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* Nationwide, freight railroad workers ready a Friday strike, the New York Times reports…
The industry failed to reach a contract agreement with two unions representing much of the work force, and a federally mandated 30-day “cooling off” period ends on Friday, opening a door to strikes and lockouts. Some freight companies have started to limit services, and Amtrak, which carries many travelers on lines operated by freight railroads, said it would cancel some passenger service starting on Tuesday. […]
Most of the unions agreed to the proposal, pending a vote of their membership. But two major unions are holding out for improvements to working conditions, which they say have steadily worsened in recent years as rail carriers have cut staffing.
The Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen and the SMART Transportation Division, which represent engineers and conductors, say workers must often stay on call for several days at a time, working 12-hour shifts with little notice, and are penalized for calling in sick.
Together, the two unions represent nearly half the 115,000 freight rail workers covered by the negotiations. While the unions have not committed to striking on Friday, a walkout remains an option, a spokesman said, noting that more than 99 percent of participating members of the locomotive engineers union voted in July to authorize a strike.
* Bloomberg…
Texas has the most miles of railroad tracks of any state but Illinois — and Chicago, in particular — has been the most important hub of US intermodal commerce for more than a century. According to the Association of American Railroads, 25% of all US freight rail traffic and 46% of all intermodal traffic starts, stops or passes through the Chicago region.
While 10 of 12 railroad workers’ unions have struck new labor deals, the two holdouts — the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen and the International Association of Sheet Metal Air, Rail, and Transportation Workers — account for more than 90,000 rail employees. […]
The timing isn’t good for the trains to stop running. Harvest season across the farm belt is approaching, retailers are stocking up for the year-end holidays, and the economy already faces a stretch of weaker growth and high inflation.
The most immediate concern in the event of a rail strike would be for perishable goods. The American Bakers Association said “even a temporary interruption would create a devastating ripple effect” that would create a shortage of materials and ingredients.
Amtrak is canceling trips on some long-distance routes out of Chicago, as the deadline for a possible strike by freight rail workers looms.
Beginning Tuesday, the passenger rail agency is suspending service on routes between Chicago and San Francisco, the Pacific Northwest and Los Angeles. Service will also be suspended along part of a fourth route out of Chicago, between Los Angeles and San Antonio, Amtrak said. […]
The cancellations are intended to avoid possible disruptions should freight railroad workers walk out on strike while lengthy trips are underway on the California Zephyr, Empire Builder, Southwest Chief and Texas Eagle routes. Though Amtrak workers are not involved in the ongoing contract negotiations, nearly all of the passenger service’s routes outside the Northeast U.S. run on track that is owned, maintained and dispatched by freight railroads, and a walkout could disrupt passenger service. […]
Federal law bars a freight railroad strike or lockout before Friday, and Congress could intervene and block a work stoppage if the unions and railroads can’t reach a deal by the end of the week.
* Metra lines stand to be affected. CBS Chicago…
Jermont Terry reported Monday night, service on nine different Metra lines in the Chicago area could also come to a halt if the strike happens. The tracks on the Metra lines are owned by freight railroad companies – and if the rail unions choose to stop operating the trains, nothing will move on the railroads. That goes for passenger and freight trains alike. […]
The BNSF, Union Pacific North, Union Pacific Northwest, and Union Pacific West Metra lines are on tracks owned and directly operated by refight rain companies. Five others intersect with tracks owned by freight partners are dispatched by freight railroads.
The only lines Metra owns, operates, and controls – and that thus would be certain to keep running – are the Metra Electric and Rock Island lines. […]
At issue is the fact that the two key unions representing conductors and engineers have yet to reach a deal. They want better pay, and a better quality of life.
* Freight train workers in Galesburg rallied for better quality of life in July. WQAD…
Representatives from over a dozen unions were at the rally, including Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employes Division Local Vice President Nick Allen.
“We’re just looking for a fair contract for ourselves and our families, looking for the pay raises that we haven’t received since our contract ended in 2020,” Allen said. “We’re just looking to be able to continue to support our families and for what they have to go through for us working on the railroad.”
