Railroads, unions to begin collective bargaining talks next month

[Omaha Steve]

BARRETT STINSON/WORLD-HERALD NEWS SERVICE
Union Pacific repair crew members work to install new railroad ties on tracks east of Alda, Nebraska.


http://www.omaha.com/money/railroads-unions-to-begin-collective-bargaining-talks-next-month/article_b5e29d12-b4a3-5a17-a8fc-d867967bd734.html

POSTED: FRIDAY, DECEMBER 26, 2014 1:00 AM
By Russell Hubbard / World-Herald staff writer

Labor negotiations are set to begin between Union Pacific, BNSF Railway and unions that represent about 10,000 railroad workers in Nebraska and Iowa.

Formal negotiations are scheduled for next month on a new collective bargaining agreement between the nation’s freight railroads and 13 unions representing about 143,000 workers. The most recent contracts were ratified in 2011 and 2012.

Key to the talks will be compensation, health care costs and work rules that describe who is allowed to do what on trains and in rail yards, workshops and offices, according to bargaining notices sent to the unions by the railroads.

Such topics are of enormous importance in Iowa and Nebraska, with Omaha home to Union Pacific and BNSF parent company Berkshire Hathaway. Union Pacific has about 6,200 union members among its 8,000 workers in Nebraska and Iowa. The majority of Texas-based BNSF’s 5,000 workers in the area are union members.

FULL story at link.