Latest is that there is a tentative rail worker agreement where the Gov basically forced all the rail lines to pay workers 24% more over the next 4 years in 6% annual increments. Note that there is nothing yet that says this is signed, sealed and delivered.
Now we wait to see if this comes to pass, along with the related percentage increase in rail transport mile/ Cost to go up to the sky. Of course, this is not mentioned anywhere, it is all “free” money to the cabal in charge.
So the image above remains on what might yet be, seeing fuel costs for diesel are still astronomical. How many of you recall the days long gone, say 5 years ago, when diesel cost less than regular gasoline per gallon? Yeah, been a while and of course it is .Gov that is responsible for the shift to ultra low sulfur with added taxes causing the price to jump. Not to mention the increase in cost to fleet operators that are being forced to use newer equipment to meet ( that ol’ .Gov again) lower emission and higher mileage standards (latter which are not possible under present laws of physics).
Just keep all this in mind every time you go to the store and watch the weekly staple food prices escalate.
50 days to go unless you are in a blue state where mail in voting for everyone is already in operation (and it is an “operation” – have no doubt). Gonna be ugly.
The main issue for the unions that were holding out wasn’t the money. It was about having days off.
DJ is right about that one. I talked to an engineer, he said he hadn’t had a day off in over 4 months. They are guaranteed 10 hours off per day, and are on call 7 days a week. What this means in practice is that a lot of money goes to fast food and hotels. Supposedly he got 2… Read more »
Yes, already commented on the time off aspect in comments of my prior post in this blog. My focus is on the possibility this could still fall through and even if it is a done deal, the costs will all filter in to the cost of goods across the board to the continuing detriment of our respective wallets. Inflation? We… Read more »
We’re screwed no matter what, the price increase here is minor compared to what the Fed is doing to our wallets. About a third of the RR cost is personnel, so the shipping rate increase should be 3-5% a year directly from the wage hike. The doubling of fuel costs has done a lot more damage.
I don’t know enough about the situation to comment one way or another, but I do have a question. Are the railroads having staffing issues? They simply do not have the trained, (No pun intended) people to run things?
If so, why? Are the unions throwing up roadblocks or is it our enemy, the Government?
I worked in the RR equipment supply end 91 to 98, even then the average age of most people I dealt with was well above 40, so yes, most are now of retirement age and the replacement/training effort is not keeping pace. From the outside looking in, it is probably a combination of things, unions, management, regulation (over regulation in… Read more »
The Covid slowdown caused the railroads to dump 10-20% (depending on the company) of their personnel, many of those found different jobs in other industries and don’t want to come back. The way the RR has compensated for this is working their people more and running humongous trains – a train over a mile long uses the same number of… Read more »
Oh heck yes. Things are heading for a lot worse Having lived through other country financial meltdowns, the pain is just starting.When the majority of companies go into SOS mode and shed 30 to 40% of workforce, ask yourself what will happen to the economy not to mention the near 30 million illegals that will be the first shed as… Read more »