I used to work for the railroad and my boss always maintained that a railroad engineer was the highest paid unskilled labor in the world. And they had the best rules most of which came from the late 1800's. Things like a passenger run from Chicago to Milwaukee was a days trip (it probably was at one time with the steam engines). But with the diesel engines the railroad crews would make 2 round trips per day for 4 days wages. As far as long hours - I also worked in the Automotive industry. One of my general foremen had a personal rule. He refused to work more than 6 - 12 hour shifts per week. During my last year in the auto industry I worked 140 hours over a 10 day period at Christmas "shutdown". There are a lot of workers who whine if they are not punched out by 4:01 PM but there are lots of others who regularly put in very long hours.