There will be no rail freight strike early Friday.  But the threat of a strike has not completely disappeared.   

  The tentative agreement reached early Thursday after a marathon 20-hour negotiation between the railroad and leaders of the engineers and pipeline workers union means the strike that was set to begin at 12:01 a.m.  ET Friday will not take place.  However, the agreement still needs to be ratified by union members to take effect.   

  The details of the ratification vote have yet to be determined, but are likely weeks away.  Although union leadership hailed the deal as a bargaining victory, a successful ratification vote is not yet assured.   

  Some union members appeared to criticize the deal on social media, and union leadership admitted some class members may not be happy with the deal.   

  “We have a little time off with pay, but we’ll live to fight another day.  You know, that’s part of the negotiation,” Michael Baldwin, president of the Brotherhood of Railroad Signalmen, told CNN.  “When members see what’s in the contract, I think they’ll see that the wages and the extra day of paid time off will be beneficial to them.  …Sometimes you can’t do everything, so you come back next time.”   

  Another union leader was confident the tentative deal would be accepted.   

  “I think we got everything we could,” Dennis Pierce, president of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainers, told CNN.  “And I think once our membership understands where we sit and what’s involved, I think it will be ratified.”   

  Union members working in other industries have recently refused to ratify their agreements, even when proposed by their union leadership.  While most union contracts have been ratified, there have been some very high-profile examples of angry union members voting no.   

  About 10,000 members of the United Auto Workers union at farm equipment maker John Deere went on strike last fall after rejecting a lucrative tentative agreement.  That rejected offer included immediate increases in their base pay of 5% to 6%, and additional pay increases later in the contract that could increase average pay by about 20% over six years.  And it had a cost-of-living adjustment that would give them additional pay based on inflation of other rates.   

  But more than 90% of UAW members at Deere voted no and went on strike, then stayed on strike after rejecting a follow-up deal.  They finally returned to work after five weeks after a third vote was passed on a similar package.   

  Striking workers at cereal company Kellogg ( K ) also rejected a tentative deal and decided to remain on strike in December before finally agreeing to a deal weeks later.   

  And only 50.3 percent of film production workers voted in favor of a deal last fall that met nearly all of their union’s bargaining goals, a contract that averted a strike by 63,000 technicians, technicians and artisans that could have resulted in film, television and streaming production shows at a standstill.   

  A smaller rail union has already voted to reject the tentative deal – the 5,000-member Machinists union unit that works as locomotive and track equipment engineers and facilities maintenance staff.  But that union is not preparing to go on strike immediately and will instead try to seek a new deal by the end of the month.  The agreement reached with engineers and pipelines could affect those negotiations.   

  Thursday’s tentative deal on the rail deal gives engineers and pipelines much of what they’ve been demanding.  It includes changes to work rules that have forced more than 50,000 members of the two unions to be “on call” and ready to report to work at short notice, up to seven days a week.  It gives them protection from discipline or dismissal if they were unable to report to work because they were seeking medical attention or even being hospitalized.  Those scheduling rules did not apply to more than 50,000 other union members on the railroads, and most of the other unions had reached tentative agreements before Wednesday night.   

  The deals give all unions an immediate 14 percent raise and compensation dating back to 2020. Total wage increases over the five-year term of the contract totaled 24 percent, and also give them a $1,000 cash bonus to each of the five years.  Together the return and previous bonuses will mean the average employee will receive a payout of $11,000 after the contract is ratified.