Threat of railroad strike subsides as labor talks continue
Negotiators for 30 of the nation’s railroads and labor representatives backed away from a strike that might have crippled the fragile U.S. economic recovery. Two more tentative agreements were reached, and the only remaining union without a deal agreed to keep talking at least through Feb. 8.
The National Carriers’ Conference Committee, which represents the railroads, and 13 unions representing 132,000 workers have been trying to hammer out differences over wages, benefits and job protection since talks began in January 2010.
As of Thursday, tentative agreements had been reached with 10 of the 13 unions and a 30-day cooling-off period was to expire Dec. 6. No strike can be called during a cooling-off period.
But the rail group said Friday that representatives had reached a tentative deal with two more unions, the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen and the American Train Dispatchers Assn. The third union still without a contract, the Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employees Division of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, agreed to extend the cooling-off period until Feb. 8.
Details were not disclosed, but the chairman of the railroad bargaining committee, A. Kenneth Gradia, said the agreements “lock in well-above market wage increases of more than 20% over six years, far exceeding recent union settlements in other industries.”
Railroad negotiations are always complicated because a strike that can shut down the nation’s freight and commuter railroads can be set off by just one union walking off the job. The last national railroad shutdown took place in June 1992. The rail closures then cost the economy an estimated $1 billion a day in lost jobs and economic output.
After 48 hours, Congress intervened with emergency legislation that was quickly signed by then-President George Bush ordering the rails to be reopened and specifying that talks had to resume.
Today, with the U.S. economy even more dependent on consumer spending and international trade, the American Assn. of Railroads estimated that a rail shutdown would cost about $2 billion a day.