Workers said companies are also trying to reduce crew members on a train down from two to one, a move they claimed is a safety issue. […]
“We’ve had disasters in Canada, blowing up whole towns with a one-man crew operation,” SMART-TD Illinois Alternate Legislative Director Jordan Boone said. “We run through this town, and we need to be able to get a guy on the ground as soon as possible. And if there’s only one person up there, they can’t get off that motor.”
* SMART-TD and BLET’s joint statement…
The railroads are using shippers, consumers, and the supply chain of our nation as pawns in an effort to get our Unions to cave into their contract demands knowing that our members would never accept them. Our Unions will not cave into these scare tactics, and Congress must not cave into what can only be described as corporate terrorism.
Rather than gridlock the supply chain by denying shipments and potentially locking our members out next Friday, the railroads should work towards a fair settlement that our members, their employees, would ratify. For that to happen, we must make improvements to the working conditions that have been on the bargaining table since negotiations began. Penalizing engineers and conductors for getting sick or going to a doctor’s visit with termination must be stopped as part of this contract settlement. Let us repeat that, our members are being terminated for getting sick or for attending routine medical visits as we crawl our way out of a worldwide pandemic.
No working-class American should be treated with this level of harassment in the workplace for simply becoming ill or going to a routine medical visit. Sadly, the Presidential Emergency Board recommendation got it wrong on this issue. As we have said from the day that they were implemented, these policies are destroying the lives of our members, who are the backbone of the railroad industry.
These employment policies have forced thousands of employees out of the industry and make it all but impossible to recruit new workers. With understaffed operations, these railroads abuse their best customers by refusing to provide deliveries consistent with their legal obligations. These self-appointed titans of industry complain constantly about government regulation and interference — except now when it comes to breaking the backs of their employees. It’s time for the federal government to tell the CEO’s who are running the nation’s railroads into the ground that enough is enough. Congress should stay out of the rail dispute and tell the railroads to do what other business leaders do — sit down and bargain a contract that your employees will accept.
* Politico…
While a strike could happen starting Friday, people close to the negotiations tell POLITICO they’re not expecting it — at least not that soon.
“There is this narrative being developed that a work stoppage is inevitable and unions are chomping at the bit,” said a person familiar with the conversations, but not authorized to speak to the press. “My view is that a strike is unlikely, and that the likeliest scenarios are, one, that they reach an 11th hour or 11th hour and 59 minute deal. The second likeliest scenario is they extend the cooling off period so that they can have more time to cross all the t’s and dot all the i’s.”
posted by Isabel Miller
Tuesday, Sep 13, 22 @ 10:42 am
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A strike like this during harvest season would be very, very bad. Very bad.
Comment by fs Tuesday, Sep 13, 22 @ 10:48 am
A rail strike would be an interesting backdrop for the vote on Amendment 1, no?
Comment by JB13 Tuesday, Sep 13, 22 @ 10:51 am
A refight rain company? I think Chicago could have used one of those over the weekend.
Comment by Skeptic Tuesday, Sep 13, 22 @ 10:58 am
More reasons for Amtrak and Metra to own their own right of way on the rail lines.
Comment by Incandenza Tuesday, Sep 13, 22 @ 11:16 am
A strike would be disastrous. I think Congress needs to intervene. The union seems to have the better argument, but that is not a well informed opinion. I would support an extended cooling off period, or mandatory arbitration.
Comment by Last Bull Moose Tuesday, Sep 13, 22 @ 11:22 am
When you read about what Berkshire Hathaway/BNSF has done to their employees with their new attendance system, basically making them perpetually on-call under threat of termination, you can see why the workers are ready to strike.
Unfortunately, I think the railroads, all of them gunning to extract more profit and some of them pushing for further mergers, are perfectly fine with pushing toward a strike, hoping to get their own version of a Reagan v. air traffic controllers response, or barring that, wreaking enough havoc that can be laid at the feet of labor and pro-labor politicians to eventually get their desired outcome.
