Metra, merchants dodge rail strike
WASHINGTON — The nation’s freight railroad industry averted a potentially costly strike on Thursday after resolving differences with two of its unions and agreeing to extend talks with a third.
The National Railway Labor Conference, which represents the railroads in bargaining talks, said its negotiators would try to reach an agreement with the final union before Feb. 8.
Without the agreements, the railway unions could have begun striking as early as Tuesday, when a federal “cooling off” period was set to expire. A strike would have caused major problems for Metra, which had been monitoring the situation “hour by hour,” agency spokeswoman Judy Pardonnet said.
It would have affected not only the delivery of goods but also thousands of commuters across the nation if passenger trains were unable to travel on freight tracks. “It has the potential of affecting the entire system,” Pardonnet acknowledged.
Retailers warned that a rail strike would cost businesses and consumers $2 billion a day and prove especially damaging during the industry’s most important shopping season of the year. “A strike during the busy holiday shopping season could be devastating,” Matthew Shay, president and CEO of the National Retail Federation, said in a letter to Congress.
The agreements late Thursday with the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen and the American Train Dispatchers Association came just hours after Republican House leaders said they would move to vote Friday on emergency legislation to prevent a work stoppage.
The group of more than 30 railroads — including Union Pacific Corp., CSX Corp. and Burlington Northern Santa Fe — has been trying for more than a year to reach collective bargaining agreements with 13 unions representing about 132,000 workers.
President Barack Obama appointed a five-member emergency board in October to mediate the dispute. The White House action averted a strike for at least 60 days, ending Tuesday at 12:01 a.m.
With the help of federal mediators, the railroads have now settled with 12 of the 13 unions in the current bargaining round. The only unsettled union is the Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employees, which has about 25,000 workers.
“Everyone wins when we reach voluntary agreements,” said Kenneth Gradia, chairman of the National Carriers’ Conference Committee, which bargains on behalf of the railroads.
“In a tough economy, these agreements offer a terrific deal for rail employees. They lock in well-above market wage increases of more than 20 percent over six years, far exceeding recent union settlements in other industries.”
The last time a freight railroad strike occurred, in 1991, Congress quickly passed legislation that ended it within a day. A 1982 strike lasted four days.
Ÿ Daily Herald staff writer Marni Pyke contributed to this report.