News & Reviews News Wire Union says BNSF, Norfolk Southern have declared impasse in crew-size negotiations

Union says BNSF, Norfolk Southern have declared impasse in crew-size negotiations

By Trains Staff | March 17, 2022

| Last updated on March 21, 2024

Federal mediation next step in process

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Logo of SMART-TD unionCLEVELAND, Ohio — BNSF Railway and Norfolk Southern have declared an impasse in negotiations with unions over crew size, one of the unions has informed its members.

The International Association of Sheet Metal, Air, Rail and Transportation Workers-Transportation Division told its members that the two railroads declared the impasse under Section 6 of the Railway Labor Act as a step to receive federal mediation as required by the Act. Union Pacific has not joined the request for mediation.

The mandatory bargaining on the issue came after Class I carriers served notice under Section 6 of the RLA.

SMART-TD told members that the union and involved general committees “intend to continue to demonstrate the significant problems with the carriers’ plans and the current technology that carries believe allows for a redeployment of conductors to ground-based positions.”

2 thoughts on “Union says BNSF, Norfolk Southern have declared impasse in crew-size negotiations

  1. SMART-TD and the involved general committees couldn’t demonstrate how to escape a wet paper bag, let alone demonstrate how PTC. other technology and a single engineer with a ground based conductor isn’t going to work(yet one man crews seem to work elsewhere in the world). Don’t bother to mention train length, otherwise I’ll point to the crewless trains in Australia(yes, I know it’s sparsely populated, that is irrelevant).

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