FORT WORTH, Texas — BNSF Railway has become the fourth of the seven Class I railroads to announce an agreement for paid sick leave with some unionized workers, reaching agreement with the Transportation Communications Union and the National Conference of Firemen and Oilers.
The TCU agreement applies to insourced intermodal equipment operators, which represent a majority of the union’s members at the BNSF. Other TCU members already had paid sick days in their agreement.
“We hope these are the first of a series of new agreements across our other crafts who did not already have individual paid sick days prior to the recent national bargaining round,” BNSF said in a statement. “Today’s agreements are part of a collaborative effort aimed toward modernizing the work environment and addressing quality of life.”
As in agreements at other railroads, members of the two unions will receive four paid days off to use as sick days and will have the ability to convert up to three personal leave days to sick days each year.
BNSF joins CSX Transportation (which has agreements with six unions), Union Pacific (two unions), and Norfolk Southern (one union) in announcing sick-time agreements with some labor unions.
I can’t believe this was even an issue and is just now being added to contracts. In any other business sick leave is a basic benefit.
Welcome to the railway. Railroads are very resistant to change, and the unions that work for them are seen in a very negative light. With no bargaining power (because of government mandates forcing them back to work), railroads paint the picture of greedy lazy workers. I would never recommend the railroad as a place to work anymore.