Union Pacific(NYSE: UNP) is suing the city of Palestine, Texas, to nullify a 150-year-old contract to keep a certain number of jobs in the town indefinitely.
The agreement between Union Pacific and Palestine — which was signed in 1872 — dates back to the days when the city was at the crossroads of several railroad companies that promised to keep jobs there indefinitely, according to the Palestine Herald-Press.
Union Pacific’s lawsuit, filed Nov. 27 with the U.S. District Courts in the Eastern District of Texas, alleges the railroad’s contract with Palestine should have been invalidated when the federal Surface Transportation Board became the nation’s regulating authority for freight rail in 1996; and again in 1997, when Union Pacific merged with the Missouri-Pacific Railroad.
The agreement requires the Omaha, Nebraska-based railroad to keep 0.52% of its total jobs in Palestine, local officials said.
Union Pacific operates around 32,000 miles of track in 23 Western states. The company had around 37,000 employees as of its last earnings report.
WASHINGTON, Sept 5 (Reuters) – An American Airlines mechanic was on Thursday charged with purposely damaging an aircraft in July amid a dispute between the airline and its mechanics union involving stalled contract negotiations.
Pilots of a flight from Miami to Nassau, Bahamas on July 17 aborted take-off plans after receiving an error message involving the flight computer, which reports speed, pitch and other data, according to a criminal complaint filed in U.S. District Court of Southern Florida.
It said after returning to the gate for maintenance, a mechanic discovered a loosely connected pitot tube that measures airspeed and connects directly to the flight computer.
A later review of video surveillance footage before the flight captured “what appears to be the sabotage of the aircraft” by a man walking with a limp, the complaint said.
When suspect Abdul-Majeed Marouf Ahmed Alani was interviewed, he told law enforcement he was upset at the stalled contract between the union and American, which he said had affected him financially, according to the complaint. It said Alani claimed to have tampered with the aircraft to cause a delay or have the flight canceled in anticipation of obtaining overtime work.
Unions have complained that American is trying to outsource more maintenance jobs, a move American has indicated is necessary to cover increased wages.
A U.S. federal court last month issued a permanent injunction against American’s mechanics union, which the airline had accused of illegal slowdowns it said had devastated its operations during the peak summer travel season.
A spokesman for American said the airline had an “unwavering commitment” to safety and security and had placed passengers on the July 17 flight subject to the criminal complaint on another plane to get to their destination.
“At the time of the incident, the aircraft was taken out of service, maintenance was performed and after an inspection to ensure it was safe the aircraft was returned to service,” the spokesman said. “American immediately notified federal law enforcement who took over the investigation with our full cooperation.”
The Miami Herald reported that Alani is set to make an initial court appearance on Friday. Court records did not indicate if Alani had an attorney.
The U.S. federal court order last month prohibits employees from “calling, permitting, instigating, authorizing, encouraging, participating in, approving, or continuing any form of disruption to or interference with American’s airline operations,” including a refusal to accept overtime or complete any maintenance repairs in the normal course of work.
(Reporting by David Shepardson; Additional reporting by Tracy Rucinski in Chicago; Writing by Jamie Freed; Editing by Christopher Cushing)
