Submitted by hahahoudini t3_113d7ho in Pennsylvania
TurkeyBLTSandwich t1_j8q5ijs wrote
Reply to comment by chickenonthehill559 in Railroad Giant To Skip Town Hall On Train Disaster, Citing 'Physical Threats' by hahahoudini
I don't get the downvotes?
The Biden literally forced the railworkers to "suck it up buttercup" and told them their concerns weren't valid.
A giant slap to the face of railworkers and as a whole bluecollar workers in general.
The stopping of the rail strike was one of the biggest set back in organized work for the current administration.
The Sec of Transportation hasn't made a major effort in curb stomping these rail giants and actually fining these terrible airlines. Like dude fine them into oblivion and start actually regulating them?
chickenonthehill559 t1_j8q6ddr wrote
Current administration has done little or close to nothing to help with this situation.
Prior administration did little or next to nothing to prevent this situation.
BenWallace04 t1_j8qfymf wrote
Because it is still a very much “one side is still worse than the other” situation.
An Associated Press review of the department’s rulemaking activities in Trump’s first year in office shows at least a dozen safety rules that were under development or already adopted have been repealed, withdrawn, delayed or put on the back burner. In most cases, those rules are opposed by powerful industries. And the political appointees running the agencies that write the rules often come from the industries they regulate.
Dems instituted many rules and had many more on the table that were either rolled back or crushed under the Trump admin.
If you want to argue the Biden admin is a backed up toilet the Trump admin was a proverbial “toxic waste dump”. Rather fitting actually.
Atrocious_1 t1_j8qr5xv wrote
"it's ok our guy is fucking up terribly, the previous guy fucked up even bigger!"
BenWallace04 t1_j8qsi7i wrote
”Our guy fucked up”
How so? Dems passed the laws than Trump rolled it back while he had a majority in Congress.
No one said that it’s okay or that our system isn’t broken but, in the meantime, voting in Republicans is just going to expedite our race to the bottom.
Atrocious_1 t1_j8qt9kc wrote
Buddy, Sec Pete is nowhere to be found, Biden is talking about Chinese balloons, and Norfolk's execs basically disappeared.
If this administration was half competent there'd be bills on the floor right now and an investigation. Moreso, Biden himself broke the rail strike when they were demanding better pay, more time off, and safer conditions.
Overworked, exhausted workers plus faulty equipment is what caused this. Rail workers wanted less of that, but Joe "nothing will fundamentally change" Biden said no.
tyrael459 t1_j8rnvlp wrote
Why did Biden end the strike? Was he afraid of more severe inflation if the trains would stop running? Honest question. I didn’t quite get all of that when it was happening.
the_propagandapanda t1_j8rp8n1 wrote
Yes, pretty much. Not so much specifically inflation but the US economy as a whole. The numbers change depending on what source you use but roughly it was estimated that 1-2 billion would have been lost per day if the rails shut down. Rail transports ~%40 of the nations long distance freight and ~%30 of exports.
It’s a lose-lose situation tbh. Either the rail workers strike and rail conditions get better (could have potentially prevented this derailment) or the already poor economic situation gets worse for a lot of people. Regardless the consistent issue is the rail company that refuses to take real responsibility for any of it.
TurkeyBLTSandwich t1_j8rtnjz wrote
I saw someone else posted. But the Rail companies REFUSED to budge on some demands.
Rail Companies work on a random scheduling bases. Which means they don't move trains until they hit capacity. So train crews will often have to be on standby for 24/7 until they get a call. Which means they'll have to show up within the hour. Also note trains use to run on schedule and wouldn't leave at full capacity sometimes. Companies hated this so they changed it because 1 all scheduled trains would need crews and 2 they couldn't carry as much stuff if it was scheduled. So now they just say "these trains wont move unless we have them full of stuff"
The Rail workers were asking for UNPAID LEAVE APPROVAL FOR MEDICAL APPOINTMENTS. And this was denied because the rail workers staffing were stripped to skeleton crews. Literally the bare minimum to run the trains.
Biden stopped the strike for a multiple of reasons. One being the supply chain issue hasn't really solved itself just yet.
But also corporate interests demand that trains keep running in unsafe conditions. It's simple really, the rail lines should be nationalized and regulated by a government entity and ENFORCED. Also note it really grinds my gears because legally passenger rail has right of way for all rails. HOWEVER most of the time passenger rail has to heed to freight rail because rail is SO long that when they come by they usually block passenger rail physically. AND GUESS WHAT? THE FINES IF ANY ARE ALWAYS SO LOW THEY CONTINUE DOING IT.
It's really a companies don't want to "miss out on more profit" and the rail workers trying to get a semblance of basic necessity. And the Biden administration chose to side with the rail companies. The rail companies literally went on national tv and said "these rail workers are selfish and want to destroy the economy"
I have such a disdain for the current state of affairs of rail in America
tyrael459 t1_j8sivjo wrote
Seriously, this stuff is so gross. The rich just keep getting richer.
Zenith2017 t1_j8rn1tl wrote
Biden killed the railway strike. Open your eyes
hahahoudini OP t1_j8sz2du wrote
None of that excuses Biden's union-busting
Mtts28 t1_j8quxoi wrote
None of those rules would have prevented this. This was caused by a broken axle. Simple as that. You’re trying to make this about politics and it’s not. It’s about a broken component on one rail car that rarely ever fails.
mtnlife991 t1_j8r5dym wrote
This was not caused by a broken axle. The NTSB determined a "wheel bearing in the final stage of overheat failure" was the cause of the derailment. A very preventable issue with regular maintenance and inspection.
Mtts28 t1_j8rknom wrote
Axle is an easier way of dumbing that down for people. My point remains. The rules which Ben posted still do not pertain to wheel bearings. Wheel bearings do fail at random times even with maintenance. We struggle with this in the rail industry and truck industry. It’s why you also see so many truck fires. It’s a cheap component prone to failure. I have seen ones with less than 5000 mi on them blow apart in wheels. It’s literally nothing new. Additionally I have not seen any reports yet that this train threw any hot boxes along the line so it likely happened at a rapid pace.
hahahoudini OP t1_j8szo7y wrote
There's a video of it on fire in Salem, 20miles before the crash. There also seems to be a call made about the hot box, and an investigation is underway. If you're genuinely interested, you should google, there are a handful of media outlets covering this part of the story. I think I saw the hot box footage on a CBS report.
Mtts28 t1_j8t8isj wrote
The media is covering it now? Only took 2 weeks. I gave up trying to find anything.
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