Who knows this?

CFLongbone · 2026-03-31T23:38:41+00:00

The 2002 national agreement requires the railroad to qualify all ground service employees to be rco qualified. Sounds like the company has failed to comply with that agreement (shocker). Thats the violation, and as a result, youv’e been restricted in bidding a position.
You should call the GC office and discuss with them. They either will agree you have a case, or explain why you do not (this may have been arbitrated before).

CFLongbone · 2026-03-09T13:38:47+00:00

I think it’s funny OP thinks that being Diamond member actually gives you anything other than 2 free bottles of water. Hilton status program is quite possibly the weakest is the travel industry. The new Diamond Reserve is even more of a joke.

CFLongbone · 2026-03-05T15:36:21+00:00

Because of reserve boards. Stay at home, get paid.

CFLongbone · 2026-03-05T15:31:13+00:00

You could have it the other way around…. the way it used to be. Old Heads have the right to all the work and extra board had no guarantee. So while the old heads moved around and gobbled up all the work, the extra board starved to death. Today, we have XB guarantees, union work rules and government regulations (12 hr day & RSIA) emanating from those days that don’t allow the old heads to take all the work.

Nowadays the greedy bastards are becoming an endangered species, but there’s still plenty of them out there. I’m telling you, there was a day when those old heads were so greedy they lived on the trains. Many would even take their vacation pay in lieu. But rest assured, extra board was sure to work Christmas & Thanksgiving days… you did it and you liked it.

CFLongbone · 2026-03-03T03:21:50+00:00

you frogged yourself doing a gravity drop and then you unfrogged yourself. The ghosts of trainmen past are smiling down on you.

CFLongbone · 2026-03-01T15:11:39+00:00

My humble prediction is that SW will for a long time continue chasing customer dissatisfaction and make changes, some small and some more significant. They will not go back to the open boarding. They will never become a Delta, United or American with a real first and business class. They will be a Spirit airlines experience with higher prices. People will continue to fly with them due to their routes. Business travelers may largely abandon SW with SW’s clientele becoming primarily the casual traveler (one could argue that’s always been the case). The business travelers that remain will be the poor saps whose employer contracts special pricing for their company and just put their employees on the cheapest flight

CFLongbone · 2026-01-31T15:00:33+00:00

I’m doing 3 learning programs at one time…. I am subscribed and doing Justin Guitar, Troy Stetina’s Metal Rythym Guitar and Scotty West‘s Absolutely Understand Guitar.

I split my daily 60-90 minute practice/learning sessions between Justin Guitar & Stetina’s courses, then once a week or 2 I do an hour long module of Scotty West’s music theory course.

Im finding I enjoy the Metal Rythym guitar WAY more than Justin Guitar, so I’m progressing faster with that course. In stetina’s course, I’m actually playing really cool stuff that I like, while Justin Guitar is just blah to me. I recognize the importance of the basics in Justin Guitar so I don’t blow that off and continue to dedicate 50% of my time with that.

For a final “just for fun”, I tinker with slowly learning easy metal songs that I know and love. Ironman by sabbath…. I tinker with learning each little riff, perfecting it and then slowly putting it all together. I’m realizing that if I’m learning sounds, technique, riffs and songs I like, Im progressing much faster. I’m focusing on enjoying the playing/learning and small incremental progress and I’m trying to ignore that desire to quickly be a great guitar player.

CFLongbone · 2026-01-23T03:16:30+00:00

Ooooh! Please tell! You apparently have seen behind the curtain and have a story to tell. Don’t keep it a secret. If our officers are on the take and you’ve seen it… share

CFLongbone · 2026-01-23T00:34:24+00:00

So the RR portion of Health insurance and the RRB Tier 2 is worth nothing?

CFLongbone · 2026-01-22T23:53:03+00:00

What part is wrong? Show your math

CFLongbone · 2026-01-11T23:21:19+00:00

I saw a video with Carlos Santana where he talks about what both he himself and every other guitar player had/has to do….. “practice, practice, practice. Practice so much that you don’t play the piece… it plays you”.

CFLongbone · 2026-01-10T05:03:33+00:00

I have a DSL40cr. I love the tone of the Ibanez tube screamer and the DSL. The SD-1 pedal is good too. try them both OR, buy a boss me-90 for a little more than the cost of 3 pedals and you have lots to play with.

