This story originally ran in Trains.com. While BNSF Railway, CSX, and Norfolk Southern are signing tentative contract agreements with their labor unions well ahead of national negotiations, Union Pacific has been notably absent. UP executives explained on Thursday that, unlike other railroads, they are aiming to modernize work rules as part of their contract discussions. "Some of the other railroads have started to enter into labor agreements with their unions. We, like them, agree that our employees are our most important resource and that they deserve very competitive pay and benefits, and as a matter of fact, we think our employees are among some of the highest compensated in the industry," said UP President Beth Whited at the railroad's investor day on Thursday morning. "However, we are so focused on our strategy of safety, service, and operational efficiency, we think it behooves us to spend some time with our unions in this negotiating cycle to talk about ways we can work together as part of our agreements to improve availability and modernize work rules so that as we emerge from this negotiating cycle, we're able to really ramp up our ability to provide that consistent and reliable service that our customers want and need from us. So that's the focus that we have at UP," she added. CEO Jim Vena emphasized that UP is not late, as the national negotiation process cannot begin for some time.