Spotlight
Major labor union backs UP-NS deal
Union Pacific Railroad( UP) and Norfolk Southern Railway( NS) have reached a job-protection deal with the largest rail union in the US in exchange for its support of the proposed merger between the two Class I railroads, UP and NS said Sept. 22. The Sheet Metal, Air, Rail, and Transportation Workers( SMART-TD) had previously voiced opposition to the $ 85 billion deal, which would create the first transcontinental railroad in the US and is now before the Surface Transportation Board for a regulatory review that could take over a year to complete. The about-face from the union makes eventual approval of the deal far more likely.“ For generations, railroaders have worried about what mergers might mean for their jobs and whether or not they would be given the opportunity to reach retirement on the rail,” Jeremy Ferguson, president of SMART-TD, said in a statement.“ Today, we can say with confidence that the biggest railroad and the biggest rail union in America are breaking new ground. We are protecting jobs, protecting families, and protecting the future of the US supply chain.” The deal with SMART-TD is significant as it has more than 125,000 active and retired members. The deal reached between UP, NS and SMART-TD, at its core, pledges that no active union member at either railroad will face merger-related furloughs.“ Those who have a job when the merger is approved will continue to have one,” UP CEO Jim Vena said in a statement.
US shippers are expanding their use of private, in-house truck fleets, hauling more goods in their own trucks despite favorable for-hire spot market and contract rates. Growth in private fleets is slowing compared with a peak experienced during the COVID-19 pandemic, but it hasn’ t stopped, industry experts told the Journal of Commerce. Shipments handled by private fleets increased 11.7 % year over year in 2024, according to data from the National Private Truck Council( NPTC). The need for more precise supply chain control and truck caan Dewar Photography / Shutterstock. com
Tada Images / Shutterstock. com Khairil Azhar Junos / Shutterstock. com
FMC hears‘ refusal to deal’ rule challenge
A federal appeals court is weighing whether maritime regulators should consider high freight rates as evidence of ocean carriers unfairly refusing to serve cargo owners, in a test of how far regulators can go to protect US exporters. The DC Circuit Court of Appeals heard arguments from the World Shipping Council( WSC) in its challenge of the Federal Maritime Commission’ s( FMC) July 2024 rulemaking on the“ unreasonable refusal to deal” provision of the Ocean Shipping Reform Act of 2022( OSRA-22). Congress included the provision to protect US agriculture shippers who faced record-high freight rates and limited container space during COVID-19. To enforce the provision, the FMC’ s rulemaking said that an ocean carrier“ quoting rates that are so far above current market rates” could be considered evidence for unfairly refusing vessel space to a shipper, allowing them to bring a complaint to the agency. However, Robert McGovern, an attorney for the WSC, which filed suit last September to have the FMC revise the rule, told the three-judge panel that the FMC overstepped its authority in that rule because Congress ended the FMC’ s regulatory oversight of freight rates in 1984. Thus, that year, the agency began allowing carriers and cargo owners to enter private service contracts, instead of all freight moving under publicly filed tariffs.“ There’ s no scenario where a regulator that does not have statutory ratemaking authority can then turn around and tell regulated entities their rates are too high,” McGovern said.
Private fleets expanding
6 Journal of Commerce | October 6, 2025 www. joc. com