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The boss of the country’s largest rail union is fighting a report designed to help kick-start stalled contract negotiations that he says is not doing enough to improve working conditions.
The railroads said earlier this week they were ready to work on a deal based on recommendations from the Presidential Emergency Board, which President Biden appointed last month.
The proposal would see 115,000 railroad workers receive a 24% pay rise and thousands of dollars in bonuses.
Based on union comments, workers may not be ready to sign the agreement.
A BNSF Railway Company train is parked in Seattle. The leader of the country’s largest rail union says the report, which aims to help resolve deadlocked contract negotiations with rail freight companies, has not done enough to address concerns about working conditions ev ((AP Photo/Elaine Thompson, File) / AP Newsroom)
Federal law would allow a strike or lockout if the two sides can’t agree on a new deal by mid-September.
PLAN TO GET RAIL CONTRACT DISPUTE, MOVE MOVES 24% SURVEYS
Congress is expected to intervene at this point to keep the supply chain moving.
A rail strike could destroy companies that rely on Union Pacific, BNSF, Norfolk Southern, CSX and other major freight railroads to supply raw materials and ship their products.
A Union Pacific train travels through Union, Nebraska ((AP Photo/Nati Harnik, File) / AP Newsroom)
The advisory council’s recommendations are a “major improvement” over the railroads’ previous proposals, said Jeremy Ferguson, president of the Sheet Metal, Air, Rail and Transportation Workers – Transportation Division union, which represents Schaffner. But, he added, “the recommendations do not go far enough to provide our members with the quality of life they deserve and that both they and their families deserve.”
UNION PACIFIC’S SECOND QUARTER PROFIT IMPROVES AS RAILWAY DELIVERY DELAYS ARE REDUCED
The other 11 unions involved in collective bargaining have not yet commented on the details.
Ferguson’s comments echo some of the concerns individual railroad workers have posted online since the report was published on Tuesday.
A BNSF railroad train hauling truckloads of coal from the Powder River Basin of Montana and Wyoming is seen east of Hardin, Mont. ((AP Photo/Matthew Brown, file) / AP Newsroom)
Another major sticking point in the negotiations was the railway’s proposal to reduce train crews from two to one. The unions strongly oppose the move – not only to protect jobs, but also because they say they are concerned about safety.
The railways claim they don’t need as many employees and locomotives as they used to because they have reorganized their operations to run fewer and longer trains.
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The group negotiating on behalf of the big railroads, the National Carriers Conference Committee, said the recommended deal would bring the biggest pay rises in decades, raising average railroad salaries to $110,000 a year by the end of the five-year deal.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.