Of particular note:
The Association of American Railroads, which represents freight railway operators, said its members have been hiring in recent years to address staffing needs and recognize employees’ desire for better scheduling. The group said the number of overtime hours worked by BMWE union members increased to 4.7 hours per week in 2022, compared to 4 hours in 2016.
Cory Ludwig, who works as a machine operator repairing railway tracks in Iowa, said he’s been working Saturdays and some Sundays along with 10- to 12-hour shifts since September. Recently, he worked 13 days without a day off. With the mandatory Saturday work, he’s had to rely on friends and relatives to take care of his five-year-old and nine-year-old kids. He said the overtime demands have increased as he’s seen the number of workers assigned to his crew go down.
“You fall asleep and then you wake up in the morning and you go right back to work. It can really break a person down, it gets really wearing on a person after a while,” Ludwig said. “With less people trying to do the same amount of work, working long hours, working multiple weeks in a row without one day off, you get irritated and you get burnt out.”
Recently one of the union’s members had been working 22 hours straight when he fell asleep on the job, an error that could have put his colleagues’ lives at risk but also could have been avoided had the employee had a rest period, said Ballew. Another member was recently disciplined for refusing to work through his scheduled days off on short notice so he could care for a family member having health issues, Ballew said.
“The stress it puts on marriages and parenting and the things you leave behind for your spouse to deal with or the things you miss, that kind of stress builds up,” said Ballew. “In the rail industry, we have noticed recently a spat of suicides and I can’t help but think there is a correlation there.”
Thank God Biden stopped the railroad strike!
I swear if I hear another fucker say that the railroad workers got everything they wanted because Biden helped them negotiate I’ll lose it.
Good thing I voted for the lesser evil in 2020! Gosh if I had stuck to principles we’d have had a genocide or something 😒
While they mention the number of people who retired during the pandemic, they failed to mention the million or so who died, the tens of millions with long covid, and the family and friends who are now helping out those who are disabled and can’t pick up shifts they might have covered before.
Well of course they don’t mention the actual health consequences of the pandemic (that never actually ended) - that would make the money line sad!
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We joke because we’re too demoralized to be angry anymore. Outrage and tragedy takes a lot out of us, eventually we burn out and resort to gallows humor. I don’t think that’s what’s hindering progress though!
It’s the evil motherfuckers in the ruling class that hinder progress. They murder us to maximize profits because we’re nothing but meat to them.
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I think you’re putting the cart before the horse. Mockery is the result of helplessness, I don’t think it causes it. It’s a coping mechanism.
Take that away and people would just… tune out.
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Religion is a coping mechanism too, but that doesn’t stop religious people from fighting for their freedom. 🇵🇸
You joke, because you have nothing to contribute. You’re not demoralised, this has no effect on you.
“They murder us… nothing but meat” And you are offering alternatives how? Stop pretending to be outraged when you care so little that you can’t even be bothered to investigate the causes of issues and proffer solutions.
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The alternative is to abolish the profit motive, end the accumulation of wealth, seize the means of production, and put the ruling class in work camps.
I joke so I don’t kill myself. Honestly? Fuck you. I’m so fucking tired and angry all the fucking time, so either I joke or I cast a 9mm ballot into my fucking head for the next election cycle. At least that way my vote might fucking mean something.
This comment goes hard for me
How do you abolish the profit motive? It’s literally just the motivation to benefit from a transaction.
“Put the ruling class in work camps”
So create another ruling class to imprison these people? Do the new ruling class have to be subject to imprisonment as well? What about the dictatorship of the proletariat, that is now oppressing the previously wealthy? Shouldn’t they also be subject to imprisonment for abuses?
“At least that way my vote might mean something”
And it will mean more depending on how much you contribute to society.
“I’m so tired and angry all the time”
So am I. I’m so tired and angry, I have no recourse but to criticise you. Oh, that’s not a legitimate reason, you say? My mood doesn’t justify my behaviour you say?
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How do you abolish the profit motive? It’s literally just the motivation to benefit from a transaction.
By abolishing private ownership of capital and the accumulation of wealth.
So create another ruling class to imprison these people? Do the new ruling class have to be subject to imprisonment as well? What about the dictatorship of the proletariat, that is now oppressing the previously wealthy? Shouldn’t they also be subject to imprisonment for abuses?
