[0xBDB]

American railroads have pretty good pay and benefits, including some of the last defined-benefit pensions left in the private sector.

They didn't want to give in on same-day sick days (not the same as prescheduled PTO, which they did have) because it kills what they call precision train scheduling, which is basically running trains with the absolute minimum number of people possible. I'm not saying this was right or wrong, just that it's the reason.