Now that the final inflation data has been tallied for the last year of our recent 5-year agreement, it is a good time to reflect on how our general wage increases (GWIs) compared to the consumer price index (CPI).  It is a commonly expressed sentiment by our members that they feel like our raises in recent years have not kept up with rising inflation.  Considering the current price of eggs, rent, electricity and nearly everything else we buy, this is quite understandable.

Due to all this feedback from our members, a year-by-year comparison was done between the GWIs we have received under our National Agreements and the CPI-W index.  In our comparison, we gathered CPI data for the last 23 years and compared that with GWIs received during that same timeframe. While we are all somewhat skeptical about the data provided by the government regarding the real measure of inflation, this particular index (CPI-W) is one that has been relied on in our industry for a great many years, which is the reason it was used.

In the end, what was found served to validate a message many of you have heard communicated by your committee officers at various local meetings.  While it is not accurate to say that our wages have not kept up with inflation, it is quite accurate to say that our raises have not kept up with the increased responsibilities and demands of our profession. And other blue-collar workers in this country have closed the gap significantly in wages and benefits, making a railroad career far less desirable than it once was.  Until Carriers understand and address this deficiency, the industry will continue to struggle to grow and provide quality service to its shippers.

Since the year 2001, the annualized CPI relied on reflected an increase of 58.2% (roughly 2.5% annual inflation).  Over that same span of time, our GWIs under National Agreements totaled 79.85% (uncompounded).  As you can see, our raises did, in fact, outpace inflation by a total of 21.65% over a span of 23 years, or approximately 0.9% per year.  Please do not take this as some sort of boastful proclamation about how good we have had it – it is anything but that.  However, we firmly believe that any worthy effort to improve your position begins with a clear-eyed analysis of where you are. 

To drill down a bit further on this analysis, we analyzed our most recent 5-year agreement and the associated 22% raises it contained.  Some of you may remember the words of the infamous “Oracle of Omaha” who implied those raises were too rich when he stated “wage increases, promulgated by Washington, were far beyond the country’s inflation goals.”  Interestingly, the final inflation numbers show our raises in the last round outpaced inflation by a grand total of 0.3% over the five years.  CPI data for the years coinciding with the term of our last agreement totaled 21.7%.  So, regardless of the FED’s inflation goals, which have no bearing on whether we can afford to feed our families, the final results from our last agreement reflect we essentially broke even with inflation.