Freight railroads, unions reach tentative agreement

WASHINGTON – The nation’s freight railroads and two labor unions representing 26,500 railroad employees reached a tentative agreement Thursday to avoid a strike that threatened to halt shipments of consumer goods three weeks before Christmas.

A third union agreed to a 60-day cooling-off period that averts an immediate strike.

Details of the tentative agreements were not released.

If the unions hadn’t agreed, railroad employees were poised to strike as early as Monday, a possibility that prompted retailers, automakers, electric utilities and other big rail customers to plead with lawmakers in Congress to intervene. A strike also could have disrupted long-distance Amtrak routes and commuter train service in some of the nation’s biggest metropolitan areas.

Dennis Pierce, the president of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers, told the union’s members in a statement that while the tentative deal wasn’t everything they wanted, it was better to let members vote on the new labor contract than have the Republican-controlled House of Representatives dictate the terms.

The American Train Dispatchers Association also agreed Thursday to the tentative deal.

With Thursday’s agreements, only one union – the Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employees – has not reached a deal. The cooling-off period covering that negotiation ends Feb. 8.