Freight Railroads Reach Agreement With Six Unions

WASHINGTON, Oct. 5, 2017 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The National Railway Labor Conference announced the nation's major freight railroads and a coalition of six unions have reached tentative agreement on new contracts covering wages, benefits and other issues.  The agreements, covering 85,000 employees, are the first in the current round of bargaining, which began in 2015, and are subject to membership ratification.

The pacts with the following unions cover almost 60 percent of the 145,000 employees in this bargaining round:

• American Train Dispatchers Association
• Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers & Trainmen
• Brotherhood of Railroad Signalmen
• International Brotherhood of Boilermakers, Iron Ship Builders, Forgers and Helpers
• National Conference of Firemen and Oilers
• International Association of Sheet Metal, Air, Rail and Transportation Workers ─ Transportation Division including Yardmasters

"These agreements demonstrate the strength of the collective bargaining process when the parties are committed to doing the hard work of building voluntary consensus," said A. Kenneth Gradia, Chairman of the National Carriers' Conference Committee (NCCC), the railroads' bargaining representative.  "We are confident that these agreements will serve as the foundation for the successful resolution of the bargaining round." 

Mr. Gradia thanked Linda Puchala, a Member of the National Mediation Board, and Eva Durham, a mediator with the Board, for their invaluable help.

The NCCC represents more than 30 railroads, including BNSF, CSX Transportation, Kansas City Southern, Norfolk Southern and Union Pacific, in national bargaining with the rail unions.

For additional information, visit www.raillaborfacts.org.

SOURCE National Railway Labor Conference