{"id":3448,"date":"2023-01-24T06:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-01-24T06:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/uniontrack.com\/blog\/?p=3448"},"modified":"2023-01-23T16:09:49","modified_gmt":"2023-01-23T16:09:49","slug":"rail-unions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/uniontrack.com\/blog\/rail-unions","title":{"rendered":"How the US Government Undermined the Country\u2019s Rail Unions"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Ken Green
CEO & Founder
UnionTrack<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Way back in May 2020, UnionTrack wrote about how the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen (BLET) and other rail unions were pushing rail carriers<\/a> for fairer time-off policies, fairer scheduling, and safer working environments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two and a half years later, those requests have never been met.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Instead, in December 2022, the federal government forced an end to three years of contract negotiations between American rail workers and carriers through a series of votes in Congress.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Below is a recap of how those negotiations progressed and finally ended.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Three Years of Contract Negotiations<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

In November 2019, the 12 unions representing U.S. rail workers began to negotiate their new contract with U.S. rail carriers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Those negotiations are unique in U.S. labor because they are defined by the 1926 Railway Labor Act. The National Carriers\u2019 Conference Committee represents carriers\u2019 interests in these negotiations, and the act establishes a National Mediation Board (NMB) to enforce the contract.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is important to understand what was happening in the rail industry when negotiations began. As The Washington Post\u2019s Julian Mark<\/a> reports, the industry lost 40,000 jobs between November 2018 and December 2020. A big reason for all those lost jobs was a practice called \u201cprecision scheduling,\u201d which stretches the U.S. rail system\u2019s workforce as lean as it can go \u2014 for the sake of carrier profits.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWall Street at the time cheered the transition to a new [scheduling] system,\u201d Mark writes. \u201cIn 2019, Norfolk Southern and Union Pacific stocks rose 30 percent, and shares of Kansas City Southern jumped more than 60 percent.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

BLET President Dennis Pierce<\/a> criticized precision scheduling in March 2020 because of what it could do to workers during a pandemic:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhether it be recalling shop craft employees to sanitize locomotives, or recalling operating crews to backfill for those sick employees who should be out of the workplace healing, the railroads must get away from their Precision Scheduled Railroading job cutting mindset if they expect to do their part to get our great nation through this national emergency.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Railway<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Rail Workers Just Want Fair Time-Off and Staffing Policies<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

As the pandemic continued, so did precision scheduling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cLest we forget, BNSF Railway and Union Pacific made billions in profit in 2021,\u201d Mel Buer<\/a> at Real News wrote in July 2022, at the height of the global supply chain crisis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBut the cost of those profits, according to railroad workers and their advocates, has been incalculable. Profit-motivated, \u2018cost-cutting\u2019 decisions made by those at the top of the corporate hierarchy have ground the hardworking operators, engineers, and others working along the railroad into dust.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here\u2019s an example<\/a> of such a policy, from carrier CSX. Employees there do theoretically have access to 12 weeks of unpaid, job-protected leave. The catch is employees can only exercise that right if they:<\/p>\n\n\n\n