Rail Unions Threaten Rail Strike On December 5, Congress May Intervene

Update to Pro-Labor President Biden Steps In And Averts A National Rail Strike (Sep. 2022).

Eight of the Twelve rail unions have approved the compromise contract,, but four unions have rejected the terms. If even one continues to reject the deal after further negotiations, it could mean a full-scale rail strike will start as soon as midnight on Dec. 5, 2022.

The Washington Post reported last month, Rail union rejects contract as strike threatens U.S. economy before holidays:

One of the largest railroad unions narrowly voted to reject a contract deal brokered by the White House, bringing the country once again closer to a rail strike that could paralyze much of the economy ahead of the holidays, union officials announced on Monday.

The union SMART Transportation Division voted the deal down by 50.9 percent, the union said. The Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen, which represents engineers, announced 53.5 percent of members voted to ratify the deal. The two are considered among the most politically powerful of the 12 rail unions in contract discussions.

A national rail strike, which could happen as early as Dec. 5, would threaten the nation’s coal shipments and its supply of drinking water, while shutting down passenger rail and shipment of goods as the holiday season revs up. The U.S. economy could lose $2 billion a day if railroad workers strike, according to the Association of American Railroads.

[T]he rejection of the contract adds new pressure to the White House, which had been closely involved in negotiating the contract between the unions and rail companies. A shutdown of the nation’s transportation infrastructure heading into the holiday season would spell a political disaster.

“As the President has said from the beginning, a shutdown is unacceptable because of the harm it would inflict on jobs, families, farms, businesses and communities across the country,” according to a White House official. “A majority of unions have voted to ratify the tentative agreement, and the best option is still for the parties to resolve this themselves.”

The main sticking points for rank-and-file members have been points-based attendance policies that penalize workers for taking time off when they are sick or for personal time, and contribute to grueling, unpredictable schedules that weigh on workers’ mental and physical health, they say.

Jared Cassity, the national legislative director at SMART Transportation and a conductor, said members voted to reject the contract because they are angry and stressed over points-based attendance policies.

“It’s about attendance policies, sick time, fatigue, and the lack of family time,” Cassity said. “A lot of these things that cannot be seen but are felt by our membership. It’s destroying their livelihoods.”

Cassity said the union would likely immediately resume negotiations with rail carriers as their strike deadline looms on Dec. 8.

But two smaller unions, the Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employees and the Brotherhood of Railroad Signalmen, have rejected their contracts and would be allowed to strike or companies would be able to impose a lockout even sooner, on Dec. 5right after midnight, unless Congress intervenes.

If those unions strike on Dec. 5, all of the unions would likely move in solidarity, provoking an industry-wide work stoppage.

The Association of American Railroads President CEO Ian Jefferies said in a statement that the group’s freight companies are ready to reach new contract agreements with unions, but warned that “the window continues to narrow as deadlines rapidly approach.” There are some 30 rail carriers including Warren Buffett’s BNSF, Union Pacific, CSX, Norfolk Southern, Kansas City Southern Railway and Canadian National.

“Let’s be clear, if the remaining unions do not accept an agreement, Congress should be prepared to act and avoid a disastrous $2 billion a day hit to our economy,” Jefferies said.

The deal struck [in September] included a 24 percent pay increase by 2024 — the largest for railroad workers in more than four decades — and, for the first time, flexibility for workers to take time off when they are hospitalized or to attend three routine doctor’s appointments a year without penalty. The deal also included a single additional paid day off. Currently conductors and engineers do not receive a single paid sick day, but carriers have said their attendance policy allows workers “to take time off when needed.”

But discontent among rail workers continued to brew. They say these concessions did not meaningfully change the points-based attendance policies that carriers began rolling out in 2020 to maintain staffing levels that they said they needed to keep trains running during the pandemic. Union members say the changes have come at the expense of their health.

And they also raised concerns that the proposed contract’s attempts to deal with emergency substitutes — if workers call out sick unexpectedly — could make their schedules even worse.

Under the Railway Labor Act of 1926, Congress can intervene in the case of a railway strike to impose a contract on the railroads to block or stop a rail strike.

If that happens, there would be a short period after Thanksgiving for lawmakers to step in to impose a contract. Some Republican lawmakers have said they are ready to impose a contract negotiated earlier this year by the White House. Congress can also extend strike deadlines or force both parties into arbitration.

Reuters reports, Biden says his administration is engaged in talks to avert railroad strike:

President Joe Biden said on Thursday that his administration was involved in negotiations to avert a looming U.S. railroad strike that could shut down supply chains across the country but added that he has not directly engaged on the matter yet.

Speaking to reporters outside a fire station on Nantucket Island, Massachusetts, during a Thanksgiving holiday visit, Biden declined to provide details on how the talks were going because it was “the middle of negotiations.”

“My team has been in touch with all the parties, and in (a) room with the parties and I have not directly engaged yet because they’re still talking,” Biden said.

More than 300 groups, including the National Retail Federation and the National Association of Manufacturers, urged Biden last month to get involved to help avoid a strike that could idle shipments of food and fuel while inflicting billions of dollars of damage to an already struggling national economy.

Earlier this week, several of these groups renewed calls for Biden and Congress to swiftly intervene to prevent a strike or employer lockout ahead of the holiday season.

A rail traffic stoppage could freeze almost 30% of U.S. cargo shipments by weight, stoke inflation and cost the American economy as much as $2 billion per day by unleashing a cascade of transport woes affecting U.S. energy, agriculture, manufacturing, healthcare and retail sectors.

