CSX notified the union on July 19 that it would like to replace the mileage-based pay system with an hourly rate, William Lyons, general chairman of the union’s CSX Northern Lines General Committee of Adjustment, wrote in a letter to membership.
While CSX CEO E. Hunter Harrison was leading Canadian Pacific, CP reached an hourly agreement with engineers on its former Soo Line and Dakota, Minnesota & Eastern territories in the U.S.
Under the CP agreement, reached with the Soo union in the fall of 2015, engineers shifted to a 10-hour day and are eligible for overtime and holiday pay. They have scheduled work days, including two scheduled days off in every seven- or eight-day work cycle. And most engineers earn 20 to 30 percent more than under the mileage-based system.
In exchange, CP gained improved crew flexibility and productivity from the elimination of work rules. The engineer of a through train, for example, also may do yard and hostler work. This reduces the railroad’s costs and enables it to run with fewer engineers. It also makes it easier to recruit and retain engineers due to quality-of-life improvements.
Keith Creel, then CP’s chief operating officer, called the hourly agreement “transformational” for both sides.
The Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen anticipated that CSX would want to move in this direction under Harrison, so its leadership studied hourly agreements at other railroads.
“We believe we are close to having an opening offer based on what was acceptable to the other railroads,” Lyons wrote. “Of course, the carrier may have an offer in mind that is nowhere near our position. We also believe the carrier will push to get an agreement in a very rapid fashion.”
The union does not have a timeline for the negotiations, Lyons wrote. He was out of the office and not available for comment.
“Keep in mind the hourly rate is, in essence, a purchase of our work rules,” Lyons wrote. “We have fought for over 150 years for many of the work protections we have today and the hourly price has to be right if we are to negotiate them away.”
CSX spokesman Rob Doolittle said the railroad does not comment on negotiations with the unions that represent its workers.
