In September, SMART-TD, the largest rail union, reversed its opposition to the merger after a job protection agreement was reached with Union Pacific that promised job security for all its members working in train and yardmaster service for their entire careers if the merger goes through. This is the first time a union has supported a major Class I merger of this size.

RWU’s response mentioned that SMART-TD in an earlier statement warned: “We approach this development with measured skepticism rooted in the real-world impact such consolidation could have on rail workers, safety, service quality, and the long-term health of the freight rail industry.”

Their later statement, which reversed its opposition, did not mention how these promises would be enforced. This is a concern of not only RWU but many railroad workers, as past mergers have shown, corporations – including rail companies – often make empty promises to justify and build support for illegal mergers.

Rail consolidation results in job loss, diminishing labor power in negotiating better working conditions and pay, resulting in staffing shortages that lead to burn out and increased safety risks for workers and the public. And in general, consolidation results in stagnant and reduced wages for workers, as there are fewer buyers for labor and greater leverage for the consolidated companies.

This agreement may end up like those in the past which often forced workers to move to different regions of the country or felt unfulfilled by their new duties.There is nothing to protect jobs from being moved – particularly if this deal leads to even further consolidation.

Union Pacific’s History of Lying to Their Workers

The United Transportation Union y el Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers endorsed

The 1996 merger of Union Pacific and Southern Pacific to protect 2,500 workers. However, this agreement did not prevent job losses, as the company ultimately laid off or moved thousands of employees across the country the same month the merger was finalized.

Any job guarantee from Union Pacific in particular rings hollow, as Union Pacific began rapidly laying off or furloughing workers in 2023, once again choosing to “prioritize cost-cutting measures over ensuring safe operations, jeopardizing the well-being of both [Union Pacific’s] workers and the public,” alone among the Class I companies. At the same time, the company returned money to investors, paying over $3 billion in dividends and stock buybacks of over $700 million.

What are other Railroad Unions Saying?

Because of these harms, several major labor unions oppose the merger. The Transport Workers’ Union (TWU), which represents many Norfolk Southern employees, has come out strongly against the merger, citing Union Pacific’s troubling record with skirting safety standards and record of cost-cutting layoffs, even relative to other railroads.

The Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employees Division of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters (BMWED), which represents workers who build and maintain tracks, bridges, buildings, and other infrastructure on railroads, also opposes this merger. BMWED rejected a proposed agreement with Union Pacific to support the merger, as the proposed deal did not do enough to protect workers. President Tony Cardwell stated that the union would “vehemently deny [the merger]” and work with the White House to block it.

Railroad Workers United on UP-NS Merger

RWU continues to lead the fight against the merger joining railroad and non-railroad trade unions, shippers, customers, environmental advocacy groups, and other railroads. RWU opposes “this merger as well as any and all takeovers, mergers, or other combinations of the remaining Class One railroads…” as rail mergers result in service disruption, inefficiencies, staffing shortages and exhausted workers.

They pointed to the negative effects of past Class I rail mergers. Class I railroads are the largest, with yearly revenue over $1 billion. The U.S. rail industry has been consolidating for decades. In 1980, there were more than 30 Class I freight rail carriers, but now there are only six.

“It will not in any way help mitigate safety concerns,” Alex Nantell, a signal maintenance worker for Union Pacific in Portland and a member of Railroad Workers United. “It will not in any way help out with workforce retention, or having ‘good American jobs.’ And it’ll give the railroads, which already have an inordinate amount of power, significantly more power.”

RWU in their statement said that if rail unions had “developed a joint position opposing a merger that offers no clear benefits to workers” in a coordinated bargaining agreement that all unions, including SMART-TD, would come out in a better position. “The union [SMART-TD] did not poll its membership, disclose the agreement, or provide any mechanism for members to approve or reject it. A merger of this scale, with profound implications for workers, demands democratic oversight. Rank-and-file members deserve a vote, just as they would on any major contract.”

This Merger Would Hurt ALL Workers

Since deregulation of the industry and the mergers that followed, monopoly power has made the industry difficult for railroad workers given its concern with financial performance and metrics rather than operational reliability and sustainable working conditions. With competition gutted, other industries will face new consequences from a newly formed UP/NS railroad making shipping costs for farmers, manufacturers, and energy producers higher.

Labor Today endorses RWU and their efforts to prevent the UP/NS merger. If you work in a railroad consider joining RWU. If you are like Labor Today and concerned with the corporate takeover over the railroads consider supporting them as a solidarity member. We need a rail system that delivers for all Americans under one union that represents all the workers of the railroad industry.

