Unions representing rail workers have added Amtrak to the list of rail transportation providers facing court fights over mandates requiring all workers to get vaccinated against COVID-19, or face workplace consequences, including being fired.
On Nov. 23, the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen (BLET) and the International Association of Sheet Metal, Air, Rail and Transportation Workers, Transportation Division (SMART-TD) filed complaints in Chicago federal court against the National Railroad Passenger Corp., which operates Amtrak interstate passenger rail service.
The lawsuits come as those same unions remain locked in legal combat in Chicago federal court with two of the country’s largest freight rail companies, Union Pacific and Norfolk Southern.
In those cases, Union Pacific and Norfolk Southern each sued the unions, seeking to block the unions from striking or taking other action in opposition to the railways’ worker vaccine mandates.
The railroads have argued the unions have no ability to strike or otherwise obstruct the enforcement of the vaccine mandate, because the railroads are merely seeking to comply with executive orders issued by President Joe Biden. Those orders require everyone working for companies providing services to the federal government, as contractors, to be vaccinated against COVID-19.
The unions have, in turn, asked the court to issue orders barring the railroads from enforcing the vaccine mandates, saying they violate federal law governing railroad labor relations.
In the Union Pacific and Norfolk Southern consolidated cases, the railroads each filed briefs in federal court on Nov. 22, asking the judge to deny the unions’ request for injunctions, and dismiss the unions’ legal claims against the railroads.
They argue the unions’ claims should be considered “minor disputes” under the federal Railway Labor Act, meaning the railroads are not required to negotiate over the mandates, which they say they must institute to comply with Biden’s orders.
The vaccine mandates, the railroads argued, are no different than any other federal mandates the railroads have complied with in the past, without first being required to negotiate with the unions.
“Because Union Pacific has an established practice of complying with government mandates without first bargaining over such compliance, it is at least arguable that an implied term of Union Pacific’s agreements with the Defendant Unions permits it do so,” Union Pacific wrote in its Nov. 22 brief. “While the Unions may dispute the extent to which Union Pacific has taken unilateral action to comply with prior government mandates, it is not for this Court to resolve that dispute.
“Thus, any dispute over Union Pacific’s compliance with the requirement that employees be vaccinated against COVID-19 in accordance with the Mandate is a minor dispute that must be resolved in arbitration.”
In the new lawsuits against Amtrak, the unions similarly assert Amtrak has violated its workers’ contract rights under the RLA by attempting to unilaterally institute the COVID vaccine mandate, without bargaining.
And they claim the collective bargaining agreements don’t include any language giving Amtrak the power to order workers to receive COVID vaccines.
Further, the unions assert that Amtrak has placed any workers who have attempted to apply for religious or medical exemptions and accommodations to the vaccine mandate, on 90-day unpaid leave.
The unions assert their Amtrak workers are not federal employees, nor are they federal contractors, subject to Biden’s executive orders.
This, the unions said, should mean Amtrak is required to negotiate with the unions before requiring any workers to be vaccinated, under federal law.
SMART-TD is represented in the action against Amtrak by its general counsel Kevin C. Brodar and assistant general counsel Erika A. Diehl-Gibbons and Shawn M. McKinley; and attorney Robert E. Harrington III, of the firm of Dunn Harrington, of Chicago.
BLET is represented in the action against Amtrak by attorneys Matt Pierce and Ryan A. Hagerty, of the firm of Asher Gittler & D’Alba, of Chicago, and Joshua D. McInerney and James Petroff, of Wentz, McInerney, Peifer & Petroff, of Powell, Ohio.
Union Pacific is represented by attorneys Andrew J. Rolfes, Robert S. Hawkins and Jeremy J. Glenn, of Cozen O’Connor, of Philadelphia and Chicago.
Norfolk Southern is represented by attorneys Donald J. Munro, James M. Burnham and Samantha Woo, of the firm of Jones Day, of Chicago and Washington, D.C.