Freight Rail Union Rejects Tentative Agreement, Previewing Messy and Prolonged Labor Fight

One of the 11 freight rail labor unions involved in the years-long dispute that almost resulted in a strike last month shutting down the country’s rail network rejected the tentative agreement on Monday, signaling the fight is far from over and may boil up again after the midterm elections.

In a vote by 11,845 Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way (BMWED) members, 6,646 rejected the tentative agreement (56 percent) while 5,100 voted to ratify it, according to a statement by the union. 99 ballots were blank or voided due to user error. 

Last month, the Biden administration intervened to secure a tentative agreement to avert a nationwide railroad strike over long-standing grievances of decreasing work-life balance and working conditions. “For the American people, the hard work done to reach this tentative agreement means that our economy can avert the significant damage any shutdown would have brought,” the statement said. But the rejected tentative agreement by BMWED suggests that celebration was premature.

While union members do not provide a reason for their vote along with their ballots, the main issue across negotiations has been work-life balance. While worker experiences vary based on the company, craft, and the job across the country, there is a broad sentiment among freight rail workers that the seven largest freight rail companies—known as Class I railroads—have been squeezing workers to do more work with less staff throughout the pandemic to pad corporate profit margins. In extreme but increasingly common cases, workers are required to be by their phones and available to show up at work within 90 minutes of receiving an alert for upwards of 90 percent of their working lives, with little to no ability to take scheduled time off for routine life events. 

Doctor visits are the most powerful example of basic aspects of modern society that freight rail workers largely cannot participate in due to draconian scheduling rules. Dozens of freight rail workers have told Motherboard over the last year they no longer spend time with their families and miss important life events such as comforting immediate family on their deathbeds or attending funerals. In scores of interviews with Motherboard, railroad workers have voiced increasing frustration by harsh attendance policies and perceived general disrespect by management over the years. Many feel these negotiations are their last realistic chance to secure a more tolerable work environment. 

The tentative agreement, which is heavily based on a Presidential Emergency Board recommendation,  does little to address this as the PEB considered attendance policies outside of the scope of the agreement. And, to the extent that it does offer one additional paid day off for sick leave, the breakdown in good faith between management and labor over the years means many workers are skeptical that it will be honored in practice.

In a statement, BMWED president Tony Cardwell said, “Railroaders are discouraged and upset with working conditions and compensation and hold their employer in low regard. Railroaders do not feel valued. They resent the fact that management holds no regard for their quality of life, illustrated by their stubborn reluctance to provide a higher quantity of paid time off, especially for sickness. The result of this vote indicates that there is a lot of work to do to establish goodwill and improve the morale that has been broken by the railroads’ executives and Wall Street hedge fund managers.”

The National Carriers’ Conference Committee (NCCC), which represents the railroad companies in negotiations, said in a statement, “We are disappointed that members of the Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employees Division of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters (BMWED) have declined to ratify the recent tentative agreement (“TA”) between the BMWED and the nation’s freight railroads.”

BMWED members now enter a “status quo” period where “the BMWED will reengage bargaining with the Class I freight carriers,” according to the union’s statement. That will last until five days after Congress reconvenes, which as of now is scheduled for November 14. If nothing else changes, after November 19, BMWED members will be able to engage in workplace actions up to and including a potential strike. 

The odds that nothing changes between now and then are basically zero, however. Seven unions still have to vote on the tentative agreement, including the two largest unions (the International Association of Sheet Metal, Air, Rail and Transportation Workers—Transportation Division, and the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen) that held out the longest and whose workers are subject to the harshest attendance policies. Both of those unions are expected to complete the voting on November 17.

One BMWED union representative, who asked not to be named because he is not authorized to speak with the media, said he was “not hugely surprised” by the results. “Overall, I knew it was going to be a tossup,” he told Motherboard. “There’s still plenty of work to do.”

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