A labor dispute in Skagway between the White Pass and Yukon Route Railway and its workers has ended. On Wednesday both parties signed an agreement that will keep the trains going and the workers on the job.
Rail workers for the White Pass & Yukon Route sought a wage increase to keep up with the cost of living in Skagway.
“Negotiations began six years ago,” said Jason Guiler, who chairs the local chapter of the union that represents White Pass’s 27 Alaska-based engineers, conductors and brakemen. “It started at the end of 2017, and with such a change that has happened in our environment, with COVID, and with the sale of the organization in 2018, and obviously there have been several factors that have allowed for that delay all the way until now.”
Guiler works on the company’s trains, taking tourists through the mountains and into Canada. He switches between positions — sometimes he is the engineer, sometimes the brakeman, or the conductor. He says workers like him had not gotten a raise in over six years.
But there was another sticking point. Tyler Rose, the executive director at White Pass and Yukon Route, said the company considered phasing out the brakeman position on the train. He says that position could have been automated.
“What we were looking at was with technology, into the future, the potential of something through attrition,” he said.
Guiler says the workers disagreed.
“That brakeman role, that third individual on board the train, that is a critical one,” he said.
He said with only three people responsible for the safety of up to 600 passengers, employees didn’t want to see that position eliminated.
“Though automation works in some areas and has in some capacity been used in a freight line to success, [it] just doesn’t work when you add the human factor into it,” he said.
Rose says the company conceded.
“It really is that balance between efficiencies and what makes sense, and managing the workforce in a positive way,” he said.
Eventually the parties drafted an agreement. The brakeman position would remain, health benefits be maintained, and workers would see a wage increase. Rose says he is pleased with the agreement.
“It’s a substantial wage increase that we are pleased with, and our employees are pleased with. We are just really happy to be moving forward with this,” he said.
Guiler says an overwhelming majority of the workers voted in support of the agreement. It was signed and went into effect on July 26.
“We look forward to being able to work together and move into the future, resting assured knowing that we are going to be able to enjoy those successes together with the organization,” he said.
The agreement will be up for review in 2027.
