STB chairman says higher pay would help solve railroad crew shortages.

[elleng]

“There is a price that will get you enough workers. I don’t know what that price is. But everything has a price,” Martin J. Oberman says.

Surface Transportation Board Chairman Martin J. Oberman says railroad service is suffering for one simple reason: The big four U.S. Class I systems aren’t paying enough to retain and recruit train crews.

BNSF Railway, CSX Transportation, Norfolk Southern, and Union Pacific are experiencing ongoing crew shortages that since last year have caused widespread congestion and significant delays.

The railroads say the crew shortage is largely due to factors that are out of their control. Crews furloughed at the onset of the pandemic didn’t return to the railroad at the same rates as they typically had, and attrition rose due to the Great Resignation that accompanied the pandemic and has affected all businesses. Meanwhile, the historically tight labor market has made it difficult to hire conductors, an outdoor job with an unpredictable schedule and a significant amount of time spent away from home. . .

The STB has no plans to use its mandate to oversee service as a way to indirectly regulate railroad crew levels. “I’m not a backdoor kind of guy,” Oberman says.

But he questioned whether railroads, at their current staffing levels, are able to meet their common carrier obligation to provide service upon reasonable request.'>>>

https://www.trains.com/trn/news-reviews/news-wire/stb-chairman-says-higher-pay-would-help-solve-railroad-crew-shortages/?

[CurtEastPoint]

1. Yep. File THIS shocking discovery under DUH.

[Emile]

5. My thoughts too, LOL.

[ret5hd]

2. Funny how nobody wants to say...

“the law of supply and demand…” when it is the workers supplying the demand.

[czarjak]

3. The more things change, the more they stay the same? Conductors were going to be expendable.

[Warpy]

4. Higher pay in general will solve a lot of problems

It will increase Federal and state tax revenue, lowering deficits.

It will increase OASDI and Medicare funding, shoring those up.

It will allow people living on the edge, working those jobs we recently found out were essential to afford nutritious food, safe housing, and even enough savings that they no longer have to rely on predatory lending companies.

It will allow people to feel they are a part of this country for the first time since the early 70s, being paid a fair wage does that, too.

It will decrease homelessness as people become able to save enough to rent, rather than living in shelters.

Employment will increase, since every penny spent at the bottom has a multiplier effect as demand and labor are added to it as it goes through the economy.

It won't do everything at once, but it's a good start on some of the other reforms we desperately need, like a progressive tax system, breaking up the monopolies (starting with media and banking), and freeing up seed money for entrepreneurs.