Machinist Union Members Ratify Contract

A seventh railroad labor union has ratified a contract with management.

The International Association of Machinists (District 19) said on Saturday that 52 percent of its members ratified the contract agreement.

It becomes the first union whose members ratified the contract after previously voting to turn down an earlier contract agreement.

Thus far members of two unions – the Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employees, and the Brotherhood of Railway Signalmen – have turned down the contract.

Both of those unions continue to negotiate with the National Carriers Conference Committee, which represents railroad management.

Three other unions have yet to complete the ratification process, including unions representing locomotive engineers and conductors.

A work stoppage could occur as early as Nov. 19. The maintenance of way union has said it would not strike before that date.

The next union to announce ratification results will be the International Association of Boilermakers and Blacksmiths on Nov. 14.

“We are confident that this is the best deal for our members,” the IAM rail division said in a statement announcing the results of the ratification process.

“District 19 leadership worked day and night to communicate the agreement’s benefits and what would happen if it was rejected.”

In the meantime, numerous trade associations representing railroad shippers have urged Congress to step in and legislate a settlement before a work stoppage can occur.

Railway Age reported that Senators Richard Burr (R-North Carolina) and Roger Wicker (R-Mississippi) are expected to sponsor legislation heading off a work stoppage.

They plan to make that effort shortly after the Nov. 8 elections. Earlier, Burr and Wicker introduced a resolution to impose the recommendations issued in August by a presidential emergency board.

That resolution was cited by IAM leadership as a example of what could happen if union members rejected the contract reached with the NCCC.

The PEB recommendations did not include some additional benefits pertaining to time off and sick days that the contract contains.

The presidents of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen, and the SMART Transportation Division are expected to make similar arguments during a town hall meeting to be held Nov. 9, Railway Age reported.

Both presidents, Dennis Pierce and Jeremy Ferguson respectively, had initially refrained from heartily endorsing ratification of the contract, but of late have begun to urge their members to approve it.

The Railway Age report said rail union leaders and labor-friendly members of Congress are increasingly fearful that President Joseph Biden, who has often called himself the most labor friendly president of all time, will not be so labor friendly should a work stoppage occur and it begins to damage the nation’s economy.

U.S. Secretary of Labor Marty Walsh said on Friday in an interview with CNN that he expects Congress to block a work stoppage later this month.

Walsh, who was instrumental in brokering a tentative contract agreement in September, said he prefers that the two sides work out their differences at the bargaining table.

But if that doesn’t happen, “Congress will have to take action to avert a strike in our country,” Walsh said.

Other unions that have ratified the contract include the American Train Dispatchers Association, Brotherhood of Railway Carmen, International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, National Conference of Firemen and Oilers, SMART Mechanical Division, and Transportation Communications Union.

Rail Unions Heads ‘Neutral’ on Contract Vote

Both letters indicated that their purpose is to provide information about the agreement so members can decide for themselves how to vote.

Ferguson, however, engaged in some inflammatory rhetoric, telling members, “I understand the desire amongst many of you to strike. I know the contempt the carriers treat you with at work and have faced it in negotiations.”

BLET and SMART-TD are the largest of 12 railroad labor unions that reached tentative labor agreements with the National Carriers Conference Committee on the eve of a potential national rail work stoppage on Sept. 16.

Three of those unions have since voted to ratify those contracts. Another union representing mechanical workers rejected a tentative agreement, but its leadership agreed to another contract in subsequent negotiating. That second tentative agreement is now in the ratification process.

Leaders of the BLET and SMART-TD have said they don’t expect to announce results of the ratification voting until mid-November.

Rail Labor Strife Far From Settled

A week ago railroad labor peace seemed to be at hand. After an all-night bargaining session in which Labor Secretary Marty Walsh leaned on the parties to make concessions, a tentative agreement was announced around dawn, less than 24 hours before unions under federal railroad labor law were free to strike and their employers were free to lock them out.

Leaders of unions representing locomotive engineers and conductors touted the gains they achieved in modifying work rule pertaining to attendance policies, a 24 percent compounded wage increase over the life of the five-year contract, and heading off railroad management’s determination – for now at least – to restructure the jobs of conductors.

