Starting Dec. 9, Sounder service may be temporarily suspended due to national rail strike

Photo courtesy Sound Transit

Railway labor negotiations are ongoing — and Congressional action in Washington, D.C. to force a contract looms — but a national rail strike could occur next week.

Sound Transit notes that its Sounder trains are operated and dispatched by BNSF Railway employees under contract on tracks owned by BNSF. The event of a national rail strike would result in Sounder service being temporarily suspended beginning Friday, Dec. 9 and continuing until workers return.

Sound Transit said it is working with its partner agencies on contingency plans, but given the ongoing shortage of bus operators, these are unlikely to make up for the potential loss of train service.

Sounder passengers can review service alternatives in this post: “Sounder Rider? What to know if there’s a rail strike”.Sign up for rider alerts and follow @Alerts_ST and @SoundTransit on Twitter for the latest

    1. Community Transit route 416 connects Edmonds Station to downtown Seattle, 4 trips south in the morning, 4 trips north in the evening. A great alternative when the trains aren’t running, or even when they are!

  1. Once upon a time, a president stopped government workers from striking and has been accused of destroying unions ever since. I will be looking for the stories on this administration and Congress interfering in this negotiation and expect appropriate, fair handling.

    1. Union workers are being thrown under the train pun intended by the party that claims to support them. I guess they only support organized labor when it benefits them politically seems they support teachers striking even if it disrupts millions of lives but heaven forbid it when some uneducated train workers threatens to do it then we must pass laws prohibiting it. So don’t worry armageddon isn’t going to happen today anyway but if I were a union train worker I would be sick for the next month even if I don’t have good sick benefits you have leverage now, show the boss how much he needs you. Otherwise you will continue to be used and the worst or best part about it is your cheerleaders the Democrat party has shown you who they are.

      1. “Union workers are being thrown under the train pun intended by the party that claims to support them.”

        The vote was overwhelmingly bipartisan, 80-15. President Biden said he wants paid leave for “everybody” so that it wouldn’t have to be negotiated in employment contracts, but Republican lawmakers have blocked measures to require time off work for medical and family reasons. The sick-leave measure needed at least 60 votes to pass and fell short, 52 to 43 because just six Republicans voted for the extra sick leave:

        In the last two years the American railroad industry has either declared dividends or participated in stock buy backs to the tune of 26 billion dollars.

        1. Yes Nathaniel because government is intervening in a private matter. And to top it off Joe wants to force all employers to provide it or like this state and make it a government program ripe for abuse. Or even better get employer paid benefit plus the government program I know some people have got both. I hear our program is running in the rears and needs more money there is talk of putting that burden on the general taxpayer instead of on the workers and employers.

  2. I know personally many on the RR. They say that if you use all your sick time and don’t show that they will be fired. I don’t blame them for striking either my family many were Union Workers. not all but many. So I do believe in strikes when necessary. However sometimes when it is just about more and more money I kind of think ok enough already. THE RR strike is not about more money it is about not being able to lay off to go to the Dr. It is about no extra board at all so working away from your home town for a week sometimes with no notice etc. Its things like this that they are not happy with. I really think most I know could do with out the 23% raise or whatever it is. BUT the RR does supply Food to the nation and goods people really do need to survive. I think this is why sometimes government does have to step in. I do hope they settle soon for them and for the nation. Remember they said our garbage goes out on freight. Essentials are a big deal. Nurses big too.

  3. I would like to add that dividends or stock buybacks give benefit to investors that have helped grow private industry. Would you prefer business be controlled by government? It certainly seems so. Should all business be not for profit and that all returns be subject to government control eliminating all private investment? Seems Democrats want to control all aspects of life so that no one benefits more than any other. There is a word for this that fails me. My guess is you support this type of system. Record profits because we have been successful or have just come out of a great decline should be eliminated for the greater good? My guess you yourself has benefited from our form of society but now you wish to take private investment out of business in no longer allowing investors to make a profit? I support the workers use of their labor to pressure for better wages/benefits and if that need for their work is so extreme that a country intervenes that only proves their worth so the government should be their advocate and not force them to abandon their want to be paid their worth.

