Agreements Etc...

Public·223 members

March 2, 2026

PS Documentation

Brothers and Sisters,

Union Pacific has taken a new position on the use of a single paid sick day. Under their new interpretation, an employee’s use of paid sick leave is in conjunction with other forms of leave if the employee observes a single paid sick day, marks up, and does not work before observing another form of paid leave. The time marked up between the paid sick day and the other form of leave does not matter, they still consider the two in conjunction.

This position is contrary to what was discussed and agreed upon at the bargaining table. We’ve been trying to resolve the issue but are now preparing to arbitrate the matter. If one of your members receives a message from UP requesting medical documentation for their use of a single paid sick day, make sure they respond to the message. If they do not,…

262 Views

Smart TD Local 577

Mar 19

Brothers and Sister,

As you have noticed, Union Pacific has been requiring our members to provide medical documentation when any available days exist between a single PS layoff and other leave. They are essentially counting the available time between layoffs as a bridge, linking the PS day to the other leave day. This position defies logic and the definition of “conjunction” as contained in our agreement. This dispute will most likely end up in arbitration. Please have any member affected file a basic day claim for being required to provide medical documentation for a single PS day. If you have members charged for not providing medical documentation, feel free to use this letter in the investigatory hearing.

Fraternally,

Luke Edington

General Chairperson

SMART TD GO-953

jeffgrnt1

December 30, 2025

Vacation inquiring.

I now have 4 weeks of vacation, can I single all those weeks out or is there a limit to how many can be singled?

Also, if an employee singles out a week of vacation and uses them all does that week become available for another employee if the want to move their week?

294 Views

khjoost

Dec 30, 2025

You can change up to three weeks of vacation into single days. And, once single days are used up for a week, that week becomes “dead”. It does NOT become an open allocation.

Smart TD Local 577

December 29, 2025

Petition to Vacate Articles 5-7 (SBA 1208)

Brothers and Sister,

I hope all of you are enjoying the holidays and time with family.

We filed in the District Court of Nebraska today to vacate SBA 1208 (Articles V-VII Arbitration Award). All the General Committees are listed as parties along with the International. We are pursuing three counts: the permission to use “any qualified employee”; the elimination of extra rest; and no scheduled rest for extra board employees. Our dissenting opinion is also included at the end of the attachment.

323 Views

Smart TD Local 577

Mar 19

Brothers and Sister,

Our legal department just sent over UP’s answer to our complaint (their response to our petition to vacate SBA 1208). I’ve attached it along with our petition. I’ve included our legal departments email below that explains the response and the next steps.

For your information, I wanted to circulate the answer filed by Union Pacific to our petition in the litigation regarding the Articles V-VII award. As you may know, an answer is a required responsive pleading to a complaint where the defendant admits or denies the allegations contained in therein. It is common to see admissions with respect to routine factual claims and denials for everything else, which we see here.

With respect to next steps, the court has entered an order requiring a planning report by March 31, 2026. A planning report is where counsel for the parties discusses how to proceed with litigation, including discovery, deadlines, and how to proceed with dispositive motions. I anticipate I will speak with UP’s legal next week to go through the details, but I saw him last week and we are in agreement that cross-motions for summary judgment based on an agreed-upon record. I will let you know of further developments.

With respect to paragraph 64 (UP’s response to extra rest), the award itself states, “[t]he Arbitrator acknowledges the Organization’s vehement opposition to this position…” so we have it in the record that we opposed it. With respect to paragraph 76, it is our whole argument that this (elimination of extra rest) wasn’t proposed until the last submissions, to which there were no rebuttals or further hearings that allowed us to oppose UP’s desire to eliminate extra rest at the last minute. The arguments we made and UP’s concession under oath at the arbitration that they were not seeking to eliminate extra rest are in our favor.

Fraternally,

Luke Edington

General Chairman

SMART TD GO-953