Credit: Photo via Brightline/Twitter

A federal judge this week dismissed a lawsuit filed by the high-speed passenger rail Brightline in late 2024, which sought to initially block, then overturn the results of a union election involving its onboard attendants in Florida.

Brightline argued in its lawsuit against the National Mediation Board that it wasn’t a rail carrier and therefore wasn’t subject to a union election conducted by the NMB, which oversees labor relations in the railroad and airline industries specifically. 

A majority of Brightline’s roughly 100 onboard attendants, including chefs and culinary specialists, voted in favor of joining the Transport Workers Union in January 2025 after the federal agency ordered the election to move forward. Brightline originally filed a lawsuit against the NMB to block the union election in December 2024. The union filed a motion to intervene in the lawsuit last February.

“Brightline should finally realize it has reached the end of the line. The railroad’s multi-year attempt to silence its workers and deny them the right to negotiate for fair wages and benefits has been nothing short of shameful,” Transport Workers Union international president John Samuelsen said in a statement responding to the federal judge’s March 31 decision. The union represents an estimated 165,000 workers across the airline, rail, transit, service and utility industries.

U.S. District Judge Darrin P. Gayle of the U.S. District Court of Southern Florida granted summary judgement to the NMB — effectively siding with the agency — in his decision and denied a motion for summary judgement submitted by Brightline.

Under the Railway Labor Act, union elections involving rail carriers must be conducted through the NMB, instead of the National Labor Relations Board, which handles other types of private sector union elections.

“It is clear that Brightline qualifies as a rail carrier,” Gayle wrote in his decision, citing the Railway Labor Act and federal grant conditions. Brightline, a company that seeks to expand its operations in Florida and on the West Coast, has received millions of dollars in federal grant funds specifically reserved for rail carriers under the Consolidated Rail Infrastructure and Safety Improvement Programs.

A rail carrier is defined under the CRISI program’s conditions as “a person providing common carrier railroad transportation for compensation, but does not include street, suburban, or interurban electric railways not operated as part of the general system of rail transportation[.]” 

“Therefore, the NMB was within its authority to assume jurisdiction over the representation dispute between Brightline and its Employees,” Gayle wrote.

Brightline’s onboard attendants are the first of its workers to unionize in a state that is generally considered hostile to unions. Just 6.2 percent of Florida workers are represented by a union, with higher union density in the public sector.

In a statement shared with Orlando Weekly, a Brightline spokesperson said the company is “disappointed in” and disagrees with the court decision, adding that Brightline “fully supports” their workers’ right to bargain collectively through union representation. “We simply do not agree that the NMB has jurisdiction over Brightline,” the spokesperson said. 

Brightline was accused during its workers’ organizing campaign of sending anti-union propaganda (“Brightlies”) to workers ahead of their union election, drawing from a list of common talking points utilized by employers to talk down unionization. 

The rail company, currently facing $1.2 billion in debt, retained lawyers from the notoriously anti-union law firm Littler Mendelson — who typically charge hundreds of dollars per hour — to represent them during the unionization campaign.

“Brightline can now stop wasting money on high-priced lawyers who tried to overturn our members’ right to join the TWU,” said John Feltz, TWU’s rail division director in a statement. “The company should now use its resources to provide our members a contract that provides a fair living wage and better benefits for them and their families.”

Delaying the process of negotiating an initial union contract is a common tactic deployed by anti-union employers as a way to water down support for the union. A spokesperson for the TWU confirmed to the Weekly that the process of getting Brightline to the bargaining table has been “slow” and that no agreements have yet been reached for an initial contract.

The union last year quickly secured a union contract for aircraft fuelers at Orlando International Airport employed by PrimeFlight Aviation Services, an airline contractor. The contract delivered a 15 percent wage increase and guaranteed paid time off for the workers.

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General news reporter for Orlando Weekly, with a focus on state and local government and workers' rights. You can find her bylines in Creative Loafing Tampa Bay, In These Times, and Facing South.