Unions rejecting the UP-NS merger are rejecting their own members’ job security

Rail labor is approaching a defining moment unlike any we have seen in the past century. Automation is advancing. Railroads are testing systems designed to operate trains with less human involvement. Autonomous freight equipment is already in federally authorized testing. Carriers are pursuing technology that will replace the work of trained engineers and conductors.

That future is arriving fastest in freight rail, and nowhere are the stakes clearer than in the proposed Union Pacific-Norfolk Southern merger now before the Surface Transportation Board.