Labor Negotiations

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LABOR NEGOTIATIONS
Successful Bargaining for Seven Decades

For more than seven decades, the freight railroads have conducted collective bargaining negotiations on a national, multi-employer basis with the labor organizations representing rail employees.

National handling has been remarkably successful in reaching contract settlements without crippling labor strikes. In the past 35 years, there have been only six days of service disruptions due to nationally handled disputes; the last one was in 1992.

The most recent round of bargaining with the 13 major rail unions was concluded in October 2008. On November 2, 2009, the railroads' bargaining representative, the National Carriers Conference Committee, initiated the start of the 2010 round of bargaining by serving "Section 6" notices on the 13 unions, which represent more than 144,000 U.S. rail employees.