Posts tagged rail strike
NJ Transit, engineers’ union reach deal to end strike and resume service Tuesday
May 18, 2025 // Neither Murphy nor the engineers' union shared the specific details of the agreement. “While I won’t get into the exact details of the deal reached, I will say that the only real issue was wages and we were able to reach an agreement that boosts hourly pay beyond the proposal rejected by our members last month
NJ Transit — almost on brink of a rail strike — asks Biden to intervene
July 25, 2024 // Gov. Phil Murphy also could have requested Biden form a PEB. His office referred questions to NJ Transit. If Biden agrees to form a PEB, that stops the clock for 120 days while a panel of neutral experts review both sides’ arguments and other data and make a non-binding recommendation.
Rail strike suspended ahead of talks to resolve union recognition dispute
April 12, 2024 // Alan Jones, PA Industrial Correspondent Thu, April 11, 2024 at 4:16 AM EDT·1 min read A planned strike by rail workers at CrossCountry has been suspended after progress over a union recognition dispute. Members of the Rail, Maritime and Transport union (RMT) were due to walk out on Saturday. The union said the company has agreed to hold talks in a bid to resolve the row. Mick Lynch Rail, Maritime and Transport (RMT) union general secretary Mick Lynch (Belinda Jiao/PA) RMT general secretary Mick Lynch said: “With our members prepared to take strike action this weekend, CrossCountry management has seen the need to sit down with RMT to find a long-term resolution to this impasse. “We have agreed to suspend strike action and take up this opportunity. “But our strike mandate remains in place, so we will name new strike dates if that becomes necessary.”
Why it seems like everyone’s going on strike on Biden’s watch
September 19, 2023 // Biden was able to intervene directly in talks between railroads and rail workers since federal law gives the government a big say in that industry’s labor relations due to its economic importance. And his top Labor Department official was involved in a deal this year between West Coast ports and dockworkers. Here’s how the administration publicly stepped in — or didn’t — in some of organized labor’s most high-profile moments.
‘This is a problem’: Biden faces looming strikes that could rock economy
July 25, 2023 // Privately, some Democrats said the White House was caught off-guard by Fain’s ascension to the top of UAW. They described Biden’s team as currently being in an information-gathering mode about the union’s new leadership — a stark contrast from the close relationship it had enjoyed with former UAW president Ray Curry. Other Democrats said the White House was clearly aware of Fain’s criticism of how the Biden administration had doled out federal funds. But privately, some people in Biden’s orbit have continued to express worries that there’s distance between his agenda and a major union representing voters in a state key to his reelection. Biden’s senior staff has told allies “that the rhetoric from the new UAW leadership is concerning, this is a problem, and we’ve got to figure this out together,” according to a person familiar with the administration’s thinking.
How Biden plans to handle a series of possible labor strikes across the country
July 24, 2023 // Biden is not inserting himself directly in any of the negotiations, officials told NBC News, even though he met with the UAW president at the White House.
Year in Review: Worker strikes surged in 2022 amid new unionization wave
December 27, 2022 // There were 374 worker strikes in 2022, according to researchers at Cornell University, a hefty 39% increase from the year before. There were several factors at play in the growth, a major one being that workers had far more leverage this past year due to mass labor shortages. Healthcare workers made up a big contingent of the organized labor movement in 2022. In September, 15,000 nurses in Minnesota staged a three-day walkout in what was likely the largest private-sector nurse strike in the country’s history. There were several other strikes by healthcare workers over the past year as well.
The ‘pro-union’ president risks the support of a key constituency to avert a rail strike
December 5, 2022 // Biden faces a backlash from a core of rail workers and allied groups, as some of them see his push for a measure to avoid a strike as a betrayal. He signed the measure, which passed with bipartisan support, at the White House on Friday, giving rail workers a significant raise, but denying them the paid sick leave that had been a sticking point in some of the contract talks. Hours later, he arrived at the John F. Kennedy Library in Boston and was met by scores of protesters objecting to his handling of a labor dispute that threatened to halt rail service at the peak of the holiday season.
Biden to Congress: Intervene in labor dispute, avert rail strike that would ‘devastate’ US
November 29, 2022 // With a Dec. 9 strike deadline fast approaching, Biden urged Congress to adopt "without any modifications or delay" an agreement brokered by the White House in September between labor unions and rail operators. Four of the 12 unions have voted to reject the five-year agreement, which was intended to avoid a shutdown of the nation's freight rail system. "A rail shutdown would devastate our economy," Biden said in a statement. "Without freight rail, many U.S. industries would shut down. My economic advisors report that as many as 765,000 Americans – many union workers themselves – could be put out of work in the first two weeks alone. Communities could lose access to chemicals necessary to ensure clean drinking water. Farms and ranches across the country could be unable to feed their livestock."
Labor secretary expects Congress to block rail strike
November 7, 2022 // The International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers District 19, which represents 4,900 rail worker, on Saturday announced it had approved a tentative deal by a 52%-48% margin [see “Machinists narrowly ratify …,” Trains News Wire, Nov. 5, 2022] Just 52% of voters approved the agreement, after the union’s rank and file had turned down a previous deal. The Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employes Division and Brotherhood of Railroad Signalmen have turned down tentative agreements, with the BMWED set to strike as soon as Nov. 19.