Subject: Re: Why I sold my entire Berkshire stake
I will probably wait until the Annual Meeting to get more color on this and the poor performance of the rail business.

Wouldn't that be nice?
Maybe we'll just get "Hi, I'm a 13 year old from Pensacola with $87 to invest, how can I get as rich as you are?"
There are usually a few comments that you can read between the lines of. But rarely anything "useful" in terms of actual information about the economics of the various business.


Re the rails, staff are getting better pay it seems.
With benefits, average about $160k...

From December 2022:

https://raillaborfacts.org/new...
"The railroads have concluded agreements with all twelve unions in national handling, representing a total of more than 100,000 employees. Eight unions ratified those agreements. The remaining four unions are now covered by agreements that became effective pursuant to H. J. Res. 100, which was passed by Congress on December 1, 2022 and signed into law by President Biden on December 2, 2022.
"All of the new agreements increase wages by 24 percent during the five-year period from 2020 through 2024, with a 14.1 wage percent increase effective immediately. The agreements also include five $1,000 annual lump sum payments, adjustments to health care premiums, and health benefit enhancements, and an additional personal leave day for all employees. A portion of the wage increases and lump sum payments are retroactive, resulting in more than $11,000 on average in immediate payouts to employees.
"The wage increases in the new agreements are the most substantial in decades – with average rail worker wages reaching about $110,000 per year by the end of the agreement. When health care, retirement, and other benefits are considered, the value of rail employees’ total compensation package, which already ranks among the highest in the nation, would average about $160,000 per year. "


An interesting thing about staffing further down:
" claims that employees are quitting in droves are not accurate. In the first part of 2022, each individual carrier’s voluntary attrition rate was between 2.0 percent and 3.7 percent. This is just a fraction of the 13.1% quit rate during the same time period reported in the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ JOLTS survey for the transportation, warehousing, and utility sector. "

To some extent, it seems that railroad employees LIKE working at the railroad, at least compared to some other workers.

Jim