Rail workers rally, call for Biden to act on sick leave, crew sizes

December 14, 2022 by

Rail workers and supporters rally at BNSF’s Northtown Yard in Fridley.

Federal lawmakers may have blocked them from going on strike, but freight rail workers aren’t giving up the fight for paid sick leave, safe crew sizes and respect for their essential work.

U.S. rail unions staged rallies yesterday in the Twin Cities, Duluth and elsewhere, looking to keep the spotlight on issues that, workers say, plague their industry.

Gathered near BNSF Railway’s Northtown Yard in Fridley, union members called out freight lines for putting greed before the health and safety, and they recounted grim experiences with rail bosses’ new business model, so-called “Precision Scheduled Railroading” (PSR).

Implemented by most carriers over the past decade, PSR is a ruthless template for squeezing more profits out of rail operations and workers, locomotive engineer Joel Mueller said.

“Railroad workers are at a breaking point,” he told more than 50 supporters who joined the midday rally. “We work 12-hour days, and we are on call seven days a week, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.”

Robert Dickerson, a member of Waseca-based SMART-TD Local 64, brought his sons Alexander (L) and William to the rally. “I’ve worked this job the whole time they’ve been alive,” he said, “but I do not encourage them to work for the railroad, sad to say.”

Mueller, who serves as statewide chair of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen (BLET), said most railroad workers can’t take a day off without scheduling it weeks in advance. “We go to work sick because a lot of times the alternative could be dismissal or discipline from the railroads,” he said.

Twelve unions representing over 115,000 rail workers had hoped to gain paid sick leave in joint contract negotiations with the carriers this year. Ultimately, the benefit was left out of a tentative master agreement that the Biden administration helped mediate.

When members of four unions voted to reject the contract and authorize a strike in November, the eight other unions pledged not to cross their picket lines. That prompted President Biden to seek congressional support for imposing the contract’s terms and undercutting workers’ right to strike legally.

Congress granted the request. A companion bill adding seven paid sick days into the master agreement passed in the House but fell eight votes short of passing the Senate.

Now, rail unions and some lawmakers are urging Biden to use his executive powers to force railroads, as federal contractors, into offering workers paid sick time. Former President Barack Obama issued a similar executive order on Labor Day 2015, but it left out contractors covered by the Railway Labor Act.

“We need an executive order from the Biden administration to protect our members,” Mueller said. “That means sick days.”

Rail workers also are holding out hope for federal action to address another of their top demands: keeping two crew members aboard trains. Railroads are looking to technology to cut their labor costs, but that comes at a risk, Mueller said, noting some trains now stretch up to three miles long.

“It’s important that we have another set of eyes and ears in the cabin of the locomotive,” he said.

The Federal Railroad Administration is holding public hearings this week on newly proposed rules establishing minimum crew sizes for trains, and rail unions are monitoring the process closely.

Pat Dwyer, a member of SMART-TD Local 1000, recalled once having a severe allergic reaction to food while operating a freight train. The second crew member not only averted disaster, Dwyer said, but potentially saved his life.

“Two people on a train is deathly important, and people don’t understand that,” Dwyer said. “Sometimes you need another guy on the train – even if you don’t like him – to keep you awake, to keep you focused.”

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Rail union pushes safety measure requiring two-person crews

March 23, 2015 by

UTU_Logo_1A bill that would require two-person crews aboard Amtrak and most freight trains operating in Minnesota passed out of two Senate committees last week. The safety measure is a top legislative priority of the United Transportation Union, which represents about 70,000 workers in North America.

Sen. Ann Rest (DFL-New Hope) introduced the legislation in the Senate, and the measure received bipartisan support in the Judiciary and Transportation committees.

But Republican leaders in the House have refused to take up a companion bill introduced by Rep. Frank Hornstein (DFL-Minneapolis).

UTU Minnesota Legislative Director Phillip Qualy said railroads are lobbying hard against the bill, making false claims that crew-level requirements fall under federal law or under the domain of collective-bargaining agreements – and are outside the Legislature’s jurisdiction.

“Unfortunately, the railroads are misleading the Legislature with inaccurate and erroneous information,” Qualy said.

Carriers are playing a dangerous game. The oil boom in North Dakota’s Bakken region has increased freight-rail traffic in Minnesota, which has the eighth-largest rail network in the U.S.

