The fearmongering, speculation, and rhetoric stop now

It’s time for the fear campaign to end and let the facts on the UP-NS merger set the record straight.

For months, some unions have speculated the proposed Union Pacific–Norfolk Southern merger will destroy careers, eliminate jobs and leave railroad families broken and out of luck.

The merger deserves a full review by the Surface Transportation Board. Every claim about competition, service and safety should be heavily scrutinized to ensure that it is in our nation’s best interest. SMART-TD is confident that an end-to-end merger of this magnitude will be beneficial for labor and for our customers. The truckers and the other railroads know this.

That’s probably why they’re lining up to oppose it.

The BLE-T and the BMWED (who make up the Teamsters Rail Conference) are claiming that a railroad going coast to coast will destroy our supply chain and kill all kinds of railroad jobs.

It isn’t hard to prove that wrong.

There are two examples of transcontinental railroads operating coast to coast in Canada. That country hasn’t shut down and been held hostage by an evil “Duopoly” like we are being told will happen here. Coast to coast railroads have been the backbone of the Canadian economy and supply chain since 1885.

Canadian National (CN) Railroad connects Halifax on the Atlantic Coast, to Vancouver on the Pacific Coast, and goes south all the way to Gulf of Mexico.

CPKC connected Canada from coast to coast first. That happened through a merger that went down in 1885. The last time we checked, these transcontinental railroads are strong and competitive Class I Railroads, but they have not dominated the continent and held the economy hostage.

This doesn’t help the Teamsters argue against the UP/NS merger or their ability to scare American consumer, so it isn’t being talked about at all.

The UP/NS Merger is a Win for Railroaders

SMART-TD Union employees of both railroads are going to win through this merger. SMART-TD’s Jobs for Life Agreement is real. It is public. It is legally binding.  And unlike what you hear from the other unions who don’t have this deal in place, you can’t be sent all over the country to cover jobs! That is one of the biggest alarms they are sounding, and it is straight up not true.  

Under the Jobs for Life agreement, you are only required to protect work within the geographic boundaries of your current CBA. In other words, it is the same work you can be forced to cover today. None of that changes.  

Teamsters Rail can get a lot of people talking in crew rooms by telling engineers in Washington State that our agreement and this merger are a fast track to finding themselves as a car knocker in South Carolina, but it’s in black and white that it isn’t the truth. Your craft and territory are locked in by the Jobs for Life Agreement.

“If somebody wants to argue the merits of this merger, they are entitled to their opinion, but they are not entitled to their own facts,” SMART-TD President Jeremy Ferguson said. “Our members’ job protection is in writing. Our craft protection is in writing. This is a huge win for our guys.”

TD Members Don’t Have to Trust the Railroad

None of us needs a lecture about trusting railroad management.

We’ve lived through Precision Scheduled Railroading just like every other railroad union and railroad worker in the country.

We’ve watched carriers furlough railroaders, cut manpower and hollow out terminals in the name of efficiency. That’s exactly why SMART-TD didn’t ask Union Pacific for promises.

We demanded a contract.

“You don’t have to trust the railroad,” Ferguson said. “That’s why you have a union. We didn’t rely on a handshake. We made them put the protection in writing.”

This is NOT A Drill

SMART-TD’s Jobs for Life Agreement isn’t an experiment. It was built using the wording from one of the strongest job protection agreements railroad labor has ever negotiated. President Jeremy Ferguson used the proven language from SMART-TD’s 2008 Illinois Central Jobs for Life Agreement as the foundation for the UP/NS agreement because it had already survived the toughest tests imaginable.

Through both the Great Recession of the late 2000’s and the COVID-19 downturn, Illinois Central (IC) members hired prior to March 29, 2008, kept their paychecks, health insurance, retirement credits, and careers while thousands of other railroaders across the country were furloughed or had to chase work.

The Illinois Central executive who had to honor that agreement was none other than Jim Vena himself. He already knows this language is legally binding because he’s already lived it. Our IC brothers and sisters will tell you that this language worked.

The trains all dried up in those bad economies, but their paychecks and benefits DIDN’T.

