Rail & Labor News from RWU
Weekly Digest Number 38 - September 20th, 2022
Welcome to the RWU Rail & Labor News! This news bulletin is produced and emailed out each Tuesday morning. We hope you find each week's news and information useful. If so, please share with co-workers, friends, and colleagues. If you like, you can sign them up to get all the news from RWU HERE. Or forward them the link. Note: If you read over this news bulletin each week, you will be sure to never miss the important news of what is going on in the railroad world from a worker's perspective!
(Editor's Note: Amidst all of the hoopla Friday morning about the Biden/Walsh brokered deal, it seemed that many of the players lost sight of the fact that the members will have the final say, and that at least one set of rank & filers from the Machinists union had just the day before voted nearly 2-to-1 to reject the TA.)
Rail Unions Stress Tentative Deal Must Still Win Approval From Rank-and-File

Early reactions suggest some rail workers are furious at the agreement, with one anonymous employee calling it "garbage" that "everyone hates" thus far.
Two unions representing 125,000 active and retired rail employees stressed Thursday that the tentative agreement they reached with freight carriers to avert a strike still must win approval from rank-and-file members, a reminder that came as the White House hailed the deal it helped broker as a victory for workers and the economy.
"This contract will not become final until our members have an opportunity to review its terms and approve it through a ratification vote," said Jeremy Ferguson, president of SMART Transportation Division, and Dennis Pierce, head of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen (BLET).
BLET and SMART-TD represent roughly half of the railroad workers that would be covered by the new agreement.
The unions, which had been preparing to strike as soon as Friday as rail giants refused to budge on workers' basic sick leave demands, said the tentative deal includes "an immediate wage increase of 14% once compounded with an additional 4% on July 1, 2023, and 4.5% on July 1, 2024."

(Editor's Note: Once again, a few astute Reporters out there are pointing out the obvious - that this is not over until it is over. And there are powerful rumblings of discontent among the rank & file that suggest a strike is still a very real possibility.)
Joe Biden Thinks a Rail Strike has Been Averted. Do Rail Workers?
Just after 5 a.m. on Thursday, Marty Walsh tweeted that the railroad companies and the railroad unions had come to a tentative agreement, less than 19 hours from a potential shutdown:
“Moments ago, following more than 20 consecutive hours of negotiations at [the Department of Labor], the rail companies and union negotiators came to a tentative agreement that balances the needs of workers, businesses, and our nation’s economy. The Biden Administration applauds all parties for reaching this hard-fought, mutually beneficial deal. Our rail system is integral to our supply chain, and a disruption would have had catastrophic impacts on industries, travelers and families across the country.”
By 11:30 a.m., Joe Biden was in the White House Rose Garden, declaring victory: “This is a win for tens of thousands of rail workers and for their dignity and the dignity of their work, it’s a recognition of that.”
As the President turned to leave, a reporter called out a question: “Mr. President, is it premature to celebrate before the unions vote?”
Strictly speaking, the answer is yes. The signed tentative agreement now goes out for a ratification vote to the members of 12 different rail unions.
Per the Railway Labor Act, a new tentative agreement means a new cooling-off period, so the midnight deadline was mooted as part of the deal. But a contract rejection is still a very live possibility, based on discussions with members and leaders of various unions involved. So a strike (or lockout) is still on the table.
Is the U.S. Headed for a Rail Strike?
The rail industry is experiencing a self-induced crisis as a result of decades of cost-cutting, profit-maximizing executive decisions that have driven rail workers and the supply chain into the ground. In an attempt to mediate between the major freight rail companies and unions representing over 100,000 railroad workers, President Biden appointed a Presidential Emergency Board (PEB) to offer recommendations for resolving the ongoing contract disputes. But an overwhelming number of surveyed workers seem prepared to reject the PEB’s recommendations, and if the current contract dispute isn’t resolved the US could be headed towards its largest rail strike in decades.
In this recorded livestream, TRNN Editor-in-Chief Maximillian Alvarez and TRNN contributor and journalist Mel Buer co-host a livestream panel with current/former railroad workers and members of Railroad Workers United to discuss the looming possibility of a massive national rail strike.

