Railway Strike Averted: What It Means For The Chicago Area, State

ILLINOIS — A tentative labor agreement has been reached between railroads and workers union across the nation, preventing a strike that could've crippled railway traffic across the U.S. and Chicago area and dealt another blow to the economy.

The unions, which represent 60,000 employees, negotiated for 20 hours before reaching the agreement early Thursday. The tentative agreements reached with these unions will avert a potential strike in advance of Friday’s deadline, according to a news release from the American of American Railroads.

The deal still needs to be ratified by union members.

"The tentative agreement reached tonight is an important win for our economy and the American people. 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," President Joe Biden said in a statement. "These rail workers will get better pay, improved working conditions, and peace of mind around their health care costs: all hard-earned."

The Chicago area has been one of the nation's busiest and most important hubs for railway traffic for 150 years. Today it is the world's third most active rail intermodal hub, with 26 percent of U.S. freight rail traffic and 42 percent of all intermodal traffic beginning, ending or traveling through Chicago.

Metra, the fourth busiest commuter rail system in the United States by ridership, announced Tuesday that a potential work stoppage by freight railroad workers could happen as early as Friday. Metra operates 242 stations on 11 rail lines. It serves the Chicago metropolitan area as well as the surrounding suburbs.

The potential strike led Metra to originally cancel some trains scheduled for late Thursday, but with the agreement, all BNSF and Union Pacific trains will now run as scheduled.

RELATED: Potential Work Stoppage Could Derail Metra Service On Friday

Earlier in the week, Illinois residents who planned cross-country trips by Amtrak could've already been feeling the effects of the dispute between the nation’s major railroads and their unions. Amtrak canceled service on the Southwest Chief route, the Empire Builder route, the California Zephyr route and part of the Texas Eagle route, Reuters reported.

The passenger railway company said routes between Boston, New York and Washington, D.C., will see “no impact,” and only minimal changes are expected elsewhere in the Northeast. Amtrak said Wednesday it would cancel all long-distance routes starting Thursday, but service in the Northeast is expected to run normally.

An Amtrak spokesperson told Patch the service "will only operate trains this week that we can ensure will have enough time to reach their final destinations by 12:01 a.m. on Friday," when the potential strike would go into effect if negotiating parties are unable to come to an agreement.
In a statement to Axios, Amtrak said it was hopeful for a resolution but had begun phased service interruptions to prepare.

RELATED: All Amtrak Long-Distance Routes Canceled Ahead Of Possible Strike

Other regional commuter rail systems that could've been affected by the strike included Virginia Railway Express and the Maryland Area Regional Commuter Train Service, The Washington Post reported. Those systems lease tracks owned by the freight lines.

A labor walkout could've shut down 30 percent of the nation’s freight. The Association of American Railroads trade group put out a report last week estimating that shutting down the railroads would cost the economy $2 billion a day cost to the economy. In July, President Joe Biden blocked a strike by the 115,000 railroad workers through executive action in July, imposing a 60-day “cooling off” period.

The White House said Tuesday that Secretary of Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg and his agency are working to lessen the effects of a strike on critical resources, including food drinking water and electricity. Politico reported that at least two Cabinet secretaries and Biden are directly involved in efforts to avert a national railroad strike and have spoken with negotiators on both sides of the labor dispute.

Negotiators are at loggerheads on scheduling and sick time policies that conductors and engineers say keep them “on call” even on days they’re not scheduled to work, issues the White House’s Presidential Emergency Board said are best resolved through grievance and arbitration processes.

“The primary resistance comes from Union Pacific and BNSF because of the attendance policies they have adopted which have treated workers so poorly,” Dennis Pierce, the president of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen, told CNBC. “We’re just looking for time away from work to address our medical issues. Union Pacific and BNSF attendance policies are assessing (penalty) points to our members when they just want to take time off for their regular medical appointments.”

As part of the tentative agreement reached early Thursday, rail employees will get 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. All tentative agreements are subject to ratification by the unions’ membership.

Other major points of the deal had not been made public as of Thursday morning.

Earlier this week, U.S. Chamber of Commerce Secretary Suzanne Clark said a strike could mean an “economic disaster, freezing the flow of goods, emptying shelves, shuttering workplaces and raising prices for families and businesses alike.” The chamber joined a growing coalition of business groups, including 31 agricultural shipping trade groups, sending letters to Congress urging lawmakers to step in and block the strike if the two sides can’t reach agreement by Friday’s deadline.

The Associated Press contributed reporting.