Weekly Digest Number 16 - April 15, 2025

Welcome to the RWU Rail & Labor News! This news bulletin is produced and emailed out each Tuesday morning. We hope you find each week's news and information useful. If so, please share with co-workers, friends, and colleagues. If you like, you can sign them up to get all the news from RWU HERE. Or forward them the link. Got a hot tip? Please forward the article and a link to raillabornews@gmail.com. Note: If you read over this news bulletin each week, you will be sure to never miss the important news of what is going on in the railroad world from a worker's perspective!

THIS WEEK'S RAIL AND LABOR NEWS

Editor's Note: Another backroom deal rubber-stamped without a vote. A 3% annual wage increase in today’s inflationary economy is less a raise and more a quiet concession to stagnation. When contracts are settled by arbitration and not ratified by the rank and file, it’s a sign the system works for expediency—not for democracy. Rail labor deserves more than dictated deals and pre-approved outcomes.

CN Receives Arbitration Decision

Railway Age / April 8th

CN reports said arbitrators established a new three-year agreement with an annual wage increase of 3%.

Effective from Jan. 1, 2024, through Dec. 31, 2026, it replaces the previous contract that expired Dec. 31, 2023, and does not require ratification by the union representing approximately 6,000 conductors, conductor trainees, yard coordinators, and locomotive engineers across the CN network in Canada.

Editor's Note: When courts become the enforcers of expired contracts, it’s clear who they’re protecting—and it’s not the workers. The ATU strike was a response to stagnation, not sabotage. If the “no strike” clause survives beyond the life of a contract, what incentive is there for transit agencies to bargain in good faith? This ruling doesn’t just undermine one union—it sends a message that deadlines are for workers, not employers.

Appellate court denies ATU's petition over halted VTA strike

Progressive Railroading / April 14th

The Appellate Court of the 6th District in California denied the ATU's writ petition that challenged a Superior Court ruling that sent Santa Clara VTA front-line employees back to work following a strike.

The judge ruled on March 26 that the union likely violated its contract by leading its 1,500 members to go on strike after months of unproductive contract negotiations.

Union representatives said that members are exempt from the contract's "no strike" clause as the contract expired on March 3. The union also stated that the VTA contract offerings fall short on pay, among other issues.

Editor's Note: It’s a sign of the times when paid sick days are treated like a breakthrough instead of a baseline. After years of national outcry, BLET engineers on the Belt Railway of Chicago are finally getting a piece of what most workers already take for granted. Progress? Sure. But it also shows how low the bar was set—and how far we still have to go just to meet the floor.

BLET members ratify quality-of-life agreement with Belt Railway of Chicago

Trains Magazine / April 14th

BLET has ratified a quality-of-life agreement with the Belt Railway of Chicago. Members of the union will, for the first time, have paid sick days and access to the company’s 401K program.

In addition to receiving up to four paid sick days per year, engineers will also have the ability to convert five personal leave days in place of Presidents’ Day, Good Friday, Thanksgiving, Christmas Eve, and New Year’s Eve.

Editor's Note: A 3.5% raise sounds generous—until you remember it’s spread across five years of inflation and corporate profit surges. Yardmasters may see modest gains, but when less than half of BNSF’s workforce is covered by current agreements, it raises a bigger question: who’s really steering the direction of rail labor? Until more contracts reflect real cost-of-living increases and democratic engagement, tentative progress remains just that—tentative.

BNSF, Yardmasters reach tentative labor pact

Progressive Railroading / April 14th

BNSF and SMART-YM announced on April 11 that they have reached a tentative five-year collective bargaining agreement.

If ratified, the agreement would cover about 320 yardmasters and bring the percentage of the railroad's union workforce now covered under ratified or tentative agreements to 42%.

The agreement calls for a 3.5% average wage increase per year over the next five years. It also offers the workers more vacation time earlier in their career and improvements to health-care benefits.

Editor's Note: The same railroads that gutted their own police forces in the name of Precision Scheduled Railroading are now clamoring for a federal task force to do the job they abandoned. The AAR’s endorsement of this bill isn’t about protecting supply chains—it’s about outsourcing accountability. PSR stripped away everything that didn’t serve shareholders, including security. Now they want the public to foot the bill for the consequences.

AAR praises bill that would crack down on organized retail thefts

Progressive Railroading / April 11th

The Association of American Railroads endorsed the proposed Combating Organized Retail Crime Act of 2025, which would establish a coordinated multi-agency response and create new tools to tackle evolving trends in organized retail theft.

Specifically, the legislation would create an Organized Retail and Supply Chain Coordination Center to bring together federal law enforcement agencies with state and local partners, as well as railroad police, to counter and dismantle domestic and transnational organized theft operations.

NEWS FROM AROUND THE LABOR MOVEMENT

Each week, RWU includes a few articles about advances and developments in the larger labor movement that are of interest to railroad workers. Got an artcile to submit for possible inclusion next week? Email it along to raillabornews@gmail.com. Thank you!

Sign the Grassroots Amicus Brief: Help federal workers stand up to Trump

Action Network

In the dead of night, Donald Trump’s administration issued a disgraceful and retaliatory Executive Order declaring war on working people by denying their collective bargaining rights.

This order was a direct attack on the rights of one million patriotic American civil servants―targeted simply because they are members of a union that stands up to this administration’s harmful policies.

This attack on federal workers is an attack on everything the government does. It is an attack on Social Security, on our national parks, and on our veterans. This is a fight that will be won in the courts. But that doesn’t mean that we should sit around and wait for judges to recognize the legal rights of these workers.

The American Federation of Government Employees is preparing immediate legal action and will fight relentlessly to protect the rights of union members, and all working Americans, from these unprecedented attacks. But this fight is bigger than any one union―or even the labor movement.

Sign the Grassroots Amicus Brief supporting Federal Workers Standing up to Trump’s Executive Order!

WEEKLY DERAILMENT DEPARTMENT

Each Tuesday in this news bulletin, RWU does our best to present a picture of what has been happening over the course of the previous week in terms of derailments in North America, and investigation determinations of previous accidents. NOTE: This list is by no means comprehensive. Smaller and less consequential mishaps are generally not reported here. If the wreck results in injury or fatality, or is especially damaging/extreme, a full article will appear as a feature in the dozen or so rail articles above. Know of a train wreck? Please feel free to forward a link to raillabornews@gmail.com for possible inclusion next week. Thanks!