A series of contract deals are coming off the rails, as unions see Trump’s election looming over the negotiations

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OMAHA, Neb. (AP) – A series of contract deals announced earlier this fall – including two more on Wednesday – provide evidence that major railroads and their unions are working to avert tensions that brought them to the brink of a national strike two years ago. .

Both sides now have a clear understanding that President-elect Donald Trump – who has a history of supporting big business – will be the one to appoint people to help resolve the contract dispute this time if they can’t resolve it themselves. .

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“I think overall it may lead to unions and employers wanting to negotiate more and reach agreements faster,” said Todd Vachon, who teaches at the Rutgers School of Management and Labor Relations.

But it still won’t be easy to satisfy all workers who are still concerned about widespread job cuts and see a sharp increase in other labor disputes.

The current contracts don’t expire until July, but the National Carriers Conference Committee, which is negotiating on behalf of the railroads, said in a statement at the start of talks on November 1 that it hopes to find a solution early. Just on Wednesday, the railways announced two new agreements with the Transportation Communications Union and the Brotherhood of Railway Carmen.

Railroads play such an important role in the economy that the president and Congress have the power to intervene because many businesses rely on them to deliver their raw materials and finished goods. The Railway Labor Act that governs railroad contract negotiations states that if the two sides cannot reach an agreement, the dispute may end up in the hands of a special board of arbitrators appointed by the president who will listen to both sides and recommend an agreement. That happens in 2022 – although the industry is still on the verge of a strike.

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The two unions that filed Wednesday and several others among the 12 railroad unions had already reached some agreements with CSX, Norfolk Southern and BNSF railroads even before formal negotiations began between the unions and the railroad alliance that includes Norfolk Southern, BNSF and Canada. Nationally. The other major railroads – CSX, Union Pacific and CPKC – have decided to negotiate individually with their unions.

“I think we all saw the risk of going through that again,” Norfolk Southern CEO Mark George said of the industry’s last decades-long battle that created “a lot of anxiety and uncertainty for workers.”

The industry has also made strides over the past two years in addressing other health concerns that nearly led to a strike in 2022 before Congress and President Joe Biden intervened. In the two years since the nation’s freight trains were nearly shut down, the industry has offered paid sick time to 90% of them — at the urging of the Biden administration and other officials — and many railroads have promised to improve unexpected plans. railway workers who used to be on call 24-7 without the slightest idea when their next day off might come.

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As a result, relations between the major railroads and the dozen or so different unions that represent their workers have generally improved, although they remain strained at times.

The president of the largest railway association representing operators – SMART-TD – Jeremy Ferguson said, “We have come a long way in two years.” But many workers still feel pressured and undervalued by the railways after job cuts made in the name of efficiency in recent years.

CSX CEO Joe Hinrichs, who led the industry with the first sick-time deals and other efforts to show workers he values ​​them, said he was optimistic about the prospects for the agreements.

“We’re in a very different place than we were two years ago, that’s for sure,” Hinrichs said. “I think what we’ve gotten to is that everybody stepped back at CSX and the unions and said, OK, nobody’s satisfied with what happened last night. What are we going to do differently this time?”

A number of those earlier deals were approved this fall, not long after the first ones were announced amid a labor dispute that halted Canadian National and CPKC railroads for several days in Canada. But recently, deals that offered 18.8% raises and improved vacation and health benefits over five years were dropped after Boeing and East Coast dock workers secured the biggest raises following their strikes.

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Josh Hartford with the railroad’s Machinist Union’s District 19 said that since the contract with CSX is already up for a vote when longshoreman get bigger wages, there isn’t enough time to explain why the contract — which comes in behind 24 percent. raises the railway workers received from their last contract – may be considered a good thing. Port workers have gone a long time without a new agreement before this one which includes a 62% increase.

But Hartford said “morale is still bad” at many railroads after all the cuts and there’s a strong feeling among some workers that maybe they could get more if they fought longer, so the Machinists rejected that deal. The conductors have also voted down all but one small deal on the part of BNSF that they have considered so far, and the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen union is unwilling to sign on to any of these early deals. Also, it is the third largest union representing tracking workers in terms of the agreements it has voted on so far.

So getting all unions to agree will not be easy. Consider that BLET is locked in a lawsuit with Union Pacific trying to get that railroad to deliver the schedule improvements it promised, and SMART-TD is moving toward solving scheduling problems at UP and staff size issues at BNSF.

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BLET union president Eddie Hall said his union representing engineers “will not be in a rush to make deals that have not been done.”

“Some of the agreements that were reached early on by other unions were rushed and failed to meet the needs of those train drivers who use the trains,” said Hall, who cited concerns over the increasing use of remote-controlled trains, the length of which has been increasing. railways and the impact of all the job cuts.

But the pressure will be on unions to settle because the Biden administration will no longer be dependent on the railroads, said Virginia Commonwealth University professor Victor Chen, who studies labor issues as a sociologist.

“I expect the Trump administration 2.0 will continue with their anti-union playbook all the time. In the negotiations, the unions will have to keep in mind that the White House will no longer stand up the way Biden did,” said Chen.

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