Onboard Brightline workers have voted 2-1 to join the Transport Workers Union, overcoming opposition from management that urged a contingent of more than 100 employees not to organize, the labor group announced Tuesday.
The National Mediation Board in Washington, D.C., disclosed the election outcome Tuesday, after multiple weeks of mail balloting that started in November, the TWU said in a statement.
The covered workers include an estimated 100 onboard and “lead” attendants who sell food and beverages on Brightline trains that travel between Miami and Orlando. The higher speed Miami-based railroad maintains a work force of about 600 employees.
“Brightline ran an ugly anti-union, anti-worker campaign against their own workforce, but let’s put that behind us,” Transport Workers Union International President John Samuelsen said in a statement. “We’re committed to working to ensure the railroad is successful while helping our newest members secure better wages, better working conditions, respect in the workplace, and other goals that they set.”
A Brightline spokesman and the NMB, which supervised the election, did not immediately respond to emailed requests seeking comment.
The TWU says it represents more than 155,000 workers nationally in the airline, railroad, transit and other industries. The union’s rail division counts as members employees at Amtrak, Metro-North Railroad in New York, PATH in New Jersey, the CSX and Norfolk Southern freight railroads, and Keolis, which operates rail and bus transit systems in the U.S.
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“The TWU will now work with Brightline workers to form a negotiating committee to begin drawing up a first contract with Brightline,” the union statement said Tuesday.
The workers initiated their organizing drive last August when they filed cards with the NMB, the federal agency that mediates contract disputes in the airline and rail industries under the Railway Labor Act.
But a month later, it accused management of trying to block the effort.
In a statement at the time, the company said it historically recognized employee rights to organize.
“Brightline recently signed a historic agreement with organized labor to build and operate Brightline West (including the TWU) and have always recognized our teammates’ right to explore representation,” spokesman Ben Porritt said.
In the attendants’ case, the railroad argued that it is not a rail carrier that falls under the jurisdiction of the Railway Labor Act. But the board rejected the assertion and the election moved forward.
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