LOCALIZE IT: Congress acts to block railroad strike

EDITORS/NEWS DIRECTORS:

Earlier this week, President Joe Biden urged Congress to intervene in stalled railroad contract talks, and the House voted Wednesday to impose a contract on workers ahead of next week’s looming strike deadline. The Senate will take up the measure in the next few days.

Railroad workers had threatened to go on strike as soon as Dec. 9 if new agreements couldn’t be reached for the four unions that rejected deals that the Biden administration helped broker ahead of the original strike deadline in September. Eight other rail unions have approved their five-year deals that include 24% raises and $5,000 in bonuses to secure the biggest wage increases workers have seen in more than four decades.

The unions that represent roughly 115,000 workers have been negotiating jointly with a coalition of railroads that includes BNSF, Union Pacific, Norfolk Southern, CSX and Kansas City Southern.

Biden and Congress decided to get involved in the contract dispute because of fears about the potential devastating impact of a rail strike. Nearly every industry would be affected because so many businesses rely on railroads to deliver the raw materials they need and haul their finished products. Commuters and passengers on long-distance Amtrak trains also would be affected by a strike because many of those passenger railroads operate on tracks owned by the freight railroads.

Read AP’s latest:

— House votes to avert rail strike, impose deal on unions

— EXPLAINER: What to know on Congress’ bid to bar rail strike

Some tips for localizing the story:

RESOURCES

— The full 124-page report detailing the Presidential Emergency Board’s recommendations is available online. An AP story summarizing the recommendations for 24% raises and $5,000 in bonuses as part of a five-year deal that is retroactive to 2020 is available here. The recommendations also include one additional paid leave day a year, and they call for workers to pay a larger share of their health insurance costs, but their cost would be capped at 15% of the total cost of their health plans.

— The Association of American Railroads trade group published a report estimating that a railroad strike would cost the economy some $2 billion a day and disrupt many businesses and passenger traffic nationwide. A copy of the report is available online. A report the American Chemistry Council did about the potential impact of the strike is also available online.

— The National Railway Labor Conference that negotiates on behalf of the railroads posts updates on the contract talks on its website. Several also post statements about the contract talks on their websites with the SMART-TD union that represents conductors, the BLET union that represents engineers and the BMWED union that represents track maintenance workers being among the most outspoken.

QUESTIONS/REPORTING TIPS

— Seek out businesses in your area that rely on railroads to deliver their raw materials or finished products and ask if they can say how they would be affected if there was a railroad strike. Local wastewater treatment plants may even be affected if they can’t get the chlorine they need to treat drinking water.

— Check to see if retailers or package delivery services in your area expect shipments of products to be delayed if the trains stop moving. Do they expect shortages of some items?

— Contact Congress members in your area to ask whether they support the measure to block a rail strike that the House voted on. Ask whether they would support the bill that would require railroads to offer workers seven days of paid sick time.

— Check with commuter railroads to see if they expect their operations to be affected by a possible strike. Many passenger railroads operate on tracks owned by the major freight railroads.

— Try contacting local offices of one of the railroad unions to see if any local union officials would be willing to discuss the contract negotiations. The unions negotiating with the railroads include the American Train Dispatchers Association (ATDA); the Brotherhood of Railroad Signalmen (BRS); the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen (BLET); the International Association of Machinists (IAM); the International Brotherhood of Boilermakers (IBB); the National Conference of Firemen & Oilers/SEIU (NCFO); the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW); the Transport Workers Union of America (TWU); the Transportation Communications Union / IAM (TCU), including TCU’s Brotherhood Railway Carmen Division (BRC); the Transportation Division of the International Association of Sheet Metal, Air, Rail and Transportation Workers (SMART-TD); the Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employes Division (BMWED), and the Mechanical Department of the International Association of Sheet Metal, Air, Rail, and Transportation Workers (SMART–MD).

The four unions that rejected their agreements are the BMWED, SMART-TD, BRS and IBB unions.

— To find railroad workers affected by the contract negotiations, you might be able to search social media sites, such as Twitter, for people speaking out about the contract talks.

PUBLISHABLE CONTEXT

The Association of American Railroads trade group estimated a railroad strike would cost the economy roughly $2 billion a day. A separate report published by the American Chemistry Council trade group said an extended strike could push the economy into a recession if it lasted a month and force manufacturers to eliminate roughly 700,000 jobs.

The federal Railway Labor Act that governs railroad contract talks makes it difficult for workers to go on strike because of concerns about all the ways a rail strike would affect business. The law gives Congress the power to intervene in rail contract talks if both sides can’t reach an agreement, and it has done so more than a dozen times in the past.

The negotiations began in the fall of 2019 when both sides exchanged their initial proposals. The pandemic forced some of the contract talks to be held virtually and slowed contract talks, and the two sides were unable to reach agreements even with the help of government mediators. Workers haven’t had a raise since 2019 even as they kept working throughout the pandemic.

After mediation failed, President Joe Biden appointed a Presidential Emergency Board of experienced arbitrators who held hearings with the railroads and their unions before issuing a report on Aug. 16 with recommendations for a new contract.

The major freight railroads backed the recommendations in that report, and all the rail unions reached agreements back in September based on them.

Although those agreements were based on the arbitrators’ recommendations, the unions did secure some additional concessions, including language clarifying how expenses would be covered for track maintenance workers and three unpaid days off a year for engineers and conductors to tend to medical appointments as long as they scheduled them at least 30 days in advance. The railroads also promised to negotiate further at each railroad with conductors and engineers about improving the way regular days off are scheduled.

Four unions ultimately rejected those deals because they said the agreements didn’t do enough to address workers’ quality-of-life concerns about the lack of paid sick time in the industry and the demanding schedules that make it hard for some workers to ever take a day off.

The railroads refused to consider adding sick time because they want the agreements to closely follow the recommendations the special board of arbitrators that Biden appointed made this summer, and the railroads don’t want these deals to cost more than they offered in September. The railroads also argue that the unions have agreed over the decades to forego paid sick leave in favor of higher wages and strong short-term disability benefits.

If Congress does what Biden suggests and imposes terms similar to what was agreed on in September, that will end the union’s push to add paid sick time. The four unions that have rejected their deals have been pressing for the railroads to add that benefit.

The plan the House approved on Wednesday would impose the terms of those September agreements on workers. A separate measure that House Democrats also approved would add seven days of paid sick time, but that bill faces an uncertain future in the Senate because it was overwhelmingly opposed by Republicans.

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Localize It is an occasional feature produced by The Associated Press for its customers’ use. Questions can be directed to Katie Oyan at koyan@ap.org.