Rail labor is approaching a defining moment unlike any we have seen in the past century. Automation is advancing. Railroads are testing systems designed to operate trains with less human involvement. Autonomous freight equipment is already in federally authorized testing. Carriers are pursuing technology that will replace the work of trained engineers and conductors.
That future is arriving fastest in freight rail, and nowhere are the stakes clearer than in the proposed Union Pacific-Norfolk Southern merger now before the Surface Transportation Board.
This week marks an important milestone: the one-year anniversary of the “Jobs for Life” agreement between SMART-TD and Union Pacific. It guarantees that every SMART-TD member employed at either railroad on the day the merger closes keeps a job for life. It is an unprecedented deal, and moving forward, it should be the standard.
Some unions have already taken advantage of this deal, such as the National Conference of Firemen and Oilers, the Brotherhood of Railway Carmen, the Boilermakers, the United Supervisors Council of America, the American Train Dispatchers Association, and SMART’s Railroad Mechanical Department. They join the more than 2,000 businesses, unions, farmers, and community leaders who have already told the Surface Transportation Board why they support this combination. Other unions representing employees affected by the merger should follow SMART-TD’s lead, return to the negotiating table, and secure the same kind of written, enforceable lifetime job protection for their members. If union leaders believe this merger threatens their members’ livelihoods, they should pursue concrete protections equal to the challenge.
Unfortunately, not all unions impacted by the merger can say the same. The Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen, among others, has taken to formally opposing the combination, despite the historic progress it brings to our members.
SMART-TD did not wait for Congress or a federal agency to determine what protections railroad workers should get through this merger. We went directly to the negotiating table and secured a written commitment before the merger outcome was decided. The protection is written into our collective bargaining agreement, so every covered member knows on Day 1 exactly what they have.
We also know the language works because we have already seen it tested. Union Pacific CEO Jim Vena came to UP from Canadian National Railway, where SMART-TD had virtually identical no-furlough language in our Canadian National-Illinois Central Railroad agreement. When COVID hit in 2020, other Class I railroads furloughed conductors and trainmen. At CN-IC, the agreement would not allow it. That is the difference between a signed guarantee and a hope for future protection.
As a former CSX locomotive engineer, I have seen the delays that occur when freight has to move across railroads that are not connected from coast to coast. When shipments transfer carriers, trains stop, crews change, and paperwork piles up. Customers absorb the cost through longer transit times and less reliable service.
Union Pacific and Norfolk Southern are largely complementary networks, with UP operating primarily in the West and NS operating primarily in the East. Their areas of coverage have virtually zero overlap. Instead, their networks rely on interchanges in places such as Chicago, St. Louis, Memphis, and New Orleans. The proposed merger would create 88,000 new single-line lanes by allowing freight to move on one connected railroad.
The Union Pacific and Norfolk Southern project merger will save shippers $3.5 billion a year and take 2.1 million truckloads off the highway. Those are not just benefits for customers. They are an opportunity to grow the rail industry and protect union jobs by making rail a stronger competitor to trucking.
Rail labor needs that growth. Our traditional freight base has shrunk as coal shipments decline and natural gas has displaced coal in the power sector. Rail unions cannot afford to ignore new sources of freight. A coast-to-coast railroad would give rail a better chance to compete. If rail can take trucks off the highways, serve new markets, and provide more reliable service, the industry will have a stronger foundation for future investment and future jobs.
So, the question for Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers leadership and every other union leader opposing this deal should be straightforward: Why reject an agreement that provides written, lifetime job protection for members when the alternative is to depend on future action by Congress, the Surface Transportation Board, or the railroad itself?
Asking a federal agency to consider additional protections is not the same as placing a signed guarantee in a railroader’s hands. Laws and regulatory proceedings can change. Political promises can fade. Litigation can take years. A formal labor agreement provides something far more concrete.
SEAN O’BRIEN IS JUST RANDI WEINGARTEN IN A HARD HAT
SMART-TD’s fight is not with our fellow engineers and conductors. We share the cab with them, sit across from them in the crew room, and trust them with our lives every day and night. We do not want to see any railroader furloughed, displaced, or replaced by technology.
Every union member affected by this merger deserves to know what protections are guaranteed in writing. Rail labor is at a defining moment. The time to secure the future of railroaders and their families is during the merger, not after.
Jeremy Ferguson is the president of SMART-TD.
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[ H/T Washington Examiner ]
