Twelve rail unions are threatening a possible strike against the country’s Class 1 railroads on July 18 unless a Presidential Emergency Board (PEB) is appointed by President Biden to help resolve the labor dispute. An update on the dispute was provided at the Southwestern Fertilizer Conference in Nashville, Tenn., on July 12 by Dan Keen, Assistant Vice President, Policy Analysis, for the Association of American Railroads.
Disagreements over wages and health care benefits have prevented the railroads and their unions from negotiating a new contract since January 2020. The National Mediation Board (NMB), an independent federal agency that mediates railroad and other labor agreements, agreed earlier this year to mediate.
The parties failed to meet an agreement under NMB mediation, however, prompting the NMB last month to release the railroads and unions from mediation and begin a 30-day cooling off period, Freight Waves reported. That 30-day period ends after midnight on July 18.
Keen said Biden is almost certain to appoint a PEB before the cooling off period ends, as has been the practice in prior railroad labor disputes. A PEB would then have another 30 days to conduct hearings and issue a report, during which work stoppages are prohibited, Keen said.
According to the National Carriers’ Conference Committee (NCCC), which represents the railroads in collective bargaining, any work stoppage is also prohibited for another 30 days following the publication of PEB’s report.
The narrowing timeline before the July 18 deadline, however, has prompted some organizations to press Biden for action. Suzanne Clark, President and CEO of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, penned a July 6 letter to Biden urging him to appoint a PEB promptly to “prevent any disruption to America’s rail service.” The letter was copied to Secretary of Labor Marty Walsh and Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg.
“The U.S. business community faces enormous challenges today from record inflation, labor shortages, and ongoing supply chain disruptions due to the COVID-19 pandemic,” Clark said in the letter, adding that further disruptions “would be disastrous for U.S. consumers and the economy, and potentially return us to the historic supply chain challenges during the depths of the pandemic.”
Rail labor unions have criticized railroads for implementing “precision scheduled railroading” procedures in recent years in an effort to increase efficiencies, but at the expense of jobs and service. Major rail carriers have cut roughly 45,000 positions in the past six years, according to an April 2022 report from the Surface Transportation Board (STB).
Precision scheduled railroading was also criticized by The Fertilizer Institute (TFI) in testimony submitted to the STB in April concerning rail service issues that have hindered fertilizer deliveries this spring (GM April 29, p. 1).
Greg Regan, President of the AFL-CIO’s Transportation Trades Department, said rail workers are being “ground to dust” after going three years without a raise and being asked to work long hours to meet surging demand. “The reality is railroad executives continue to make record profits off the backs of rail workers after shrinking the total workforce by 30% since 2015,” Regan said, cited by Freight Waves.