Members of the nation’s two largest railway unions held conflicting votes on a key labor pact, muddying efforts by the Biden administration to avoid a strike when the labor peace agreement ends next month.
The SMART Transportation division, the largest railway union under the tentative agreement with more than 37,000 members, narrowly rejected the deal while members of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen voted to approve it. Four unions have now voted down the tentative deal while seven have approved it—though a strike could follow if even one of them walks off the job.
BLET approved the contract with 53.5% of the member vote. But the results revealed deep divisions at SMART-TD, with less than 51% of train and engine service workers voting to reject the agreement and 62% of yardmasters voting to ratify it.
