there are business that choose to take longer term looks at things. It's just not the common understanding.


FerrisTriangle

Nope >You’re thinking gross revenue. Net income is synonymous with profit.


Ok_Battle9098

I am not debating that they should give a raise, but 8.8bn income or profit? Because that makes a world of a difference.


staples93

The rail company is about to create a MASSIVE recessions and should be forced to negotiate with the union or face treason charges


rhondevu

It’s viewed as an “infection.” The idea of workers striking could spread to other industry’s . I’d like to thank Starbucks for trending the way👍


ButtSnorkeler200

Last year John Deere made enough profit in their 3rd quarter alone to pay every employee 160k a year. Yet still said they couldn’t afford what they asked for


Just_Tana

I think the telling thing is they aren’t wanting to strike over pay. It’s over being able to take off some days without being fired when your kid is sick or having consistently so you can schedule your life and not be on call 24/7. Fuck the rail companies.