The goal is to eventually abolish class society completely, so there is no ruling class.
And it will mean more depending on how much you contribute to society.
That’s really not true at all. The Arab Spring was started by a simple street vendor who set himself on fire in protest of the confiscation of his wares, and that triggered the collapse of multiple countries. Unfortunately it didn’t amount to any actual progress because there wasn’t an organized party that was ready to take advantage of his sacrifice, and then of course America had to get involved and make it all worse, but he had a huge impact despite not being important or famous or powerful.
So am I. I’m so tired and angry, I have no recourse but to criticise you. Oh, that’s not a legitimate reason, you say? My mood doesn’t justify my behaviour you say?
Don’t… put words in my fucking mouth?
A lot of people on lemmy are just bad at first principles of economics and politics. They don’t quite get (as Marx didn’t) that the structures of capitalism arise from scarcity and complexity, and that it doesn’t matter what you actually call the mediation of scarcity via a monetary proxy - the end results will be largely the same. Which is why the focus needs to be on understanding these complex systems comprehensively and regulating them. Not useless bumper sticker platitudes quietly celebrating even more violence.
Edit - yeah, exactly, there’s no bigger threat to outdated ML orthodoxy than a freshman economics textbook
I completely agree with this take and also think that similarly, we should refrain from typing/saying things ironically, because eventually, they are communicated unironically.
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Oh - and I also forgot to mention that, even in the current ‘slow’ period, the US is still averaging over 100 covid deaths per day. And that also means that we’re averaging an additional 1500 people with long covid every day.
And no one cares about getting a vaccine because “COVID is over” 🙃
“WhY aRe WoRkErS qUiEt QuItTiNg!”
Because capitalism punishes success, that’s why. Many people have learned that work isn’t school. There’s no A+s for a job well done, it’s “can you come in today?” on a weekend.
80 hour weeks? Damn, you guys over the pond are crazy 😬
36 hours is 1 more than the standard work week in France lol.
I’m on 37,5 hours per week, and that includes lunch breaks. During the summer months, the hours per week is shorter: 32
And yet I’ve got a boss for a French company that tells us we have to work 45…
I’m jealous of my French colleagues, shorter work weeks, more vacation time, etc.
I work at a coal mine and did 112 hours last week plus travel time which is unpaid. Its a 40 minute drive. Some days i just shower at work and sleep in my car.
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There are only 168hrs in a week. Do you feel like a human being?
Yes but time moves very quickly. Weeks dissappear. I feel like i make more money than i do because i have no time to spend it.
I suspect he doesn’t. Pretty sure the boss would prefer it stay like that.
I work in a rolling mill and our normal 18 turn schedules have 90-100 open shifts. On top of that, there will be a Sunday with 60 jobs to fill. We have a 3 day rule, where you can’t get forced to work double shifts 3 days in a row, but there are guys who get forced over every day they’re eligible. 88 hour weeks are not uncommon.
Pretty standard in manufacturing sector. There are so few people with the skillset and reliability to operate a factory, that they perpetually pay out overtime because they really have no other option.
I don’t get it. We pay well, have some of the best benefits around, and can’t find anybody that wants to work.
I wouldn’t want to work 88 hour week, tbh.
The point is, we’re short handed because we can’t get people to stay. 15 years ago, you could easily work a 40 hour week. You couldn’t get a 64 hour week in if you wanted to. Today, I could literally work 16 hours every day.
It is the absolute interest of every capitalist to press a given quantity of labour out of a smaller, rather than a greater number of labourers, if the cost is about the same. In the latter case, the outlay of constant capital increases in proportion to the mass of labour set in action; in the former that increase is much smaller. The more extended the scale of production, the stronger this motive. Its force increases with the accumulation of capital
– Karl Marx, Das Kapital
Basically if your boss is paying you and your coworkers overtime, then they’re just not paying another employee. You make a little more money but your boss makes a lot more, and has no incentive to hire another person. In fact as long as he can get people to work overtime, its actually against their interest to hire more people. The whole time they’re crying how none wants to work, but really they’re not willing to hire anyone unless it is for less than half of your salary. If they do they lose money.
Get organized
It’s basically positive feedback loop: longer hours - more people resign and less people are hired - hours become even longer.
