BMWED/SMART-MD National Negotiations Update

Published by the National Division at bmwe.org: Nov 15 2021 11:14AM

The BMWED and SMART-MD bargaining coalition recently held a mediation session with the National Carriers Conference Committee.

The carriers gave a presentation regarding their desire to standardize and streamline discipline, claims and grievance handling procedures across the NCCC railroads.  The Carrier’s presentation can be found here.  The Carrier’s presentation was in response to BMWED’s June 4th comprehensive proposal, which included a proposal to standardize and improve discipline, claims and grievance handling procedures for BMWED and SMART-MD Members.  

BMWED and SMART-MD provided the carriers with a presentation regarding the coalition’s paid sick please proposal.  You can find the paid sick leave presentation here.  The presentation makes it abundantly clear that the railroads paid leave – or lack thereof – is antiquated and insufficient to meet the real world needs of critical infrastructure employees.  

“While I appreciate the railroads finally responding to one aspect of our comprehensive June 4th proposal, it should not have taken over 5 months to do so.  And their response should have been about more than one thing,” BMWED President Freddie N. Simpson said. “It is obvious the railroads want to drag out negotiations as long as possible. This is just a tactic that does nothing more than deny honest, hardworking railroad workers a much-deserved raise. I am ready to negotiate anytime, anywhere. Let’s get serious.”  

The parties are scheduled to convene for mediation next on December 3rd. Stay tuned to the BMWED social media pages and our website at bmwe.org for additional National Bargaining updates. Remember to sign-up for email News Alerts on the bmwe.org home page to have updates emailed directly to you.

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