STB upholds UP’s refusal to serve Texas plant

OREANDA-NEWS. September 30, 2015. Surface Transportation Board (STB) backed Union Pacific (UP) in the railroad's refusal to serve a Sherwin Alumina plant in Gregory, Texas, involved in a labor dispute, saying it had adequately explained its actions.

Sherwin in March asked the STB to force UP to provide common carrier rail service for lime deliveries to the facility during a union work stoppage that is still going on. UP stopped providing rail service to the plant on 6 November, 2014, because of the work stoppage at the facility, which it has served for more than 50 years.

"We find that UP's explanation is sufficient to show that it has not violated the common carrier obligation with respect to the traffic at issue at this time," STB said.

Federal law requires railroads to provide transportation for commodities that are not exempt from regulation, upon a reasonable request for service. But a carrier can provide a reasonable reason for denying the request.

In denying service, UP had to consider the nature of the labor dispute, the potential for violence, accessibility of the location, as well as how its own labor force would be affected.

"UP has established that it responsibly evaluated the reasonableness of Sherwin's request for service and that it acted with due diligence under the circumstances by providing limited management crew service and offers to assist Sherwin with alternative service," STB said.

UP had said that if it forced its unionized employees to cross the picket line, the union could have argued the carrier had no right to do so. UP would have to sue to get its workers to perform, which strains labor relations, it said. The STB said there has been no violence on the picket line so far, but it is not unreasonable for UP to consider the potential for violence.

The Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen and the International Association of Sheet Metal, Air, Rail and Transportation Workers had urged the STB to not force UP to serve the plant.

The plant on the Gulf coast near Corpus Christi, Texas, has a capacity to produce 1.6mn short tons (1.45mn metric tonnes) of alumina/year. Since being denied rail service, Sherwin has been receiving its lime deliveries by truck.