WASHINGTON — Details of the negotiations that led to a tentative agreement between railroads and unions began emerging Thursday night, with Labor Secretary Marty Walsh saying he kept the two sides in his office for more than five hours at the end of 20 straight hours of talks.
“The unions were very persistent on what they needed and the companies were very persistent in what they weren’t going to give up on,” Walsh said in a Reuters report. “There were certain points where I said to everyone, ‘Let’s remember we are trying to get a contract and just continue to be back and forth.’”
Walsh said he fed the two sides sandwiches and baked ziti as talks continued.
The agreement, which preserves a cap on health-care costs, allows for unpaid time off for such things as medical care, and allows road crew members to schedule a weekly day off, was reached early Thursday morning [see “Freight railroad strike averted …,” Trains News Wire, Sept. 15, 2022].
Walsh said details on work rules were done “pretty quickly” but personal days for workers not on fixed schedules, and health care costs, were not dealt with until after midnight.
Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg told Politico that negotiations and emergency contingency plans continued “at a heightened level for months and a lot of that culminated in the last 24 hours with more phone calls than I can count.”
Jeremy Ferguson, president of operating crew union SMART-TD, told Politico he did not expect to reach an agreement. “It was pretty hostile going in, to get started, and we’ve had a rough road.” He said Walsh and Deputy Labor Secretary Julie Su played a major role, helping to “get discussions going on and get the minds working.”
While Dennis Pierce, president of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen, told reporters they were “kind of overemphasizing” the significance of a call from President Joe Biden, Walsh said both sides begin moving after that 9 p.m. call, with “real conversations” about the time off issues: “Up until that point, nobody was willing to move.”
The deal must still be ratified by unions. Also unresolved is the situation regarding the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM) District 19, which on Wednesday voted down its tentative agreement with railroads and authorized a strike, but delayed action until Sept. 29 [see “Machinists reject tentative contract …,” News Wire, Sept. 14, 2022].
Charles: Least your forget our CinC’s habit of telling whoppers. So many outright provable untruths he has uttered. This is just another one. endmrw0917220929
That’s the thing about government (either party): Claim credit for whatever goes right. Nowhere to be found if something fails.
Unless you’re the whipping boy.
Kind of an odd comment Charles. Walsh simply reported what he stated and what he did– really did not trumpet his own horn at least per this report. It was the Labor Union leaders who gave Secretary Walsh credit and actually down played President Biden’s role. Plenty of circumstancial evidence that government pressure played a role hear as well as testimony albeit from one side
Would have been interesting to have been the bug on the wall
Biden has taken credit.