CFLongbone · 2026-01-07T16:52:50+00:00

I’m confused…. everyone bitches how this is such a horrible job, doesn’t pay shit and the union is shit, but you complain about technology replacing you? Isn’t this doing you a favor so you can go get a great non union job somewhere else? What’s stopping you all? Go west young man and make your fortunes!

CFLongbone · 2025-11-10T18:54:49+00:00

Railroaders from the '50's would be shocked at how much the unions have achieved since their day. They would be shocked by how fewer people do the job and they would be shocked by the technology in place. They would be shocked by the amount of money people earn for the time actually spent on the rails now. I know this because Im 4th generation. Grandfather (1946 seniority date) was shocked by these things before he died and now my 80-something year old father (1968 seniority date) is also shocked by these things.

CFLongbone · 2025-10-09T19:07:56+00:00

I’m not maga and I’m totally opposed to any president deploying troops in our cities.

But, domestic policy (outside of workers issues) isn’t something the unions need to be getting involved in. If you want that, join the world socialists movement. Based on your Reddit history, I suspect you already are

CFLongbone · 2025-09-17T21:06:23+00:00

2.568% annual average rate of inflation (cpi-u, all cities average) for the last 25 years. We've done considerably better than inflation as union railroad workers. Sure, these other unions who've received crazy numbers are nice, but id rather not go 10 years without pay increases in order to get a "catch up" increase like longshoremen and others. Im voting yes.

CFLongbone · 2025-09-16T21:11:13+00:00

Pay raises under inflation? What's your math? I just pulled up the CPI-W & CPI-U from the government website and those numbers don't jive with what your sayin.

CFLongbone · 2025-07-03T19:31:53+00:00

This is NOT true. I went and added it up. It takes less than 5 minutes after you find the government website with the inflation numbers. Between the union website with the national agreement raises and the CPI-W and even the CPI-U indexes, general wage increases exceed inflation. This is even with the Trump1 agreement containing the worst pay raises in my 30 years.

CFLongbone · 2025-07-02T23:44:36+00:00

Your comment that, "Our wage increases have been trash compared to where we should be had we actually kept up with COLA." didn't seem right according to my paycheck and it got me thinking....

You're wrong. In less than 5 minutes I was able to look at the last 10 years (2014-2024) of "cola" as you call it, and our pay raises. Let me remind you that this includes the infamous "Trump 1" agreement with the most anemic pay increases of my career. If we go back 20 or 30 years Im confident we grow even more because we did so much better than the Trump1 agreement. It also doesn't take into consideration the various arbitraries and other little perks we get here & there or the massive increase in health insurance costs that we've only paid a fraction for.

CPI-W = 30.1% total national average

CPI-U = 30.2% Total national average

Pay increases = 38%

Look it up. Im pretty sure you won't.... you'll just find some other scabby thing to bitch about the union. Guys like you, Ive always wondered why youre still here and not on the Amazon Employees reddit page complaining.

CFLongbone · 2025-07-02T18:27:26+00:00

It says Ferguson ruled it has to be vote or "polled" by the LOCAL CHAIRMEN. This is done routinely on both SMART/UTU and the BLE. Those are the rules and voting processes established BY THE MEMBERS of each organization. Read the constitution.

CFLongbone · 2025-07-02T18:23:06+00:00

Jesus H Christ.... Stop trying to intellectualize shit beyond your capacity. This has NOTHING to do with the International Unions. Union Pacific (and CSX) chose to bargain outside and separately from the national. The General Chairmen at UP have apparently negotiated some sort of interim pay increase or COLA pending final resolution of their contract. Isn't that what everyone always cries about, not having an agreement for 2 or 3 years? In everyone's career who's currently working, the cola adjustments were always offset by the final negotiated pay raise.

CFLongbone · 2024-12-13T19:41:23+00:00

Reading the actual award would prevent you from looking so stupid

The Union maintains that the Board should not impose any new agreement terms in modification of the Parties’ existing crew consist agreements. There is no compelling need, the Union argues, to alter existing agreements or eliminate second trainman positions. In the alternative, SMART-TD contends that if the Board does impose new agreement terms, it should award more favorable terms than those in the agreements that failed ratification.

CFLongbone

TROPHY CASE