Sources

RWU Responds to Latest Fratricide in Rail Labor 11-24-2025

https://www.economicliberties.us/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/2025-09-30-AELP-Railroad-Brief.pdf

https://www.railroadworkersunited.org/oppose-rail-mega-mergers

The post RWU Lambasts Biggest Railroad Union on its Support for Merger first appeared on Trabajo De Hoy.

This comes as the NLRB expects President-Elect Donald Trump to appoint new board members who will be more antagonistic to labor and the basketball team’s efforts.

The NCAA and the Amateur Model

College sports athletes have a unique classification in this country that goes back to the founding of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) in 1906. The NCAA regulates team players as student-athletes who are not considered employees and prevents them from obtaining a salary. They can do this by requiring the athletes to be considered ‘amateurs.’

Today, college sports produce a multi-billion dollar industry generated by the labor of the athletes. In college football, for example, the Big Ten Conference gave a $7 billion rights deal between three TV networks, creating an NFL-style television schedule on Saturdays.

The NCAA has been compared to being part of an “unlawful cartel” as was mentioned in the case (O’Brian v NCAA) in 2014,  when college football players attempted to sue the organization for enriching itself and its five dominant conferences that “illegally restricted the earning power of football and men’s basketball players while making billions off their labor.”

The NCAA has been lobbying Congress for a continuation of the exploitive “amateur” model. Senator Ted Cruz intends to lead the NCAA’s interest in the Senate when Republicans take control and Trump takes power later this month, in January.

“The situation is much more doable with Republicans in control,” said Tom McMillen, a former Democratic congressman “From the standpoint of the NCAA’s perspective, this is sort of an ideal scenario for them.”

Setting a New Precedent for Student Athletes

Due to the NCAA’s classification and Dartmouth’s control over their working conditions and scheduling of games, the team decided to unionize in 2023 and petitioned the NLRB. The ruling on the case agreed with the basketball team a new precedent that would end the amateur model of the NCAA and give employee status to college athletes.

“By filing a request to withdraw our petition today, we seek to preserve the precedent set by this exceptional group of young people on the men’s varsity basketball team,” Chris Peck, president of Local 560 said. “They have pushed the conversation on employment and collective bargaining in college sports forward and made history by being classified as employees, winning their union election 13-2, and becoming the first certified bargaining unit of college athletes in the country.

“While our strategy is shifting, we will continue to advocate for just compensation, adequate health coverage, and safe working conditions for varsity athletes at Dartmouth,” Peck said in a statement that called collective bargaining “the only viable pathway to address issues” facing college athletics today.

While the current withdrawal from unionization is disappointing, LUEL supports the efforts of the Dartmouth Men’s basketball team, along with any sports team, to find a path to unionization.

The post Anticipando la NLRB Cambio, SEIU se Retira De la Representación de Dartmouth Equipo de Baloncesto first appeared on Trabajo De Hoy.

The union, representing thousands of workers between the two railroads, said contract talks had reached an impasse. The filing of a Notice of Dispute with Canada’s Labour Minister generally means the government will appoint a conciliation officer to assist in negotiations.

“This is a crucial moment for our members at CPKC, who deserve meaningful progress on the issues that matter most,” said Unifor National President Lana Payne. “We entered bargaining ready to address the persistent challenges our members face, but the employer’s lack of urgency has left us with no choice but to seek assistance through the conciliation process.”

Unifor Local 101R began negotiations with CPKC in early October to address key issues such as work ownership, job security, and poor labor relations that have severely impacted the working environment. Despite Unifor’s commitment to resolving these concerns, CPKC’s failure to address these fundamental issues prompted the union to file for conciliation.

The development comes as the latest challenge on the labor front for CPKC and its rail network that spans from Canada to Mexico which it acquired when Canadian Pacific merged with Kansas City Southern to form CPKC.

In August, the railroad company along with CN, faced a threat of work stoppage by the Teamsters Canada Rail Conference Union in one of the biggest service disruptions in the country. That work stoppage began when CP and CN locked out 9,300 workers following months of talks that failed to produce new contracts. Canada’s federal labor board stepped in to impose binding arbitration to avoid a total supply chain breakdown between the Teamsters union and the railway.

The post CANADÁ: Unifor Archivos para la Conciliación con la Canadiense Pacific-Kansas City Railroad first appeared on Trabajo De Hoy.

Teamster Canada has stated that it will lawfully comply with the CIRB decision, but it plans to appeal the ruling in federal court.

