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8/17/2022
President Joe Biden yesterday received recommendations from the presidential emergency board (PEB) he appointed last month to help resolve the labor contract dispute between major freight railroads and unions.
The recommendations include a call for annual wage increases of 4% to 7% through 2024, according to the PEB's 119-page report posted on the National Mediation Board website.
The PEB also suggested a 3% retroactive wage increase for 2020 and 3.5% for 2021. In addition, the recommendations include service bonus recognition payments of $1,000 per year for 2020 through 2024.
The entire PEB report can be read here.
"While the Biden PEB’s recommendations markedly exceed the rail carriers’ proposal, they provide a useful basis to reach a resolution," said Association of American Railroads President and CEO Ian Jefferies in a press release. "In the interests of all rail stakeholders, now is the time for railroads and their unions to reach a contract. The industry is prepared to propose agreements based on the PEB's recommendations to provide our employees with long-overdue pay increases and avert rail-service interruptions.”
Biden established the PEB on July 15 to investigate the collective bargaining disputes between railroads represented by the National Carriers' Conference Committee (NCCC) of the National Railway Labor Conference and rail employees represented by certain unions.
According to the NCCC, the recommendations call for increasing wages by 24% during the five-year period, with a 14.1% wage increase effective immediately. The recommendations also provide adjustments to health-care premiums and limited changes to work rules. A portion of the wage increases and lump sum payments would be retroactive, resulting in more than $11,000 on average in immediate payouts to employees.
"These recommendations, if implemented, would include the most substantial wage increases in decades — with average rail worker wages reaching about $110,000 per year by the end of the agreement," NCCC officials said in a press release. "When health care, retirement and other benefits are considered, the value of rail employees’ total compensation package, which already ranks among the highest in the nation, would average more than $150,000 per year."
Talks between the carriers and the unions, representing 115,000 workers, have gone on for the past two years.
The board had a month to make its recommendations. No work stoppages could occur during that 30-day period, nor during the next 30 days as the two sides consider the PEB's recommendations and continue to negotiate.