The other foot drops with Iowa Pacific

[Ryan]

IP is generally well regarded around here - now we see part of how they're able to do what they do.

Want to start a union? Tough, you're fired:

http://cookcountyrecord.com/stories/510644706-private-at-will-employees-not-shielded-from-termination-for-supporting-unions-appeals-panel-says

Two men who supported an attempt to unionize an Illinois railroad company are not protected by the law from being fired for their support for organizing their coworkers, a state appeals panel has ruled.

On Oct. 20, a three-justice panel of the Illinois First District Appellate Court issued an unpublished order rejecting an appeal of a Cook County Circuit Court decision against plaintiffs Jeff Weeks and Rich Sweiss who argued Chicago-based Iowa Pacific Holdings illegally fired them for supporting the installation of a union in the company.

Once again, the private industry fairy doesn't magically solve anything, all the nice stuff we get on the train comes on the backs of their workers.

 

[jis]

This is not a problem peculiar to railroads. All the nice things that you get anywhere comes on the backs of some workers. I bet you use items of clothing that comes off the back of some workers in the third world who are not allowed to unionize at all too. Sad but true.

OTOH unions are no magic either specially in those circumstances. Depends on who controls any specific one too. In some cases they can be very harmful and in others very useful.

In short, it is complicated.

 

[Anderson]

Well, if Wal-Mart employees aren't protected (and there have been a slew of such firings and/or other recriminations) I don't see why IP employees would be.

That being said, I'd be very curious to see how the pay/benefit rates stack up on each side. Something I do have to say, though, is that if IP is making things work at a wage which is acceptable but not in line with what Amtrak is paying, I'm not exactly sure what that says.

 

[jebr]

I'm not sure there's even much to compare an IP Hoosier State employee against within Amtrak. Maybe a regional or corridor service cafe car attendant, but doing any comparison to the long distance trains could be explained simply by the different schedules required (especially the fact that long distance chefs are required to be away from home for days at a time, where a Hoosier State chef based out of Indianapolis would have essentially a "long day" 3 out of the four days. I'm not sure how they handle the Monday CHI - IND and Tuesday IND - CHI...maybe they use a Chicago-based crew that day?)

I'm also hesitant to draw any particular conclusions from their scheduled charter service. Those do have the overnight demands that the other Eastern trains do, but I'm not sure how their off/on schedule compares to Amtrak employees (if an IP employee gets longer off time, that's a benefit that could offset a lower salary.) If it's relatively equal, then I could see some comparisons being drawn.

I'm not particularly comfortable if the wages result in below-poverty wages for the employees of IP. However, if they're able to live a middle-class lifestyle on the wages provided, but Amtrak is still paying more (for equal positions - again, a Hoosier State chef position is not equivalent to an Empire Builder chef position) then maybe it's time Amtrak lowers the wage a bit to get closer to market rates for the positions.

 

[Anderson]

Well, and I think there's a good question of what a "fair wage" for such a job would be. This isn't an idle discussion...there's an obvious difference between the $25.54/hr Amtrak pays on-board food service employees on average (per the OIG report from 2014) and the $10-14.10/hr paid at other services (Rocky Mountaineer, Downeaster, and Alaska RR were the other comparison items in the report). So I think there's a big difference between if IP is trying to run right at minimum wage versus something in the $10-16/hr range (especially since some level of tip income would be expected on top of that...well, at least if pax are thinking like a lot of us tend to).

Ignoring the tip income point, I'd be curious as to what the wage levels (and/or working hour situations) in question were. I'd be kind of surprised if IP were running some sort of "sweatshop", for example, and with this coming out of Chicago I can't help but be a bit skeptical that there might not have been some social pressure around the Chicago yards if IP is running a non-union shop while Metra and Amtrak are running union shops.

 

[neroden]

Well, if Wal-Mart employees aren't protected (and there have been a slew of such firings and/or other recriminations) I don't see why IP employees would be.

Actually, the retaliation against Wal-Mart employees for trying to organize unions *is* illegal.
Railways have really funny regulations; the federal employee-management relationship laws for railroads predate the federal laws for all other industries, and as such they got a carve-out when the general laws for other industries were passed. So retaliation is prohibited by federal law for nearly all industries, but not for railroads.