To: Detroit/Seattle
Workers' Voice mailing list
November 29, 2022
Re: Railroad Workers at the Crossroads
by Tim Hall, Detroit Workers’ Voice
The fight of the railroad workers for paid sick leave and to eliminate the 24-hour-call attendance system, which is threatening a national rail strike, is coming to a head. The workers have finished voting. Four unions, including the largest one, have voted against the tentative agreement of September 15, put together by the railroad capitalists, President Biden and the bureaucratic leaders of the unions. This agreement flouted the demands expressed widely by workers, for paid sick leave and against on-call attendance.
Yesterday President Biden, who said 14 months ago, “I intend to be the most pro-union President leading the most pro-union administration in American history,”[1] refused to press the railroad capitalists for changes to that agreement. Here's his excuse: “however well-intentioned, any changes would risk delay and a debilitating shutdown.”[2] That was quick! Won't lift a finger for the health, safety and well-being of the workers! Let the bosses roll in dough!
While four unions voted NO, the NO vote margin by the largest union, Sheet Metal, Air, Rail and Transportation Workers (SMART-TD) (37,400 workers), was a slim 50.87% of the vote by the operating crafts section. Under the union's constitution, that became the decision of the union, since when a single section votes NO the whole union renders a NO decision.[3] Within this section, 2,800 conductors narrowly passed the agreement, by 50.8% of the voters. A solid 60.2% NO by a small section, the yardmen, led to the over-all NO by the operating crafts.
The second section of SMART-TD, the yardmasters, including 1,300 (almost one-third) of the union’s membership, supported the deal by 64.5% of their voters. But rail management declares that it will not bargain further at all, so the negotiators for the SMART-TD operating craft, and the negotiators for the other NO vote unions, will apparently go to a bargaining table that is boycotted by management.[4] If even one union goes on strike, all the others are bound by their constitutions to also strike, but a strong rejection vote was needed and the rejection was not powerful.
On November 21, the other large union, the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen (BLET) (24,700 workers), voted by 53.5% of the voters to accept the agreement.[5] A NO vote had been hoped for here.
The weak NO vote by SMART-TD conductors and the YES vote by BLET were preceded by NO votes by smaller unions comprising 20% of the rail workforce.
It is clear that the workers are not voting decisively against the pact, and hence for a strike. Only roughly 48% of both the engineers and the conductors, two key crafts, voted NO, as did 60% of the small group of SMART-TD yardmen. BWMED, the maintenance of way workers who build and fix the track, voted N0 by 56.1% of their over 11,000 members.[6] Over 60% of the 10,500 Brotherhood of Railway Signalmen, also voted NO on the contract. [7]
In this situation, and with no formal organization of the rank and file to fight for its demands and interests, it is going to be hard for the workers who want to strike to organize one. But this is not over; the workers' anger is high; if one or two small unions walk out it could trigger a wider strike. If the workers cannot organize a strike, they need to use this opportunity of wide public support to push forward their demands anyway, to get some partial concessions from the bosses, and to build rank-and-file organization, so that worker efforts in the future cannot be so successfully undermined by the labor bureaucrats.
We are now in a “cooling-off” period, until December 9, during which frantic discussions will go on between the labor bureaucrats and the Biden administration, as the so-called “Labor” President tries to squeeze some crumbs out of management's pledged stone wall. There will be crumbs but if the workers press hard enough they may get significant changes with the sick leave and on-call attendance. A new agreement must be forged by December 9 or Congress will impose a settlement that could be worse than the September 15 pact.
A railroad strike would severely disrupt production and marketing throughout the entire country, as trains carry about 40% of long-distance freight in the U.S.[8] It would sharply cut into the profits of the big capitalists in rail and elsewhere in the economy. But these big businessmen, especially the railroad plutocrats who are riding on a huge wave of profits, refuse to make any significant concession to the workers' demands.
How inhuman are the rail capitalists?
The tentative agreement of September 15, brokered by Biden, was so ungenerous in sick leave that the following provision was offered up for the workers' approval:
“The tentative agreement removes penalties for up to three routine medical visits a year—but only on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, or Thursdays, and only if scheduled 30 days in advance.”[9]
Laugh – if you can avoid vomiting. That's what the workers are fighting against.
The flabby response of the union leaders to rail bosses' cruelty has aroused great anger among the workers. Early in September workers gathered at job sites all over the country to protest, often citing the leaders' passivity:
“Handfuls of workers gathered outside rail yards across the country in pickets organized by a newly formed workers group separate from the 12 unions that negotiated the deals last week with the major U.S. freight railroads. The protesters expressed dissatisfaction with the deals, just as the unions are trying to explain the potential benefits they negotiated to their roughly 115,000 members ahead of contract votes.
