Negotiations with UTU Reach Impasse Despite Significant Concessions by Railroads
NATIONAL CARRIERS’ CONFERENCE COMMITTEE
1901 L STREET, N.W., WASHINGTON, D.C. 20036-3514
February 1, 2007
Negotiations with UTU Reach Impasse Despite Significant Concessions by Railroads
The following is a statement by the National Carriers’ Conference Committee (NCCC) on the status of negotiations with the United Transportation Union (UTU):
Despite two years of intense negotiations, the nation’s major freight railroads have reached an impasse in the current bargaining round with the UTU. However, negotiators for the railroads have not yet made a decision as to when we will seek a release from mediation.
Notwithstanding recent misrepresentations by UTU leaders, the NCCC has always been willing to discuss the union’s proposals on training and fatigue. In fact, we spent days talking about training with the UTU during the current round of negotiations. The railroads have also focused attention on train crew fatigue and have been working with the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) on a comprehensive study of the issue. Far from refusing to discuss these two issues, the railroads have proposed referring both matters to the National Wage and Rules Panel, a joint industry-union forum established in 1996 to “develop options to deal with issues of common concern.”
This dispute is not about safety; it’s about money.
Rail workers already receive a generous compensation package that puts them in the top nine percent of all U.S. workersi. In the current bargaining round, the railroads have offered wage increases totaling 16 percent over five years, a package that would keep UTU and other railroad workers near the top of the U.S. wage scale.
The settlement package offered by the railroads would also guarantee that rail employees would con
I guess it depends on the group they use to define the words “US workers.” Maybe they’re lumping you in with the clerks at Wal-Mart and the pimple-faced kid at Mickey D’s. I did notice that there seems to be a number after “US workers” that would seem to refer to a footnote, but that wasn’t part of the quote. [?]
As Mark Twain once said: “There’s lies, damned lies, and statistics.”
And yes, I am sure that by US workers, they are referring to practically all employed persons in the US. And as such, almost any union worker is going to come out pretty good.
top 9% I wonder where they got that figure (as Clint eastwood said in Heartbrake Ridge I could not go around the world even if it only cost a quarter).
Don’t believe anything from either side. As one of my statistics profs said…statistics say what you want them too.
I wish both sides would shut thier ugly, lying faces until the contract is settled.
The railroads care little for fatigue mitigation. They talk the talk, but I’ve yet to see them walk the walk. During the mid-1990s one pioneering Class I had an innovative, and well received quality of life program. That railroad made it’s research and techniques available to anyone interested. No other railroad was interested. The visionaries behind the program, after being offered rather insulting positions with that road’s successors, have largely left the rail industry.
Deep down in it’s heart of hearts, the union cares little for fatigue mitigation as well. The dirty little secret is most techniques, well reducing hours away from home, also reduce pay.
The fatigue issue is HUGE in the OTR trucking field also yet the companies refuse to do anything that would help the drivers also. At least in the RR industry you do not have to load your own trains then drive your shift. The transportation industry in this country is headed for a crisis soon. Sooner all of the OTR drivers in this country are going to bet tired of being abused and DEMAND Shippers loand and recievers unload when that happens and if they meaning the recievers and shippers refuse to watch this country grind to a halt. You think Labor and Companys are at each others throats wait til that happens and the grocery stores are out of food and then watch what happens.