I'm not surprised. My employer cut things to the bone back last spring. They had also hired a class of new conductor trainees. When traffic picked back up, they finally restarted the trainee class. Only one guy chose to come back. On top of that hurdle, some of the employees have been out of work because of the China virus. I was out for three weeks because my wife caught it, so I had to quarantine, then before that was up, I caught it.
With PSR as the big push right now, the carriers were in too big a hurry to cut their costs, rather than waiting a bit longer, to see where the dust would settle. It wasn't too much longer after all this that the government issued the stimulus checks. Apparently this prompted people to start using the extra cash to let it burn holes in their pockets.
