Service + Solidarity Spotlight: Unions Slam Rail Carriers’ Recent Offer

Working people across the United States have stepped up to help out our friends, neighbors and communities during these trying times. In our regular Service + Solidarity Spotlight series, we’ll showcase one of these stories every day. Here’s today’s story.

Rail union members have worked tirelessly to bring our nation through the pandemic. However, for more than two years, they have been stuck at the bargaining table fighting for a fair contract with America’s largest rail carriers that are raking in record profits because of their hard work. The unions that make up the Coordinated Bargaining Coalition (CBC) unanimously rejected the carriers’ recent short-term offer of a $600 maximum payment per worker, calling it “somewhere between a loan and a pay day advance” because it’s contingent on the terms of the complete contract settlement. The unions said carriers are refusing to bargain in good faith and have asked for the National Mediation Board to offer arbitration.

Together, the CBC unions represent more than 105,000 railroad workers across the country, including members of the following AFL-CIO affiliates: the Train Dispatchers (ATDA); the Railroad Signalmen (BRS); the Machinists (IAM); the Boilermakers (IBB); the Electrical Workers (IBEW); the Brotherhood of Railway Carmen Division-TCU/IAM; the International Association of Sheet Metal, Air, Rail and Transportation Workers-Transportation Division (SMART-TD); the TCU/IAM; and the Transport Workers Union (TWU).