Teamsters Rail Conference opposes UP-NS merger, with its two unions—BLET and BMWE—urging the Surface Transportation Board to oppose the proposal as Union Pacific and Norfolk Southern prepare to send it to the federal regulator tomorrow, as reported by Progressive Railroading.

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Why the Teamsters Rail Conference opposes UP-NS merger?

The Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen (BLET) and the Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employes (BMWE) said they arrived at their position yesterday after a five-month investigation of the merger’s impact.

This is reported by the railway transport news portal Railway Supply.

They described the process as including meetings with union members and direct negotiations with UP CEO Jim Vena.

In their joint press release, the unions said their review left them concluding that a combined Union Pacific and Norfolk Southern merger would be less competitive with other forms of transportation. They also said it would expand what they called “unsafe” railroad practices.

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Job-protection concerns and union leadership statement

Union leaders said they reviewed job security protections that other rail unions have negotiated with Union Pacific in connection with the merger and believe those provisions contain large loopholes.

“We refuse to accept the same terms in return for our unions’ support for the merger,” BMWE President Tony Cardwell said. Cardwell, BLET President Mark Wallace and Teamsters General President Sean O’Brien added in a prepared statement that the Teamsters Union strongly opposes the merger as currently written, as detailed in a Teamsters statement.

The statement said the Teamsters Rail Conference represents nearly 20,000 Union Pacific and Norfolk Southern workers—more than half of the railroads’ unionized employees—and said it will not support any agreement or merger that does not safeguard workers’ lives and livelihoods. Until UP and NS address the unions’ concerns, the Teamsters said they will do everything in their power to block what they described as a harmful merger.

Other labor support for the UP-NS combination

Even as the Teamsters’ rail affiliates press for the Surface Transportation Board merger review to end with opposition to the proposal, the UP-NS combination has drawn support from other unions, including the nation’s largest rail union, the International Association of Sheet Metal, Air, Rail and Transportation Works-Transportation Division (SMART-TD). The broader discussion around the deal has also been reflected in industry coverage, including by Railway Supply.

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