Locomotive Engineers Union achieves breakthrough agreement on paid sick leave at Norfolk Southern
The agreement provides up to seven days of paid sick leave and is not tied to a punitive attendance policy
This week, The Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen, the union representing the vast majority of the nation’s railroad engineers, has reached a breakthrough agreement with Norfolk Southern Corporation to provide up to seven paid sick days per year to BLET members employed at the East Coast railroad. The agreement, which came with no concessions by the union, will provide Norfolk Southern engineers with five days of paid sick leave every year while also offering engineers the flexibility to use up to two additional days of existing paid time off as sick leave. This is the first time that locomotive engineers at any of the Class I railroads have been able to successfully bargain for paid sick leave.
“We are proud to be the first to have reached a paid sick leave agreement for locomotive engineers,” said Dewayne Dehart who serves as a BLET general chairman representing the union’s members at Norfolk Southern and who helped bargain the new leave policy. The agreement between BLET and Norfolk Southern will provide paid sick leave benefits to more than 3,300 engineers, roughly a quarter of the company’s unionized workforce.
BLET general chairman Scott Bunten, who also helped bargain the new sick leave benefit, emphasized, “This agreement gives us paid sick leave without attaching sick leave to a punitive attendance policy. This is very important and should serve as a model for BLET’s negotiations with other railroads.”
The new paid sick leave policy is accompanied by a quality-of-life agreement that requires approval by members under the union’s bylaws. This second agreement offers additional preservation of earnings to Norfolk Southern engineers when they use paid sick leave, as well as greater protection for vacation time, further enhancing the paid sick leave deal. For example, an engineer who doesn’t use his or her sick leave may receive cash reimbursement for up to five days of leave not taken at the end of the calendar year. The new sick leave rules will become effective upon ratification of the second agreement. A ratification vote is expected within the next month.
The lack of paid sick leave for frontline workers who keep the supply chain moving was one of the factors that almost led to a national freight rail strike in 2022. Negotiations for paid sick leave by all of the railroad unions with each of the Class I railroads, the nation’s largest, have been underway since the start of the year. Beginning in February, some of what is termed the “non-operational” crafts, workers who work as dispatchers or repair engines or roadbeds for example, were successful in achieving paid sick leave agreements that provided four days of leave. However, for those workers who operate trains, engineers, and conductors, who make up roughly half of the workforce at freight railroads, four days of paid sick leave was seen as insufficient.
Another hurdle that needed to be addressed, BLET also was and is opposed to any sick leave policy that penalizes workers for getting sick. “It’s not in the public’s interest or our members’ best interest to have locomotive engineers and conductors handle some of the most dangerous items that any transportation group handles go to work sick or dangerously overtired because they’re worried about being penalized for making the safe choice,” said Mark Wallace, BLET’s second-highest official.
The work of a locomotive engineer can be grueling. Schedules are irregular, 12-hour runs are not uncommon. “Our members are the hardest-working folks on the railroad, this agreement reached this week with Norfolk Southern recognizing the critical contributions our members make to keep the railroad and the American economy running,” said Jerry Sturdivant, BLET general chairman involved with bargaining the agreement. “We thank NS for their collaboration in getting this deal done.”