But those tentative agreements came with an important caveat. They are subject to ratification by union members.

Even before the last three unions agreed to a tentative contract, members of one union had rejected the tentative pact their leaders had negotiated earlier and members of two other unions had approved their tentative agreements.

The ratification process won’t be completed among remaining unions for another couple of weeks.

But there is a realistic prospect that the nation could be back to where it was last week with a strike and/or lockout looming again.

Some union workers have taken to social media to blast the agreements, saying they don’t go far enough.

It remains unclear if that is the view of a majority of union rail workers or merely griping by a loud minority.

In a commentary posted Wednesday on the website of Railway Age, Frank Wilner suggested that even if the rank and file union members vote to reject the agreements reached between their unions and the National Carriers Conference Committee, which represents railroad management, there is precedent for union leadership “overriding” the contract rejections.

Wilner, who has written extensively about railroad labor issues for Railway Age and published a book about the federal Railway Labor Act, said there are two scenarios in which that could happen.

Union leaders could cite clauses in the union’s constitution for imposing the contract despite the vote of the rank and file to reject it, or union leadership could reach an agreement with railroad management to submit the contract issue to binding arbitration.

Wilner cited two instances in which union leaders did those things. One instance involved the then-named United Transportation Union in 1996 and the Teamsters in 2018.

You can read Wilner’s column at https://www.railwayage.com/freight/class-i/might-union-chiefs-override-member-vote/

Pay particular attention to the political calculus that might drive union leaders to ignore the will of their members if they vote to reject the tentative agreements.

Even if railroad workers vote to ratify the tentative agreements, that doesn’t mean the restlessness in the ranks that has boiled over in recent months will go away despite the gains that union leaders said they made regarding work rules.

Trains magazine write Bill Stephens offered a thoughtful analysis of the turbulent times that might lie ahead in the wake of the current round of tentative contract agreements.

One scenario he offered is that some workers might stay in their jobs long enough to collect their back pay and then leave.

If large numbers of workers do that, it would set back the efforts of Class 1 railroads to recruit enough workers to alleviate the crew shortages they’ve been experiencing of late and which they claim is the root cause of their service issues.

You can read Stephen’s column at https://www.trains.com/trn/news-reviews/news-wire/rail-strike-averted-for-now-but-the-industrys-not-out-of-the-woods-yet-analysis/

The analysis ends with the observation that the railroad industry needs stability and less uncertainty. “The best way to go about it would be for labor and management to iron out their differences,” Stephens wrote.

Few would disagree with that. Retiring CSX CEO James Foote suggested as much in remarks made a few months ago.

Yet what if some differences between labor and management are irreconcilable?

Labor-management conflict is inevitable in every workplace because the self-interests of the two don’t always align.

Some of what railroad workers seem to want railroad management is never going to agree to give them.

Managers believe it is their place to set workplace rules. They call it management prerogative. Management might be willing to negotiate on some of those rules, but not all of them.

It is noteworthy that the tentative agreements may have eased some of the rules regarding attendance policies, but the pacts left untouched management’s right to set those policies, including policies that penalize workers for unauthorized absences.

In the meantime, everyone is waiting to see how the union members vote on ratification.

I would expect union leaders to lean hard on them to vote “yes.”

And if they don’t? A strike or lockout is not out of the question. How will it end? Probably not the way that many workers think that it will or hope that it will.

Rhetoric Continues to Rise in Contract Dispute

A ninth railroad labor union has reached a tentative agreement with the National Carriers Conference Committee, which represents railroad management in contract talks.

In the meantime, various shipper trade associations continued to apply pressure on Congress  to settle the dispute to avoid a strike or lockout that could occur as early as Friday.

President Joseph Biden also called top railroad management executives and union leaders to lobby them to settle the contract dispute, which a union president said on Monday is stalled over railroad attendance policies.

The latest union to reach a tentative agreement is the National Conference of Firemen & Oilers.

A news release from the union said the tentative pact implements the recommendations of a presidential emergency board of a 24 percent compounded wage increase over the five-year length of the contract, which covers the period of 2020 through 2024.