    1. A great deal of “I guess” and extrapolating to the nth degree, all without knowing me. How do you know what I wish?

      1. Nathaniel my apologies a couple of seems and guesses I am sure you have the same about me.

  4. Has anyone ever noticed that it is nearly impossible to find negative media articles on even one Democrat action? It must be difficult being that perfect, all while the country is collapsing? The energy sector, housing market, transportation, elections, immigration, massive inflation. Not one critical article from journalists in this region. That’s scary. Our federal government is now intervening in negotiations between citizens and their private employers and the only people being honest about what that means are non-journalist citizens.

    1. I am for the men who run the trains, maintain the tracks. I do not want government to have to step in either. I am for the workers. But if out rail comes to a halt the recession will only deepen. This will be a big hardship for all citizens. You know my husband was a Conductor before becoming an attorney. 15 years with Sante Fe. At that time they were offering “buy outs” many old heads they called them did retire and take it. My husband was younger and the amount was way below what the final buy outs were later on. Thing is that when the RR hired back they hired at 25 % less then my husband was making previously. YES, it is the Companies Fault no doubt. So what do we do?? Remember the truck lines in Canada and all that problem? Something has got to give here. I say the RR should settle this strike fairly and quickly or forever be hated by regular American Citizens meaning the blue collar worker as you would describe a Rail Road man or woman.

    2. Our national government has a long history of intervening in negotiations between employees and employers when some sort of public good is allegedly being threatened. These actions have been taken by both Democratic and Republican controlled national governments at various times. Nixon installed wage and price controls to combat high inflation in the late 60’s and early 70’s for example. That action severely hampered labor unions from obtaining higher wages for their employees for some period of time. There wasn’t much done on the price side of the equation by the Nixon administration. In reality wages stagnated while prices remained the same or went up slightly with little real affect on inflation. In this latest action, Biden has actually gone against his own labor base for what he sees as the greater good. My point is that neither major political party has a monopoly on public/private economic manipulations during disagreements. It’s more the norm; rather than the exception in reality. Conservative God, Ronald Reagon, broke the Air Traffic Controllers Union which was kind of the death blow for labor unions in general in America.

  5. Well it looks like the deal is done. The workers didn’t get their sick leave. I believe they did get their raises. So now these men and women must decide, do they want to continue being RR employees, or do they want to find another job with a stronger union. The RR had the strongest Union around 35 years ago. Excellent benefits, medical insurance, Dental, Vision. All of it. They also had an extra board so those new hires could make more money as they advanced in seniority. This allowed workers to lay off unpaid or use sick leave or vacation leave. They sometimes would take what they called a Niner meaning 9 days off no pay but lots of fun. And again the low seniority employees loved it. My husband worked as that conductor and studied and got off the train and drove to college. Completing his BS in 3 years MCL. then we came here for Law School. Maybe these workers could go to college or trade school? We wanted to live near a city instead of the country then. Now we wonder ha. Or I do. He not so much, but he isn’t on FB.

  6. Reagan stopped an illegal strike. The ridiculous propaganda that followed and continues to this day is nothing more than phony politics. Right now, our government is once again acting for “the greater good”, just like they do in every country without freedom. This is becoming the norm and the people of this country need to quit ignoring it. This administration, it was recently confirmed, directed Twitter to ignore the first amendment. Principle or politics? Both can’t win.

    1. Yes, good point. I am curious Glen. Can nurses go on strike or is that considered illegal? I am really just curious about all of this. I wonder why Reagan or the law thought the Airlines would be an illegal strike? I do agree with what you are saying and I also agree that Freedom is not something we should want to lose at all. I know I don’t want that at all. Hum well to me principle seems as if it would be more important than politics. I believe as most know here that compromise and realizing that not all people think or feel the same is just fine. But to make it mandatory to believe in anothers Ideal… I don’t go for that. Thanks for an answer if you will give me one to the above questions. Deb.

