By Justin Franz
WASHINGTON — Employee attendance policies are apparently the number one issue preventing the Class Is from securing a deal with labor unions this week in order to prevent a strike or lockout on Friday.
On Tuesday, Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers & Trainmen President Dennis Pierce appeared on CNBC and accused BNSF Railway and Union Pacific of holding up the negotiating process because they won’t budge on changing their attendance policies.
“The primary resistance comes from Union Pacific and BNSF because of the attendance policies they have adopted which have treated workers so poorly,” Pierce told CNBC. “We’re just looking for time away from work to address our medical issues. Union Pacific and BNSF attendance policies are assessing (penalty) points to our members when they just want to take time off for their regular medical appointments.”
BNSF told CNBC that Pierce’s claims were false. UP officials said they were continuing to push for a “prompt resolution” to avoid a shutdown of the national freight rail system.
Under the “Hi-Viz” attendance policy that went into effect on February 1, railroaders had a bank of 30 points. If they missed a call or couldn’t work, they lost points. If they lost all their points they could be punished or terminated. The policy has been called “draconian” by labor officials and the railroad’s unions almost went on strike over the policy until a judge blocked such action.
If the unions and the Class Is (all five U.S. roads, plus Canadian National’s U.S. operations) can’t find common ground by 12:01 a.m. Friday, either the railroads can start locking employees out or the unions can strike.
If there is a lockout or strike, it’s likely that Congress would act. In fact, on Monday, U.S. Sens. Richard Burr (R-NC) and Roger Wicker (R-MS) introduced legislation that would force both sides to accept the findings of President Joe Biden’s Presidential Emergency Board. That panel called for a 22 percent raise for all railroaders but passed the buck on resolving more controversial issues like crew size and attendance policies.