YORK, Pa. — U.S railroad workers are close to striking on Friday over demanding schedules and working conditions. Employees are bargaining for everything from time off to sick pay to raises.
“Just guys that simply want to be home with their families and every once in a while at least, be able to go see their doctor, and schedule appointments and things like that," said the president of the Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employes Division of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters Tony Cardwell.
The NRLC, which represents rail companies says they have reached tentative agreements with nine of the 12 unions representing rail workers. One of them was The Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employees Division of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters.
“We prevailed and they gave us a real concern that we had and that was the away-from-home travel expenses. Many of our employees work on the road, and it adjusted those travel expenses to raise them from antiquated amounts," said Cardwell.
There are still three remaining unions that have not reached an agreement with the railroads.
Companies like Norfolk Southern say they are taking measures to prepare for a possible strike, they said in a statement:
"Norfolk Southern must now begin to prepare for the possibility of a strike at the conclusion of the current cooling-off period on September 16. Most importantly, we must ensure that hazardous and other security-sensitive freight is properly secured so it is not left stranded in the event of a sudden strike.
We have communicated to our customers that we will temporarily halt certain types of shipments beginning September 12. In addition, to safely ramp down our network and enable us to bring service back quickly, certain other customers will see a preliminary curtailment of service before September 16.
Should the two remaining unions commit not to strike, we will resume full operations. We have communicated to all parties in the negotiations that we will not lock out union employees. Our goal is to keep our nation’s economy moving, serve our customers, and reach agreements with the remaining unions."
A railroad strike would adversely affect the nation’s already snarled supply chain and it would affect passenger trains as well Amtrak and other commuter railroads operate on tracks owned by freight railroads.