“Nearly a dozen BNSF workers gathered near Minot, North Dakota, Wednesday with homemade signs declaring 'We demand more!!' and 'We will not back down.' Another group of a half dozen workers stood outside their worksite in Olathe, Kansas, with signs saying 'Railroad greed driving inflation' and 'Greedy railroads harming nations supply chain.'”[10]
Workers need to set up rank-and-file groups to push their demands and oppose the collaboration of the labor leaders. Feeling the press of such activities, an official of BMWED moaned, “I need to confront some fringe groups proposing dangerous ideas of unsanctioned work stoppages.”[11] Horrors! Workers organizing themselves to strike!
Now that Biden has said he will not try to alter the tentative agreement, Congress will immediately take action. In September Republican Congresspeople introduced a bill that would have suppressed a railroad strike, but at the time the Democrats did not go for it. More recently, Biden stated that a strike is “completely unacceptable” and that the administration is “laser-focused” on preventing one. He's laser-focused all right! – on defending the railroad capitalists! [12] Labor Secretary Walsh had expressed the the same intentions, to simply block a strike without any improvements for the workers, perhaps even worse.[13]
“Congress would be free to impose any contract it wants on the unions and railroads, including one which includes terms that the unions might want, or one that would be far less attractive than what their membership has already rejected.”[14]
Thus the situation is bad for the workers. Both capitalist political parties are hostile to their simple demands. The bosses claim the workers “force” them to block or crush a strike or there would be supply-line chaos, great suffering, slashed profits.(15]
So it is inconceivable to the railroad capitalists to just simply give paid sick leave and eliminate on-call attendance. So simple. But the whole economy of the U.S. is being held to ransom for it. “Pro-labor” Biden won't do it. The so-called “labor leaders” won't either.
Only mass workers' action can succeed!
1] The White House, “Remarks by President Biden in Honor of Labor Unions”, September 8, 2021, .
2] The White House, “Statement from President Joe Biden on Averting a Rail Shutdown”, November 28, 2022.
3] SMART, “2022 Tentative Agreement ratification results and next steps”, Jeremy R. Feguson, President of Transportation Division, November 21, 2022, . Here is the breakdown of the SMART-TD voting. The first four crafts are the “operating crafts”; the yardmasters are the second section. The union calls the two sections “documents.”
Craft / In Favor / Opposed / Result
Conductor / 50.8% / 49.2% /Pass
Engine Service / 50% / 50% / Tie
Brakemen / 50.2% / 49.8% / Pass
Yardmen / 39.8% / 60.2% / Fail
Yardmaster / 62.5% / 37.5% / Pass
4] SMART-TD, ibid.
5] BLET, “Split Decision: Unions for Railroad Engineers and Conductors Take Different Routes in Freight Rail Contract Ratification Vote", November 21, 2022.
6] BMWET-IBT, “BMWED Membership Votes Against Ratification of Tentative Agreement (Class I Freight Railroads)”, October 10 2022,.
7] Bloomberg, “Signalmen Union Nixes Rail Deal, Raising Specter of Strike”, Oct. 26, 2022.
8] Time, “What It Would Take to Avoid a Rail Strike Holiday Season”, by Nik Pople, October 12, 2022. “Roughly 40% of the nation’s long-distance trade is moved by rail—more than any form of transportation... Over the past six years, major railroads have cut nearly one-third of their workforce—roughly 45,000 jobs—forcing the remaining workers to often be on-call 24/7, according to the rail unions involved in contract discussions.”
9] Mother Jones, “Rail Bosses Said No to Paid Sick Leave—So We’re Still on Track for a Strike”, by Abigail Weinberg, September 25, 2022.
10] Yahoo, “Deal that prevented rail strike still needs worker support”, by Josh Funk, September 21, 2022 .
11] Labor bureaucrats complained about rank-and-file workers organizing in their own interests, against the labor bureaucracy. CNBC, State of Freight, A second railroad union votes down labor deal needed to avoid nationwide strike, October 22, 2022. BMWED president gears up his fight against the rank and file: “In a letter released to members on Wednesday,, BMWED president Tony Cardwell said, 'Before I talk about the details surrounding the bargaining process, I need to confront some fringe groups proposing dangerous ideas of unsanctioned work stoppages. It is true that this round of National Bargaining has brought different perspectives, complicated conversations, and hard choices. A difference of views from a range of members is a good thing even if it gets a little messy. However, we are not presented with a situation so dire that we cannot use our collective strength to obtain a satisfactory agreement without breaking the law.'”
12] Politico, video, “White House ‘laser focused’ on averting rail strike”, 10/26/2022.
13] Trains, “Labor secretary expects Congress to block rail strike”, November 5, 2022.
14] CNN Business, “Labor Secretary says Congress needs to block rail strikes without new deals”, Chris Isidore, November 5, 2022.
