Judge Affirms Order Delaying Railroad Strike

A federal judge reaffirmed Saturday a temporary restraining order that keeps Union Pacific engineers on the job after a strike was called against the nation’s largest rail carrier.

U.S. District Judge Lyle Strom set a Feb. 7 hearing on the railroad’s request for a preliminary injunction.

“Everybody’s on the job as normal,” said John Bromley, a railroad spokesman.

Strom issued his original order earlier Saturday, a little more than two hours after the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers began the walkout. The union represents more than 8,000 locomotive engineers at Union Pacific.

The union said the dispute involves qualifications for personal leave that were implemented at the start of the year.

“Union Pacific has chosen to unilaterally impose new working conditions on locomotive engineers, in defiance of federal law,” Edward Dubroski, president of the Cleveland-based union, said in a statement.

Dubroski said Union Pacific broke the terms of the Railway Labor Act by not negotiating the change in working conditions.

“The proper way to make the sort of change UP has forced upon us is to bargain for such a change,” Dubroski said. “In fact, we have been in negotiations since Nov. 1, 1999, and the subject has never even been raised.”

Bromley said it is a minor dispute involving interpretation of an existing agreement, not a major dispute that could lead to a strike.

Workers spent three hours picketing before the judge issued his original order. The demonstrations likely disrupted freight travel, but it wasn’t clear how many trains were affected, Bromley said.

“It could have been a major problem for the national economy had it been allowed to continue,” he said.

The walkout came as a surprise to Union Pacific officials who had talks scheduled with the union for Tuesday and Wednesday, Bromley said. He was not certain of the status of those talks.

Union Pacific, based in Omaha, has 38,654 miles of track in 23 states. The railroad hauls everything from chemicals, coal and food to grain metals and automobiles.

The railroad, which has 50,000 employees, announced in December that it planned to cut 2,000 jobs by the end of February because of a slowing economy, high fuel prices and harsh winter weather.