The SMART-TD union has rejected the tentative labor agreement brokered by the Biden administration in September.
The SMART-TD union has rejected the tentative labor agreement brokered by the Biden administration in September.
T he two largest freight-rail unions, SMART-TD and the BLET, were the last of the twelve unions covered by national bargaining to release the results of their members’ voting on the tentative labor agreement brokered by the Biden administration two months ago. The BLET narrowly voted to approve the contract, but SMART-TD narrowly voted to reject it. Parties will return to negotiation, with a strike first becoming legal on December 9.
Even one union going on strike would mean the entire national freight-rail network would shut down because the other unions would not cross a picket line. Four of the twelve unions have voted to reject the Biden-brokered deal.
The BMWED, the third-largest union, rejected the deal on October 10. The cooling-off period was then extended through December 4, although it agreed to extend its cooling-off period to whatever SMART-TD and the BLET agreed upon if they voted to reject, which means the BMWED is now on the same December 9 deadline.
On October 26, the Brotherhood of Railroad Signalmen (BRS) rejected the deal. With 73.18 percent turnout, 60.57 percent of voting members voted to reject. On November 14, the International Brotherhood of Boilermakers (IBB) also voted to reject the deal. It represents only about 300 workers.
SMART-TD’s rejection is more complicated. It is the largest of the twelve unions, and it separates its members into different groups. The yardmasters, about 4 percent of the union’s total membership, are covered by their own contract, and they voted to approve. The other 96 percent are split into four groups: conductors (64 percent), yardmen (18 percent), brakemen (12 percent), and engine service (1 percent). For the contract that covers them to be accepted, it must earn majority approval in each of those four groups.
SMART-TD did not report its vote by group and did not report voter-turnout numbers. It only said that turnout was at “a record high” and that 50.87 percent of the total number of those who voted rejected the contract. It is possible, then, that a number as small as a few dozen voting members prevented the entire 28,000-member union from accepting the deal.
The other eight unions, now including the BLET, have voted to approve the Biden-brokered deal. Voting has concluded for all twelve unions, and more negotiations will ensue to get all twelve to approve a contract.
A quotation from the BRS’s statement is illustrative of the problem negotiators now face: “Despite a cap and freeze on healthcare with no negative changes to the plan, General Wage Increases of 22% (24% compounded), and an agreement to bargain on the responsibility pay that Signalmen have been trying to get since 2011, BRS members spoke loudly and clearly that their contributions are worth more, particularly when it comes to a basic right of being able to take time off for illness or to prevent illness.”
The major issues of national bargaining — wages and health care — are not holding up the negotiations. Carriers and unions are on the same page about those. The BRS even got assurance about an issue specific to its members, bargaining on responsibility pay. The BWMED also received assurance on an issue specific to its members, travel and meal allowances. Both of those represent significant wins for those unions.
Despite all those successes, these four unions are still holding out over something that Biden said was resolved in the deal his administration brokered: sick leave. In the Rose Garden on September 15, Biden said of the tentative agreement that Secretary of Labor Marty Walsh had brokered, “And it’s about the right to go to a doctor or stay healthy and make sure you’re able to have the care you can afford. It’s all part of this agreement.” Yet the members of four unions have voted that agreement down.
Congress is currently out for Thanksgiving, but members will be back next week. The Railway Labor Act allows for Congress to settle contract disputes through legislation. In mid September, the last time a strike deadline was approaching, Senator Bernie Sanders (I., Vt.) blocked a resolution from Senators Roger Wicker (R., Miss.) and Richard Burr (R., N.C.) that would have adopted the recommendations from the emergency board of arbitrators that Biden appointed to help resolve the dispute.
SMART-TD president Jeremy Ferguson says he wants to settle the dispute through negotiations, without a strike and without congressional involvement. But if December 9 comes closer and there’s still no deal, Congress will have good reason to pass legislation to prevent a national freight-rail shutdown, which would be terrible for the economy, especially for agriculture, mining, and energy.
Ferguson said, “The ball is now in the railroads’ court.” But it was the unions that rejected the Biden-brokered deal that union leadership was celebrating with Biden in the Rose Garden in September. The carriers’ position has not changed. Association of American Railroads president and CEO Ian Jefferies said today in a statement, “Let’s be clear, if the remaining unions do not accept an agreement, Congress should be prepared to act.”
The ball remains in labor’s court to accept the deal that the self-described “most pro-union president leading the most pro-union administration in American history” brokered and the railroads agreed to accept. That deal includes the largest wage increase in the history of national bargaining, preservation of some of the most generous health benefits of any workers in the country, and concessions from carriers on sick leave. It’s time for unions to stop moving the goalposts and come to an agreement, and if they don’t, Congress should make an agreement for them.