ATLANTA — Norfolk Southern has reached agreements with two more of its labor unions to provide their members with up to seven paid sick days per year.
These agreements provide four new days of paid sick leave while also offering flexibility to use up to three additional days of existing paid time off as sick leave. The agreements were reached with the International Association of Sheet Metal, Air, Rail, Transportation Workers, Mechanical Department (SMART-MD) and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW). The agreements cover about 650 railroaders.
“When we completed national negotiations that provided historic wage increases and platinum benefits, we committed to immediately begin work at the local level to address the desire for paid sick leave and other quality of life benefits,” NS CEO Alan Shaw said in a statement on Friday.”We did just that, and with today’s announcement, six of our 12 unions now have locally negotiated paid sick leave benefits.”
Last month, Norfolk Southern announced agreements with the National Conference of Firemen and Oilers to extend paid sick days to 200 Mechanical railroaders, along with the Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employees to extend paid sick days to 3,000 Engineering craft railroaders.
Norfolk Southern says it continues to work with all of its union leaders on ways to enhance quality of life and work predictability for its craft employees.
Still no agreement with engineers and conductors. The ones who are away from home the most with the most unpredictable schedule.
Right now NS needs to walk on very thin egg shells. Even if things happen that are totally beyond NS control, they will be the in the dog house until this Palestine thing is finally resolved. I know the major railroad players have cut manpower, maintenance, and a whole lot of other things trying to get that OR below impossible, but, sometimes, a string of plain old bad luck can sink any given ship in a very short period of time. At least now, all of big 7 RR’s are getting a good look at a very hard lesson NS has began to endure.
This is good news for NS who has had a tough last 30+ days. It’s the right thing to do. Good job!
Let’s hope this progress on the labor relations front continues. Mr. Shaw seems to want to turn a page on management/labor cooperation. Mr. Hinrichs at CSX seems to be making noises in that direction as well. Let’s keep our fingers crossed they continue and the shareholders don’t start squawking that this might lessen their dividends.
As a (very) small NS shareholder I applaud moves to have good relations with employees. I’m not looking to have short term profits and capital gains, but to deliver a quality service, improve safety and have satisfied customers. That’s the only way to grow the business over the years and working in partnership with employees is the only way to achieve that. You can generate profits for a little while by cutting costs, or you can generate profits long into the future by investing in your infrastructure and your people, growing revenue by offering more.