Norfolk Southern strikes deal with rail union on paid sick leave

Norfolk Southern Corp. has agreed to provide up to seven paid sick days per year to its union employees, meeting one of the workforce demands that nearly led to a nation-wide rail strike in December 2022, the company said.

Rail companies and labor union leaders had originally reached a contract deal in September 2022 after tense negotiations mediated by Biden Administration officials to avoid a freight rail shutdown that would have disrupted U.S. supply chains on the verge of the winter holiday rush. However, that deal offered pay increases but not paid sick leave, and was rejected by four of the 12 labor unions involved, leading Congress to pass a bill imposing the earlier agreement.

Six months later, Norfolk Southern has now agreed to provide that benefit anyway, marking the first time that locomotive engineers at any of the Class I railroads have been able to successfully bargain for paid sick leave, according to rail union The Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen.

Specifically, the deal 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, BLET said. The agreement covers more than 3,300 engineers, roughly a quarter of the company’s unionized workforce.  

Some of the engineers’ colleagues have enjoyed policies with four days of paid sick leave per year since a February agreement, but those included “non-operational” crafts, such as dispatchers, engine repairmen, and roadbed workers. The union held that workers who operate trains—the engineers and conductors who make up roughly half of the workforce at freight railroads—saw four days of paid sick leave annually as insufficient.

“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,” Mark Wallace, BLET’s second-highest official, said in a release.

The new policy requires approval by union members and a ratification vote is expected within the next month. If that’s successful, the deal could serve as a blueprint for contract negotiations with the nation’s other railroad operators. The BLET union represents nearly 57,000 professional locomotive engineers and trainmen throughout the United States. “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,” BLET general chairman Scott Bunten said in a release.

Norfolk Southern has been under intense pressure from courts, regulators, and politicians since a company train derailed on Feb. 3 and spewed toxic chemicals around the neighborhood of East Palestine, Ohio.

"I deeply appreciate the contributions of our Norfolk Southern engineers and the longstanding partnership we've had with the BLET," Alan H. Shaw, president and CEO of Norfolk Southern, said in a release. "This agreement builds on that relationship and continues our industry-leading effort to enhance quality of life as we become the first railroad to reach an engineer sick leave deal."