Amtrak and North America’s Building Trades Unions (NABTU), the labor organization representing more than 3 million skilled craft professionals, announced today a landmark national agreement to promote a strong workforce pipeline of U.S. union construction workers to build and expand America’s passenger rail.

Amtrak’s agreement with NABTU, along with their affiliates and state and local councils, represents a transformative moment for passenger rail and organized construction labor by setting a model for labor-management cooperation and workforce development. With Amtrak’s 15-year expansion strategy to create half a million jobs delivering over $150 billion in economic benefit to 160 local communities, this agreement helps ensure a consistent construction workforce pipeline, workforce training and labor standards with family-sustaining wages, healthcare benefits, and pension security.

As part of this framework, Amtrak and their construction partners will work together with the building trades’ unions to accelerate apprenticeship readiness programs, promote diversity, and ensure fair wages and benefits for the construction workforce on their projects. This announcement underscores Amtrak’s commitment to investing in today’s workforce as well as the next generation of America’s workforce.

-via Press Release