You can't compare an Amtrak OBS worker's long hours away from home with the working conditions of a worker in a stationary restaurant, or even a flight attendant who might spend a few hours in the air on a typical flight.
Why not? Flight attendants on long-haul flights also do up to 18 hours in a cramped plane, get a couple days break like the Amtrak staff does, and do another equally long flight again. What makes Amtrak OBS so special that they need to be tipped?
If rewarding good service is "sensible and decent thing to do" then why not go ahead and extend it to all professions? I provide excellent service to my clients as a software consultant, where is my 20% tip?
There is a big difference between doing a long haul flight of 18 hours (which remember, flight attendants are subject to hours of service as well, so they're not
on duty that entire time), and working constantly for 18 hours on the train. Which by the way... long haul OBS certainly do not just work 18 hours and get a couple days off. Even the Acela crews that work a 17 hour round trip only get 1 day off, unless it's a weekend, which is 3 days. Long haul OBS could be onboard for up to a 6 day round trip. Even 448's crew is gone from home for 3 nights. How about the sleeper or coach attendants who have to get up at all hours of the night if they have a passenger detraining/boarding from/to their car(s)?
Would you want to be on the extra board, and have to be gone from home for 6 or 7 days (working up to 18 hours per day as an LSA, or potentially more as a coach/sleeper attendant), and only be guaranteed 48 hours of rest when you return to your crew base? Would tips help you feel more appreciated when you're feeling rundown?
I'm the last LSA you will ever see being tacky and only giving you good service if you tip, or waving money in your face as you detrain from First Class, but to argue against showing your thanks for a job well done because of our wages? I encourage you or anyone else to join the ranks for a couple of months and see how you feel afterwards. If you guys only had the slightest idea of how tough things can be. I've given these examples before, but I will do it again...
Two years ago during the worst winter on record, I signed up at 1pm for 66 and broken down at RTE and sat for 4 hours before we were rescued. Signed off at 1:30pm
the following day. Yes, I was awake and on duty the whole time. To boot, I couldn't make it home because the snow cancelled my thruway bus.
The layover when we work train 71 to NFK is from roughly 12am to 4:30am (the time we check-in until we check out, so you're lucky to get 3 hours of sleep at best), and then we work back to Boston and arrive at 7:20pm (on Sundays 88 is crewed by NY so they have to wait for 67 and deadhead back to NY, finally going off duty at 2:30am, that's 22 hours on-duty on 3 hours of sleep).
A couple of weeks ago I was on a heavily delayed 66 (not the one that broke down outside of NY, but was stuck behind a disabled freight). After signing up for 66 at 1pm again, I finally went off duty at 12:15pm. With that delay, and working 67/66 trips back to back, I worked 90 hours in 8 days.
There have been numerous cases of LSAs being stuck working 7+ days straight during some pretty bad service disruptions on the corridor (188 for example.) One of my fellow Boston LSAs was stuck working 125 to NFK and 174 back (at the time 174 originated in NFK) to PHL, turning and taking it right back to NFK. On 125 we use to get to NFK at 8:40pm, and report for 174 at 3:15am. He was doing that particular turn for 5 days straight.
Still sure that we don't deserve the tips or wages that we are paid?
To keep this thread from getting further off-topic, I will go back to being a casual observer of this thread. Anyone who wants to discuss anything further, feel free to drop me a PM.