  7. It is true that Reagan stopped an “illegal” strike but the fact that it was illegal is irrelevant to my point that all administrations interfere in labor / management disagreements and negotiations. It was illegal for teachers to even form unions, let alone strike, until teachers just did it. That’s pretty much true of every labor union and employee association that has ever existed. The problem with the concept of “freedom” is that everyone has a little different definition of it and thinks theirs is just a little more important than other’s. The ideal of all our laws is “freedom and justice for all” but the reality of many of our laws are that they protect some of the people’s rights at the expense of other’s “rights.” All political beliefs, Right and Left, strike me as pretty stupid and self serving of the politicians in the end, and not much real help to all the people. The only really good laws are those that keep us from killing, assaulting or stealing from each other over land, money, love or who has the fastest car (dumb stuff).

  8. Deb, nurses who work for private companies can strike. The air traffic controllers went on strike and Reagan fired them for it, because it was illegal and threatened the entire country. Of course, he wasn’t in the right party so he was blamed for destroying all unions. You see this ridiculous accusation to this day. I joined a union his last year of office, they are alive and well. When workers are not allowed to bargain, the media has a duty to report on the situation. That isn’t happening because we don’t really have media anymore. Try to find the Twitter files story? Might makes right is this country’s new motto, democracy at its ugliest. See who’s running things and that’s the only history or view you are allowed to read.

  9. Glen, Biden and the Congress stopped the rail workers strike for the same reason Reagan stopped the traffic controllers strike – to supposedly protect the economy and the country. If your guy does it – great because “it’s illegal” and if the guy you don’t like does it, it’s anti-union, un-American and the free press is the enemy of the people because they don’t report things with exactly the slant you want. I suspect your next comment will say we need to “Suspend the Constitution to save our Democracy.” Now that your tribe is in charge of the Fed. House we are going to investigate the investigators of the Jan. 6. event that will waste even more millions of dollars over two years. Our politics have become basically hypocrisy, bias and self serving for the political elite on both sides. Not much use to the common guy and gal.

    1. Thank you, Clinton. I mourn the descent of balanced political discourse into sound-bite warfare. Substantive disagreement with recourse to facts is one thing; Manichean adherence to One Correct View is something completely different, and destructive. And “A plague on both your houses” is equally productive of useless stalemate.

      Surely this thread is unraveling by now?

  10. It just occurred to me that people here are referring to venues like Twitter, Truth Social and Face Book as “the media.” Personally I don’t consider information on any of these venues anything but gossip and opinion. Maybe just one notch below or above the barber shop or the beauty salon. To me “the media” is CBS, NBC, ABC, PBS the Daily Herald, Seattle Times, The Beacon and MEN, etc.

  11. The Beacon, Herald, and MEN are levels above in integrity compared to CBS, NBC, ABC, & PBS …the MSM 4 parrot talking points, world view, and narrative.

  12. Nice try with the silly Trump line. I’m not against government involvement in matters vital to the country. I do, however, expect those matters to be reported with the same vigor. They aren’t. I really don’t care what fast food Trump is dining on while we funnel money for an undeclared war and our FBI directs media (yes, social media is the top media source, whether we like it or not) to cancel conversation they don’t like. We’ve seen government cancel many forms of formerly free speech and the excuses for these actions are weak at best. Social platforms acting as private businesses have the right to control that platform. Government has no right to direct them.

    1. I think Glen and Clinton make good points. My fear is the administrative state is using their influence to influence outcomes. No doubt Trump has been persecuted for the crimes of government because he is a outsider a scapegoat. When will the blind begin to see. Trump is no prince but compared to our top elected leaders and bureaucrats he is but a pawn. Didn’t this start off about government interference in a union contract?

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