SMART-TD Says "No"; BLET Ratifies (tentative agreement with railroads)

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https://www.railwayage.com/freight/smart-td-says-no-blet-ratifies/

Conductors and yard workers represented by the Transportation Division of International Association of Sheet Metal, Air, Rail and Transportation Workers (SMART-TD)—who constitute almost the full 30% of unionized rail employees bargaining over amendments to wages, benefits and work rules with most of the nation’s Class I railroads and many smaller ones—have voted not to ratify a tentative agreement. This was the fourth “no” vote among 12 rail unions, eight of which voted to ratify.

Yardmasters, a small segment of SMART-TD, and who are covered with by a separate section of the SMART-TD tentative agreement, voted to ratify.

Locomotive engineers represented by the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen—who constitute 20% of the unionized work force in collective bargaining—voted to accept the tentative agreement.

The four unions that have now rejected the tentative agreement are the Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employes (representing 19% of unionized workforce in negotiations), Brotherhood of Railroad Signalmen (6%), International Association of Boilermakers and Blacksmiths (1%) and SMART-TD, excluding yardmasters, (30%).

The eight unions that voted to ratify the tentative agreement (and the percentage of the total their members represent) are the American Train Dispatchers Association (1%), BLET (20%), Brotherhood Railway Carmen (7%), International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (5%), International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (5%), Mechanical Division of SMART (1%), National Conference of Firemen and Oilers (2%), and the Transportation Communications Union (3%). 

A strike threat looms in early December, although the unions previously rejecting the tentative agreement have been in talks with railroads in an attempt to avoid a work stoppage. SMART-TD will now join those talks.

[WhiskeyGrinder]

1. Kick.