Railroad engineers frustrated as other unions get sick leave

OMAHA, NEB. — Tens of thousands of engineers remain frustrated with the lack of paid sick time and the demands railroads like BNSF are making in negotiations despite the deals that have been made this year for most of the other rail unions.

The lack of sick time and other quality-of-life concerns about the demanding schedules train crews work took center stage in the negotiations last fall that reached the brink of a strike before Congress intervened and blocked a walkout.

The Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen union says the railroads are still asking for too much in return for sick time instead of just providing the basic benefit it says workers are entitled to.

“They want to talk the money out of our pocket somewhere else and give it back to us in the form of sick time,” said Rob Cunningham, one of the BLET’s general chairmen who is leading the negotiations with BNSF.

The BLET’s frustrations generally extend to all the major freight railroads, but Cunningham said BNSF seemed to be acting especially “hard headed” in talks last week.

The Fort Worth, Texas, based railroad is in the spotlight this weekend because it is owned by Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway, and thousands of shareholders filled an arena in Omaha, Nebraska, Saturday to hear him answer questions.

Buffett didn’t face any questions about the way BNSF is treating its workers, but Buffett takes an extremely hands-off approach to Berkshire’s companies and largely lets them run themselves. In the past, he has declined to get involved in labor negotiations at subsidiaries.

“You would think with something as easy as paid sick time, he could just say: ‘Do it. We need to do this. This is the right thing to do,’” Cunningham said about Buffett, who is also a major philanthropist.

“But clearly he doesn’t practice what he preaches,” Cunningham said.

BNSF spokeswoman Lena Kent said the railroad has already reached deals to provide sick leave to more than 6,000 of its employees at eight of its unions, and “it is our intention to ultimately have agreements in place covering our entire scheduled workforce.”

Across the industry, CSX has led the way by reaching agreements with most of its unions on sick time. Norfolk Southern and Union Pacific have also announced several sick time deals. Most of these deals provide workers with four days of paid sick time and give them the option to convert three leave days into sick time to give workers a total of seven sick days a year.

“CSX is determined to ensure that all employees feel valued, respected, appreciated and operate as one team,” spokeswoman Sheriee Bowman said.

The conductors’ union reached deals with NS and CSX that include five paid sick days and the option to convert two personal leave days.