Railroads and unions reach tentative deal hours before national strike deadline
After 20 straight hours of talks at the Labor Department in September 2022, freight railroads and unions reached a tentative agreement that averted a nationwide rail strike.
On Sept. 15, 2022, freight railroads and union negotiators reached a tentative labor agreement that averted a national rail strike. The deal came after 20 consecutive hours of talks at the U.S. Department of Labor, ahead of a strike deadline at midnight early Friday, Sept. 16.
The Labor Department said Labor Secretary Marty Walsh and the Biden administration applauded the parties. It said a disruption would have had catastrophic effects on industries, travelers and families.
What was at stake
About 40% of the nation's long-distance freight moves by rail, CNBC reported. A strike would have idled more than 7,000 trains and cost up to an estimated $2 billion a day.
The White House had been in talks with unions and railroads for months, and negotiations had stalled over unpaid sick time.
The terms
According to the Association of American Railroads, the contracts provided a 24% wage increase over the five years from 2020 through 2024. That included immediate payouts averaging $11,000 upon ratification. A joint union statement said the agreement also added an extra paid day off.
Tentative deals were reached with the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen, the SMART Transportation Division and the Brotherhood of Railroad Signalmen. Those unions represented about 60,000 workers.
A union spokesman called the deal historic but noted it still had to be ratified by members, which could take at least a week.
Railroads restart
Railroads had already started scaling back service before the deadline to prioritize critical shipments. Norfolk Southern said it was working to restore normal operations. Union Pacific canceled an embargo it had set on certain commodities and said it was working through backlogs. Amtrak, which had canceled long-distance trains because much of its network runs on freight tracks, expected to fully restore service by Sept. 16.
What it meant for carriers
In the days before the deadline, railroads had begun restricting service, and Union Pacific had embargoed some commodities. The tentative deal removed that immediate threat and let railroads begin clearing backlogs.
But it did not settle the issue. Because the agreements still needed ratification, shippers and carriers faced the possibility that the strike threat could return later in the year if members voted them down.