READ MORE HERE...
(Editor's Note: Just after WWI - when the railroads were briefly nationalized for a few years - railroad workers from every union overwhelmingly supported the nationalization of the rail industry. Perhaps we are moving in the direction once again. The vast majority of rail systems around the world are held publicly. And all other transportation infrastructure in the U.S. is held publicly. Given the mess we are in, perhaps it is worth revisiting this whole concept of rail nationalization.)
Strike Settled. Now Let’s Nationalize the Railroads.

Did you know that railroads are the most profitable industry sector in America? No, that’s not a good thing
The threat of a paralyzing rail strike was narrowly averted on Thursday through last-minute labor negotiations by the Biden administration. There are many political and economic reasons to feel enormous relief (assuming the accord gets ratified by union rank and file). But it hardly means the nation’s rail system is in good health.
Before this week, most Americans probably had little idea that they remain so utterly dependent on rail freight; about one-third of all freight in the United States travels by rail. As much as that is, it isn’t enough. To the extent rail freight could be made to displace trucks, that would greatly reduce America’s carbon footprint. Trucks belch out nearly 10 times as many greenhouse emissions per ton-mile as trains.
But rail freight’s market share isn’t expanding; it’s shrinking, and rail service is getting crappier, because the financiers who control the industry expect an obscenely high return on investment. At its heart, that’s what this week’s labor dispute was about. It’s time to think about nationalizing rail freight.
The power flexed this week was that of labor, not management, making this look like a story about unions. And yes, the 12 rail unions involved in these negotiations, representing workers for Class I railway companies (the biggest), possess more clout than we’re accustomed to seeing in the labor movement. Like dockworkers, rail workers are immune to the erosion of the U.S. manufacturing base because it doesn’t really matter where the goods they move originated or where they’re going. Consequently, like dockworkers, railway workers earn excellent pay. Last year, the median hourly wage for railway workers was about $31, compared to a median hourly wage for autoworkers of about $25. Median total compensation (wages plus benefits) for the Class I railway workers affected by the new agreement is about $130,000. A railway worker in their twenties with only a high school diploma or a GED can bring home a six-figure salary.

Railway Workers Fight Shows Need for Paid Sick and Family Leave, Says Economist

"It staggers the imagination that in September 2022 the workers who keep the trains running did not have even one sick day to care for themselves."
With paid time off for family and medical leave - and the glaring lack thereof - taking center stage Thursday as the Biden administration announced a tentative agreement to avert a crippling railway strike, a leading progressive economist underscored the need for paid leave in the only country in the developed world that doesn't guarantee it.
"Top brass at the railroads were willing to have a strike and plunge the nation back into supply chain hell."
"It staggers the imagination that in September 2022 the workers who keep the trains running did not have even one sick day to care for themselves," Eileen Appelbaum, co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research, said in a statement.
"Railroad management was intransigent on this point, a key union demand, until President [Joe] Biden got involved in the negotiations," she continued. "Top brass at the railroads were willing to have a strike and plunge the nation back into supply chain hell, rather than grant this reasonable request."
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) on Wednesday blocked a Republican effort to force 115,000 rail workers to settle for a contract pushed by a nonpartisan presidential panel, an agreement that did not include a single day of paid sick leave.
"The details have not been made public yet," said Appelbaum, "but it appears that railroad workers will get one—let me repeat that—one paid sick day a year."
They had asked for 15. The average among Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development nations is nearly 45 days of paid family leave per year, while paid time off for illness generally runs from five to 15 days, "but can be several weeks or months, as in Austria, Germany, Italy, and Switzerland, and even up to two years in the Netherlands," according to the OECD.

End of the Line: U.S. Railroaders Come Down to the Wire
Kenneth Edwards lives two miles away from Switzer Siding, a stretch of rail line adjacent to the main freighter rail line south of Lafayette, Indiana. The siding was constructed in 2015 to allow freight trains pass each other, clearing the freight traffic that would come from nearby Indianapolis and the heavily congested Chicago trainyards. Or at least it would clear traffic, according to Edwards, if the freight trains were not too long to use the siding. 
“They’ve got like 800 feet that they could take off that train and then that train would fit [in the siding] and it wouldn’t block any crossing,” says Edwards. “But they gotta put that 800 feet on there every time.” 
Switzer Siding crosses County Road 800 South, which becomes inaccessible for lengths of time whenever freight train blockages occur. As part of the local neighborhood watch that observes the crossing, Edwards attests those blockages are frequent. “And guess what? There’s two schools on the other side of that crossing, and they’ve had janitors in there watching kids because teachers were stuck on the other side, blocked by the train. School buses had to turn around, and so kids miss school.” 
Being forced to wait as a result of the train carriers is not a new experience for Edwards. A locomotive engineer and member of the Sheet Metal, Air, Rail, and Transportation Workers (SMART-TD), he along with 140,000 other railroad workers have been at the bargaining table since 2020 with the National Carriers Conference Committee (NCCC), the body representing the major freight rail carriers. 
(Editor's Note: Since 2014, RWU has worked tirelessly to build alliances and coalitions with various environmental and community groups. These efforts are paying off as numerous allies vocalize their support and solidarity for the rail workers cause. )
"Solutionary Rail" and Others Pledge Solidarity with Railroad Workers Struggle

