>>1939647>>1939891>calling american rail unions "obstinate" when they literally have no bargaining powerThey used to under the ICC system.
>Already a long and bitter fight had been joined over the requirement that diesel locomotives, which had no fires to tend, nonetheless carry firemen as part of their crew>In November 1959 the railroads served notice of their intent to eliminate firemen on diesels. Four years later, after a fierce battle, a federal arbitration board ordered the position of fireman phased out with generous severance packages>Within two years 55 percent of the firemen’s posts had been vacated; then the union secured a freeze on any further eliminations, leaving 45 percent of trains still carrying firemen>Some states still had “full crew” laws requiring trains to carry six or even seven crew members>railroads guaranteed a ninety-day notification of job termination and a severance package of 60 percent of salary for five years [after union negotiations].>crews got paid by mileage rates established during the steam eraThis goes into the expense problem: railroads were saddled with an inflexible, costly system of rules and constraints at the very moment they needed to adjust their operations to survive, because the government assumed it was still 1890 and no real competition existed.
