Rail unions negotiating new national contracts with Class I railroads have again requested arbitration as talks remain stalled.
Labor and the National Carriers Conference Committee have been working on joint mediated negotiations under the direction of the National Mediation Board. The talks had resulted from the unions’ request to be released from mediation after more than two years of bargaining.
“Although all of the involved unions would prefer to reach a voluntary agreement, it has become quite clear at this point that the rail carriers will not bargain in good faith to that end,” the Coordinated Bargaining Coalition and Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way/SMART Mechanical Coalition said in a statement on Thursday. “For that reason, all of the involved rail unions are again requesting that the NMB put forth a proffer of arbitration to move our contract dispute through the remaining steps of the Railway Labor Act.”
The unions said the railroads “still refuse to make a comprehensive settlement proposal that our members would even remotely entertain. In fact, the carriers continue to advance proposals that insult the hard-working union members who have carried our nation through the pandemic.”
The unions comprising the Coordinated Bargaining Coalition are the American Train Dispatchers Association (ATDA); the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen / Teamsters Rail Conference (BLET); the Brotherhood of Railroad Signalmen (BRS); the International Association of Machinists (IAM); the International Brotherhood of Boilermakers (IBB); the National Conference of Firemen & Oilers/SEIU (NCFO); the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW); the Transport Workers Union of America (TWU); the Transportation Communications Union / IAM (TCU), including TCU’s Brotherhood Railway Carmen Division (BRC); and the Transportation Division of the International Association of Sheet Metal, Air, Rail, and Transportation Workers (SMART–TD).
The Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employes Division (BMWED) and SMART Mechanical Division (SMART-MD) are also bargaining as a coalition.
Collectively, the unions represent approximately 140,000 railroad workers covered by the various organizations’ national agreements.
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