Released:  November 25, 2011

 

Late Tuesday, November 22, the Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employees (BMWE) proposed a “status quo” extension of the current cooling off period to late February.  On November 23, the railroads responded that we will accept an extension to 12:01 a.m. on February 8, 2012, but only if the extension includes all three of the unions with whom we still have no tentative agreement – the BMWE, the BLET (engineers) and the ADTA (dispatchers).  The three unions have until next Tuesday evening, November 29, to respond. 

To see the NRLC press release about this, click here. 

The CEOs of the major railroads considered the customer impact of the impending strike deadline in making the counter proposal.  It is difficult to predict whether all three unions will agree to this extension.  Unless all three do, bargaining will continue until an agreement is reached or the parties engage in self-help on or after December 6. 

Please watch this site for future updates.