Union Pacific touts economic potential in merger, but labor leaders worry about safety

Around 10,000 railroad cars pass through North Platte’s Bailey Yard each day, heading for destinations across North America. Many of them will leave Union Pacific’s rails and head to the East Coast, picked up by other Class I railroads like CSX and Norfolk Southern.

But Omaha-headquartered Union Pacific hopes to soon have a nationwide network of tracks.

Union Pacific was founded in 1862 when President Abraham Lincoln signed the Pacific Railway Act. Seven years later, the transcontinental railroad was completed in Promontory, Utah, connecting physical tracks from coast to coast, but not the companies that owned them.

Now, Union Pacific has transcontinental aspirations once more – this time through a merger with another railroad giant. In late July, the company reached an agreement with Norfolk Southern to purchase the Atlanta-based railroad for $85 billion. If the merger is approved, Union Pacific would become the first railroad company to serve states on both coasts.

“Our presence goes back here nearly 165 years, rooted in President Lincoln's vision for a transcontinental,” said Union Pacific Vice President of Public Affairs Liisa Stark. “We like to say President Lincoln said start, he never said stop. And that is what this merger will allow us to do.”

Both of Nebraska’s U.S. senators have praised the proposed merger, citing opportunities for faster commerce and the potential to create additional jobs.

Sen. Pete Ricketts said it will help the state’s agriculture producers by streamlining the transportation process for their goods.

“When they get this fully integrated, what this should do is create a nationwide network for this rail shipment, which ought to make it smoother, reduce the amount of time and therefore allow us to get our goods to market faster,” he said in a statement.

Sen. Deb Fischer, who serves on the Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee, also issued a statement with her support.

“This merger not only has the potential to create many more jobs, but it will also provide seamless transcontinental service,” she wrote. “I look forward to seeing the growth that will come to our state as a result of this crucial partnership.”

Not everyone is as optimistic.

Jeff Cooley, a Union Pacific conductor who also serves as the president of SMART-TD Local 200, the nation’s largest railroad workers union, has serious concerns about what the merger could mean for rail safety.

He said Nebraska is lucky it hasn’t had a major rail disaster due to the number of close calls along Union Pacific rails.

Last April, a derailment near the grain elevator in the panhandle town of Chappell forced a brief evacuation of residents on the west side of town.

“If you see the pictures from that, there were containers scraping against anhydrous tanks that didn't rupture,” Cooley said. “There was containers stuck in the side of an elevator in Chappell that didn't explode and the town all decimated.”

A section of Union Pacific track near Gothenburg has also had at least three recent derailments.

“We should have had several East Palestines on the Union Pacific Railroad going through these towns,” Cooley said, referencing a 2023 derailment of cars carrying hazardous materials in East Palestine, Ohio.

The railroad company responsible for the East Palestine derailment? Norfolk Southern.

Cooley said Norfolk Southern has strengthened its safety programs in response to the disaster that cost the company more than $800 million. In 2024, it became the first Class I railroad to participate in the Federal Railroad Administration’s Confidential Close Call Reporting System, which allows employees to report safety concerns confidentially.

Cooley worries Union Pacific’s potential purchase of Norfolk Southern could put that program in jeopardy.

“The big dog is going to eat the little dog,” he said. “All that goes away.”

Cooley blames a lack of inspections for the near disasters and worries incidents like that could become more common if the merger goes through.

“When hedge funds and Wall Street run the show, it's all about cost, and they could care less about worker safety or about some of the industries that are going to be disenfranchised,” he said.

Stark said Union Pacific believes the combination of resources with Norfolk Southern will bring about more safety, not less.

“We'll be able to leverage additional technologies through each other's companies that reduce derailments and rail incidents by improving, for example, operational precision and monitoring,” she said.

Before the merger can officially take place, it must first be approved by the Surface Transportation Board, a federal agency that regulates freight rail. Stark said Union Pacific is poised to submit an application to the board by the end of the year. The company hopes the merger approval is finalized by the beginning of 2027.

Last month, President Donald Trump fired Robert Primus, one of the two Democratic members of the Surface Transportation Board. Primus was the only board member to vote against the 2023 merger between the Canadian Pacific and Kansas City Southern railroads. A White House spokesman said Primus “did not align with the President’s America First agenda and was terminated from his position by the White House.”

Cooley said he worries about the influence of big business and executive pressure on what is supposed to be an independent agency process.

“We're dealing with the unfriendly administration to, I guess, basic common sense.” he said. “It's all about the money for these guys, and they will go just as fast as they can, if they can get somebody to bend an ear towards them or influence them.”

Railroaders in North Platte are already on edge following Union Pacific’s proposal to move jobs away from Bailey Yard and into Omaha. Union Pacific said the move would impact 80 positions, while labor leaders have speculated the number is closer to 200.

The move isn’t directly related to the proposed merger, but it has soured public opinion toward Union Pacific management in North Platte.

Lincoln County Commissioners approved a resolution urging Union Pacific to keep the jobs at Bailey Yard at their September meeting.

Stark said the move would benefit Union Pacific crews and customers alike.

“What we're proposing is to establish a single home base in the Omaha area for railroad crews who operate between North Platte and Missouri Valley and then North Platte and Fremont,” she explained. “These service routes have two base home bases, North Platte and then the Omaha area. So, as we see benefits, consolidating that into one will give us greater flexibility to meet customer needs and then schedule those crews more efficiently.”

Mike Gage, the President of the Midwest Nebraska Central Labor Council, said he’s concerned the merger may result in additional layoffs and job changes

“Once they do these moves, then they look at their numbers and they end up having furloughs from that point, that's typically been the case with any merger or any shop closure,” he said. “Once they know how many people are transferring, then they sharpen their pencil and furlough from there.”

However, Union Pacific workers were reassured earlier this week when Union Pacific reached an agreement with SMART-TD, the nation’s largest rail union. The deal guarantees that union members working in train and yardmaster services will have job protection for the entirety of their careers. Following the agreement, SMART-TD announced its support for the merger.

Cooley remains skeptical. In an email to Nebraska Public Media News, he wrote, “I feel as a patriot to our country that this is a back-room deal to persuade the Surface Transportation Board to approve a merger that is bad for America’s shippers, public safety, and service performance for American Commerce.”

Union Pacific CEO Jim Vena sees it differently.

“I am confident we will unlock new sources of growth for the country and our industry, taking more trucks off taxpayer-funded highways, serving new markets, and keeping more railroad jobs in America,” he said.