[bsder]

Because if the media starts covering it hard, way more than half the population of the US will plug their ears and start saying "LA LA LA LA LA! I CAN'T HEAR YOU!" really loudly.

If this gets coverage, suddenly lots of inconvenient questions start popping up around monopoly, safety regulations and OSHA, and union workers warning about this 2 months ago.

But, hey, everybody got their Amazon packages by Christmas, so if a piece of shit town in Ohio has to pay the price that's just the way it goes, knowwhatimean?

[nilespotter]

> union workers warning about this 2 months ago

First I've heard that, got a reference?

[weard_beard]

Union negotiations shut down by Biden and Congress included safety reforms regarding car length and working hours. Both were factors in this derailment: https://www.rutgers.edu/news/why-did-government-step-prevent...

[ballenf]

It would be nice when the dust settles to have a single bad actor to blame instead of systemic negligence, decades of inadequate maintenance or the like. Hopefully the investigation findings will reflect willingness to assign clear blame where it belongs.

[bsder]

It also included limits around the scheduling systems that are being used to overrun the infrastructure as well as maintenance requirements.

[robertoandred]

No, the factor was a broken car axle.

[r85804306610]

from another thread, https://time.com/6238361/joe-biden-rail-strike-illegal/

[SilasX]

Can you quote the part where union leaders are warning about something in the way the grandparent describes? I’m not seeing it.

[Avshalom]

I mean it's not a union leader but it is about train derailment in northeast ohio

https://twitter.com/SawyerHackett/status/1625295841769431046

[r85804306610]

you're right, the other comment led me astray and i didn't check. it's just partisan trash. so to make up for it,

Wp starts its `background` analysis <https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/2022_United_States_railroad_...> with `The rise of precision scheduled railroading has resulted in resource and staffing cuts; to compensate railroad companies have enacted strict attendance policies for employees. These policies eliminate any free time which workers have, requiring them to be effectively on-call for weeks at a time. Workers have complained of increased levels of stress and fatigue.` The bulk of the argument is supported by this vice article <https://www.vice.com/en/article/pkp9m8/what-choice-do-i-have...> which is frankly horrifying. It's a bunch of quotes from train conductors talking about falling asleep, being tired, taking caffeine pills, etc. It ends with a 2020 derailment. "A BNSF TRAIN CARRYING OIL TANKERS DERAILED IN WASHINGTON STATE IN 2020. WORKERS ARE WORRIED MORE CRASHES LIKE THIS WILL OCCUR UNDER THE NEW ATTENDANCE POLICY."

Wp again "Unions representing about 17,000 workers threatened to strike over the points system, but BNSF Railway sued and won a restraining order to prevent the unions from striking. The Railway Labor Act grants Congress the authority to intervene in any railway or airline strike. Under this authority, the National Mediation Board has mediated negotiations between multiple freight railroads and unions starting in June 2021." and there's your crux.

then a bunch of back and forth happens, and then it ends with biden/congress/senate doing their thing. it seems like the gist of the forced solution was to raise salaries and some sick leave, but no other mitigations.

wp again, "Writing for Jacobin, Barry Eidlin, associate professor of sociology at McGill University, said the message sent to the rail workers by the president and Congress was "shut up and get back to work." The Biden administration's intervention in the dispute was condemned by over 500 labor historians in an open letter to Joe Biden and Secretary of Labor Marty Walsh."

[mikrotikker]

https://www.npr.org/2022/12/02/1140265413/rail-workers-biden...