The timing is right to take a look at the implications that spike in traffic has on public safety, Rest told the Senate Committee on Transportation March 16.

“We know that not only are the derailments becoming an increased concern, but we also know that the number of cars that are used to transport crude oil have exponentially increased in just the last few years,” Rest said.

In testimony before the committee, Qualy characterized requiring the railroads to maintain two-person crews as a matter of “corporate citizenship.”

“The carriers’ practice to remove more and more persons from the right-of-ways of American railroads endangers the general public,” he said.

How? Nick Katich, a trainman for Canadian National Railway in northern Minnesota, offered an example. Increasingly, he said, CN is instructing train operators in Illinois to block public road crossings – a practice he and 200 other members of UTU Local 1067 don’t want to see spread into Minnesota.

“Our standard operation for decades is to get off the locomotive and separate the train at the crossing and leave it open for public and emergency vehicles … until the train is ready to depart,” Katich said. “If there is only one person on a train, there will be no way we can open a crossing.”

Under the proposed legislation, Class I or II carriers would face fines up to $1,000 for operating a one-person crew in Minnesota, unless the carrier is exempted by federal law.

“Our state legislation is not federally preempted and does not contain language that can be construed as a collective-bargaining area,” Qualy said.

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Minnesota unions make case for Sandpiper oil pipeline

January 6, 2015 by
Phillip Wallace, a representative of the United Association of Pipeliners Local 798, testifies at the public hearing on the proposed Sandpiper project.

Phillip Wallace of the United Association of Pipeliners Local 798 weighs in on the proposed Sandpiper project.

A series of five public hearings on a proposed oil pipeline through Minnesota opened in St. Paul yesterday, and members of several Building Trades unions stepped forward to support the $2.5 billion venture, projected to create 1,500 construction jobs.

The Minnesota Public Utilities Commission is collecting public testimony at sites across the state this week regarding the Sandpiper pipeline, which would transport crude oil from North Dakota’s booming Bakken region to terminals in Clearbrook and Superior, Wis.

Union members like David LaBorde of Duluth-based Teamsters Local 346 touted the jobs Sandpiper would create for northern Minnesota workers and the potential boost for the area’s struggling economy.

“The members (of Local 346) need this work,” LaBorde said. “In northern Minnesota we have a significant problem with getting good-paying jobs.”

Northern Minnesota isn’t the only area that would benefit from Sandpiper. Many supporters at the St. Paul hearing said Sandpiper would ease congestion in the state’s rail system and reduce the risk of accidents in highly populated areas. Three of four rail routes used to transport Bakken oil cross through the Twin Cities.

The new pipeline would enable parent company Enbridge to transport 225,000 barrels per day from the Bakken to its Clearbrook terminal, and 375,000 barrels per day from Clearbrook to Superior. That’s oil that might otherwise travel through Minnesota by train.

“It’s more hazardous to transport that oil by rail and truck than by pipeline,” said Mike Ratka, a Laborers Union member from Foley who has worked on multiple pipeline projects. “It’s a win-win situation.”

The proposed Sandpiper route through northern Minnesota.

The proposed Sandpiper route through northern Minnesota.

Sandpiper also would yield about $25 million in property taxes annually for local governments in Minnesota, according to Enbridge. And increased domestic oil production helps keep fuel prices down and reduces the country’s reliance on less stable foreign sources, supporters noted.

Some opponents of the pipeline worried that Sandpiper’s 616-mile route passes too close to the headwaters of the Mississippi River and poses a threat to Minnesota’s “Lakes Region,” including Cass and Crow Wing counties. Others argued construction of the pipeline would contribute to climate change.

But Matt Duncombe, a skilled pipeliner from East Grand Forks, said pipelines are the safest means of transporting crude oil because Enbridge, its contractors and their employees make safety their top priority during construction.

“Enbridge does more to set and enforce high quality and safety standards, in my experience, than any other pipeline owner I’ve worked for,” Duncombe said, noting the company’s use of third-party inspectors to monitor safety during construction.

Supporters of the pipeline wore stickers to the public hearing.

Supporters of the pipeline wore stickers to the public hearing.

Duncombe, a member of Laborers Local 563, said he received pipeline-specific, hands-on training at the union’s Lino Lakes facility – training he has since used as a laborer and foreman on the environmental crew during pipeline construction projects.

