Yeah, no wonder workers are striking. This is absolutely insane and at some point one has to wonder if creating a good working environment and healthy, happy employees would do the profit line even better than this fascist structure.
I can't speak for the freight railroads, but morale sucks at my agency.
I would be willing to place a wager it's similar at freight, on the subject of time off: no guaranteed holidays. My commuter rail runs 24-7, the only way an employee gets the holiday off is if it falls on their regular day off.
At my railroad a lot of the workers did not have the resources to go to college or get a job with better conditions. So, while morale is low, some take the view "it could be worse." I'm sure you get a lot of that there, too.
The companies I've been involved with that had "holiday work" (you have to have it if you're 24/7/365) would give double pay for work during that time, and rarely had to assign someone, as there'd be people up for the extra pay.
