Local

Ohio rail workers strike at Wheeling & Lake Erie over managers filling conductor jobs

Brewster, Ohio • November 11, 2026 • By Press Pass USA

A Wheeling & Lake Erie freight train travels through Ohio farmland

Photo: SpeedShot Train Photography / RailPictures.Net — file photo

About 140 engineers and conductors walked off the job at noon Wednesday at the Wheeling & Lake Erie Railway, one of the nation's largest regional railroads, saying the company is using managers to work as conductors in violation of its contract and a federal court order.

Members of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen set up picket lines at four or five locations in Ohio, including the railroad's headquarters in Brewster and yards in Canton and Akron, the union said. The strike began at noon on Nov. 11, and the union said it would continue until the issue is resolved.

The dispute centers on the railroad's insistence on assigning managers to do conductors' work. The union says that practice violates its collective bargaining agreement and a federal court order dating to 2013 — the same issue that led to a strike and federal court proceedings at the railroad that year. In the past week, the union said, the railway operated a train with two non-bargaining managers instead of a conductor and a locomotive engineer.

Under the Railway Labor Act, a contract violation of this kind qualifies as a "major dispute," which allows the union to call a strike immediately, according to the union. BLET National President Mark Wallace, who also leads the Teamsters Rail Conference, said the railroad's actions were a clear violation of both the contract and the court order.

The Wheeling & Lake Erie operates 840 miles of track across Ohio, West Virginia, Pennsylvania and Maryland, running from Hagerstown, Maryland, through West Virginia and Pennsylvania, serving Pittsburgh and northeastern Ohio and reaching Toledo. The Brewster-based railroad has more than 425 employees and is among the nation's largest regional railroads. It was acquired in 2025 by FTAI Infrastructure Inc., a New York-based infrastructure company, for $1.05 billion.

The union said it was not aware of any response from the railroad by mid-afternoon Wednesday. The company had not publicly commented on the strike as of Wednesday afternoon.

The 2013 dispute, which was settled in federal court, also involved the use of managers instead of conductors and raised safety concerns about single-person crews. The Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen represents more than 51,500 locomotive engineers, conductors and other train service employees across the country.

Sources: The Canton Repository, "Workers launch strike against Stark-based Wheeling & Lake Erie Railway" (Nov. 11, 2026); FreightWaves, "Wheeling & Lake Erie engineers, conductors strike over managers filling crew positions" (Nov. 11, 2026); Trains, "BLET members launch strike at Wheeling & Lake Erie" (Nov. 11, 2026); Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen, "Strike called today at one of the nation's largest regional railroads" (Nov. 11, 2026).