![]() “We are committed to adapting together to meet today’s competitive freight environment.”īut several workers interviewed say the conditions are taking a toll on their health. “BNSF team members drive our success and we couldn’t deliver the nation’s goods without them,” the BNSF spokesman, Ben Wilemon, said in a statement. It said that the company has been making some tweaks to the system to improve it, and that attendance-related discipline has been decreasing. And their wages haven’t gone up for three years even as inflation has spiked, workers and union officials said.Ī spokesman for BNSF said the scheduling policy, known internally as “Hi-Viz,” was created to improve consistency, service and reliability for its crews and customers. They said that’s because companies like BNSF, one of the nation’s largest rail companies, instituted rigid scheduling requirements that leave workers on-call nearly 24/7 every day of the year, as labor shortages have challenged the industry. The White House’s hand was forced after the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen union, which is leading a coalition of 10 rail unions in negotiations, voted last Tuesday by more than 99 percent, about 11,000 votes, to authorize a strike. The presidential commission will formally pause the bitter negotiations between workers, their unions and the companies and prevent workers from striking until September. “They’re making billions per quarter and they’re only paying those dividends out to shareholders, when it’s the workers who are moving freight and making sure this country keeps the supply chain moving.” “The company keeps making working conditions worse,” said a conductor with Union Pacific in the Midwest, who asked that his name be withheld for fear of reprisal. All of the current workers said they supported a stoppage. NBC News talked to more than 10 current and former workers about the conditions on the rails. Rail companies say that they are offering salary increases to help keep their workers among the highest paid and working on making their systems more consistent. The Biden administration said Friday it will appoint a three-person commission to stave off what would be the first strike by freight rail workers in 30 years. After years of cutbacks and service tumult, the country’s freight rail workers are pushing to strike, which could further clog supply chain networks and amp up political heat on a White House already under the microscope for economic woes. ![]()
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