Possible Nationwide U.S Feight Rail Strike

[Robert Stewart]

Just what the title says.

Unions representing workers at all major freight railroads in the U.S have been negotiating for a new contract for a few months now. Unfortunately it looks like the companies haven't  offered a contract which the workers are happy with, so it's looking increasingly likely a strike will be declared this Friday.

Why Friday? Railroad workers are governed by a law called the Railway Labor Act, which places limits on their ability to strike. Unions must go through a series of government overseen negotiation and mediation periods before they can declare a strike OR before companies can impose a lockout. Currently we are in a "cooling off" period after the Presidential Emergency Board (PEB) put out a series of recommendations  for the companies and unions to accept. The cooling off period ends Friday at midnight. So a strike can't begin until then. (I'm not exactly an expert, but i believe i got the gist of things right)

There are 12 unions currently in negotiation/mediation with the major freight railroads. Of these:

• The Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen (BLET) and Association of Sheet Metal, Air, Rail and Transportation Workers (SMART-TD) have not agreed to the PEB recommendations. (These are the two largest unions)
• The Brotherhood of Railway Signalman (BRS) has rejected the agreement.
• International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM) District 19tentatively accepted the recommendations , but rejected it after a membership vote.
• The Transportation Communications Union/IAM (TCU/IAM) and Brotherhood of Railway Carmen (BRC) have ratified the recommendations.
• All other unions have tentatively accepted the agreement, but have not held or finished membership votes yet.

Some additional reading for background:

Railway Age

The Guardian

In addition to the impact on freight deliveries, Amtrak has cancelled all of its long distance trains starting Thursday. This is because Amtrak runs on track owned by the Freight railroads in most of the U.S. outside of the Northeast Corridor. Several regional/commuter railroads are likely to be impacted for the same reason.

This is still a developing situation so things could change. This has not been widely reported on until very recently, but I will try to update this thread with more info/context as I find it.

Evening update: two unions have ratified the PEB recommendations. There appears to also be some negotiation to extend the cooling off period to November to avoid any influence on/from the midterm elections.

Edited September 15, 2022 by Robert Stewart
more info came in, didn't want to double post.

[Djunna]

Best wishes to all rail workers, they're a vital part of society and they deserve their rights.

[Robert Stewart]

Thursday update: it looks as though BLET and SMART have accepted the PEB recommendations: https://www.railwayage.com/freight/aar-strike-averted/

This is a tentative acceptance though, member ratification still needs to happen. But it looks like the possibility of a strike tomorrow is much lower.

Updated the title as the ratification vote will probably take a few days at least.

Edited September 15, 2022 by Robert Stewart

[Robert Stewart]

One more union had ratified the tentative agreement.This is the agreement that includes additional days off in addition to the pay increase.

I've seen claims that unions are holding off releasing their ratification vote until November to avoid any interference on/from the midterm election, but I don't see an exact source for that. I'll add it if I find it.

[Clear World]

I don't know enough about the situation so reading the links have been very insightful. So I hope for the best for the railroad workers.

[Robert Stewart]

This Reuters article has a list of when each union involved will announce their ratification status.

It's a little behind the times since the ATDA announced their ratification earlier this week, but it seems accurate.

 

[Robert Stewart]

The Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employees Division has voted to reject the current agreement. This is the first union to reject the negotiated deal. Apparently it's also the 3rd largest union in the current set of negotiations.

They could strike as early as November 19th.

Edit: SMART-MD and NFCO have accepted the agreement. (Remember that SMART-TD is considered a separate union)

Edited October 14, 2022 by Robert Stewart

[Robert Stewart]

Another union has voted to reject the deal. so the likelihood of a strike seems to be increasing.

Trains.com, at least, thinks a strike is inevitable. For whatever that's worth.

I believe there was one other Union who voted since my last update, but I think they accepted the agreement. Sorry about not posting that.

[Robert Stewart]

The  International Association of Machinists has ratified the agreement with the Class I railroads.

https://www.railwayage.com/freight/class-i/iam-ratifies-rail-shutdown-still-looms/

This leaves the two biggest unions (BLET and SMART-TD) as yet to vote.

[Zapp Branniglenn]

With the massive train derailments this week in Ohio and now Houston, yeah I'm thinking maybe something needs to have been done about this months ago.

[Clear World]

Something was done months ago. They gambled a bigger profit for the owners/shareholders at the cost of the community/workers

[Robert Stewart]

Since there's some interest in news about it here, I want to post some information about the Ohio derailment.

tl;dr: It's bad, and was entirely preventable, but it's not apocalyptic like some people are claiming. There's a lot of hyperbole and misinformation being spread about its impacts.

Clarification about the "ECP Brakes Rule" you may have seen some mention of:

Clarifications about the chemical release/EPA response:

Clarification about the derailment in Houston:

Of course both of these incidents are bad, and both could/should have been prevented. But the prevention would have been in the form of more rigorous inspections and better arrangement of the cars in the consist. I suggest reading RWU's statement on the subject.