美国国家公共电台 NPR--Examining the issues behind a possible rail strike

Examining the issues behind a possible rail strike

Transcript¹

NPR's A Martínez talks to Justin Roczniak — co-host of the podcast "Well There's Your Problem" — about the broader issues behind a looming² railroad strike.

A MART?NEZ, HOST:

For more on a possible railway strike, we turn to Justin Roczniak. He's a co-host of the podcast "Well There's Your Problem" about engineering disasters. Justin, sick leave is the sticking point in negotiations³ to avoid a strike. Why do railways reject this seemingly simple request?

JUSTIN ROCZNIAK: So this has been - it's been a big problem for a long time, especially since, you know, over the past, let's say, five or six years, you've had workforce⁴ attrition. You know, you did have an amount of sick leave and amount of time off that was predictable. But as railroads have adopted this thing called precision schedule railroading and mostly adopted the bad parts of it and not the good parts, all of a sudden, everyone's on call all the time.

MART?NEZ: What is that, precision adjusted railroading?

ROCZNIAK: So your precision scheduled railroading is essentially⁵ - you start to run trains rather than the old-fashioned way where, you know, you run a freight train that goes from one rail yard to the next one. The cars get, you know, switched around each time. Now you run the train a much longer distance all at once, and that increases your average train speed. That means you have better equipment utilization⁶ in terms of locomotives and railroad cars. It's really good for efficiency in a lot of ways. The issue is it also requires you to invest in infrastructure⁷ and do things that keep the trains running reliably. And that's the hard part that railroad executives didn't want to do. They wanted to get the good stuff, the good stuff that made money and not the stuff that made them spend money, you know.

MART?NEZ: And what are the bad parts? Yeah, what are the stuff that makes them spend money?

ROCZNIAK: You got to put more tracks down. You got to put more tracks down. You got to - you have to invest in stuff like signals. You have to have - you know, you have to have stuff that makes the trains run reliably.

MART?NEZ: And is this putting a lot more on the workers, a lot more just wear and tear, a lot more hours, a lot more on them to make sure that this happens efficiently⁸?

ROCZNIAK: Absolutely. I mean, it's been - it has been - and especially in the last five years, but it has been a very long process that got us here. You know, it has very much put the burden on workers to, you know, start showing up at weird⁹ hours to take over, like, these trains that are not running as reliably as they used to or these trains that are, like - how do you say it...

MART?NEZ: Bigger, right? I mean, is it me, Justin, or are just trains bigger than they were before?

ROCZNIAK: Absolutely. Trains did get much bigger in the past couple years. There's this new concept - not this new concept, but there is this concept of distributed power, which means, you know, trains can be, like, three miles long where they used to be, like, a mile long. And that has been part of the operating model now for probably two or three years now, at least here on the East Coast. On the West Coast, it's been a thing for a longer amount of time.

MART?NEZ: Justin, is this why railroad workers are drawing a line in the sand over these negotiations?

ROCZNIAK: Yeah, it's - you know, it has become impossible to have a normal life and also work for the railroad. And it's - frankly¹⁰, I think it's impressive that the Brotherhood¹¹ of Maintenance of Way Employees is voting this down because they're not the ones who have the big scheduling problem. It's Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen and BLET. And they're the - or excuse me, SMART TD - those are the last people to vote. Those are the people who have the really big problem. You know, some people have talked about this as like the, you know, the golden handcuffs, you know, because you have great pay, you have great benefits, you have so on and so forth¹². You can't use them. And so this is why railroad workers have really - a lot of folks are not happy about this agreement. And, you know, it was - it staved off the strike, but it did not solve the problem, the tentative agreement. And it's - it is a - you know, it's a situation where, you know, these workers, you know, they deserve more. They deserve to be able to take time off. On the current system of taking time off - even though they have more time off under this agreement, the current system they have is - you know, it's very easy for the railroads to deny them the time off that they are owed.

MART?NEZ: That's Justin Roczniak, co-host of the podcast "Well There's Your Problem." Justin, thanks a lot.

ROCZNIAK: Oh, no problem. Thanks for having me on.

1 transcript   

n.抄本，誊本，副本，肄业证书

参考例句：

• A transcript of the tapes was presented as evidence in court.一份录音带的文字本作为证据被呈交法庭。
• They wouldn't let me have a transcript of the interview.他们拒绝给我一份采访的文字整理稿。

2 looming   

n.上现蜃景（光通过低层大气发生异常折射形成的一种海市蜃楼）v.隐约出现，阴森地逼近( loom的现在分词 )；隐约出现，阴森地逼近

参考例句：

• The foothills were looming ahead through the haze. 丘陵地带透过薄雾朦胧地出现在眼前。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Then they looked up. Looming above them was Mount Proteome. 接着他们往上看，在其上隐约看到的是蛋白质组山。 来自英汉非文学 - 生命科学 - 回顾与展望

3 negotiations   

协商( negotiation的名词复数 )； 谈判； 完成（难事）； 通过

参考例句：

• negotiations for a durable peace 为持久和平而进行的谈判
• Negotiations have failed to establish any middle ground. 谈判未能达成任何妥协。

4 workforce   

n.劳动大军，劳动力

参考例句：

• A large part of the workforce is employed in agriculture.劳动人口中一大部分受雇于农业。
• A quarter of the local workforce is unemployed.本地劳动力中有四分之一失业。

5 essentially   

adv.本质上，实质上，基本上

参考例句：

• Really great men are essentially modest.真正的伟人大都很谦虚。
• She is an essentially selfish person.她本质上是个自私自利的人。

6 utilization   

n.利用，效用

参考例句：

• Computer has found an increasingly wide utilization in all fields.电子计算机已越来越广泛地在各个领域得到应用。
• Modern forms of agricultural utilization,have completely refuted this assumption.现代农业利用形式，完全驳倒了这种想象。

7 infrastructure   

n.下部构造，下部组织，基础结构，基础设施

参考例句：

• We should step up the development of infrastructure for research.加强科学基础设施建设。
• We should strengthen cultural infrastructure and boost various types of popular culture.加强文化基础设施建设，发展各类群众文化。

8 efficiently   

adv.高效率地，有能力地

参考例句：

• The worker oils the machine to operate it more efficiently.工人给机器上油以使机器运转更有效。
• Local authorities have to learn to allocate resources efficiently.地方政府必须学会有效地分配资源。

9 weird   

adj.古怪的，离奇的；怪诞的，神秘而可怕的

参考例句：

• From his weird behaviour,he seems a bit of an oddity.从他不寻常的行为看来，他好像有点怪。
• His weird clothes really gas me.他的怪衣裳简直笑死人。

10 frankly   

adv.坦白地，直率地；坦率地说

参考例句：

• To speak frankly, I don't like the idea at all.老实说，我一点也不赞成这个主意。
• Frankly speaking, I'm not opposed to reform.坦率地说，我不反对改革。

11 brotherhood   

n.兄弟般的关系，手中情谊

参考例句：

• They broke up the brotherhood.他们断绝了兄弟关系。
• They live and work together in complete equality and brotherhood.他们完全平等和兄弟般地在一起生活和工作。

12 forth   

adv.向前；向外，往外

参考例句：

• The wind moved the trees gently back and forth.风吹得树轻轻地来回摇晃。
• He gave forth a series of works in rapid succession.他很快连续发表了一系列的作品。