(OPINION) America faces a growing risk of a crippling national freight rail strike in two weeks. The rank-and-file members of the nation’s largest rail union, which represents the industry’s conductors, rejected a tentative labor deal with freight railroads, the union announced Monday.
The nation’s second-largest rail union, which represents engineers, ratified its own contract. But the failure of the conductors to ratify their deal is another setback to efforts to avoid a strike.
With these votes, all 12 rail unions have now completed their ratification process, with members of eight of the unions voting in favor of deals and four voting against it. The four unions that have voted no will remain on the job until at least early next month while negotiations are held to try to avoid a strike that could cause widespread disruptions in the nation’s still struggling supply chain and overall economy.
If even one of the dozen railroad unions were to go on strike, the other 11 would honor the picket lines, shutting down the railroads.
If a strike goes on for an extended period, it could cause shortages and higher prices for goods including fuel and food. If the four unions that rejected the deals are unable to reach new deals before strike deadlines, Congress could order the railroad workers to remain on the job or return to work.
The two unions that released voting results Monday are the transportation division of the Sheet Metal, Air, Rail, Transportation union (SMART-TD), which represents about 28,000 conductors and the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen (BLET), which represents about 24,000 engineers. The engineers and conductors make up the two-person train crews.
Both unions reached tentative deals in September in a marathon 20-hour negotiating session just hours before their earlier strike deadlines.
President Joe Biden called those deals “a win for tens of thousands of rail workers and for their dignity and the dignity of their work.” He had directly intervened in the final round of talks, but his praise of the deals wasn’t enough to win approval from rank-and-file members of the conductors’ union.
The deals nearly got the support they needed to be ratified by both unions. One was ratified by the engineers, with 53.5% voting yes, while the other was a very slim defeat by the conductors with either a small majority or a near majority voting for ratification. (SOURCE)
