President Joe Biden announced a tentative agreement had been reached between rail worker unions and major freight carriers Thursday.
The agreement is expected to avert a potential strike in advance of a midnight Thursday deadline. Biden said the agreement included wins for both sides in the negotiations.
“The tentative agreement reached tonight is an important win for our economy and the American people,” Biden said. “It is a win for tens of thousands of rail workers who worked tirelessly through the pandemic to ensure that America’s families and communities got deliveries of what have kept us going during these difficult years. These rail workers will get better pay, improved working conditions, and peace of mind around their health care costs: all hard-earned. The agreement is also a victory for railway companies who will be able to retain and recruit more workers for an industry that will continue to be part of the backbone of the American economy for decades to come.”
The agreement will now go for a vote before the railway unions – the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen Division of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, the International Association of Sheet Metal, Air, Rail and Transportation Workers – Transportation Division, and the Brotherhood of Railroad Signalmen. Collectively, the unions represent an estimated 60,000 employees.
The American Association of Railroads applauded the tentative agreement.
“Thanks to the dedication of all members involved in the collective bargaining process, these new contracts provide rail employees a 24 percent wage increase during the five-year period from 2020 through 2024, including an immediate payout on average of $11,000 upon ratification, following the recommendations of Presidential Emergency Board (PEB) No. 250.,” the AAR said in a statement.
Biden said the agreement prevents the significant economic damage to the country a strike would have caused.