UP maintenance workers issue Dec 27th deadline for action on Covid

Union Pacific railroad maintenance workers who are represented by the Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employes (BMWED), a division of the Teamsters Union, are demanding the UP provide a “full quarantine pay package” for workers by December 27^th.

In a December 18^th statement, BMWED stated that “Federal law protects our right to withdraw from service if dangerous workplace conditions present an "imminent danger of death or serious injury".”

The statement added: “U.P. has until the end of the day on December 27th to respond to our safety demands. Get ready.”

BMWED is demanding: “Union Pacific must immediately provide full quarantine pay and common sense Covid-19 safeguards on the job, or we will do everything we can under the law to make our jobs safe….. Hundreds of Union Pacific employees have contracted Covid-19 at work. Two (2) of our BMWED Union Brothers have died. Dozens have been hospitalized, and some will never be the same.

The statement explained” Our Union leadership has urged U.P. Management to do more to ensure our safety since the start of the Pandemic. Management is clearly more interested in grinding profits out of us for the shareholders than investing in our safety.”