I hope the rail companies are wrong about that.
Comment by Roadrager Tuesday, Sep 13, 22 @ 11:31 am
This is what happens when owners treat labor progressively more like dirt, automating functions that require human critical-thinking skills and imposing ever-more-inhuman expections and conditions on the remaining workers. Read up about the recent history of the rail industry (and see Roadrager’s comments above), especially the cost-saving changes since Covid. Where rail workers used to be required to work in teams or pairs, they’re now often forced to work alone for extended shifts, in an industry where errors can easily equal lost lives. And there’s no justification for it other than greed; during this changeover, the rail companies have been posting record profits. It’s an outrage, frankly.
They’re striking for safe working conditions in an industry where worker safety translates very directly to customer safety and public safety as well. More power to them.
Comment by Crispy Tuesday, Sep 13, 22 @ 12:03 pm
If they go on strike, who will be providing security for parked trains? Especially those cars that have weapons and others with military equipment. Thefts fron trains is well known. A strike and a lack of security would not bode well.
Comment by FormerParatrooper Tuesday, Sep 13, 22 @ 12:05 pm
The last railroad strike was in June, 1992. Within two days of the start of the strike, Congress passed and president Bush signed Public Law 102-306 that ordered an end to the strike and a ban on a lockout and forced both sides to arbitration. In today’s polarized political climate, could such quick action take place? With the mid-terms approaching, would one political party see it as an advantage to allow the strike to continue so it would throw a wrench into the supply chain and cause economic problems?
Comment by G'Kar Tuesday, Sep 13, 22 @ 12:30 pm
The rail corporation behavior on this has been disgusting for years now. The push for these unsafe reductions in manned crews, the never ending on calls, the lack of sick pay, atrocious. And now they’re already instituting embargoes to worsen the impact to American co summers of any strike, in the hopes Congress will break the strike. Despicable anti American, anti worker, anti consumer behavior.
Comment by SWIL_Voter Tuesday, Sep 13, 22 @ 12:34 pm
=== workers must often stay on call for several days at a time, working 12-hour shifts with little notice, and are penalized for calling in sick.===
I wouldn’t be just on strike, I’d be gone.
There are easier ways to make a living.
Comment by Da big bad wolf Tuesday, Sep 13, 22 @ 12:45 pm
=== A rail strike would be an interesting backdrop for the vote on Amendment 1, no?===
What would the message be? Workers can already go on strike.
Comment by Da big bad wolf Tuesday, Sep 13, 22 @ 12:47 pm
President Biden’s own PEB Board led discussions and made recommendations that have been accepted by the railroads and 10/12 labor unions. If the remaining two unions continue to hold out, then Congress should step in an resolve the issue. AAR estimates an economic loss of $2 billion per day and further snags in the supply chain especially at harvest time.
Comment by Anonymous Tuesday, Sep 13, 22 @ 1:44 pm
I’d be curious to learn more about the specific points of contention. But if it’s true that workers are being penalized for getting sick or taking time off for medical appointments, then I side with them 100% on that issue anyway.
Given the overall trend in America for corporations to hold massive power and unions only a fraction of that, it’s hard to imagine workers are asking for something which is unfair.
Comment by Techie Tuesday, Sep 13, 22 @ 2:17 pm
At this point a until the rest of the year a strike would literally result in a catastrophe. If it happens now we will see huge increase in supply issues.
If it happens in a few months you literally will have death all throughout rural America unable to heat their homes. Nobody knows how close it was last year to running out and how the trains came in at last moment.
Comment by The Dude Wednesday, Sep 14, 22 @ 5:56 am
I don’t like unions. I was in one, briefly, as they organized in my workplace. It turned too many of my co-workers into vile bullies and monsters.
Government intervention would cut short negotiations of corporations AND labor unions. How is it that those who generally support unions, want government to overrule them?
Comment by HalfMyBrain Thursday, Sep 15, 22 @ 6:16 am