Labor Negotiations soon!!!!!!!!

[gswager]

What about high deductible health insurance, like $1000 or more? It should saves a lot of money on premium! With that, you are qualify to use Health Savings Account, similiar to IRA. I know that it may not be a good idea for those who have frequent medical problems. Just giving you an idea.

 

[Save Our Trains Michigan]

COLA that is just a joke mabey a 1-3 cent's raise a year.

For exsample if i am away from my home base for over 12 hrs i get $12 for meals they keep us at the hotel for 20+ hrs in NOL and each meal costs at least $10 and we only have 1 place to eat and thats at the hotel.

We spend more money out of our pocket then we get in raises a year.

Figure 2-3 meals a trip at $10 a piece and i stay in the hotel at least 4-5 days a week.

I think the Railroads can give a little more then what there doing right now.

 

[haolerider]

Seems to me that if you are losing money, you need to find another job. All the complaining and the frustration is not good for your health, whether it be mental or physical.

 

[rmgreenesq]

COLA that is just a joke mabey a 1-3 cent's raise a year.
For exsample if i am away from my home base for over 12 hrs i get $12 for meals they keep us at the hotel for 20+ hrs in NOL and each meal costs at least $10 and we only have 1 place to eat and thats at the hotel.

We spend more money out of our pocket then we get in raises a year.

Figure 2-3 meals a trip at $10 a piece and i stay in the hotel at least 4-5 days a week.

I think the Railroads can give a little more then what there doing right now.

I'm a bit confused by your post. Do you mean to say that the railroad (Amtrak?) is forcing you to eat at the hotel? They will not permit you to eat anywear else? OR do you mean to say that during your 20 hour layover in New Orleans that the railroad will only reimburse you for $12 for meals and that the railroad requires that $12 to be spent at the hotel?

I find it hard to believe that your employer would dictate where you must eat, or even that you must eat at all. It seems reasonable to believe that the railroad will only reimburse $12 and that must be spent at the hotel. If you spend your first $12 in food money at the hotel and then seek cheaper meals elsewear, you will loose less money by working.

BTW, my health insurance is $815 a month, and the only way I get a raise is by managing to cajole my clients into paying me more. Welcome to the world of self employment.

Rick

 

[AlanB]

I'm a bit confused by your post. Do you mean to say that the railroad (Amtrak?) is forcing you to eat at the hotel? They will not permit you to eat anywear else? OR do you mean to say that during your 20 hour layover in New Orleans that the railroad will only reimburse you for $12 for meals and that the railroad requires that $12 to be spent at the hotel?
I find it hard to believe that your employer would dictate where you must eat, or even that you must eat at all. It seems reasonable to believe that the railroad will only reimburse $12 and that must be spent at the hotel. If you spend your first $12 in food money at the hotel and then seek cheaper meals elsewear, you will loose less money by working.

I got the impression that the problem was that there was no place else in the area within walking distance for him to go and eat.

And just to clarify, Matt works for BNSF RR, not Amtrak.

 

[rmgreenesq]

I got the impression that the problem was that there was no place else in the area within walking distance for him to go and eat.
And just to clarify, Matt works for BNSF RR, not Amtrak.

Thanks for the clarification Alan. I think BNSF can afford to be a bit more generous in the wage department than Amtrak. Amtrak is going hat in hand to Congress for funding. BNSF is a private entity. And New Orleans has undergone a bit of a ummm how to put this politely, change lately.

Also, I'm sure BNSF's yard can't be downtown. Its probably in the middle of nowhere.

Still I think with a bit of brain power, cheap eats can be found, delivered, or brought in from the crew base. Just be lucky they are not down range catering like the airlines do. Only God knows when the food eaten by the flight crew was made.

Rick

 

[1702]

I'm a bit confused by your post. Do you mean to say that the railroad (Amtrak?) is forcing you to eat at the hotel? They will not permit you to eat anywear else? OR do you mean to say that during your 20 hour layover in New Orleans that the railroad will only reimburse you for $12 for meals and that the railroad requires that $12 to be spent at the hotel?

