A Norfolk Southern Company engine vehicle drives past the Lamberts Point coal transfer facility in Norfolk, Virginia, Wednesday, March 17, 2010.
Andrew Haller | Bloomberg | Getty Images
norfolk south wednesday says agree to provide Members of the International Brotherhood of Boilermakers and Blacksmiths are entitled to up to seven days of paid sick leave per year.
The agreement provides Norfolk Southern’s Mechanical Railroad with four days of paid sick leave per year, with an additional three days of paid time off now available as sick leave. The IBBB is now the ninth of 12 unions in southern Norfolk to negotiate paid sick leave, benefiting some 6,000 workers.
The move comes after unions and rail companies (including Norfolk Southern, Norfolk Southern, union pacific BNSF – Excess paid sick leave.President Biden signed a bill in late 2022 to Avoid a national rail strike. However, the legislation does not include paid sick leave.
Norfolk Southern announced the deal as it grapples with the political and environmental fallout from last month’s derailment of a train laden with toxic materials in East Palestine, Ohio, near the Pennsylvania border. Company and government officials said it was safe to live in the area after the disaster, although some workers and residents complained of feeling unwell.Ohio Sue the company Tuesday.
The paid sick leave deal comes two days after Norfolk Southern reached an agreement with the Brotherhood of Railroad Kamen and the International Union of Machinists and Aerospace Workers. Last week, the company announced agreements with the International Sheet Metal, Aviation, Railroad, Transportation Workers Union, Department of Machinery and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers.
The company reached an agreement with two other unions in February, and the other two unions have received paid sick leave benefits.
“Partnering with our unions, we continue to work hard to improve the quality of life for our railroad workers,” said Norfolk Southern CEO Alan Shaw. “Our railroad workers help move the American economy forward, and every A new agreement will help ensure they have more time to manage their own personal health and wellbeing.”
Norfolk Southern had no comment beyond its previously issued statement.
In February, Senators Bernie Sanders, I-Vt. and Mike Braun, R-Ind., require rail carrier Provide workers with at least seven paid sick days. Sanders urged railroads to “do the right thing,” while citing the carrier’s record profits. Sanders’ office says railroads spend 184 percent more on shareholder returns than on worker wages and benefits.
“At the end of the day, it’s unacceptable in 2023 for a worker in a hazardous job to go a day without sick leave,” Sanders said at the time.
–CNBC’s Lori Ann LaRocco contributed to this report.