ATLANTA and INDEPENDENCE, Ohio, March 23,
2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Norfolk Southern Corporation
(NYSE:NSC) and the International Association of Sheet Metal, Air,
Rail and Transportation Workers — Transportation Division
(SMART-TD) announced Thursday that they are discontinuing formal
negotiations regarding conductor redeployment to focus their
efforts on implementing other immediate quality-of-life
improvements for their employees.
"Over the next year, SMART-TD and Norfolk Southern have the
opportunity to work together to implement important predictability
improvements for our conductor workforce," said Jeremy Ferguson, president of SMART-TD. "These
scheduling enhancements, which were part of last year's national
agreements, have the potential to make an immediate positive impact
for our conductors by giving them fixed days off and greater
certainty about their weekly assignments. The willingness of NS to
step back from plans to change to a ground-based conductor model is
a welcome show of good faith in the negotiation process."
Under the terms of the national agreements, Norfolk Southern and
SMART-TD have a mid-June deadline to negotiate the details of these
scheduling enhancements. Given this limited window, Norfolk
Southern has withdrawn its current Section 6 bargaining notice on
conductor redeployment to fully focus on collaboratively
implementing these enhancements and other quality-of-life
priorities.
"Norfolk Southern is committed to working with labor partners,
including SMART-TD, to identify and negotiate benefits that will
have a meaningful impact on our employees' quality of life," said
Wai Wong, vice president, Labor
Relations at Norfolk Southern. "While redeployment of conductors to
ground-based shift-work will provide more predictable jobs and
minimize time away from home, there are a number of other
priorities that our labor partners would like to address, and we
are committed to working together to make immediate progress."
The withdrawal of the Section 6 notice on conductor redeployment
removes the mandatory requirement for the parties to bargain over
the issue, though voluntary discussions remain an option. SMART-TD
and Norfolk Southern will continue listening to NS employees,
relying on their input to guide the focus of their joint efforts
and discussions going forward.
About Norfolk Southern
Since 1827, Norfolk Southern
Corporation (NYSE: NSC) and its predecessor companies have safely
moved the goods and materials that drive the U.S. economy. Today,
it operates a customer-centric and operations-driven freight
transportation network. Committed to furthering sustainability,
Norfolk Southern helps its customers avoid 15 million tons of
yearly carbon emissions by shipping via rail. Its dedicated team
members deliver more than 7 million carloads annually, from
agriculture to consumer goods, and is the largest rail shipper of
auto products and metals in North America. Norfolk Southern
also has the most extensive intermodal network in the eastern U.S.,
serving a majority of the country's population and manufacturing
base, with connections to every major container port on the
Atlantic coast as well as the Gulf of Mexico and Great
Lakes. Learn more by visiting www.NorfolkSouthern.com.
About SMART-TD
SMART Transportation Division is
comprised of approximately 125,000 active and retired members who
work in a variety of different crafts in the transportation
industry. These crafts include employees on every Class I railroad,
Amtrak, many shortline railroads, bus and mass transit employees
and airport personnel. More information about the union is
available at www.smart-union.org.
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SOURCE Norfolk Southern Corporation