NORFOLK — NORFOLK, Va.— A potential massive rail strike on Friday could have a major impact on our local economy.
Freight railroads and their unions are facing increasing pressure from the White House to settle their contract dispute before Friday's looming strike deadline.
Ronnie Hobbs, Virginia State Legislative Director for SMART Transportation Division told News 3, "The president’s proposal is a proposal. It’s made for us to start there and hopefully negotiate and to an ending final result that both the railroad carriers and labor organization unions can be satisfied with."
SMART-TD and BLET, two of the largest freight labor unions, said they are prepared for a potential strike to begin at the end of Friday. Though Hobbs said, "We don’t want to strike. We’re just looking for a fair contract, and I think that negotiating three years outside a contract, coming to work every day outside a contract, I think that the public should hear and will know and understand, wow, three years is a long time. It’s not like all of a sudden, it popped up on the radar."
The Presidential Emergency Board’s recommendations called for 24% raises over five years, $5,000 in bonuses and one additional paid leave day a year. But the two biggest unions representing conductors and engineers have been holding out because they want the railroads to go beyond those recommendations and address some of their concerns about strict attendance policies and working conditions.
"Let’s talk about work conditions. Let’s talk about if a member gets COVID, he needs to stay home, that he doesn’t have to come to work and if he doesn’t come to work, he’ll be grossly disciplined," Hobbs stated.
A newly-released Association of American Railroads report found that a nationwide rail service interruption could cost more than $2 billion per day of a shutdown.
As negotiations continue, Norfolk Southern is making preparations in case workers strike.
Norfolk Southern has begun enacting its contingency plans for a controlled shutdown of its network at midnight this Friday. Although negotiations continue, they say they have a commitment not to strike.
In an update Norfolk Southern posted online, they say their goal is to ensure that in the event of a work stoppage that they have a contingency plan for crews, equipment, and freight to safely reach their destinations with minimal disruptions.
Effective 12:00 (noon) local time on Wednesday, September 14, 2022, Norfolk Southern will close all gates to Intermodal traffic.
They shared these general guidelines:
General Guidelines
- In-gates for loaded or empty intermodal units for rail movement will close at all NS Intermodal terminals
- Traffic originating at on-dock port facilities and privately owned intermodal terminals will not be accepted
- Customers with eastbound interline shipments should contact the originating rail carrier regarding guidelines for the acceptance of traffic at origin
- Until further notice, out-gates will remain open at all NS Intermodal terminals during normal business hours for customers to pick up units
EMP and TMX
Customers using EMP and TMX containers should note the following:
- We will discontinue filling reservations on equipment effective at 00:01 local time Wednesday, September 14
- Any empty units out-gated after 12:00 (noon) local time Sunday, September 11 and until further notice will be charged according to normal per diem schedules
- Customers will be able to return empty EMP and TMX containers to NS terminals as normal until further notice. This process may be modified as terminal conditions require.
We did obtain a statement from the Port of Virginia to their customers, stakeholders, and partners which says:
“To All of Our Customers, Stakeholders and Partners:
The Port of Virginia is closely following the ongoing labor issue involving the nation’s freight railroads, two of which serve our port. If there is an impasse and a labor stoppage occurs, this port is well-prepared to handle any disruption, be it short- or long-term. We do have some capacity on terminal to keep this cargo during the short-term and a 20-acre lot where that could be used as a long-term storage solution. The goal of our planning is to maintain fluidity at the terminals and we have the necessary resources in place to ensure this.”
