TTD in the news

Reported by Tim Ryan for Law 360.

Congress is poised to avert a rail strike by passing legislation imposing the terms of a tentative agreement between unions and railroads, but experts and labor advocates said resentment from the action could linger.

The House voted Wednesday to pass a bill adopting the terms of a tentative agreement unions and railroads negotiated earlier this year as well as a separate measure to provide workers seven days of paid sick leave. Four of the 12 unions that represent railroad workers voted to reject the tentative agreement in recent weeks, setting up the prospects of a large-scale strike starting Dec. 9 if the sides could not reach an agreement members would ratify.

Reported by Kasie Hunt for MSNBC

MSNBC – Rail Union Rep. “Disappointed Vote is Taken From Workers”

Greg Regan, President of the Transportation Trades Department (TTD) of the AFL-CIO, joined MSNBC’s Kasie Hunt to discuss the ongoing Senate votes on the national rail labor dispute.

Reported by Isabella Murray, Trish Turner, and Allison Pecorin for ABC News.

The Senate on Thursday voted to avert a looming strike of the nation’s railway workers by forcing a labor agreement.

A bipartisan majority of senators approved a House bill that will codify a tentative agreement between the rail companies and rail unions, which was brokered in September and subsequently rejected by some of the workers.

ABC News  (Video)

Transportation Trades Department President at the AFL CIO, Greg Regan, discusses the demands being made by rail workers and the cultural issues within rail corporations.

Reported by Erik Wasson for Bloomberg Law.

The House passed legislation aimed at averting a crippling nationwide US freight rail strike, sending it to the Senate, which could take action as soon as this week.

The bill, passed Wednesday on a 290-137 bipartisan vote, would impose a labor agreement hammered out by rail companies, labor leaders and the Biden administration months ago but rejected by workers in four of 12 unions.

The House separately voted 221-207 to pass a related bill that would revise the original deal to add seven days of paid sick leave to the contract, one of the chief sticking points between unions and companies. Only three Republicans voted for the sick leave measure, which doesn’t bode well for it getting enough GOP support in the Senate to pass. The Senate could choose to go along with the change or ignore it without affecting the original legislation.

Reported by Michael D. Shear and Emily Cochrane for The New York Times. Democratic and Republican leaders in Congress vowed on Tuesday to pass legislation averting a nationwide rail strike, saying they agreed with President Biden that a work stoppage during the holidays next month would disrupt shipping and deal a devastating blow to the […]

Reported by James Politi and Taylor Nicole Rogers for the Financial Times.

Joe Biden has often portrayed himself as the most pro-union president in American history, with his sympathy for blue-collar workers dating back to his childhood in the Pennsylvania rustbelt.

But faced with a potential strike of railroad unions that could have a crippling effect on US supply chains and the economy heading into the holiday season, Biden is now pleading for Congress to step in and force thousands of workers to stay on the job, risking a rift with some of his closest political allies.

AFL-CIO Transportation Trades Department President Greg Regan joined the America’s Work Force Union Podcast and discussed how policies have exacerbated a worker shortage in the railroad industry. 

Most of the issues faced by the railroad industry stem from a 30 percent cut in the workforce, Regan said. These companies have enacted draconian attendance policies that discourage people from becoming employees, he explained. Furthermore, many new employees drop out during training because of attendance requirements and quality of life issues, he added.

Regan then discussed the likelihood of a nationwide railroad strike and what Congress could do to avoid it.

Reported in the Labor Tribune.

With holiday shopping fully underway, the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union wants shoppers to be kind to often-stressed retail workers.

In a series of tweets posted on the union website, but meant for the general public, the union explains that the problems customers will encounter between now and the end of the year are not the fault of the stores’ workers, either union or non-union.

Instead, RWDSU tweeted, they’re due to a combination of supply bottlenecks and bosses’ decisions to stick with just-in-time ordering rather than lay in merchandise in advance.

Reported by Justin Franz for the Montana Free Press.

A sense of deja vu is overtaking the U.S. railroad industry this week as labor leaders and major railroad representatives try to figure out how to avoid a strike that could bring freight and passenger trains to a halt in the middle of the busy holiday shipping season.

It’s a scenario eerily similar to one that played out just over two months ago, when White House officials helped broker an eleventh-hour deal to avoid a national strike back in September. But that deal was only temporary while it awaited ratification votes by workers represented by 12 different labor unions.