The Union Pacific/Norfolk Southern mega merger would make one company richer than most countries on Earth, while raising prices for Americans. The Teamsters Rail Conference, which is made up of BLET and BMWED, represents more than half of Union Pacific's and Norfolk Southern’s unionized workforce. We are leading a broad-based coalition to oppose the merger.

The Teamsters thank the Trump Administration for defending a federal rule that generally requires a minimum of two crewmembers aboard trains. This regulation keeps crews and communities safe by ensuring that covered trains — which can be over three miles long — have enough workers to identify and address problems, errors, and emergencies. President Trump’s Federal Railroad Administration and Department of Transportation successfully argued against the industry’s attempt to roll back this rule, leading to a favorable 2-1 decision at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit. "This is an important victory for railroad safety. The Trump Administration deserves full credit for standing behind its commitment to two-person crews and vigorously defending the FRA rule in federal court," said Mark Wallace, President of the BLET and the Teamsters Rail Conference. "We thank President Trump, Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy, FRA Administrator David Fink, and the attorneys and professionals at the DOT and FRA who defended the rule and secured this result."

The International Brotherhood of Teamsters joins Teamsters Canada and the Teamsters Canada Rail Conference (TCRC) in calling on Canadian National Railway (CN) to immediately stop operating trains through active wildfire zones and put the safety of Teamsters Canada rail members first. A recent viral video on social media shows a CN freight train engulfed in flames while traveling through an active wildfire in Northern Ontario.  The train was operated by Teamsters Canada Rail Conference members, whose quick thinking and professionalism ensured that no one was injured. But those workers should never have been put in that position. CN should never be sending train crews into such dangerous conditions.