Page 2 - Smart Td News Today

The patience of 120,000 railroaders is at an end. They are tired of being bureaucratically denied their constitutionally protected right to strike by an unaccountable bureaucracy working with the carriers and Washington.

With the unions, it is not a question of whether they will betray but how. The critical question is: How will workers respond?

Railroaders told the WSWS that the SMART-TD agreement is worse than the Presidential Emergency Board recommendations, which were widely rejected by the rank-and-file.

Workers are livid after the two largest rail unions revealed on Friday, less than a day after blocking a national strike, that no tentative agreements yet exist between the unions and the carriers.

Since the PEB issued its recommendations, the rail unions have maintained a guilty silence.

The US unions, like their Canadian counterparts, claim that arbitrators are “neutral” parties. Nothing can be further from the truth.

Having imposed a harsh new attendance policy, the railroad will seek a further increase in its operating income, which reached $8.8 billion last year.

After the incident, federal investigations, which the workers described as “smoke and mirrors,” exonerated the company.

“If there was a strike, it would have such a heavy impact on the economy,” she said. “People don’t want to disrupt the supply chain, but it’s not worth their health, sanity and job safety. Every worker I’ve talked to is willing to strike because of that.”

Even before the pandemic began and the Hi-Viz attendance policy was introduced, conditions were unsanitary and schedules were unforgiving at BNSF, according to a former engineer.