News / Teamsters union says it aims to block 'harmful' $85bn UP-NS rail merger

Executives at Union Pacific and Norfolk Southern may have felt confident of union support for their $85bn mega rail merger – but yesterday the Teamsters came out in “strong opposition” to the deal.

Prior to this intervention, the deal had won over the National Conference of Firemen and Oilers, International Brotherhood of Boilermakers, Brotherhood of Railway Carmen, and the International Association of Sheet Metal, Air, Rail and Transportation Workers.

But, representing some 20,000 employees at UP and NS – more than half their unionised workers – the Teamsters said it was “strongly opposed” to the deal as “currently worded”.

Union president Sean O’Brien said: “The Teamsters investigated the terms of the acquisition for five months, held meetings with members nationwide, and directly negotiated with UP and NS leadership.

“Executives from both, particularly UP, refused real commitments to protect jobs and address concerns of our members. It’s time UP and NS got serious and did right by our members. Until they do, we’ll do everything in our power to block this harmful merger.”

Pointing to the 2023 NS derailment in East Palestine, Mr O’Brien said both carriers had “worrying histories when it comes to protecting workers and communities”, and had shown a tendency to “give away American jobs to Mexican rail crews”.

This echoed comments from another union opposed to the deal, the Transport Workers Union, whose president, John Samuelson, said UP had “a shameful safety record” and claimed it had been “caught by the federal government trying to meddle in a safety audit”.

Mr O’Brien added that neither operator had given a reason to suggest the merger would resolve the issues, instead claiming: “They have given us every reason to believe these problems would only grow worse if the merger is approved under its proposed terms.”

And the Teamsters and TWU are not alone in their opposition to the deal, a number of Republican state attorneys general have warned the merger threatened the “America First” policy as well as national security.

In a letter to the Surface Transportation Board (STB), nine attorneys general said the merger would also result in “undue market concentration” that would not only stifle competition but worsen reliability, reduce innovation, and raise prices. And this, they added, would come “at the expense of America’s manufacturers and, ultimately, America’s consumers”, and undermine an “America First economy” by “kneecapping the ability of US companies to compete with foreign manufacturers.

Claiming previous railroad mergers had only led to a “dramatic” increase in costs and a worsening service, the letter also argued that “ultimately, this merger could compromise our national security”.

However, just days later, Chris Carr, attorney general for Georgia, NS’s home state, and Mike Hilgers, AG for UP’s home state, Nebraska, joined West Virgina AG John McCuskey in backing the deal in their own letter to the STB, suggesting the merger would “strengthen” US rail efficiency.

Adding “we know President Trump agrees; when recently asked about it, he declared it ‘sounds good to me’”, these AGs found themselves at odds with the IAM Union’s rail division’s claim that history had proved that ‘less competition was detrimental to consumers’.