15] Politico, “Rail union votes could force Congress to head off a strike”, by Alex Daughtery and Tanya Snyder, November 20,2022. <>
by Tim Hall, Detroit Workers’ Voice
A look at the conditions railroad workers are facing and organizing against:
With respect to sick leave, workers tell horror stories of their comrades missing health care and suffering health crises because no paid sick days are available. The sick leave demand is universal among the members of all the unions involved.
As for the system of working on 24-hour call, the companies are not agreeing to alter it in any way. The 24-hour system means that, for example, a worker who has just finished a seven-day work week (yes, mandatory overtime is an issue, too) and has a heart exam scheduled for the next day can find himself or herself suddenly called in that morning to work. At BNSF, a huge railroad operating in the Southwest, here is what happens:
“This year, for example, BNSF Railway introduced a new point system for some employees, according to a February memo obtained by The New York Times. Under the policy, workers were awarded 30 points to start with and would lose points — from two to 10 — for scheduling a day off for a variety of reasons, including a family emergency, sickness or fatigue. They lose even more points for being unavailable at the last minute. “When workers run out of points, they face escalating penalties, starting with a 10-day suspension, followed by a 20-day suspension and ending with possible firing. Workers can earn back points by being available for two weeks straight.”[1]
Isn't this last “concession” to the workers just wonderful? Just two weeks straight! Piece of cake!
This system is literally bloodthirsty. The point system can be fatal:
“In June, the Washington Post reported, a locomotive engineer died when he suffered a heart attack on the job—after postponing a doctor’s visit because he’d been called in to work.”[2]
Besides obvious health dangers, this system has other destructive consequences for the workers:
“Railroad workers’ family members said they rarely celebrated birthdays or holidays together even before the pandemic.”[3]
And during the pandemic:
“BNSF’s policy 'will effectively force COVID-19 positive engineers who fear for their jobs to eschew tests or eschew staying home from work to stop the spread,' the BLET union said in court documents.“[4]
In other words, this was already a problem; the pandemic intensified
its effects in 2020.
The rail capitalists used the system to radically reduce the workforce
before and during the early pandemic, so that when business picked up
in 2021 the short staffing increased, with even worse results for the
workers.[5]
The 24-hour call system was instituted at BNSF, which has 35,000 workers, back in February, after the two major unions, the BLET and the SMART-TD, protested that it would destroy workers' lives. The protest was over-ruled on the grounds that it was a “minor” issue.[6] Now this “minor” issue has swelled into a boil that may burst in a nationwide strike.
The 24-hour call system, and the no-sick leave policy, are integral to the railroads' Precision Scheduling Railroading (PSR). PSR, using them, creates an “in-time” shipping schedule that has little flexibility.
“Precision scheduled railroading (PSR) is a railroad strategy that uses departure schedules and point-to-point delivery methods to achieve low operating ratios and consolidate railroad networks.” [7]
“Operating ratios” refers to the ratio between what part of a dollar the company must spend to earn an entire dollar. These monies are better-known as “profits” and the ratio (loosely) as “rate of profit.”
“Precision Scheduled Railroading” means that entire trains, of up to 200 freight cars (or even more!) carrying truck-sized intermodal containers (transferable to trucks and ships), are sent from one major point to another, to be off-loaded onto trucks or ships, rather than making many stops and unhooking various amounts of freight cars to roll down humps in different localities to be switched to various destinations.[8]
This change, which by 2020 had been adopted by a majority of the major railroad companies, has had disastrous effects on railroad staffing:
“PSR (was used) to cut staffing by 29% in the last six years and to reduce the workforce by 45,000. Railroad profits soared and allowed investors to pocket $183 billion in stock buybacks and dividends since 2010.”[9]
Obviously, the railroad capitalists couldn't possibly afford sick leave for the workers!
When business began reviving in 2021, the reduction of the workforce made scheduling even tighter, wore down the workers severely and interfered even more severely with their off-work lives and even their health through over-work and missed health care.
Not only was Precision Scheduled Railroading a disaster for the scheduling – and even the jobs, health and lives – of the workers, it created great safety risks to the general public. Rail crews were cut; cabooses had already been eliminated to reduce crews to two, and a pilot program is being introduced to run the trains, with 200 or more cars, by one engineer. (That pilot program, which entails a massive cut in laborers, is being left to individual railroads and their labor bureaucrats to accept and approve.)
“Most freight trains in the U.S. currently have a conductor and engineer on board. The conductor typically monitors and stages freight cars, while the engineer monitors the speed and condition of the engines pulling those cars. If the railroads get their way, freight trains may run with just engineers on board.”[10]
“Just how dangerous this is was shown in the 2013 Quebec, Canada, rail disaster, when a lone engineer did not properly tie down a train carrying two million gallons of crude oil. The result was a wreck that killed 47 people and destroyed 30 buildings in the town of Lac-Mégantic.“[11]
The reduction in workers due to PSR has also led to immense amounts of overtime, at first voluntary and then mandatory upon the exhaustion of the voluntary workers.
