BLE and Union Pacific Reach Agreement On Personal Leave Policy

OMAHA, Neb. - Union Pacific Railroad reached an agreement Thursday, Feb. 22, with its 8,000 locomotive engineers over a disputed personal leave policy that led to a surprise strike last month and halted traffic on the nation's largest railroad for hours.

The railroad agreed to withdraw its federal court challenge of the brief strike Jan. 26, said John Bromley, company spokesman.

Other terms of the agreement with the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers were not disclosed.

"We agreed not to make the details public but both sides are satisfied with the results," Bromley said.

Telephone calls to the union's headquarters in Cleveland were not immediately returned.

The railroad's engineers abruptly abandoned their jobs Jan. 26 in protest of recent changes to work rules that ended some personal leave for many of them. Within hours after the strike started, a federal judge in Omaha ordered the engineers back to work.

The railroad, which lost some business to competitors during the brief walkout, probably would not be able to put a price on the damage from the strike, Bromley said.

Union leaders said the railroad changed its interpretation of the engineers' personal-leave policy on Jan. 1 without prior negotiation.

The dispute was centered around a rule that engineers must work at least 150 days in one year to qualify for personal leave the next year. The number of personal leave days granted are determined by years of service.

Union Pacific decided this year that engineers could not meet the requirement by counting the days they are on call but do not go into work.

The union argued that engineers who are on call are working, because they could be required to report at any time.

Railroad officials said they discussed the change with the union before the strike.

Railroad lawyers challenged the legality of the strike in federal court. A hearing in the case had been scheduled for March 16.

Union Pacific 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 had 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.