I find it hard to believe that your employer would dictate where you must eat, or even that you must eat at all. It seems reasonable to believe that the railroad will only reimburse $12 and that must be spent at the hotel. If you spend your first $12 in food money at the hotel and then seek cheaper meals elsewear, you will loose less money by working.

I got the impression that the problem was that there was no place else in the area within walking distance for him to go and eat.

And just to clarify, Matt works for BNSF RR, not Amtrak.

Having spent 19 years working on the road with Amtrak, I do understand some of the problems one finds on a long layover away from home. That said, I'm curious as to where BNSF would lodge its crews in New Orleans or surrounding suburbs that wouldn't be a short walk from places to eat other than the hotel.

Whatever the meal allowance is, that comes as part of the pay for the trip. Expenses such as meals incurred on a layover away from the home terminal are tax-deductible. Just a matter of getting & saving receipts for one's tax preparer.

 

[Guest]

Generally COLA increases for government workers has been in the 3-4% range, at least over the past several years. I believe this is the same level of increase seen in Soc. Sec. benefits, but I am not sure about that. In my mind, a COLA increase is a pay raise.
I have to agree with one of the previous posters, who indicated that if Amtrak employee contributions to medical/dental benefits have not increased, they are lucky, since many corporations have decreased their contribution and increased the amount paid by the employee.

I would also be surprised if the Amtrak union employees went out on strike, since, as I understand it, this would give Amtrak the ability to void the existing contracts and work rules.

a cola is not a pay raise it your income at the same agreed upon level

 

[haolerider]

If your gross and take home pay increase for whatever reason, it is a pay raise. You are making more money, plain and simple.

 

[AlanB]

If your gross and take home pay increase for whatever reason, it is a pay raise. You are making more money, plain and simple.

Remove the part about "take home pay" and you've got it right. If one's gross pay increases, then one has gotten a pay raise. Whether that increase goes into your pocket directly or indirectly through health or retirement benefits, it is still a raise.

It might not be a raise that one likes, but it is a raise.

 

[Yerry]

I've gotten no raise in six years. I have to spend $1,500 every five years in classes just to keep the job I have. I lost State retirement (which, at my income, would have been a pittance-- I would have still qualified for full Social Security) beacsue teh State had to trim budgets to permit, ironocally enough, retention of the 403(B) train subsidies.

So, where do I go to sign up for these horrendous, abusive contracts? Wow, even a month's paycheck would be a Godsend.

***** ***** ***** *****

In reference to the $12.00 meals: in all fairness to Matt, there are many places where the food situation is abysmal at best. When I lived in Redlands, CA, people complained about the "lazy railroad people" who stopepd their switching train near a Shell station every night. I guess the train ruined their late-night view or something. Turned out it was the only place on the line where they could stop and get something to eat and still stay in contact with the dispatcher.

In the West, there are many places where there's a diner that existed for the train crews, mainly because there wasn't enough business in (the small) town itself. The owner got old, retired, and nobody else was interested in working for the just-getting-by income. The place closed, and there's now no place for the crews to eat.

Also, some years ago I went to a railroad-populated restaurant near Chicago because of an interesting article I saw in an old TRAINS magazine. The waitress was a big, no-nonsense woman,a nd she told me that I wasn't going to eat there unless I moved my car to the front where it could be watched, and I ahd to promise I'd be gone well before dark. Neighborhoods change, but the railroad can't exacyly pack up and relocate too.

Lest anyone suggest that a packed lunch is the answer, it's nigh impossible to pack one from away-from-home, and as I found out in my 12 hour, 6 & 7 days a week at a power plant construction job, a packed lunch when working port & starboard hours just doesn't work.

 

[Save Our Trains Michigan]

BNSF crews stay at the Best Western in kenner La right across from the Airport

The Railroad does not provide any transportation except when we get off the train and picked up at the hotel and we have to be in the lobby a half hr before we even go on duty so we can get something to eat.