“'The volunteers for overtime are (so) completely burnt out that they cannot work any more overtime, and now' the railroads are forcing overtime, Cox (Jason, general chairman for the Brotherhood of Railway Carmen) said. 'Members have submitted reports to me that they’re so tired that they worry (about) getting killed or missing a major defect.'”[12]
To addition to the chaos created by PSR, there are reports that the railroads' “precision” scheduling conflicts with the “in-time” plans of various capitalist businesses, resulting in new kinds of delays and mistakes. BNSF, which is owned by Warren Buffet, has opposed the Precision model and added ability to handle bulk shipments without relying wholly on intermodal containerization. However, this has not resulted in BNSF improving its treatment of its workers; instead, BNSF has been targeted by the workers for its intransigence on sick leave and on-call scheduling.
“Warren Buffett’s BNSF, for example, has started using a convoluted system called 'Hi-Viz' under which workers start with a point balance then lose points if they’re unavailable to work because they’re sick, have a family emergency, or other reasons. If their balance hits zero, they get a 10-day suspension, and a 20-day suspension if it happens again. Reaching zero for the third time in a two-year period means getting fired.”[13]
Though Buffet's BNSF rejects standard Precision Scheduling, from the railroad worker's standpoint this is a distinction without a difference.
The over-all result of Precision Scheduling Railroading and of the voraciousness of all the rail capitalists has been the exhaustion, health endangerment and destruction of family life of the railroad workers of all the rail lines.
The voting which ends in the coming weeks will determine the next step for the workers and the immediate fate of the industry.
To strike or not to strike, that is the question. And the greater the strength of the rank and file, the greater the chance the workers can make some significant gains, strike or no strike.
The workers have to build up organization as rank-and-filers, independent of and in opposition to the treacherous labor leaderships, in order to fight this battle to their best of their ability and to prepare for the future struggles that await them down the road.
1] The New York Times, Workers Say Railroads’ Efficiency Push Became Too Much, by Noam Scheiber and Niraj Chokshi, Sept. 15, 2022,.
2] Mother Jones, “Rail Bosses Said No to Paid Sick Leave—So We’re Still on Track for a Strike/Welcome to the freight industry, where not dying at work is a privilege”, by Abigail Weinberg, September 25, 2022, .
3] New York Times, ibid.
4] Yahoo News, “Railroad unions fighting new BNSF railroad attendance rules”, by Josh Funk, February 1, 2022.
5] Wall Street Journal, “Union Pacific Says Covid-19 Left Railroad Understaffed”, by Paul Ziobro, January 20, 2022.
6] BLET News, “BNSF Railway families protest inhumane attendance
policies”, May 16, 2022.
7] Breakthrough, Freight, “What is Precision Scheduled Railroading?” by Daniel Elliott, August 6, 2020.
8] Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Precision_railroading. “(PSR) is a concept in freight railroad operations pioneered by E. Hunter Harrison in 1993, and adopted by nearly every North American Class I railroad. It shifts the focus from older practices, such as unit trains, hub and spoke operations and individual car switching at hump yards, to emphasize point-to-point freight car movements on simplified routing networks. Under PSR, freight trains operate on fixed schedules, much like passenger trains, instead of being dispatched whenever a sufficient number of loaded cars are available. In the past, intermodal trains and general merchandise trains operated separately; under PSR they are combined as needed, typically with distributed power (an additional engine or two placed between the two types of trains, so that the initial single train can split into separate intermodal and general merchandise trains and go their separate ways – TH). Inventories of freight cars and locomotives are reduced and fewer workers are employed for a given level of traffic. The result is often substantial improvement in railroad operating ratios (profit rates – TH), and other financial and operating metrics; at the cost of less-reliable service, particularly to smaller customers, long-term capacity issues, increased derailments and other safety risks associated with longer trains, and crew fatigue (demoralization, disease and death – TH).”
9] Freedom Socialist Party, “Fed-up railroad workers ready to strike”, by Steve Hoffman, October, 2022.
10] Freight Waves, “Railroad executives want to eliminate conductors — and exhausted rail workers are terrified”, by Rachel Premack, September 29, 2022.
11] Freedom Socialist Party, ibid.
12] Freight Waves, “The perils of precision scheduled railroading”, by Joanna Marsh, October 15, 2021.
13] Mother Jones, “The Looming Rail Strike Was Years in the Making”, by
Noah Lanard, September 14,
2022.
<>
Picture:
https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2022/09/rail-worker-railroad-strike-freight-joe-biden/
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