IAM District 19 Secures Paid Sick Days, Other Victories for Members at BNSF

IAM District 19 leadership has gained a historic victory by securing four paid sick days for all IAM members at BNSF.

“Our members spoke and the District leadership moved into action,” said IAM District 19 BNSF Lead General Chairman Kenny Krause.

Starting in December of last year, District 19 set up meetings with BNSF to talk about a number of important issues, including paid sick time. Through a number of in-person meetings and Zoom calls, District 19 leadership was victorious in achieving paid sick time for our members while protecting all other negotiated benefits.

“This is a historic win for our members as we have been fighting for paid sick time for quite some time,” said Krause. 

District 19 was also able to make improvements and modernize the agreement by incorporating electronic mailing, allowing for better and faster transfer of information. This will also help to speed up the claims process.

The District 19 team demanded and the carrier has committed to sitting down within the next 60 days to find ways to expedite the claim process beyond electronic mailing. As we all know, the process now takes too long and BNSF tries to starve out our members who have been removed from service.

The District 19 team was also able to clean up Leadman start time language, allowing the Leadman starting times to be staggered at individual locations if local committees and local management believe this would be beneficial.

Lastly, your District 19 leadership team was able to broaden the lunch period for our traveling mechanics—a much-needed change as their work changes from day to day.

“This is something that past and present General Chairman have been working to get for our members for years and is the culmination of years of hard work to reach this point,” said IAM District 19 General Chair John Denny. “Our members and staff should be proud of what has been accomplished.”

“This is truly a historic victory for all BNSF District 19 members and just goes to show that District 19 and our members will never stop fighting for what is right,” said the IAM District 19 Leadership Team.