United Rail Unions statement on national bargaining, June 2, 2022

https://ble-t.org/news/united-rail-unions-statement-on-national-bargaining-june-2-2022/
 
The united Rail Unions issued the following statement June 2, 2022:

The Rail Unions who are bargaining as part of the Coordinated Bargaining Coalition and the Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way/SMART Mechanical Coalition concluded their second week of compulsory joint National Mediation Board-mediated negotiations with the National Carriers’ Conference Committee (NCCC) yesterday.

These joint mediated negotiations, under the direction of the NMB Board Members themselves, resulted from the Unions’ request to be released from mediation after more than two years of bargaining with the major U.S. Class I railroads.

In spite of the Unions’ best efforts to negotiate a fair agreement, the NCCC and the rail carriers that it represents still refuse to make a comprehensive settlement proposal that our members would even remotely entertain. In fact, the carriers continue to advance proposals that insult the hard-working Union members who have carried our Nation through the pandemic.

Although all of the involved Unions would prefer to reach a voluntary agreement, it has become quite clear at this point that the rail carriers will not bargain in good faith to that end.  For that reason, all of the involved Rail Unions are again requesting that the NMB put forth a proffer of arbitration to move our contract dispute through the remaining steps of the Railway Labor Act.