Two of the largest U.S. railroad unions won’t back the proposed merger of Union Pacific and Norfolk Southern over concerns the first transcontinental rail system would increase safety risks, push up consumer prices and disrupt the supply chain.
The Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen (BLET) and the Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employes Division announced their opposition in a joint statement Wednesday.
“This debt-ridden tie-up won’t make rail more competitive with trucks as merger proponents claim,” said BLET National President Mark Wallace, in the statement. “We believe this transcontinental railroad will make shipping by rail less attractive as the merged carrier passes off rail lines that serve small towns, factories and farms to short line railroads while running miles-long slow-moving trains on the main line. For rail customers it will be a choice between ‘Hell or the highway.’”
The railroads have said the $85 billion merger would speed up freight movement by eliminating the interchange, or handoffs, of cars and trains between railroads at congested transportation centers such as Chicago. They contend that a single-line rail network would be more efficient than traditional collaborative agreements between railroads, reducing delays and costs for shippers.
The unions warned that the new system would likely increase safety risks. While lauding moves by NS to undertake a safety transformation, they pointed to a report in 2024 that UP managers undermined efforts by the federal government to assess safety.
The unions also took issue with UP’s post-merger job guarantees, saying they didn’t protect seniority or provide relocation costs.
The merger earlier won the backing of President Donald Trump, and UP (NYSE: UNP) earned the support of several other unions in exchange for post-merger job guarantees.
But some shippers including agricultural and chemical trade groups oppose the merger fearing a less competitive market for rail services and prospective disruptions. Western railroad BNSF has voiced its own competitive concerns.
“The growth opportunities created by this end-to-end merger enabled Union Pacific and Norfolk Southern to make a pledge that is unprecedented in railroad history,” UP said in a statement to FreightWaves. “Every employee with a union job at the time of the merger will continue to have one. We’ve formalized this jobs-for-life agreement with five unions, including SMART-TD, the nation’s largest rail labor organization, and we look forward to filing our application with the STB this week.”
The merger partners expect to file their formal merger application with the Surface Transportation Board later this week.
The unions’ opposition was first reported by AP.
This article was updated Dec. 17 to add information on the unions’ opposition to the merger, and a statement from UP.
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Find more articles by Stuart Chirls here.
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