"We Stand in Solidarity with Railroad Workers"
Railroad workers may opt to go on strike at any time on or after September 16th, when the latest "cooling off" period proscribed by the Railway Labor Act expires. 
If there is a strike, it will be due to the misguided and corrupt priorities of Class 1 railroad owners and management who have prioritized short term profits over service, capacity and long term resilience. Class 1 railroads are all publicly traded corporations - or in the case of Buffett's BNFS, owned by the publicly traded Berkshire Hathaway. Thus, they have been captured by investors' obsession with profit maximization through lowering operating ratios - i.e. cutting costs and serving only the most profitable shippers. 
Railroad workers have been without a contract or a raise in more than two years. During the last few years they have been subject to difficult working conditions and long hours with limited time off. They have been laid off, furloughed, and forced out of the industry in unprecedented numbers.
Things are at a breaking point, and workers have been pushed to the point of striking by the unreasonable demands of management.  
  • Railroad companies have fought to reduce crew size from 5 to just 1 crewperson per train, even as they increase train lengths to 1 to 2 miles long, clogging the system and undermining track utilization. They have aggressively cut back on crew, maintenance, and other positions that are vital for adequate service, safety, and support, creating numerous safety and performance issues that are a detriment to everyone.
Rail Strike Averted for Now, But the Industry’s Not Out of the Woods Yet: Analysis

Will the rank and file ratify tentative agreements?
The prospect of a disruptive U.S. freight railroad strike was averted thanks to the tentative deal reached overnight between the Class I railroads and the labor unions that represent engineers and conductors, but three key questions remain unanswered. And all of them suggest that railroads, their workers, shippers, and the U.S. economy are not out of the woods yet.
First, will the rank-and-file approve the contract? That’s not clear.
Rail labor in general and train crews in particular have been up in arms for the past few years. They’re upset about working conditions, the massive wave of layoffs that began in 2017, and operational changes related to Precision Scheduled Railroading. They’re fuming about the lack of a raise since 2019 despite being front line workers during a pandemic. And they don’t like talk of taking conductors out of the locomotive cab and shifting them to ground-based positions.
The tentative agreement with the SMART-TD union and the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen seems to check all the boxes: A 24% raise, compounded, over the five-year life of the contract, plus $5,000 in bonuses; no increase in health care costs; and changes to work rules that provide more guarantees for time off. The deal also includes protections for two-person crews.
But machinists this week rejected the tentative deal their union reached with the railroads last month. The early reaction from the BLET and SMART-TD rank and file is not encouraging. So there’s no guarantee BLET, SMART-TD, and the other nine unions involved in negotiations will ratify their proposed contracts. And that means we could be in for another round of negotiations and more strike drama.
The second question: If the deals win ratification, will engineers and conductors who are tired of their jobs stick around just long enough to pocket their back pay and bonuses and then pull the pin?
If the wages, benefits, and work rules changes are enough of an incentive, they’ll stay on. If not, they’ll take the money and run. So there could be an exodus of engineers and conductors just as BNSF Railway, CSX Transportation, Norfolk Southern, and Union Pacific get close to solving their ongoing crew shortage problems.
This leads us to the third question: Will the new contracts and higher wages be enough to ease the railroads’ conductor recruitment woes?
(Editor's Note: Another fine article from In These Times.)
“It’s Not Over”: While Biden Touts the Rail Deal, Workers Have Yet to Vote — And Many Remain Skeptical

