US Railroad Workers Prepare For A Strike

The bad working conditions, backbreaking work, and grueling schedules have been the plight of many US freight railroad workers for a while now. Many workers have quit the field due to these hardships over the past few years.

For around three years, railroad corporations and 150,000-member-strong labor unions have been negotiating over a new union contract. The cooling-off period the Biden administration imposed is supposed to end this Friday. The two parties are expected to settle their disputes by then. If a solution isn’t met the unions are planning to take industrial action. If they go through with it, it will be the first time since the last industrial action in 1992. The threat of the workers saying they will quit the railroad industry is substantial, considering the number of staff shortages experienced by the sector.

If such a strike occurs, the consequences would be severe for the country. Almost 40% of the US’s long-distance trade is facilitated by rail. The strike would cost the American economy a whopping total of $2 billion a day.

However, we cannot dismiss the arguments of the railroad workers claiming that the industry is facing a crisis. From November 2018 to December 2020 alone the railroad industry lost 40,000 jobs. In the 1950s railroad was a 1 million-worker industry. As of 2022, the numbers have dropped to less than 150,000.

BNSF and Union Pacific, the two largest railroad corporations in North America, received large profits thanks to cost-cutting. These companies experienced record profits in 2021. Shareholders have received $196bn in stock buybacks and dividends from the US railroads.

This trend of workers quitting has the few remaining employees working faster to get more work done. This puts additional strain on the already stressed-out railroad workers. However, all of this is happening while the industry is making big bucks. Railroad workers are facing many serious issues including:

• Labor cuts
• Lack of paid days off
• Precision scheduling systems to reduce headcounts
• Disciplinary attendance policies that issue points against workers for any time taken off
• Unfair and punishing on-call schedules

The railroad industry has become unappealing thanks to these issues to the point where workers are planning to quit if action isn’t taken to offer solutions. The proposed new union contract agreements are not addressing employee concerns properly.

The Biden administration’s decision to convene a presidential emergency board (PEB) in the early months of 2022 saw to it that a settlement is arrived at by August 16^th. Out of the 12 labor unions participating in the negotiations, 10 have reached tentative agreements. However, the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen (BLET) and the International Association of Sheet Metal, Air, Rail, and Transportation Workers (Smart) unions say that they will strike if attendance and scheduling issues aren’t addressed. These two unions represent half of the railroad workers.

The workers will still be expected to vote on the tentative agreements received so far. The PEB did not take sufficient action to soothe the feeling of betrayal among the railroad workers. Most railroad employees do not receive paid time off at all. They are on call 24/7. The PEB’s recommendation to add only one day of paid time off is not a sufficient solution. The workers don’t have any work-life balance and are experiencing fatigue issues, illnesses, and job safety concerns.