For Immediate Release: October 6, 2026
The IBEW opposes the proposed acquisition of Norfolk Southern Railway (NS) by Union Pacific Railroad (UPRR).
The IBEW represents more than 10,000 members who install, maintain, inspect, and repair all electrical aspects of the American railroad industry from locomotives to railroad communication networks, train control technology, and other safety-critical infrastructure. They are not interchangeable assets.
The IBEW engaged Union Pacific in good-faith discussions designed to protect IBEW members, preserve craft jurisdiction, prevent forced relocations, address contracting and subcontracting, and provide stability for workers who have dedicated their careers to the railroad industry. Despite these efforts, Union Pacific declined to make meaningful commitments on virtually every significant issue.
As maintenance operations are consolidated, shops performing similar work will inevitably compete for survival. Employees who have spent decades building careers in their community face displacement, furloughs, or forced relocations. They will be assigned larger territories and heavier workloads, and many employees and their families will be forced to decide whether to uproot their lives or leave the industry altogether.
This consolidation will be the most significant in the industry in more than 25 years. The IBEW was among the last rail labor organizations to take a formal position, doing so only after engaging in a thorough, good-faith evaluation of the proposal and its impact on members. Yet this transaction comes at a time when IBEW Railroad workers have already endured a decade of devastating cuts that have weakened U.S. freight capacity and hindered the growth and investment necessary to sustain the transportation needs of America’s economic engine.
“The burden of railroad consolidations has always fallen on the employees who keep the industry running,” said IBEW International President Kenneth W. Cooper. “Assurances that this merger will be different are unconvincing, and Union Pacific has failed to persuade me that the ‘Great American Connection’ it is proposing is in the interest of IBEW members or the public.”
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The IBEW represents approximately 901,000 members and retirees who work in a wide variety of fields, including construction, utilities, manufacturing, telecommunications, broadcasting, railroads and government.