A Successful Bargaining Strategy for Rail Labor

Abstract

The employees of the railroad industry are represented for collective bargaining purposes by 12 craft unions1 that bargain with the industry through a unique national process. These labor organizations have from 1986 to date negotiated with a formally structured and unified rail industry through combinations of efforts structured individually, in loosely formed coalitions, and most recently in a formal coordinated structure. Because rail labor has negotiated against a consistently coordinated industry, it has been disadvantaged. The rail industry’s information is centralized, and the industry speaks with a single spokesperson. In contrast, rail labor’s information is divided among the 12 separate craft unions and speaks through separate voices. It is my hypothesis that rail labor benefits when effort is coordinated and that centralizing factual bargaining information will improve the position of rail labor in its charge to bargain with a centrally coordinated national rail industry. Moreover, better information can save time and help resolve conflict, and so benefit both sides and the nation as a whole. Coalition bargaining presents challenges. Some of those challenges were overcome in the national bargaining round that ended in 2007 for rail labor organizations participating as the Rail Labor Bargaining Coalition (RLBC).