INSIGHTi

Rail Labor Dispute May Involve President
and Congress
Updated July 18, 2022
Effective July 18, 2022, President Biden created a three-person Emergency Board to resolve a labor
dispute affecting six major railroads and many smaller ones. All three members are attorneys who have
served on prior Emergency Boards. Depending on what actions the board and Congress take, and the
ongoing bargaining between railroads and 12 unions, the dispute could still lead to a work stoppage later
this summer.
Negotiations have occurred against a backdrop of declining railroad employment, a trend that began well
in advance of the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. Since November 2018, railroad
employment has shrunk by some 40,000 jobs, or by over 20%, according to the Bureau of Labor
Statistics. Some of these job losses can be attributed to the decline in the transportation of coal, while
others may have been due to new approaches to staffing and asset use within the rail industry.
After more than two years of bargaining, the unions requested the assistance of the National Mediation
Board (NMB)—a federal agency responsible for facilitating labor negotiations in the railroad and airline
industries—in January 2022. On June 17, the NMB announced that both sides would exit mediation
without a new contract in place. Since then, the parties have been in a federally mandated “cooling-off”
period during which no action may be taken that would result in a work stoppage. If an Emergency Board
had not been formed, this cooling-off period would have expired after 30 days, after which the railroad
companies could have begun a lockout or unions could have gone on strike.
Overview of Rail Labor Law
Labor disputes in the railway and airline industries are governed by the Railway Labor Act (RLA). If a
dispute is not settled through RLA-prescribed negotiation, mediation, or arbitration, and if the NMB
determines that the dispute “threatens substantially to interrupt interstate commerce to a degree such as to
deprive any section of the country of essential transportation service,” the law authorizes the President to
establish an Emergency Board to investigate and issue a report. The Presidential Emergency Board’s
recommendations are not binding on the parties, and either party may reject them.
Congressional Research Service
https://crsreports.congress.gov
IN11966
CRS INSIGHT
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The RLA is silent as to how the NMB determines what constitutes a substantial threat to interstate
commerce, though in the past the NMB has considered the effect of a strike or shutdown on the state of
the economy as a whole and the immediate economic impact on carriers, shippers, and travelers.
Negotiation Issues
Workplace Rules and Precision Scheduled Railroading
Several of the largest railroads in North America employ a loosely defined set of industry practices
designed to maximize efficient use of railroad assets, collectively known as “precision scheduled
railroading” (PSR). Rather than adhering to regular schedules as the name suggests, these practices often
involve planning train movements so as to reduce the amount of physical assets (such as yards and
locomotives) needed to generate revenue, thereby improving an indicator of railroad performance called
the operating ratio. PSR sometimes can be accompanied by workforce reductions, but labor unions have
contended that it also has placed unrealistic workloads and duty schedules on remaining employees.
Federal law limits how many hours railroad employees can work during a shift and how closely shifts can
be spaced apart, but unions are demanding the retraction of specific workplace operating and attendance
rules, in addition to wage increases and changes to vacation and medical benefits.
The surge of freight volume and other supply chain disruptions experienced since the start of the COVID-
19 pandemic may already be prompting a retrenchment from some of the more aggressive
implementations of PSR among large railroads.
Train Crew Size
Railroads have explored the use of one-person train crews to further maximize asset utilization, while
unions and some lawmakers have sought to establish a two-person crew minimum on safety grounds. The
Federal Railroad Administration proposed a crew size rule in 2016 after several crashes but withdrew it in
2019, stating that available data “does not establish that one-person operations are less safe than multi-
person train crews.”
In the run-up to the current bargaining session, some rail unions asserted that preexisting moratorium
provisions prevented negotiations over train crew sizes. However, in response to a lawsuit filed by the rail
carriers, a federal judge ordered that the unions must engage in good-faith negotiations over train crew
size proposals put forth by rail carriers as part of a new labor agreement.
Options for Executive and Legislative Action
The newly formed Emergency Board has 30 days to investigate the facts and report to the President with
nonbinding recommendations for settlement of the dispute. During this initial 30-day period and for 30
days after the report has been issued, the NMB continues to mediate the dispute. If the parties do not
agree on either new contract terms or an extension of the cooling-off period by September 16, either side
may engage in work stoppages. The last time a Presidential Emergency Board was created to resolve a
freight railroad labor dispute was in 2011. In that case, the final cooling-off period was extended several
times before a new agreement was reached in April 2012 without a strike or lockout.
On several past occasions, Congress has intervened in labor disputes by enacting legislation to delay or
prohibit railway and airline strikes. For example, in 1986, Congress passed P.L. 99-385, which extended
the final cooling-off period by an additional 60 days to allow the unions and the Maine Central Railroad
to continue negotiations. In 1992, P.L. 102-306 required Amtrak and Conrail to enter into arbitration with
unions representing their employees in an effort to resolve various labor disputes. Additionally, Congress

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has from time to time enacted legislation requiring the parties to a railroad labor dispute to submit to
another emergency board or to accept a board’s recommendations.

Author Information

Ben Goldman

Analyst in Transportation Policy




Disclaimer
This document was prepared by the Congressional Research Service (CRS). CRS serves as nonpartisan shared staff
to congressional committees and Members of Congress. It operates solely at the behest of and under the direction of
Congress. Information in a CRS Report should not be relied upon for purposes other than public understanding of
information that has been provided by CRS to Members of Congress in connection with CRS’s institutional role.
CRS Reports, as a work of the United States Government, are not subject to copyright protection in the United
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IN11966 · VERSION 2 · UPDATED

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