Reported by Zach Williams for Bloomberg Government
A looming $85 billion deal to form the nation’s first transcontinental freight railroad is dividing organized labor as a federal body considers a merger application filed Dec. 19 by Union Pacific Corp. and Norfolk Southern Corp.
Unions supporting the proposed deal before the nominally independent Surface Transportation Board include SMART-TD, the largest rail union in the country and an affiliate of behemoth AFL-CIO.
The Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen as well as the Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employees—who have the largest memberships working at the two railroads and are part of the Teamsters—are among opponents.
“The difference between the unions that oppose and the unions that support is this notion of what constitutes worker protections in a merger,” John Samuelsen, international president of the Transport Workers Union, said in an interview. The union opposes the deal. “That has not been achieved.”
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