Workers would receive retroactive pay to cover 2020 and 2021 and parts of 2022. They also would receive five annual $1,000 lump sum payments.

That leaves three unions, which represent locomotive engineers, conductors and signal workers still at the bargaining table. The 12 railroad labor unions represent 125,000 workers.

The latest agreement came as various parties in the dispute continue to heat up the war of words.

Dennis Pierce, president of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers & Trainmen, said on Monday that worker attendance policies are the primary unresolved issue in the contract talks.

Pierce said during an appearance on cable news network CNBC that BNSF and Union Pacific in particular are being adamant about refusing to modify their attendance policies.

“We’re just looking for time away from work to address our medical issues,” Pierce said.  “Union Pacific and BNSF attendance policies are assessing [penalty] points to our members when they just want to take time off for their regular medical appointments.”

In response, BNSF told CNBC that Pierce’s claims were false while UP said it was continuing to push for a “prompt resolution” to avoid a shutdown of the national freight rail system. 

In a related development, leaders of the SMART Transportation Division union told Congressional leaders on Tuesday that lawmakers should let rail labor contract negotiations play out.

In a letter to Congress SMART-TD legislative director Greg Hynes said union members would reject a tentative contract based on the recommendations of the PEB by a 3-to-1 margin.

Hynes also said in his letter that the top issue in the contract talks is not wages but working conditions.

He said the carriers “are still refusing to provide our members with minimal provisions to improve their overall quality of life, and to recognize their contributions to the industry and to the American economy.”

The PEB appointed by President Biden earlier this year was largely silent on work rules, saying  only that they should be negotiated at the local level between the railroads and the unions.

Unions have described the attendance policies that railroads have imposed as “draconian.”

“Through egregious and excessive absenteeism policies, the railroads have taken away our members’ ability to be a worthy parent and dependable spouse; and they have eliminated any realistic means for an employee to receive medical services or care for a sick child without being assessed discipline or termination,” Hynes wrote.

The PEB did recommend that workers receive one additional paid day off.

The Association of American Railroads said in a statement that workers have numerous ways to take time off, including paid vacation, sick leave and supplemental sick leave policies through the Railroad Unemployment Insurance Act.

The AAR statement said crews also can mark off for any reason “if they maintain a reasonable level of overall availability under carrier attendance policies.”

BNSF said its workers generally get three to five weeks of paid vacation and 10 to 14 paid holidays or personal leave days, and received a 25 percent increase in personal leave days.

UP officials said it “understands our employees want a different way and process … to request and receive time off for things like medical appointments. We are in active discussions with the unions to try to address these concerns.”

In the meantime, several trade organizations have called on Congress to intervene to head off a strike and/or lockout.

They include the National Industrial Transportation League, one of the largest and oldest group of rail shippers, and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

“NITL members and shippers of all sizes in all regions continue experiencing dismal freight rail service due primarily to the implementation of precision scheduled railroading. Any disruption in freight rail service will negatively impact our nation’s international competitiveness while making inflation even worse which is affecting all Americans,” Nancy O’Liddy, executive director of the NIT League, wrote in a Sept. 12 letter to congressional leaders.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce said a strike would be an “economic disaster.”

On Monday, President Biden and members of his cabinet held emergency meetings in Washington and have been talking with the parties in the labor dispute.

The Federal Railroad Administration said it “is initiating oversight and enforcement efforts to ensure safety during any potential interruption of rail operations.”

Labor Executive Willis Dies

A railroad labor union executive has died of injuries that he suffered in a biking accident.

Larry Willis

Larry Willis, 53, was president of the Transportation Trades Department of the AFL-CIO, a position he has held since 2017.

In announcing his death the union noted that Willis had previously served as TTD’s secretary treasurer, general counsel and legislative representative.

He also once worked as an associate and director of legislation for Weil, Gotshal and Manges, and served in various legislative roles on Capitol Hill and in political campaigns.

In his role as TTD president, Willis oversaw the union’s daily operation and served as its spokesperson and chief strategist.

Willis is survived by his wife Amy and daughter Samantha.