Wheeling & Lake Erie Railway Headquarters — Headquarters of Railroad in Strike
Roughly 140 locomotive engineers and conductors walked off the job at Wheeling & Lake Erie Railway on Wednesday, halting train operations across the regional network that connects Northeast Ohio industry to the rest of the country. The union says the strike began at noon with picket lines at key locations, and it has no plan to call it off until the railroad changes course.
The Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen says the walkout was triggered by the railroad’s use of managers to perform conductors’ work, a practice the union calls a breach of its contract. According to BLET, picket lines went up at key locations beginning at noon on Wednesday. The union contends the practice also violates a federal court order dating back to 2013, though those claims reflect the union’s position rather than an independent legal finding…