The main issues that were at the negotiation tables between the union and the two main Canadian railroad companies, Canadian National (CN) and Canadian Pacific Kansas City (CPKC), have to do with fatigue, rest, scheduling, and forced relocation. The railroad workers commonly work 80+ hour workweeks for these billion-dollar companies. The Teamsters union disagreed with CN and CPKC over scheduling, shift duration, and availability. For example, in a proposal that is opposed by the union, CN wants to negotiate an increase in work hours from 10-hour shifts to 12-hour shifts.

“This decision by the CIRB sets a dangerous precedent. It signals to Corporate Canada that large companies need only stop their operations for a few hours, inflicting short-term economic pain, and the federal government will step in to break a union. The rights of Canadian workers have been significantly diminished today,” said Paul Boucher, President of the Teamsters Canada Rail Conference.

“The Trudeau Liberals have chosen to side against middle- and working-class Canadians, abandoning their supposed progressive values at the first sign of short-term supply chain disruptions. The Teamsters have fought to protect rail safety in Canada, improve working conditions, and prevent CN from forcing workers to relocate thousands of kilometers away from their families—and we will continue to do so,” added Boucher.

The unfortunate results delivered by the CIRB remind us that here in the United States a similar conflict occurred between our railroad unions and the corporations back in 2022, which led to Congress declaring any attempt at a railroad strike action to be illegal and forced American railroad workers back to work.

Like their counterparts in the U.S., the Canadian companies used the threat of economic turmoil to coerce the Canadian government into submitting to their demands. This comes as the railroad corporations make record profits and continue the practice of stock buybacks while they refuse to acknowledge the union’s demand for a fair work schedule.

LUEL supports the Teamster’s legal battle in Canada against the decision to prevent workers from striking. The attack on workers in Canada is an attack against workers here in the US.

The post CANADA: Railroad Union Signals Dangerous Precedent as Government Forces Workers Back to Work first appeared on Trabajo De Hoy.

Teamsters Canada, the union that represents railroad workers in the country, has mentioned the “main sticking points at the bargaining table are company demands, not union proposals.” Both Canadian National (CN) and Canadian Pacific Kansas City (CPKC) Railroads want concessions on safety issues revolving around crew scheduling, rail safety, and fatigue management.

Like in the U.S., the Canadian railroaders work long hours while having on-call schedules making it difficult to work rested and ready for duty consistently. Both companies claim to be struggling with labor shortages and want to roll back fatigue protections to increase crew availability, regardless of the risks.

CPKC, which was formed from a merger last year from two railroads Canadian Pacific and Kansas City Southern are proposing to remove collective agreement of safety-critical fatigue provisions that help workers better anticipate when they might be called to work. Removing these provisions would force train crews to stay awake even longer, increasing the risk of derailments and other accidents. CPKC also failed to address the understaffing of rail traffic controllers.

CN is targeting fewer contract provisions around fatigue but still enough to raise safety concerns. Their demand to extend workdays in all provinces west of Ontario is of particular concern. CN aims to implement a forced relocation scheme, which would see workers ordered to move across the country for months to fill labor shortages, tearing families apart.

While the Teamsters Union has expressed their intention to strike, the two companies have declared a lockout for many Canadian rail networks. With close to two weeks of negotiations still ahead, this move represents an unnecessary escalation that goes against the principles of good faith bargaining that CN and CPKC claim to uphold.

In the U.S., railroad workers have also experienced labor disputes with the railroad corporations. Reduction in safety and reduced headcount for crews was a similar problem in 2022 when there was an effort to have a nationwide railroad strike in the U.S. Unlike Canada, the U.S. government prevented a railroad strike from happening. What happened two months later on February 3^rd, 2023 was the East Palestine, Ohio derailment which lease to the release of hazardous materials within the city limits.

Teamster Canada mentioned on their website that “compromising on safety or threatening to tear families apart for months at a time, are not pathways to an agreement or solutions to staffing problems. CN and CPKC should instead be looking to improve working conditions and adopt a more humane approach to railroading.”

The Canadian Class 1 railroads are following the American lead in slashing safety to improve production. It is clear they view the lives of their workers as expendable in order to keep the increased profits flowing. LUEL stands in solidarity with the railroaders in Canada in their fight. Read the full statement by Teamsters Canada here.

The post Canadiense de Ferrocarriles de Mala Fe Declarar un Bloqueo para los Empleados del Ferrocarril first appeared on Trabajo De Hoy.