As the Threat of a Strike Looms, the Biggest Railroad Unions Are Counting Votes

The two largest railroad unions in the country will reveal on Monday whether their members have voted to accept or reject a new wage deal that was brokered by the White House. If the deal is rejected, it could pave the way for a strike that could disrupt the flow of goods around the country.

The final two unions to report the ratification of votes in the labor dispute are the unions representing engineers and conductors - SMART Transportation Division and the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen. This dispute has been contentious and protracted, with both sides fighting for their rights.

Seven of the unions have ratified their agreements, while the members of three unions have rejected their tentative agreements and are back at the negotiating table with the railroads. If they don’t come to a new agreement, workers would be allowed to strike as early as December 4th.

Union Pacific Corporation (UNP) is an American railroad company that operates one of the largest railroad networks in the United States. The company's headquarters are located in Omaha, Nebraska.

CSX Corp. is a transportation company that provides rail, intermodal, and rail-to-truck transload services. The company operates in 23 states in the eastern United States, as well as in Canada and Mexico. CSX Corp. is headquartered in Jacksonville, Florida.

Approximately 40% of U.S. long-distance cargo is moved by freight railroads, which serve the agricultural, energy, and manufacturing sectors. If these railroads were to go on strike, even for a short period of time, it could lead to diversions and delays in supply chains, potentially setting back recovery efforts in some industries. Trade groups representing grain and feed producers and chemical shippers have asked Congress to intervene to prevent a labor strike.

Railroad workers who voted against their agreement said that their grievance was not about wages, but about working conditions. They said that punitive attendance policies and insufficient staffing had left them overworked. Railroads, which furloughed thousands of staff during the pandemic, said that they had struggled to hire enough workers when demand recovered and that they had adopted attendance policies to manage absences.

"Both sides have to make some concessions in a compromise," said Ian Jefferies, president of the Association of American Railroads, a trade group. He said the proposed wage increases were above what the railroads had offered, but the railroads didn't get everything they wanted in terms of work rules.

The new agreement would give railroad workers a 24% pay increase over the next five years, starting in 2020. In addition, they would get one extra paid day off, on top of their existing vacation and paid time off. Union leaders at BLET and SMART TD said they were able to get changes to attendance policies included as well, though some members said these gains weren’t enough.

Some workers said they are resentful that railroad executives don’t adequately value the contributions of their labor. “They are so brazen to the fact that they don’t care about the working people,” said Lesly Wilterding, a signal maintainer based in Fort Scott, Kan. Mr. Wilterding voted earlier to reject the tentative agreement presented by his union, the Brotherhood of Railroad Signalmen. Members of the union overall voted against the deal.

The railroads have made changes to their attendance policies based on employee feedback. "We are constantly working to make our jobs more attractive to today's employees," said Kristen South, a Union Pacific spokeswoman. "We are testing a new work-rest schedule that we hope will be more appealing to workers."

If railroad workers in the United States go on strike, it could cost the economy an estimated $2 billion per day, according to the AAR. With the country's average economic output totaling around $63 billion per day, this would be a significant loss.

If the current agreements are not ratified, the leaders of BLET and SMART-TD will return to the bargaining table to try to come to a revised deal. The deadline for this would be early December. These two groups represent around 60,000 railroad workers, which is more than half of the 115,000 workers that are covered by these negotiations.

Congress has the power to intervene in labor disputes and impose a settlement to prevent or shorten work stoppages. The last national rail strike, in 1991, lasted only 24 hours before Congress passed legislation ordering the workers back to their jobs and setting up an arbitration process to resolve the dispute.

In September, Sens. Roger Wicker (R., Miss.) and Richard Burr (R., N.C.) proposed a bill that would impose the contract terms brokered by the Biden-appointed panel if parties don’t reach agreement by the deadline that would have allowed workers to go on strike. Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont blocked the bill at that time.

At a town hall meeting with his members on November 9, Dennis Pierce, president of the BLET, said that he believes Congress was not going to allow a strike because of how important the work of engine guys is to the economy of the United States.