A national rail strike could still be on the table if rank-and-file workers reject the tentative agreement announced by the White House this week
President Joe Biden took a victory lap on Thursday after his administration helped broker a deal to stave off what would have been the first national freight railroad strike in 30 years. But the potential crisis is not over until rank-and-file rail workers vote on whether to approve the agreement — which could take weeks.
“Until railroad workers in the coming days can digest this and have their questions answered, there’s no consensus able to build on whether this deal is good, bad or ugly,” said Ron Kaminkow, a Nevada-based engineer and member of the Teamsters-affiliated Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers & Trainmen (BLET).
The tentative agreement reached early Thursday covers over 60,000 workers with the BLET and the Sheet Metal, Air, Rail and Transportation Workers-Transportation Division (SMART-TD), two of 12 rail unions that have been in contract negotiations with the major freight rail carriers for nearly three years. While the other unions had already reached tentative deals, the BLET and SMART-TD were the last holdouts. 
BLET President Dennis Pierce, who was directly part of the high-stakes negotiations, told In These Times that in accordance with the union’s internal processes, the tentative agreement will first be reviewed by the union’s general chairmen, who will finalize the document before it is sent out to the membership for a ratification vote via mail.
“This is probably going to take three to four weeks to [get full details into the members’ hands],” Pierce said. ​“It’s not a delay tactic, it’s just the way the process works. Everyone needs to remain calm, because they will have their day to exercise their democratic rights on whether they want this to be their contract or not.”
At the center of the labor dispute is draconian attendance policies, which don’t allow workers to take sick leave — and force them to be on-call 24/7. In recent decades, major Class I rail carriers like BNSF, Union Pacific, Norfolk Southern and CSX have implemented ​precision scheduled railroading (PSR) — a kind of lean production, just-in-time model designed to maximize shareholder profits by slashing expenses.
Because of PSR cost-cutting, over the past six years, the major Class I railroads like BNSF, Union Pacific, CSX and Norfolk Southern have slashed their collective workforce by 29 percent (around 45,000 workers), leaving the industry woefully understaffed and putting extra strain on workers already accustomed to long, irregular hours. 

(Editor's Note: It is funny to think of the Class Ones doing anything "quickly" in this day and age.)
Class One Railroads Work to Quickly Resume Operations
The U.S. operations of the Class I railroads are working to resume operations “immediately” now that a deal has been reached to avoid a strike by union members on Friday.
Two of the largest labor unions — those representing locomotive engineers and train conductors — reached an eleventh-hour tentative agreement with the railroads. The agreement, announced early Thursday, averts a strike that could have begun as early as just after midnight Friday.
“We are moving immediately to resume normal operations and restore service that had been curtailed in anticipation of a potential strike,” Norfolk Southern (NYSE: NSC) said in a Thursday demurrage update. The railroad also said in service announcements that it has reopened all gates to intermodal traffic.
“Our goal from the beginning has been to provide our craft railroaders with pay and benefits that keep them among the highest compensated workers in the nation. We are pleased to have a path forward that accomplishes that goal and lets us get back to the work of running a customer-centric, operations-driven railroad,” NS said.
BNSF (NYSE: BRK.B) told FreightWaves it would continue normal operations. The actions it had taken included restricting movements of temperature-controlled intermodal shipments and hazardous and security-sensitive material. Planned gate restrictions at certain intermodal and automotive facilities will also not occur as previously announced.  
Last Friday, the Association of American Railroads (AAR) said the Class I railroads would be placing embargoes on security-sensitive shipments to prevent those shipments from stopping while en route.

NTSB: Coal Train Derailed After Towing Vessel Crew Misread Chart
A collision and train derailment near Galland, Iowa, in November 2021 occurred because a Mississippi River towing vessel’s pilot and its captain pushed its tow up against a riverbank too close to a railroad track, the National Transportation Safety Board announced yesterday.
The incident occurred Nov. 13, 2021, between the towing vessel Baxter Southern and a BNSF Railway Co. coal train moving over the track along the shoreline of the Upper Mississippi River.
The train struck a barge that was hanging over the railroad track. Two locomotives and 10 hopper cars loaded with coal derailed, with six of the derailed hoppers entering the river. Two train personnel sustained minor injuries and the collision resulted in $1.9 million in damages to the locomotive and freight cars, according to an NTSB report on the incident.
The NTSB determined the probable cause of the collision was the tow’s pilot and captain not correctly identifying a caution area on an electronic chart before deciding, due to a high wind’s impact on the tow’s empty barges, to push the tow up against the riverbank alongside a railroad track.
(Editor's Note: This is one of the themes that is running through a number of excellent articles about the current rail debacle. Over the last few weeks the RWU Media Committee has worked hard to educate reporters and the American public as to the nature of the rail industry in North America.)
The Looming Rail Strike Was Years in the Making

