Tentative deal averts US rail strike
Area’s MARC lines are expected to operate normally today
WASHINGTON — Rail companies and their workers reached a tentative agreement Thursday to avert a nationwide strike that could have shut down the nation’s freight trains and devastated the economy less than two months before the midterm elections.
President Joe Biden announced the deal, which emerged from a marathon 20-hour negotiating session at the U.S. Department of Labor and came just one day before the threatened walkout.
“This agreement is validation of what I’ve always believed — unions and management can work together ... for the benefit of everyone,” Biden said in the White House Rose Garden.
The deal, which includes a 24% pay raise, will go to union members for a vote after a cooling-off period of several weeks.
A strike would have disrupted passenger traffic as well as freight, because Amtrak
and many commuter railroads operate on tracks owned by the freight railroads. Amtrak canceled all of its long-distance trains ahead of the strike deadline and was working to restore full service.
Commuter trains on MARC’s Camden, Brunswick and Penn lines will operate normally Friday after the potential strike by railroad workers was averted, the Maryland Transit Administration announced Thursday afternoon.
“CSX Transportation has notified MDOT MTA that the potential strike by CSX labor unions in response to the ongoing labor dispute will not occur on Friday,” MTA said.
CSX owns the Camden and Brunswick Maryland Area Regional Commuter lines and dispatches the trains.
Passengers, however, should expect delays and possible train cancellations for several weeks on the Camden Line because of freight train congestion caused by the potential work stoppage, MTA said. About 1,000 daily commuters rode the Camden Line round trip from Union Station in Washington, D.C., to the station outside Oriole Park at Camden Yards in August, according to Steve Chan, chair of the MARC Riders Advisory Council. Nearly 2,000 daily riders took the Brunswick Line from Union Station to Martinsburg, West Virginia, in August.
Camden Line Train 852 remains canceled through Friday because of extreme freight train congestion between Dorsey and Camden Yards, according to MTA.
The Penn Line from Washington to Perryville in Cecil County would not have been affected by a strike because it runs on the Northeast Corridor tracks owned by Amtrak, the national passenger railroad. The Penn Line has the highest ridership of MARC’s three lines, with 8,600 daily round-trip passengers in August, Chan said.
Although Amtrak-owned lines and workers are not involved in the current labor negotiations, some routes going through Baltimore Penn Station, including Thursday departures on the Cardinal Line between New York and Chicago and the Piedmont Line between New York and Charlotte, North Carolina, were canceled.
Amtrak is working to restore canceled trains and reaching out to impacted customers to accommodate on first available departures, spokesperson Beth K. Toll said Thursday. Amtrak customers affected by disruptions can get refunds without cancellation fees or can change their reservation to another date through Oct. 31 without paying the difference in fares.
The threat of a shutdown carried political risks for Biden, a Democrat who believes unions built the middle class. But he also knew a rail strike could damage the economy ahead of the midterms, when majorities in both chambers of Congress, key governorships and scores of important state offices will be up for grabs.
Biden made a key phone call Wednesday evening to Labor Secretary Marty Walsh as negotiators were talking and being offered Italian food for dinner, according to White House officials who insisted on anonymity to discuss the conversations.
On speakerphone, the president urged both sides to get a deal done and to consider the harm that a shutdown would inflict on families, farmers and businesses, the officials said.
One union had to wake up its board to move forward on the agreement, which involved 50 calls from White House officials to organized labor officials.
Joined in the Oval Office by business and union leaders, a beaming Biden joked that he was surprised everyone was “still standing” after the late night and that they should be “home in bed.”
The five-year deal, retroactive to 2020, also includes $5,000 in bonuses. The railroads agreed to ease their strict attendance policies to address union concerns about working conditions.
Railroad workers now will be able to take unpaid days off for doctor’s appointments without being penalized. Previously, workers would lose points under the attendance systems at BNSF and Union Pacific railways, and they could be disciplined if they lost all their points.
The talks also included Norfolk Southern, CSX, Kansas City Southern and the U.S. operations of Canadian National.
The unions that represent conductors and engineers who drive the trains had pressed hard for changes in the attendance rules, and they said the deal sets a precedent that ensures they will be able to negotiate such rules in the future.
The rail industry has aggressively cut costs everywhere and shifted its operations to rely more on fewer, longer trains that use fewer locomotives and fewer employees. The unions said the remaining workers, particularly engineers and conductors, were on call 24-7 because of jobs cuts and could hardly take any time off under strict attendance rules.
Shippers have complained loudly this year about delays and poor service as railroads struggled to hire quickly enough to handle a surge in demand as the economy emerged from the pandemic. The shipping problems gave rail workers extra leverage.
Newly hired CSX CEO Joe Hinrichs said he hopes the new deal helps the railroad hire and retain more employees to address the service problems.
“Now we can move our conversation into how do we work together to grow the business and better serve our customers,” he said.
Union activism has surged under Biden, as seen in a 56% increase in petitions for union representation with the National Labor Relations Board so far this fiscal year, including prominent organizing efforts at Starbucks, Amazon and other companies. A number of unions have gone on strike over the past two years to get better deals.
Rutgers University professor Todd Vachon, who teaches about labor relations, said rail workers were particularly attuned to work-life balance and the ability to take time off for health reasons.
That has led to a “real resurgence in the labor movement that goes beyond merely reacting to inflation,” Vachon said.
Before the deal was reached, business groups including the Business Roundtable and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce were predicting that a rail strike would be an “economic disaster.”
The Association of American Railroads trade group estimated that a strike would cost the economy more than $2 billion a day and force many businesses to scale back or cease production and consider layoffs.
With the economy still recovering from the pandemic’s supply chain disruptions, the president’s goal was to keep all parties talking so a deal could be reached.
Biden also knew a stoppage could worsen the dynamics that have contributed to soaring inflation and created a political headache for the party in power.
He confronted the same kind of predicament faced by Theodore Roosevelt in 1902 with coal and Harry Truman in 1952 with steel — how does a president balance the needs of labor and business in doing what’s best for the nation?
Railways were so important during World War I that Woodrow Wilson temporarily nationalized the industry to keep goods flowing and prevent strikes.
So the administration jumped into the middle of the talks. Biden and cabinet officials called both sides, and the labor secretary participated directly in negotiations.
“Now we can move our conversation into how do we work together to grow the business and better serve our customers.”
— CSX CEO Joe Hinrichs