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WASHINGTON – Greg Regan, president of the Transportation Trades Department (TTD) of the AFL-CIO, today issued this statement in response to the Federal Aviation Administration’s (FAA) announcement of a final rule requiring 10 hours of minimum consecutive rest for flight attendants between duty time: “This is a historic day for every flight attendant in America. As the […]

Reported by Ian Kullgren and Rebecca Rainey for Bloomberg Law.

Ian Kullgren: Remember the rail strike that consumed the Biden administration’s attention last month? Well, it’s not over, and the threat of a nationwide disruption is still very real, according to Greg Regan, the AFL-CIO’s infrastructure czar.

Three unions so far have approved collective bargaining agreements with the National Carriers’ Conference Committee, the group representing large freight carriers. Nine more unions need members to vote to ratify agreements to avert a strike entirely.

Reported by Eugene Mulero for Transport Topics.

The trucking workforce’s contributions during the pandemic were again recognized by the chairman of the transportation panel in the U.S. House of Representatives.

At a Transportation and Infrastructure Committee hearing Sept. 29 that focused on the freight industry, Chairman Peter DeFazio (D-Ore.) pointed to the women and men who toiled to ensure supplies and services were provided during the height of COVID-19. At that time, public officials and industry stakeholders largely credited truckers with keeping critical economic engines viable.

Reported by Joanna Marsh for Freightwaves.

U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin has introduced legislation that seeks to clarify what the railroads’ obligations are in providing good service.

The bill, called the Reliable Rail Service Act, aims to better define the common carrier obligation, which are the terms a railroad must abide by when working with a bulk commodities rail shipper to haul goods.

The common carrier obligation bonds railroads to transport any freight that has been properly tendered on reasonable terms and conditions, according to the Association of American Railroads.

American Work Force Union Podcast.

AFL-CIO Transportation Trades Department President Greg Regan joined the America’s Work Force Union Podcast and discussed the importance of maintaining U.S. maritime ships as a matter of national security.

Newsy YouTube Video.

Greg Regan, President of the AFL-CIO’s Transportation Trades Department, joined Newsy to discuss the surge in air travel complaints and explain why consumers should be frustrated with the airlines instead of the workers.

Freight shippers are pressing Congress to address rail delays and service problems that slow the supply chain, in the wake of last week’s eleventh-hour deal averting a crippling national rail workers’ strike.

“This agreement helps put one major problem to rest, but also highlights the work that needs to be done to resolve the freight rail problems that are continuing to harm the U.S. economy,” dozens of groups that ship goods by rail said in a recent letter to lawmakers.

Shipping groups are using the close call over a strike to push Congress to advance contentious legislation that aims to strengthen the authority of the Surface Transportation Board, an independent agency that oversees rail, to address service emergencies and require contracts to have delivery standards.

A recently dodged transportation crisis between the country’s biggest railroads and the employees who work for them put the question of sick leave, and who does and doesn’t get it in America, squarely at the forefront of national debate.

One of the major sticking points in negotiations between the nation’s railroads and the unions representing railroad workers this summer was a request for paid sick leave.

Because more than 95% of employers offer at least some paid sick days to their employees, many outsiders to the industry were shocked to learn that railroad employees didn’t have that benefit in their contracts.

Reported by Chris Isidore for CNN.

The 11th hour deal that prevented a crippling strike at the nation’s freight railroads is the biggest win for US unions in years.

The agreement, reached in the early hours Thursday, kept more than 50,000 engineers and conductors on the job, and won members the changes in work rules sought by their leadership. They also got an immediate 14% raise, backpay dating to 2020 and raises totaling 24% over the five-year life of the contracts.

Opinion by Jennifer Rubin for The Washington Post.

As a former labor lawyer, I can attest that when heading into the final hours of a labor negotiation, after months if not years of haggling, both parties can be frustrated, tired and angry. The intervention of a third-party mediator can therefore be critical to avoid a work stoppage.

In the case of the averted railway workers strike this week, that role was played by Labor Secretary Marty Walsh.

By all accounts, Walsh and his deputy Julie Su made a huge difference, helping to facilitate the final 20 hours of talks.