On Monday, workers at the largest U.S. rail union (the train and engine service members of the transportation division of the International Association of Sheet Metal, Air, Rail, and Transportation Workers (SMART-TD) narrowly voted to reject the deal), voted against a tentative contract deal reached in September, raising the possibility of a year-end strike.

Labor unions have criticized the railroads’ sick leave and attendance policies and the lack of paid sick days for short-term illness. There are no paid sick days under the tentative deal. Unions asked for 15 paid sick days and the railroads settled on one personal day.

Eric Loomis, professor of history at the University of Rhode Island, writes Devastating pre-holiday rail strike looms after unions reject deal — will Biden force workers back?

The prospect of a potentially devastating rail workers strike is looming again.

Fears of a strike in September 2022 prompted the Biden administration to pull out all the stops to get a deal between railroads and the largest unions representing their employees.

That deal hinged on ratification by a majority of members at all 12 of those unions. So far, eight have voted in favor, but four have rejected the terms. If even one continues to reject the deal after further negotiations, it could mean a full-scale freight strike will start as soon as midnight on Dec. 5, 2022. Any work stoppage by conductors and engineers would surely interfere with the delivery of gifts and other items Americans will want to receive in time for the holiday season, along with coal, lumber and other key commodities.

Strikes that obstruct transportation rarely occur in the United States, and the last one involving rail workers happened three decades ago. But when these workers do walk off the job, it can thrash the economy, inconveniencing millions of people and creating a large-scale crisis.

I’m a labor historian who has studied the history of American strikes. I believe that with the U.S. teetering toward at least a mild recession and some of the supply chain disruptions that arose at the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic still wreaking havoc, I don’t think the administration would accept a rail strike for long.

19th century rail strikes

Few, if any, workers have more power over the economy than transportation workers. Their ability to shut down the entire economy has often led to heavy retaliation from the government when they have tried to exercise that power.

In 1877, a small strike against a West Virginia railroad that had cut wages spread. It grew into what became known as the Great Railroad Strike, a general rebellion against railroads that brought thousands of unemployed workers into the streets.

Seventeen years later, in 1894, the American Railway Union went on strike in solidarity with the Pullman Sleeping Car company workers who had gone on strike due to their boss lowering wages while maintaining rents on their company housing.

In both cases, the threat of a railroad strike led the federal government to call out the military to crush the labor actions. Dozens of workers died.

Once those dramatic clashes ended, for more than a century rail unions have played a generally quiet role, preferring to focus on the needs of their members and avoiding most broader social and political questions. Fearful of more rail strikes, the government passed the Railway Labor Act of 1926, which gives Congress the power to intervene before a rail strike starts.

* * *

Rail unions engaged in brief strikes in both 1991 and 1992, but Congress used the Railway Labor Act to halt them, ordering workers back on the job and imposing a contract upon the workers.

In 1992, Congress passed another measure that forced a system of arbitration upon railroad workers before a strike – that took power away from workers to strike.

[B]ut rail workers, angered by their employers’ refusal to offer sick leave and other concerns, may go on strike first.

Rail companies have greatly reduced the number of people they employ on freight trains as part of their efforts to maximize profits and take advantage of technological progress. They generally keep the size of crews limited to only two per train.

Many companies want to pare back their workforce further, saying that it can be safe to have crews consisting of a single crew member on freight trains. The unions reject this arrangement, saying that lacking a second set of eyes would be a recipe for mistakes, accidents and disasters.

The deal the Biden administration brokered in September would raise annual pay by 24% over several years, raising the average pay for rail workers to $110,000 by 2024. But strikes are often about much more than wages. The companies have also long refused to provide paid sick leave or to stop demanding that their workers have inflexible and unpredictable schedules.

The Biden administration had to cajole the rail companies into offering a single personal day, while workers demanded 15 days of sick leave. Companies had offered zero. The agreement did remove penalties from workers who took unpaid sick or family leave, but this would still leave a group of well-paid workers whose daily lives are filled with stress and fear.

What lies ahead

Seeing highly paid workers threaten to take action that would surely compound strains on supply chains at a time when inflation is at a four-decade high may not win rail unions much public support.

Note: The key to a successful strike is having public support on your side. The timing of this strike will ensure that the public is not supportive of the unions, despite how badly the rail companies treat their employees. See, US voters want to avoid rail shutdown at all costs: poll: “The survey, conducted by Forbes Tate Partners, found that 92 percent of voters believe it’s “important” for the U.S. to avert a strike, including 71 percent who say it’s “very important.” Eighty-five percent of those surveyed said that a rail strike would worsen inflation.” “The railroad group’s poll found that 72 percent of voters say the tentative agreement is fair when told that it will bring the average rail worker compensation to $160,000 including benefits. The same percentage of respondents said that Congress should step in to ensure that rail service isn’t disrupted. Lawmakers have the authority to block a strike and force through the tentative deal.” This does not seem to me to be a well thought out strike strategy.

A coalition representing hundreds of business groups has called for government intervention to make sure freight trains keep moving, and it’s highly likely that Congress will again impose a decision on workers under the Railway Labor Act. The Biden administration, which has shown significant sympathy to unions, has resisted supporting such a step so far.

No one should expect the military to intervene like it did in the 19th century. But labor law remains tilted toward companies, and I believe that if the government were to compel striking rail workers back on the job, the move might find a receptive audience.