About 140 locomotive engineers and conductors walked off the job at noon on Tuesday, Nov. 11, and set up picket lines against the Wheeling & Lake Erie Railway, the Brewster-based regional railroad, the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen told The Repository.
Picket lines went up at four or five locations in Ohio, including Canton at 2800 Gambrinus Ave. SW and Akron at 1907 E. Market St., Gary Best, the union’s first vice president, told The Repository.
Best told The Repository the dispute is over the same issue that sent the railway’s workers on strike in 2013: the use of managers instead of union conductors and engineers. That earlier dispute was settled in federal court and raised safety concerns about single-person crews, The Repository reported.
In the past week, Best told The Repository, the railway operated a train with two non-bargaining managers instead of a conductor and a locomotive engineer. He said the union asked the company for a letter committing to abide by the union contract and the previous court decision.
“And they said they couldn’t do that,” Best told The Repository. “They want to do it again, basically.”
The Wheeling & Lake Erie is one of the nation’s largest regional railroads. According to The Repository, it has more than 425 employees and operates 840 miles of track across Ohio, Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Maryland, serving more than 135 customers and moving more than 140,000 freight carloads a year.
FTAI Infrastructure Inc., a New York-based infrastructure company, acquired the railway in 2025, The Repository reported. A company spokesperson did not immediately return a message seeking comment, according to The Repository.
BLET National President Mark Wallace said in a prepared statement reported by The Repository that the railway’s members have the national union’s full support. “This employer has not only violated our contract and compromised safety standards; they also have arrogantly thumbed their nose at the federal courts,” Wallace said in the statement. “We will protect the members we represent and the communities this railroad serves by shutting down train operations until this railroad’s management abides by court orders and the terms of our agreement.”
The strike lands in a difficult stretch for Ohio industrial workers. In Southwest Ohio, a Franklin auto-parts plant announced it will close and lay off 180 workers starting in January, while in Montgomery County a $100 million food plant leads five projects seeking county funding that backers hope will add jobs.
The union behind the walkout is a large one. The Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen represents more than 51,500 locomotive engineers, conductors and other train service employees across the country, and its national division is based in Independence, Ohio, The Repository reported.
The ownership is also new. FTAI Infrastructure, which acquired the railway in 2025, also owns the Pittsburgh-based Transtar Union Railroad Co., according to The Repository — meaning the Brewster dispute is the first major labor test for the railway under its new owner.
The history matters here because both sides have been to court over this before. The 2013 strike — which Best told The Repository was over “exactly the same issue” — ended in a federal court settlement after the railway’s use of managers in place of conductors raised safety concerns about single-person crews. The union’s position now is that running a train last week with two non-bargaining managers instead of a conductor and engineer crossed that same line again, and that only a written commitment will settle it this time.
What we know — and what we’re still waiting on
What we know: the strike began at noon Nov. 11, about 140 engineers and conductors are picketing, and the union says it will stay out until the crewing issue is resolved. What we’re still waiting on: any public response from the Wheeling & Lake Erie or FTAI Infrastructure, and word on how widely freight service is affected for the railway’s Ohio customers.
“We’re in for the long-haul, so as long as it takes,” Best told The Repository. What happens next: the union says picketing continues until the railway commits in writing to the contract and the earlier court decision; NewsForce247 will update this story if the company responds.
Photo: John from Southern Maryland, USA, CC BY