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(Repeats story first published on Thursday.)
By Lisa Baertlein and Doyinsola Oladipo
LOS ANGELES/NEW YORK, Sept 15 (Reuters) - Union railworkers in the United States scored a potential key victory in their fight for improved pay and working conditions on Thursday in what could be a model for other unions.
Major U.S. railroads and unions representing tens of thousands of workers reached a tentative deal after 20 hours of talks brokered by U.S. Labor Secretary Marty Walsh, averting a railway strike.
While not directly applicable to ongoing negotiations at U.S. West Coast ports and upcoming talks at United Parcel Service, the rail workers' potential win could embolden other workers who have toiled through the COVID-19 pandemic while watching employers reap record profits, labor experts said.
Playing in the favor of unions and their members is a tight labor market, as well as a new generation of workers who demand safer working conditions.
"The pandemic didn't simply cause stress, but really highlighted deep discontent that many workers have had, including in rail, but had been putting up with," said Harley Shaiken, labor professor emeritus at University of California Berkeley. "We're at a critical moment."
President Joe Biden, in announcing the deal on Thursday with such companies as Union Pacific Railroad and Berkshire Hathaway-owned BNSF Railway, praised it as a model for other company-union agreements.
The rail deals - hammered out between the companies and a dozen unions - must still be ratified, but they include large wage increases, monthly health contribution freezes, a framework for assigned days off and time off for sick days, doctor visits and medical care.
Workers with similar demands likely "would take this as a win or an opportunity to feel like they have some leverage," Stifel analyst Benjamin Nolan said.
That could especially apply in industries where workers kept the economy moving while many sheltered at home, and without whom vital transportation systems, delivery services and healthcare would have suffered, experts said.
The issues resonate across all sectors, whether it is railworkers, West Coast dockworkers, UPS delivery drivers, intensive care unit nurses, Amazon.com Inc warehouse workers or Starbucks Corp baristas, some of whom are pushing to organize unions, said Peter Rachleff, a professor and U.S. labor researcher at Macalester College in Minnesota.
Employees have more power as many businesses are short-staffed, some because of years of cost cutting or pandemic-fueled attrition, he said, and those employees are pushing back against longer hours.