TTD in the news

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.

President Joe Biden’s allies are counting on political dividends from the agreement he brokered to avert a disastrous railroad strike, yet there’s still a risk the deal falters before November’s elections.

Biden, who ran for office on a pledge to keep the nation’s proverbial trains running on time, managed to keep engineers and rail yard workers at their jobs — at least for now. The tentative agreement reached Thursday between unions and railroad companies means a strike that would have wreaked havoc across the US economy won’t happen for weeks or months, if ever.

President Biden on Thursday celebrated a last-minute agreement between railway companies and union leaders averting a potential strike that could have slowed commerce and delivered another blow to an already volatile economy.

“This agreement is a big win for America,” Biden said during a hastily arranged event in the White House Rose Garden. “It’s a win for tens of thousands of rail workers and their dignity.”

The tentative agreement, which must be ratified by 125,000 union members, emerged in the early morning hours after round-the-clock negotiations at the Department of Labor overseen by Secretary Marty Walsh.

As the White House on Thursday celebrated a tentative agreement to avert a nationwide rail strike that could have devastated the economy, union officials cautioned that not everything is signed, sealed and delivered.

Most crucial in the days ahead: Workers across a dozen unions need to vote to ratify the compromise.

“There’s going to be a lot of work to do after today,” AFL-CIO Transportation Trades Department President Greg Regan said. “This was a big breakthrough, and we can take a day to reflect on it.” Yet “I don’t want to kid anybody here.”

Reported by Ben White and Eleanor Mueller for Politico.

President Joe Biden narrowly avoided an economic and political debacle on Thursday as senior administration officials helped salvage a tentative, last-minute deal to avert a devastating railroad strike.

And it almost didn’t happen.

Steering clear of disaster required some 20 straight hours of talks beginning Wednesday that taxed Labor Department coffee supplies, kept West Wing office lights burning through the early hours and left everyone involved bleary-eyed and largely sleepless.

The Transportation Trades Department of the AFL-CIO has offered its support for Surface Transportation Board vice chairman Robert Primus, who is seeking to serve a second term on the STB.

“During his current term, Mr. Primus has demonstrated an expert understanding of the economic state of the railroad industry, including widespread service and staffing issues,” TTD President Greg Regan wrote in a letter to members of the Senate. “… Member Primus has been a leader in ensuring that the STB takes all necessary steps to address the numerous challenges in our freight rail system. Further, Mr. Primus understands the need to exercise the STB’s oversight authority to improve service for rail customers, grow the freight rail workforce, and bring long-term stability to the freight rail system.”

On the heels of the latest round of labor negotiations between the National Mediation Board, unions, and freight railroads, the Association of American Railroads has released a report projecting that the economic impact of a nationwide railroad strike could be more than $2 billion a day.

So far, five of the 12 unions, representing 21,000 employees, have reached voluntary agreements with the railroads. The expiration of the 30-day cooling-off period when unions can walk off the job is midnight on September 16. There are just under 115,000 Class I railroad employees in the U.S., according to August data.