The National Railway Labor Conference, which represents a coalition of Class I railroads at the negotiating table, requested that the mediation board forcibly appoint a representative of the SMART Transportation Division to negotiate crew size during national bargaining that begins next month. The union has previously stated it believes crew size should be negotiated at the local level between individual railroads and local committees. Last year, a group of freight railroads sued the union to try and force it to talk crew size at the national level.
In the Section 6 Notice filed last year, the coalition of Class I railroads – which includes BNSF Railway, CSX Transportation, Kansas City Southern, Norfolk Southern, Union Pacific, and the U.S. railroads owned directly or indirectly by Canadian National – left no doubt that they wanted one-person crews.
On Jan. 23, SMART Transportation Division and nearly two dozen General Committees filed suit against the mediation board, which voted 2 to 1 in favor of the carriers’ group. Kyle Fortson and Gerald Fauth, both appointees of President Donald Trump, voted in favor of the Class I railroads and Chairwoman Linda Puchala voted against the measure. In her dissent, Puchala wrote that the decision by the two other board members circumvented decades of Railway Labor Act precedent in how these disputes are handled.
“The National Mediation Board has unlawfully and without authority initiated an arbitration process involving the SMART-TD and multiple rail carriers, contrary to the provisions of the Railway Labor Act,” the lawsuit states.
A spokesperson for the National Railway Labor Conference disagrees and says the board made the right choice and bringing the union to the table on the matter of crew size.
National bargaining between the Class I railroads and labor groups happens every five years and is governed by the Railway Labor Act, a 93-year-old law meant to try and avoid major railroad strikes that could cripple the economy. If the railroads and the unions are unable to come to an agreement, the National Mediation Board can step in and help forge an agreement. If that doesn’t work, the independent government agency offers binding arbitration. If either side refuses arbitration, a 30-day “cooling off” period begins. After a month, unions can go on strike or railroads can lock employees out. If the dispute threatens to impact interstate commerce, the president can establish a board to investigate the issue and Congress can force a settlement.
The previous contract does not have an expiration date so there is no deadline for negotiations. Talks can continue for as long as both sides believe progress is being made. The last round of talks began in January 2015 and ended three years later.
While the railroads say a more modern labor agreement is needed to take advantage of new technologies, union officials say the Class I railroads are only interested in the bottom line.
The first round of negotiations is scheduled for Feb. 26 and 27 in Washington and additional meetings are set to take place in Cleveland, Ohio; Omaha, Neb.; and Chicago throughout the year.