I take an extra 7 hour partial shift every week to make ends meet and I’m borderline suicidal. I can’t imagine a 36 hour shift or an 80 hour week.
Yeah at my old job I was working 6-12s for months.
I had a mental breakdown at work and got myself fired. 😅
Genuine questions- what is borderline suicidal? My mum was suicidal (as in…put on suicide watch) and there was no borderline, just one day it happened.
If you feel its getting that way- please do whatever is necessary to protect yourself. Death is a very final solution to a temporary problem.
Lots of suicidal ideation. I don’t keep any firearms or overdose drugs at home, so it’s mostly thinking that it’s a good thing I don’t have any firearms or drugs because I’d probably use them on myself if I did.
Don’t ignore the warning signs. Not everyone who has ideation goes through with it, but everyone who goes through with it had ideation.
I’m not a professional, and perhaps that’s not the help you need - maybe you just need someone to talk to…friends, family or if neither of those are available (or don’t help you) then seek out one or more of the numerous charities out there looking to help people like you.
Don’t ignore it. Seek help. Please.
Have you looked for help?
Hope you at least talk to someone about this. Ideally someone who is going to support you.
Great article, stupid OP.
Why?
This is the best summary I could come up with:
Long shifts with little rest and last-minute schedule changes have become a routine occurrence for Gonano and his colleagues, who have worked six times the amount of mandatory overtime hours this year that they did before the pandemic.
Staffing shortages have plagued the economy since the start of the pandemic, with many leaving the workforce to retire or take over child care needs, while others have switched professions, often to careers with better work-life balance or higher salaries.
But several labor unions say employers should be doing more to fill the persistent vacancies, like raising wages or improving working conditions to attract new workers, rather than placing the burden on their existing employees.
New York recently strengthened a law that prohibits employers from making nurses work past their regularly scheduled hours outside of an emergency or an ongoing surgical procedure.
Still, Jen Burke, a nurse at Vassar Brothers Medical Center in Poughkeepsie, New York, said it has become routine for her and her colleagues working in the cardiac catheterization lab to have their 12-hour shifts extended because of a lack of staff or beds in other parts of the hospital.
Recently, one of the union’s members had been working 22 hours straight when he fell asleep on the job, an error that could have put his colleagues’ lives at risk but also could have been avoided had the employee had a rest period, said Ballew.
The original article contains 1,914 words, the summary contains 235 words. Saved 88%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!
This is a pretty common story with anyone working in trades. Construction guys are usually putting in similar hours and you can see the exhaustion in them every time they weakly hobble to the bus stop. The benefits are better than what most local jobs are offering but it’s hard on the body and that results in a high turnover rate.
36 hour shift in a 36 hour week actually sounds kind of cool. Kill yourself for 2 days and have 5 days off. Would definitely not want to do 36hrs in 2 days and then proceed to have 15 hour days for the rest of the week too.
If you’ve worked even 12 hour shifts multiple days in a row you’d know how asinine this is.
I worked a few 18 hour days… It is not sustainable
There was a point where I worked 12hr days ONCE a week and that in itself was asinine.
Probably depends on the work and your endurance level. I used to do 12 hour warehouse work Saturday/Sunday over summer vacation in college while I played video games and hung out with friends the rest of the week. It felt freaking amazing. Three days in a row might’ve been pushing it, especially in my later 30s.
But considering I’ve done intense development work for 12 hour sessions over 3-5 days, having had 4 days off instead of 2 would have certainly delayed or prevented my inevitable crash of burnout.
Listen man, I’ve worked a 36 hour shift pouring concrete before. It is NOT something you, or anyone, should be doing once a week. You feel like you’re drunk after staying up that long and working. Like hammered. It is absolutely not good for your brain, and certainly not a sustainable way to live.
I worked for the railroad years ago and it was brutal then. i still have nightmares about how terrible that job was. Most stress I’ve ever experienced
Does anybody know of any studies relating to hours/injury?
Not sure about that but there was a study during WWII – in Britain, I believe – that showed a negative correlation between hours/productivity. Essentially, once you push workers past 40hrs week, they don’t really produce any more than they would if their hours were capped. Exhaustion, hunger, thirst, physical accidents, mistakes, all adds up across a workforce so the returns diminish quite quickly.
