Presidential Emergency Board recommendations for a new rail labor contract are a “vast improvement” over offers from the railroads, the president of a major rail union says, but “do not go far enough” in addressing quality-of-life issues.
Jeremy R. Ferguson, president of the Sheet Metal, Air, Rail, and Transportation-Transportation Division, said in a statement Thursday that union negotiators “feel a level of disappointment with the PEB’s recommendations falling short on many of our requests.”
Ferguson said that during July hearings, union leaders “delivered impassioned and technically sound presentations” on the quality-of-life issues, “including addressing the draconian carrier attendance policies and the need for more paid and scheduled time off. …. Our preference was for the PEB to make firm and bold changes to that status quo, but unfortunately, they deferred and moved these important issues back to the domain of arbitration.”
The board’s proposals include a 22% cumulative (24% compounded) wage increase over the five-year life of the contract [see “Presidential Emergency Board issues rail contract recommendations …,” Trains News Wire, Aug. 16, 2022]. Railroads have noted that these figures are substantially higher than their offer but that they are prepared to reach an agreement based on those recommendations [see “Presidential board recommendations a ‘useful basis’ …,” News Wire, Aug. 17, 2022].
Ferguson notes that the proposal would constitute the largest pay raise for rail labor in 47 years, “but falls well short of our proposed benchmark to provide our members … a rate of pay of which they are deserving and will attract new talent.” (Unions had sought a cumulative increase of 28%; railroads had offered 16%). He says “it is unknown if the recommended wage and benefit package will assist in retaining workers, let alone recruit new employees into the industry. …. based on our initial feedback, the outlook is not good.
Ferguson asked union members to “be patient as this situation continues to evolve. We are currently gathering and evaluating information, which includes input from the membership, as we weigh the PEB’s recommendations and what our options may be.” Members of the United Rail Unions coalition will be meeting with railroads’ negotiating group, the National Railway Labor Conference, “in the very near future to determine if a possible tentative agreement can be reached,” he said.
Elsewhere, the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen said in a statement Wednesday that it was “continuing to analyze” the presidential board recommendations before making any public comment.
The PEB recommendations aware based on misinformation provided by the carriers. For instance, they said average work week is 34 hours. My person never works less than 60 and more times than not 72 plus. This does not include the time away from home.
C’mon, they said we average $130,000 a year at the STB Hearings.
Does anything they say make sense?
Not a fan on how the railroads have essentially shot themselves in the foot with handling crews but also have to agree with some of what Gerald is saying. We are essentially getting to a point of generations who now want both the high quality of life and a lot of time outside of work with a high salary to go along with it.
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At some point, someone has to say enough is enough. You get a big pay check but you also expect to actually put in the work that might not be when you want or long then you want and or, yes you can have this great life outside of work but we are not going to give you big salary to play..
When you talk about the average pay being $110/k per year($150k including benefits) what’s the big deal with having to be on call 24/7? Could some of the issues with QoL be dealt with another way, certainly, they could do something with hours of service and time off between calls nationally just like they do with OTR drivers, and probably should, take it out of the hands of the RR’s and employees entirely. Set mandatory minimum time off between calls via regulation, but some of the other stuff, like time off, sick leave., etc., has to be decided by negotiation, and failing that, mediation, then binding arbitration(but I’d change the arbitration rules to allow the arbitrator to either pick one or the other offer, of if neither proposal submitted works craft one of their own). Is the job really that stressful? Perhaps if people are taught to stop worrying about everything outside of their personal control, we wouldn’t have so many mental health issues when it comes to work. I’d go on, but this isn’t the time or place.
Quote” based on our initial feedback,the outlook is not good”…………. That pretty much sums it up. While the raise is tolerable that wasn’t the real issue on this round. Quality of life is a huge deal to the vast majority of railroaders these days and if they can’t get it at the railroads they’ll definitely find somewhere else to go…… how long will it take for the head offices of these railroads to get it through their thick arrogant heads that’s what their employees want? They’re idiots thinking this is some sort of short term anomaly. This issue is here to stay no matter what they want to think. I’m watching the ranks thin by the day and it’s not money thats given as a reason.Like a poster on a website stated a couple months ago 75% of someone’s availability sure beats 0%.
It’s been five years since an agreement expired in many cases and they want more patience? And they wonder why people are leaving.