Workers are fed up with the cost-cutting and layoffs that have left them unable to care for themselves and their families.
Rail workers across the country may be on the verge of going on strike for the first time in three decades—a decision that would immediately cripple supply chains and cause billions in economic losses per day. Workers could walk off the job, or companies could lock them out, as soon as Friday if a deal isn’t reached. 
The dispute is not about pay, but the day-to-day indignities of working in the industry. Rail workers often don’t have weekends, get no sick days, and say that taking the time to care for themselves and their families can lead to being fired. As engineer Ross Grooters puts it, workers are “just fighting for the basic right to be able to be people outside of the railroad.”
The White House has been scrambling to try to avoid a strike that would upend the country’s economy in the lead-up to the midterm elections, and President Joe Biden has been in touch with unions and railroad companies, Politico reports. A shutdown could disrupt shipments of everything from coal and lumber to food and the chlorine used to treat wastewater. Amtrak trains that rely on freight carriers’ tracks are already being canceled.  
Failing to reach a deal by Friday does not guarantee a strike, since both sides could agree to extend negotiations. But administration officials are developing contingency plans to try to keep essential goods moving in the event of a shutdown, an outcome that White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre has said is “not acceptable.”
Unionized workers and rail companies have been in contract negotiations for more than two years. In July, Biden established a Presidential Emergency Board tasked with providing recommendations on how to end the dispute. Last month, the board proposed pay increases of 24 percent over five years, additional bonuses, and one extra personal day a year. It also called for lifting a cap on workers’ health care premiums, and did not back workers’ calls for sick days and less-punitive attendance policies.
Warren Buffett’s BNSF, for example, has started using a convoluted system called “Hi-Viz” under which workers start with a point balance then lose points if they’re unavailable to work because they’re sick, have a family emergency, or other reasons. If their balance hits zero, they get a 10-day suspension, and a 20-day suspension if it happens again. Reaching zero for the third time in a two-year period means g

(Editor's Note: Not everyday we get to read a story like this in the Washington Post. RWU spent many phone calls and lots of time with this young reporter to assist her to make the contacts she needed and to understand the issues. )
Death on a Train: A Tragedy that Helped Fuel the Railroad Showdown

One engineer put off a doctor’s visit, his family said, and died of a heart attack weeks later
Aaron Hiles, a locomotive engineer, told his wife he “felt different,” though he couldn’t say exactly how. He made an appointment to see a doctor, his family said. But then his employer, BNSF, one of the largest freight rail carriers in the nation, unexpectedly called him into work.
Failing to show up would invite penalties under a new attendance system BNSF had adopted just a few months earlier, a policy that unions have decried as the strictest in the nation. So Hiles, 51, delayed his doctor’s visit, his family said, and went into work.
A few weeks later, on June 16, Hiles suffered a heart attack and died in an engine room on a BNSF freight train somewhere between Kansas City, Mo., and Fort Madison, Iowa — a tragedy that helped fuel a labor standoff that last week nearly shut down the U.S. economy.
Railroad attendance policies were at the heart of the dramatic showdown between the nation’s largest rail carriers and railroad workers, who did not strike after President Biden and other top administration officials brokered a last-minute agreement early Thursday. The deal includes a 24 percent pay increase by 2024 — the largest for railroad workers in more than four decades — and new flexibility for workers to take time off when they are hospitalized or to attend routine doctor’s appointments without penalty.
But discontent among rail workers is still brewing. They say few details have been made available about the agreement, which leaves the points-based attendance policy in place for other types of emergencies. And some say they doubt the deal will address their fundamental concerns about quality of life amid painful labor shortages and the continued spread of covid-19.
“This policy is pretty cruel. Everybody is worried about points,” said Joel Dixon, a BNSF conductor and Hiles’s best friend of more than two decades. “It’s always a question whether Aaron would still be around if he made that doctor’s appointment. Him and I talked everyday. We were brothers.”