Who Does BLET Really Answer To?

SMART-TD exists for one purpose: protecting railroad and bus transportation employees.

The BLET is part of the Teamsters Rail Conference, which ultimately belongs to an organization whose membership is overwhelmingly made up of truck drivers.

Nobody is suggesting Teamsters leaders want railroads to fail.

But is it unreasonable for railroaders to ask whether a rail-only union and an organization built primarily around trucking will always see a stronger, more competitive freight railroad the same way? Do both have the same motivation to see rail flourish and move a higher percentage of America’s freight?

Union Pacific says this merger will create the nation’s first true coast-to-coast railroad, reducing unnecessary handoffs, improving service and making rail more competitive with long-haul trucking.

If more freight moves by rail instead of highways, doesn’t that create more railroad work?

That’s a question every railroader deserves to consider.

Who Is Actually at Risk?

We know who isn’t.

Our conductors, engineers and yardmasters covered by the Jobs for Life Agreement are protected from furloughs, whether they are merger-related or not.

We know all UP and NS union workers’ careers have been promised some level of protection.

SMART-TD members know our crafts are protected far above what New York Dock protective conditions have ever done for our members.

This is a terrible situation to find yourself in if you are a national officer of the BLET. Could this be why it is just easier for BLET and Teamsters Rail to oppose the merger?

“When another organization cannot offer ANY level of protection that SMART-TD negotiated, that is a huge problem for its leadership to solve,” Ferguson said. “But it is not an excuse to distract and frighten railroad families or pretend our agreement only exists in their press releases and their imagination.”

Fear Has Consequences

Every one of us sat through the safety briefing.

Stay focused.

Maintain situational awareness.

Don’t bring distractions to work on the rail.

Railroading is unforgiving.

What happens when young conductors and even veteran engineers spend months hearing they may lose everything, despite written agreements protecting many of those very careers?

Does that help them stay focused?

Does that improve situational awareness?

Or does it create unnecessary anxiety in one of the most hazardous industries in America? “We owe railroaders the truth,” Ferguson said. “We fight carriers every day, we don’t scare our own members for political advantage. Railroaders deserve facts. Their spouses deserve facts. Their kids deserve facts. Fearmongering doesn’t make any one of us any safer. It has to stop, and it has to stop now.”

SMART-TD Did Our Homework, and It Paid Off

When this merger was announced, rail labor was handed one of the biggest tests it has faced in decades. 

SMART-TD prepared for that test long before it arrived. We did our homework. We paid attention to the details. We anticipated the questions that would matter most to our members, and we negotiated legally binding answers before the exam ever began. 

Other organizations now find themselves facing the same test without the same preparation and protections in hand. That is a difficult position for any union leadership to be in.  

When you don’t have the same documented answers, it becomes tempting to change the subject or question the test itself.

That is essentially what we are seeing out the BLE and Teamsters Rail.  

They aren’t ready for the task at hand.

Their Chicken Little routine screaming about the UP/NS merger is exactly that, but it’s also reckless and dangerous.

Railroaders deserve more than distractions. They deserve facts. They deserve to compare agreements, not slogans; binding contracts, not assurances. 

SMART-TD’s position isn’t built on hope or speculation. It’s built on a signed, legally binding agreement that protects our members’ careers and preserves their Train and Engine Service positions. That’s what preparation looks like. 

We’re ready for the test. 

Read the Agreement. Then Decide.

Right now, the rail gateway in Chicago is showing all of us what happens when freight bogs down through congested freight corridors, repeated handoffs, and operational confusion.

A more seamless coast-to-coast network has the potential to move freight more efficiently, make our work more predictable, and bring more business onto our rails without sacrificing railroad jobs because SMART-TD secured that protection. Just like always, the BLE-T has done nothing.

Read SMART-TD’s Jobs For Life Agreement With UP & NS here.

For 160 years, railroad labor has fought carriers over furloughs. This time, thousands of us have something generations before us never had: a written guarantee that the railroad, advances in tech, and economic turbulence cannot take our careers away.

That isn’t something to fear.

That’s something worth defending.