“Our top priority on the environmental crew is protection of wetlands and waterways,” Duncombe said. “The measures we installed included silt fences, hay bales, water logs, and berms, which are designed to contain runoff or prevent soil erosion. At the end of a project, our work included seeding and mulching to restore vegetation.”

Members of Operating Engineers Local 49, the Pipefitters union and other labor unions were scheduled to provide testimony at the hearing as well. They appeared before Judge Eric Lipman, a specialist in dispute resolution with the state’s Office of Administrative Hearings.

In April, Lipman will present the PUC with a report based on evidence and testimony gathered during public hearings across the state and a “trial-type hearing” later this month. People unable to attend a public hearing can offer their input using the PUC’s online forum, “Speak Up!“

The five-member commission is expected to issue a decision on approval of the Sandpiper pipeline in June.

“This isn’t the labor community against the environmental community,” said Harry Melander, president of the Minnesota Building and Construction Trades Council. “This is a needed update of a vital pipeline that the State of Minnesota and the region will benefit from.”

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Workers stand up to union busting at Lakeville rail company

January 15, 2013 by
Corey Plath, president of UTU Local 911, representing workers at Progressive Rail, talks to workers on the informational picket line.

Corey Plath, president of UTU Local 911, representing workers at Progressive Rail, talks to workers on the informational picket line.

Progressive Rail is harassing, intimidating and firing its workers in an attempt to supplant their union, leaders and members of the United Transportation Union said during informational picketing outside the company this morning.

Eight workers at the Lakeville-based railway have been fired or harassed into resignation since February 2012, when a union contract covering 12 employees went into effect at company.

Their replacements, fired workers say, have been hand picked by management to support a company-backed “sham union” over the UTU in an upcoming decertification election.

Phil Qualy, UTU state legislative director, said enough union supporters remain eligible to vote down the decertification drive. The informational picket, which drew more than 40 UTU members from across the state, was designed to show Progressive Rail workers their union is behind them.

“We show up and support our guys,” Qualy said. “It doesn’t matter if it’s 1,000 members or it’s one member, we’re going to stand as the UTU for our brothers and sisters.”

Union supporters targeted

Stewart Howe (left) and Mike Bargmann are appealing Progressive Rail's grounds for firing them last year.

Stewart Howe (left) and Mike Bargmann are appealing Progressive Rail’s grounds for firing them last year.

In addition to challenging the decertification drive, the union has appealed the firings of Progressive Rail workers like Stewart Howe and Mike Bargmann, who say they were targeted by management because of their support for the UTU.

Howe, a locomotive engineer active in efforts to organize a union at Progressive Rail three years ago, was fired for exceeding the maximum speed on a locomotive – even though the conductor with him during the alleged incident received no disciplinary action at all.

Bargmann, a conductor fired for “insubordination that never occurred,” wasn’t with the company when workers voted 11-1 in favor of joining UTU in 2009. Still, he refused to join the decertification drive – and claims he lost his job as a result.

“About a month before (being fired), I was asked by a fellow conductor to sign a sheet of paper saying that I wanted the UTU out of here,” Bargmann said. “I didn’t want to sign it because I know the UTU is a good thing to have in place here.

“Without the UTU, the working conditions and pay would be atrocious.”

Indeed, some UTU members at Progressive Rail gained a $14,000 raise in one year after implementation of the collective bargaining agreement. UTU members also gained access to representation during disputes with the company over safety and working conditions.

Workers’ rights don’t depend on railroad size

Several so-called “short-line” railroads like Progressive Rail have taken over operations from large carriers like Canadian Pacific in recent decades. Unions say the “short-lines” are designed to avoid union contracts and lower wage and benefits for rail workers.

But Phil Craig, a member of the UTU Executive Board who traveled from Mankato to attend the Progressive Rail picket, said workers at railroads big and small deserve the right to form unions freely, without intimidation or harassment from their employers.

“We want these guys to understand everybody’s standing behind them,” Craig said. “They’ve got 190,000 brothers and sisters that are supporting them to maintain the UTU on this property.”

The UTU is a division of SMART (Sheet Metal Air, Rail Transit) union, which has 190,000 members nationwide, including 1,200 in Minnesota.

Progressive Rail’s decertification vote is scheduled to begin by mail Jan. 29, Qualy said.

The union is planning to stage another informational picket, with support from the broader labor community, the same day.

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