Eastern Railroad Discussion > UAW STRIKE

Was wondering the teamsters said theres truck will not haul cars out of a plant on strike,does that hold true for railroads or will rail roads cross picket lines to haul cars ???

From my experience:

Agreement (unionized craft) rail employees won't cross any picket lines. If there is activity in a picketed location that requires rail service, management personnel might cross the pickets, do the work, then turn the movement back over to the agreement people outside the pickets. That's if the work gets done.

It's not what the work is, it's where. A craft employee hasn't got a leg to stand on refusing to work outside the pickets.

The only exception I've ever seen was the 1978 N&W clerks strike. We (the Illinois Terminal) had trackage rights on the N&W between Decatur and Springfield, IL. When the clerks walked, our crews quite running our trains across the N&W. A few days in, the  N&W clerks' union decided they didn't have a problem with our people running our trains (as we were an un-involved party). The only stipulation was that we didn't do any of the N&W's local work. Like I say, in 41 years, that's the only exception I ever recall seeing.