I've gotten no raise in six years. I have to spend $1,500 every five years in classes just to keep the job I have. I lost State retirement (which, at my income, would have been a pittance-- I would have still qualified for full Social Security) beacsue teh State had to trim budgets to permit, ironocally enough, retention of the 403(B) train subsidies.
So, where do I go to sign up for these horrendous, abusive contracts? Wow, even a month's paycheck would be a Godsend.
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In reference to the $12.00 meals: in all fairness to Matt, there are many places where the food situation is abysmal at best. When I lived in Redlands, CA, people complained about the "lazy railroad people" who stopepd their switching train near a Shell station every night. I guess the train ruined their late-night view or something. Turned out it was the only place on the line where they could stop and get something to eat and still stay in contact with the dispatcher.
In the West, there are many places where there's a diner that existed for the train crews, mainly because there wasn't enough business in (the small) town itself. The owner got old, retired, and nobody else was interested in working for the just-getting-by income. The place closed, and there's now no place for the crews to eat.
Also, some years ago I went to a railroad-populated restaurant near Chicago because of an interesting article I saw in an old TRAINS magazine. The waitress was a big, no-nonsense woman,a nd she told me that I wasn't going to eat there unless I moved my car to the front where it could be watched, and I ahd to promise I'd be gone well before dark. Neighborhoods change, but the railroad can't exacyly pack up and relocate too.
Lest anyone suggest that a packed lunch is the answer, it's nigh impossible to pack one from away-from-home, and as I found out in my 12 hour, 6 & 7 days a week at a power plant construction job, a packed lunch when working port & starboard hours just doesn't work.