• assassin_aragorn@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    From what I understand East Palestine was unrelated to the union’s demands. It still really highlights though just how shitty the companies are and how little they care.

    I’m not thrilled with how everything went down either, but I do think it was the least worst option. The rail industry is “too big to fail”, and the CEOs were perfectly willing to tank the economy and delay crucial food, energy, and water shipments. All for just some more money.

    I firmly believe now that the industry needs to be nationalized. If a strike will cause more harm to the public than to the owners, those workers are essential for our everyday lives and the government needs to take control. And by causing harm, I don’t mean “oh no the gifts will be late for Christmas” – some of the issues with this would’ve been places running out of water treatment chemicals or heating in the winter.

    The way I see it, the rail CEOs took the entire country hostage. They need to be ousted and their businesses taken over.

    • BarrierWithAshes@kbin.social
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      1 year ago

      Its a damn shame it isnt nationalized. East Palestine wasn’t exactly related but yeah, it did highlight. Not to mention it failed because of regulaions those business leaders rallied against. The UK is worse with this stuff and have a more gross history with their rail ceos and strikes.

      • dunidane@lemmy.sdf.org
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        1 year ago

        We should at least push to nationalize the rails and sell access. Give the public interest more control over quality of the infrastructure, actually give Amtrak scheduling priority, force more strict regulations on safety equipment and procedures that would have prevented East Palestine.