In a statement, President Joe Biden said the White House has reached a tentative agreement to avert a national rail strike. He says the offer will guarantee “better pay, improved working conditions, and peace of mind around their health care costs” for the workers.
“The agreement is also a victory for railway companies who will be able to retain and recruit more workers for an industry that will continue to be part of the backbone of the American economy for decades to come,” Biden said in the statement.
A Department of Labor official confirmed that a deal “that balances the needs of workers, businesses, and our nation’s economy” was reached in the early hours of the morning on Thursday after 20 consecutive hours of negotiations between rail companies and union negotiators.
“Secretary Walsh and the Biden administration applaud all parties for reaching this hard-fought, mutually beneficial deal,” a labor official said. “Our rail system is integral to our supply chain, and a disruption would have had catastrophic impacts on industries, travelers and families across the country.”
Update:
- Union members hold final say on us rail deal, or possible strike. Marathon talks led to a tentative agreement Thursday. What happens next depends on more than 100,000 workers represented by a several different unions, who’ll have to decide whether to ratify their leaders’ deals or reject them, setting the stage for a massive work stoppage.
- The tentative deal, the text of which hasn’t been publicly released, included record wage increases and new protections but didn’t include paid sick days workers had sought, according to union leaders. The tentative freight-rail agreements include a 24% wage increase over five years, 2020 through 2024, including 14.1% effective immediately, as well as five annual $1,000 payments, the National Carriers’ Conference Committee said.
- The cooling-off period in which work stoppages are prohibited has been extended to last several weeks past when workers vote to accept or reject its terms, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said. A timeline for those votes has not been released.
- The dilemma: Union members are likely to weigh the viability of pulling off a successful strike and the political impact it could have before the midterm elections, as well as how much the tentative deal does to address their core concerns, said Wilma Liebman, a former deputy director of the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service and former chair of the National Labor Relations Board.
- Another try: The International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers union says it is now working to get a new agreement after its members rejected a tentative deal that had been struck earlier.
- Some agreement: The BLET, the International Association of Sheet Metal Air, Rail & Transportation Workers, and the Brotherhood of Railroad Signalmen have all now agreed to the tentative pact, according to the National Carriers’ Conference Committee, which represents national freight railways in bargaining. Together, the three speak for about 60,000 workers, it said in a statement.
- Feel the Bern? Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) said in a statement: “Now it’s up to the rank-and-file union members to evaluate this deal and determine whether it works for them. These workers have not had a raise in three years and continue to work incredibly long hours under brutal working conditions. I will respect and support whatever decision they make.”
- Freight railroads immediately restored services they had suspended earlier in the week. Union Pacific Corp. and Norfolk Southern Corp. said they are working to resume normal operations after halting some service in anticipation of a work stoppage.
- Bottom line: The deal, if approved, could raise shipping costs as railroads try to recoup their added labor costs, analysts said. But it could improve service, which has suffered from capacity and labor shortages.