If the two sides can’t agree on a deal by the end of the week, Congress is expected to step in to block a strike because of the dire economic consequences if a strike happens because so many businesses rely on railroads to deliver their raw materials and finished products. Members of the unions with tentative deals still have to vote on them. The coalition negotiating on behalf of the railroads announced three more tentative agreements Sunday, so deals covering roughly 45,000 workers have now been announced. The railroad trade group has said there’s no way trucks can pick up the slack if the railroads stop moving because roughly 467,000 additional trucks a day would be needed to handle all the cargo trains haul and there is already a shortage of truck drivers.įive of the 12 railroad unions that together represent 115,000 workers had already reached tentative agreements based on the Presidential Emergency Board’s recommendations that will deliver 24% raises and $5,000 in bonuses over a five-year contract that’s retroactive to 2020. They want them to address concerns about strict attendance policies that they say make it hard to take any time off and increasing workloads after the railroads cut nearly one-third of their workforces in recent years. Those two unions have been demanding that CSX, Union Pacific, BNSF, Norfolk Southern, Kansas City Southern and the other railroads go beyond the proposed deal recommended by a group of arbitrators President Joe Biden appointed. Our unions will not cave into these scare tactics, and Congress must not cave into what can only be described as corporate terrorism,” said Jeremy Fergunson with SMART-TD and Dennis Pierce with the BLET union. “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. A strike or lockout won’t be allowed until this coming Friday, but the railroads appear to be bracing for one by saying they would begin curtailing shipments of hazardous materials and other chemicals on Monday to ensure carloads of those dangerous products won’t be stranded along the tracks if the trains stop moving. The heads of the unions that represent engineers and conductors - the Sheet Metal, Air, Rail and Transportation Workers - Transportation Division union and the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen union - issued a joint statement blasting the move, which the railroads announced late Friday.
(AP) - The heads of the nation’s two largest rail unions said Sunday that the freight railroads’ move to begin delaying some shipments ahead of this week’s looming strike deadline is only an attempt to get shippers to increase the pressure on Congress to intervene and block a work stoppage by imposing a contract on workers.
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