NATIONAL MEDIATION BOARD RELEASES RLBC RAIL UNIONS FROM MANDATORY MEDIATION IN NATIONAL FREIGHT RAIL NEGOTIATIONS
 
(WASHINGTON) –Today, the National Mediation Board released the six national rail labor organizations, comprising the Rail Labor Bargaining Coalition (RLBC), from further mediation in their dispute over changes in national labor agreements covering employees of some twenty-eight Class I freight railroads represented in bargaining by the National Carriers’ Conference Committee (NCCC).
 
Those railroads carry more than 90 percent of all rail freight in the United States. The RLBC-represented organizations are the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers & Trainmen (IBT), Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employes (IBT), Brotherhood of Railroad Signalmen, AFL-CIO, International Brotherhood of Boilermakers, AFL-CIO, National Conference of Firemen & Oilers (SEIU), AFL-CIO and the Sheet Metal International Association, AFL-CIO.
 
Also released from mediation were five other national rail labor organizations, which have bargained together as another coalition with the NCCC in this round of national negotiations. Nearly all Class I railroads and approximately 75 percent of their employees are represented by the two coalitions in multi-union, multi-employer bargaining. The Coalitions’ dispute with the railroads centers on the NCCC’s insistence that an agreement it had reached with the only organization to bargain alone, the United Transportation Union, should form the basis of agreements with the eleven organizations represented by the two Coalitions. Both Coalitions recognized that the Carriers’ insistence on the wage package and healthcare modifications, among other benefit provisions, agreed to by the NCCC and UTU foreclosed any chance of agreement with the rest of rail labor. The Mediation Board acted after it became apparent that the deadlock could not be broken.
 
The Board’s action advances this national rail labor dispute into the final stages of dispute resolution under the Railway Labor Act. Unless the parties voluntarily settle their dispute in the thirty-day cooling-off period that begins today, or a Presidential Emergency Board is established by President Obama, the parties will be free to resort to nonviolent self-help in support of their respective bargaining positions commencing at 12:01 a.m. EDT on October 7, 2011.
 
RLBC Chairman, W. Dan Pickett, said: “We welcome the Board’s overdue action. The NCCC’s insistence that the UTU agreement – whose wage and benefit provisions are unacceptable to every other rail labor organization -- forms a pattern for all employees in the industry is designed to frustrate multi-union, multi-employer bargaining. At best, the Carriers’ position imposes the UTU’s unique interests on the rest of rail labor; at worst, it seeks to restore a bygone era in which a strong, unified industry bargained separately with individual unions to the detriment of employee interests. This is not something that can or will be tolerated.”
 
In previous national rail disputes that were not voluntarily settled by the parties before reaching this stage, Presidential Emergency Boards were established by the White House. We anticipate that a PEB will be created by the President by the end of the cooling-off period. The very similar disputes of the two Coalitions will likely be consolidated for hearing before the Presidential board. Preparations are under way that will enable both Coalitions to present a joint case at the hearing.
 
By law, the Board’s recommendations for settlement of the dispute are due thirty days after its appointment by the President. The case then enters a final thirty-day cooling-off period during which the parties will be encouraged to accept the PEB’s recommendations. Failing settlement, the parties will become entitled to resort to self-help at the end of the final cooling-off period in early December 2011. That ends the settlement procedures of the RLA. The question whether to impose the Board’s recommendations will then be up to Congress.
 

Eleven Unions headed for PEB Resolution to National Contract Disputes

While United Transportation Union members have a national contract in hand with the major freight railroads, members of 11 other rail labor unions continue to wait for their respective union to negotiate a national agreement with the National Carriers’ Conference Committee (NCCC).

The National Mediation Board (NMB) recently proffered arbitration to 11 unions negotiating national contracts with the freight railroads through two coalitions. However, the unions rejected the proffers, prompting the NMB to release the two coalitions and 11 unions from federal mediation.

The release triggers a 30-day cooling-off period, during which “it is almost a certainty that President Obama will appoint a Presidential Emergency Board (PEB) to hear the dispute and make non-binding recommendations for settlement,” said Transportation Communications Union (TCU) officials in a prepared statement, adding that a single PEB likely will be created to hear disputes from all 11 unions.

Negotiations have been at impasse for months because of the carriers’ demands for major health plan changes, said TCU President Bob Scardelletti.

“We are confident that a PEB will take full measure of the industry’s record-setting prosperity,” he said.

The unions refuse to consider a 17 percent wage increase and freeze on employee health care contributions, said A. Kenneth Gradia, chairman of the NCCC — which bargains for more than 30 U.S. railroads, including the Class Is — in a prepared statement.

"We are extremely disappointed by the board's decision to end mediation. It is clear this action reflects the enormous pressure the unions have placed on the board to obtain what we believe is a premature release given that neither coalition has bargained in good faith,” he said. “The two coalitions … have refused to address the constantly escalating costs of employee health care in any meaningful way, despite the railroads' offer to freeze employee cost-sharing contributions.”

The NCCC expects a PEB to be appointed before Oct. 7, at the end of the statutory cooling-off period.

“In the past, PEB recommendations have provided the basis for voluntary settlements. We hope that will be the case in this round and that the nation will not experience disruptions to rail service that could threaten the nation's already fragile economy,” said Gradia.

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And this from the other side

Railroads Disappointed With NMB Decision To End Mediation

WASHINGTON, Sept. 6, 2011 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ -- Unions refuse to consider 17% wage increase and freeze on employee health care contributions

The National Carriers' Conference Committee (NCCC) issued the following statement today on the decision by the National Mediation Board (NMB) to release two coalitions representing 11 unions from federal mediation with the nation's largest railroads. The statement can be attributed to A. Kenneth Gradia, Chairman of the NCCC, the railroads' bargaining representative.

"We are extremely disappointed by the Board's decision to end mediation. It is clear this action reflects the enormous pressure the unions have placed on the Board to obtain what we believe is a premature release given that neither coalition has bargained in good faith.

"The carriers, with the assistance of the Board, have reached agreement with the industry's largest rail union, the United Transportation Union, covering nearly a third of railroad employees in collective bargaining. However, the two coalitions have rejected this contract as a pattern for discussion. They have refused to address the constantly escalating costs of employee health care in any meaningful way, despite the railroads' offer to freeze employee cost-sharing contributions. And they have dismissed as insufficient a proposed 17% wage increase for employees who are already among the nation's most highly compensated workers. Their intransigence undermines not only current negotiations, but also the time-honored process used to reach voluntary agreements in the rail industry.

"Although the railroads accepted the Board's offer of binding arbitration, the coalition unions did not. We fully expect that a Presidential Emergency Board will be appointed before October 7, the end of the statutory 'cooling off' period. This will defer the possibility of any service disruptions for an additional 60 days. In the past, PEB recommendations have provided the basis for voluntary settlements. We hope that will be the case in this round and that the nation will not experience disruptions to rail service that could threaten the nation's already fragile economy."

The NCCC represents more than 30 railroads, including BNSF, CSX Transportation, Kansas City Southern, Norfolk Southern and Union Pacific, in national bargaining with the 13 major rail unions.

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NMB Proffer of Arbitration

RLBC Rejects Arbitration