By Chris Isidore, for cnn.com Union Pacific, one of the major freight railroads that successfully fought off union demands for paid sick days for workers during contentious labor negotiations in 2022, reported another year of record earnings Tuesday. The company, along with CSX, Norfolk Southern and Burlington Northern Sante Fe, narrowly avoided a strike by its unionized workers […]
Infrastructure investors, local governments seek rail presence in developing projects By Joanna Marsh for freightwaves.com The near-term future of freight rail might be one marked by collaboration, whether that’s through private or public partnerships among other supply chain stakeholders or between the railroads themselves as they compete against the trucking industry, according to panelists at […]
By Bill Stephens for trains.com Railroad has sacrificed service and resilience in pursuit of lower operating ratio It’s fitting that Union Pacific’s logo is a shield. The beleaguered railroad needs one given the barrage of arrows coming its way.UP has a long list of problems, many of them self-inflicted as a predictable result of its […]
BY PRESS ASSOCIATES Using safety of workers and communities as their main argument, two top railroad unions and the AFL-CIO Transportation Trades Department strongly argued for mandatory two-person crews on all freight trains. TTD and unions carried their campaign to the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) hearing on crews on Dec. 14, a day after rail workers’ […]
In the aftermath of the congressional contract fight, two major railroads are pursuing a merger and a third is retaliating against a worker for organizing. By Ryan Grim for theintercept.com FRESH OFF A victory against workers demanding sick days as part of recent contract negotiations, two major railroads are pursuing a merger and a third, owned […]
By JOSH FUNK for apnews.com OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Union Pacific says it will stop imposing temporary limits on certain businesses’ shipments while it reviews the policy that federal regulators and shippers criticized at a hearing last week. Union Pacific has put more than 1,000 of these embargoes in place this year — significantly more […]
By Chris Isidore, CNN for amp.cnn.com The fact that a freight railroad strikedidn’t start on Friday is a huge win for the US economyand its still struggling supply chain. But that doesn’t mean freight railroads are providing good service to their customers. Many of the problems tangling up the supply chain, driving up prices and slowing the economy can […]
Two largest unions close in on votes in the biggest test yet of the Biden administration’s push to avert strikes. More than half of freight rail workers will vote on proposed contracts next week amid a highly organized effort by some of their colleagues to urge a “no” vote. It’s the biggest test yet of […]
By PETER SWOPE for brownpoliticalreview.org In the early hours of September 15, 2022, the Biden administration closed a tentative deal between union negotiators and railroad companies to avoid a work stoppage that threatened to hamstring America’s already-fragile supply chain. Railroad workers face punishing work conditions, including insufficient wages, workplace safety issues, and, most notably, an attendance system that affords […]
Transportation Trades Department of the AFL-CIO says more regulation is needed to enforce common carrier obligations Courtesy of trains.com A rail labor union coalition has proposed that Congress require federal regulators to conduct an annual “stress test” that would determine whether the Class I railroads have enough people, equipment, and infrastructure capacity to meet freight […]