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 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 […]
‘We want to see attrition rates and quality of life improved’ By Joanna Marsh for freightwaves.com The drama about whether union members would go on strike has passed, with Congress passing legislation and President Joe Biden signing that legislation requiring all unions to ratify the labor agreement that union and railroad negotiators reached in September. But the battle […]
By Lori Ann LaRocco for cnbc.com KEY POINTS The strike was averted, but tensions between unions and class I freight railroads continue to run high. Union Pacific’s use of embargoes, a freight railroad practice in which trade is stopped in order to clear up congestion, is at the center of a two-day hearing at the […]
By David Shepardson for reuters.com More than 70 lawmakers including Senator Bernie Sanders and Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Friday urged President Joe Biden to take executive action to guarantee rail workers paid sick days. On Dec. 2, Biden signed legislation to block a national U.S. railroad strike that could have devastated the American economy after some […]
BY KEVIN HARDY AND DANIEL DESROCHERS for amp.kansascity.com Just before he retired, Matthew Rose offered a warning to his peers running the nation’s large freight railroads. Rose, then the CEO of BNSF, one of the largest American railroads, told an industry conference in early 2019 that railroads were shirking their responsibilities to serve all customers by adopting […]
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 […]
Railroads are prioritizing payments to Wall Street stockholders over everything else, including serving the public interest. By John Cassidy for newyorker.com In our click-driven world, the threatened strike at America’s freight railroads, and President Biden’s intervention to prevent it, represents last week’s news. But there are two groups for which the averted strike is still […]