A tentative agreement between freight rail carriers and two major unions averted potentially costly strikes last week, allowing workers to retire up to three times a year without disciplinary consequences. You can take time off work for medical appointments, unions.
The two unions were on the verge of going on strike because of workers’ complaints that they said they were exhausted by relentless and unpredictable schedules and had difficulty attending to personal matters such as doctor visits. was on the verge of
Some of the country’s major rail companies have adopted attendance policies that penalize workers if they miss work for such reasons, and relaxing these rules is a top priority for unions. did.
Shortly after the deal was announced last week, the two unions said they had temporarily resolved the holiday issue. In a statement, the union said, “The agreement allows union members to take time off from work to participate in routine and preventive care. It did not disclose details of the agreement until one SMART Transportation Division recently did so.
The SMART Transportation Division and another union, the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen, represent about half of the more than 100,000 freight rail workers being negotiated.
Leave for routine medical care is limited to three times a year, can only be taken on Tuesdays, Wednesdays or Thursdays, and must be scheduled at least 30 days in advance, according to documents circulated by the union. is needed. However, one instance may last her day or more if the employee needs time to prepare or recover from an appointment. Additionally, workers are not penalized for time spent in the hospital.
A tentative agreement could also lead to changes in protocols to allocate the trips the rail companies were asking for. Now, when conductors and engineers return from their trips, they drop to the bottom of the list of available crew members before heading back up. If someone in front of them calls in sick, a group of substitute workers called extra-boards can step in so that other conductors and engineers on the regular list can keep roughly the same amount of time between trips. will do so. (Employees say the reduction of extra boards in recent years has made the schedule more variable.)
Under the terms of the pending contract, rail carriers could be much less dependent on replacement workers from the extra board. Instead, through a system called a self-sustaining pool, engineers and conductors move up the list more quickly when someone in front of them becomes ill.
The agreement appears to give unions a say in implementing self-supporting pools, but a spokesman for the Smart Transportation Division did not respond to a request for comment on the matter.
The union said it will submit the interim agreement to members for a ratification vote over the next few weeks. The results will likely be announced after the midterm elections in November, but another rail workers union, the International Association of Mechanics and Aerospace Workers District 19, said that if no deal is reached with the rail companies, work could begin next week. Suspension may be approved.
The mechanics union said: thursday statement Negotiations with the industry continued, and the railroad company was “to some extent open to making necessary changes” to previous agreements, he said.that agreement voted against by union members, including machinists and maintenance workers, in mid-September.
It is unclear whether the conductors and members of the Engineers’ Union will be satisfied with the proposals presented. railroad worker It was criticized on social media on Thursday.
“It is still too early to discuss what our members think and how they vote,” a representative of the Locomotive Engineers’ Union said in an email, adding that a three- to four-week question-and-answer process would be expected by hauliers. before asking members to vote.
In an interview, Michael Paul Lindsay, a member of the Idaho-based Locomotive Engineers Guild, said he was very disappointed with the details of the proposal.
Lindsey said the leave policy for routine medical appointments is unsatisfactory. He also said the proposed terms would not really have much of an impact, as unions can usually rescind discipline received as a result of workers taking time off for health reasons.
(Dennis Pearce, president of the Locomotive Engineers Guild, made a similar point in an interview last week.)
Lindsay also said the move to self-sufficient pools would formalize the unpredictability of scheduling that has exhausted workers during the past few years of understaffing.