News that a national railroad strike has been averted reached local players Thursday night.
"We got a note late last night that the board reached an agreement with the unions, and to combine that with the extension on the negotiation period, the strike is averted," Gary Shield, president of the North Shore Railroad, Northumberland, said Friday.
North Shore operates six "short-line railroads" throughout the area, including Juniata Valley, Lycoming Valley, Nittany and Bald Eagle, North Shore, Shamokin Valley and Union County Industrial Railroad, in conjunction with Norfolk Southern.
The freight rail industry has settled labor disputes with two of its unions and agreed to extend talks with a third, the Brotherhood of Maintenance Way Employees.
Prior to Thursday, North Shore was encouraging its customers to contact their elected officials to express concerns about how a strike would affect their businesses. A letter to those who both ship and receive goods by rail said in part, "If a strike cannot be averted, we want you to be prepared for the possibility of delayed railcars and suspension of Class I (large) service."
Sticking point: Health care
Gary Madden, of Coal Township, secretary/treasurer for Local 3091 of the Brotherhood of Maintenance Way Employees, said the sticking point is health care.
"The railroads want us to pay more for our health insurance, close to double what we are paying now," Madden said. "Even if we would negotiate a raise, you lose it in health and welfare costs."
Madden said the union's 25,100 workers have been without a contract for two years, and recently aligned themselves with the Teamsters union.
"We gave them a proposal two years ago, but they want to shove the presidential board's recommendations down our throat and we are not going to take that kind of action," Madden said about the Obama-appointed Emergency Board that is investigating disputes.
With a "cooling off" extension setting a new deadline of Feb. 6, Madden is hopeful a deal can be reached. Even if it isn't, a strike would not last long, he said.
"The railroads have a lot of means to bring us back to work," he said. "They could either file an injunction and get a judge to order us back to work, or lock us out to force us to take the offer to come back to work.
"I hope it doesn't come to that," he continued. "The union is hopeful they can come to some agreement with the railroads."
According to facts provided by the National Railway Labor Conference, a nationwide rail strike would cost the U.S. economy about $2 billion a day, threaten more than 1 million jobs and make it impossible for companies to ship their finished products and strand millions of commuters, taxing an already stressed highway system.