Third-largest rail union says workers not valued, rejects ratifying tentative labor agreement
More than half of Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employees Division members voted Monday against ratifying the tentative national labor agreement reached last month with Class I freight railroads, sending the two sides back to the bargaining table and again raising fears of a work stoppage. BMWED president Tony D. Cardwell said railroaders are upset with working conditions and compensation and hold their employer in low regard. The union voted down the contract 56 percent to 43 percent. “Railroaders do not feel valued,” Cardwell said of workers in the nation’s third largest railroad union. “They resent the fact that management holds no regard for their quality of life, illustrated by their stubborn reluctance to provide a higher quantity of paid time off, especially for sickness.” The tentative agreement was arrived at just hours before a planned strike in mid-September. It provides rail employees a 24 percent wage increase over five…