Commentary: Big Tent Ideas

Don’t Let Beltway Politics Derail American Rail Workers

Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer (Screenshot/CSPAN)

In a recent Daily Caller op-ed, former Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer calls the proposed Union Pacific-Norfolk Southern merger a “working-class test” for Republicans. But her argument leaves out the labor organizations that support the merger, the written job protections SMART-TD members secured, and her own record of backing away from labor legislation.

It also leaves out the political relationship at the center of this debate. Teamsters President Sean O’Brien pushed hard for her nomination and sat front and center at her Senate confirmation hearing. Now that she is out of government and working for a consulting firm, she is carrying water for O’Brien’s opposition campaign while leaving out that SMART-TD, the country’s largest rail union, supports this deal. It is hard to see this as an independent assessment of what is best for rail workers. It looks like political payback to O’Brien and the Teamsters leadership.

In her piece, Chavez-DeRemer conveniently omits support from SMART-TD, SMARTMD, the American Train Dispatchers Association, the Brotherhood of Railway Carmen, the International Brotherhood of Boilermakers, the United Supervisors Council of America, and the National Conference of Firemen and Oilers. In fact, more unionsrepresenting UP and NS employees now support the merger than oppose it. She also fails to disclose the Teamsters’ close ties to the trucking industry. At UPS alone, the Teamsters represent more than 330,000 employees, including roughly 100,000 delivery van and truck drivers. The Teamsters’ Freight Division represents tens of thousands more workers in trucking and related jobs. Teamsters have a market interest in keeping freight off rail and in trucking, which holds over 70% market share of American freight tonnage.

The proposed merger is expected to shift 2.1 million truckloads of freight from road to rail, saving shippers $3.5 billion per year while strengthening the U.S. supply chain and creating new union rail jobs. To the Teamsters’ chagrin, a coast-to-coast rail network would give rail a stronger way to compete with trucking for long-haul freight. Chavez-DeRemer’s own record makes her sudden role as a champion against this merger hard to take at face value. In Congress, she cosponsored the PRO Act. Yet during her confirmation hearing, she called it “imperfect,” defended right-to-work laws, and said she no longer supported the bill’s provision overriding them. In fact, she touted the merger’s benefits and pledged to help get it done, saying “we want to make sure that we can help you get all the way across the country.” Now, in her Daily Caller piece, she politicizes the merger in an effort to turn up opposition against a deal that will save businesses money and deliver union benefits. Americans deserve to hear from all sides, including the unions that negotiated protections and support the deal. Chavez-DeRemer chose to leave those voices out.

Chavez-DeRemer is right that workers deserve transparency and enforceable commitments. That is why SMART-TD went to the bargaining table. Our Jobs for Life protections are in writing, incorporated into the collective bargaining agreement, and publicly available. These are contractual protections, not a public relations pledge or a matter of opinion. The men and women I represent work in rail yards and on locomotives, not Washington consulting offices. No union boss trading political favors gets to speak over them.

Under SMART-TD’s agreement, members will have career-long job protections. The companies project 1,200 net new union jobs by the merger’s third year. Still, Chavez-DeRemer warns that “when good-paying railroad jobs disappear, the consequences extend beyond individual workers.” However, given the merger will increase these “good-paying railroad jobs,” her arguments become unclear. The American Chemistry Council, the American Farm Bureau Federation and other opponents argue that the merger could reduce competition. Yet the railroads have proposed protections for the small number of facilities whose direct rail options could decline from two carriers to one or from three to two, including additional access to another Class I railroad where feasible. That is another concrete response, in writing, to the opposition’s claims.

Again, Chavez-DeRemer once praised Union Pacific during a January visit, saying it was “investing in the skilled workforce that keeps our supply chains moving.” Just a few months later, she changed her tune. Meanwhile, Union Pacific and Norfolk Southern have gained support from more unions, added more Jobs for Life agreements, and strengthened their commitments to protect shippers, preserve competition and grow the freight rail industry.

Chavez-DeRemer warns Republicans would be “foolish to squander the progress they have made with working Americans.” She’s right about the stakes. More than 2,000 stakeholder letters have been submitted in support of this merger. The real mistake would be letting a political favor to Teamsters leadership drown out the rail unions who actually negotiated this deal.

Jeremy Ferguson is the president of SMART-TD.

The views and opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the author and do not reflect the official position of the Daily Caller News Foundation.