USA National Rail Strike

[whole diary]

[grahame]

From the BBC^» (British Broadcasting Corporation - home page)

US freight rail companies and unions representing their workers have reached a "tentative agreement" to avert the first national rail strike in 30 years.

The deal follows months of back and forth negotiations and 20 hours of overnight talks on working conditions.

Reading and hearing about these potential strikes, the threat of them comes across as utterly understandable when you read what the main "grouch" was/is.     I'm also struck by what appears to be a strike threat has resulted in further negotiations to avert the strikes and to avoid an actual shutdown - is there a lesson there for folks in the UK^▸ (United Kingdom) to learn from and follow?

[Electric train]

From the BBC^» (British Broadcasting Corporation - home page)

US freight rail companies and unions representing their workers have reached a "tentative agreement" to avert the first national rail strike in 30 years.

The deal follows months of back and forth negotiations and 20 hours of overnight talks on working conditions.

Reading and hearing about these potential strikes, the threat of them comes across as utterly understandable when you read what the main "grouch" was/is.     I'm also struck by what appears to be a strike threat has resulted in further negotiations to avert the strikes and to avoid an actual shutdown - is there a lesson there for folks in the UK^▸ (United Kingdom) to learn from and follow?

The USA railways are freight centric.   The US economy is dependent on the movement of freight by rail hence the US railroad unions have a lot more economic power.  A USA railroad strike would also have a major impact on us in the UK, a lot of Europe - Asia container traffic is transhipped across USA / Canada.

Also looks like there has been no US Government interference in the negotiations

Fortunately, in the UK we do not have the same employment laws as the USA, although I suspect the Government want to move in that direction.