September 19, 2022 – The U.S. operations of the Class I railroads are working to resume operations “immediately” after a deal was reached to avoid a strike by union members on Friday, according to Freight Waves.
Two of the largest labor unions — representing locomotive engineers and train conductors — reached an eleventh-hour tentative agreement with the railroads. The agreement averted a strike that could have begun as early as just after midnight Friday.
“We are moving immediately to resume normal operations and restore service that had been curtailed in anticipation of a potential strike,” Norfolk Southern said in an update. The railroad also said in service announcements that it has reopened all gates to intermodal traffic.
BNSF told FreightWaves it would continue normal operations. The actions it had taken included restricting movements of temperature-controlled intermodal shipments and hazardous and security-sensitive material. Planned gate restrictions at certain intermodal and automotive facilities will also not occur as previously announced.
Union Pacific said in a service update that it has canceled the embargo on security-sensitive and time-sensitive commodities and is working with customers to address any shipment backlogs.
A new labor deal for union members has been in the works since January 2020, but negotiations between the unions and the railroads failed to progress. A federal mediation board took up the negotiations but released the parties from those efforts earlier this summer.
AAR estimated that a strike would have cost the U.S. economy as much as $2 billion a day. Shippers lobbied Congress to ensure that the tentative labor agreements get reached to prevent a strike.