Freight Railroads Reach Tentative Agreements With Four More Unions

ARLINGTON, Va., Dec. 11, 2017 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The National Railway Labor Conference has announced that the nation's major freight railroads have reached tentative agreements with the Brotherhood Railway Carmen (BRC), the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM), the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW), and the Transportation Communications Union (TCU). 

The new agreements cover more than 31,000 employees and are subject to membership ratification.  The contract terms cover wages, benefits, and other issues.  The Transport Workers Union, which represents a limited number of employees in this bargaining, is also a party to these agreements.

The railroads have now reached agreements with unions covering 116,000 employees, about 80 percent of the 145,000 employees in this bargaining round.  The following unions, which represent 81,000 employees in the bargaining, have already ratified their agreements with the railroads:

• American Train Dispatchers Association
• Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers & Trainmen
• Brotherhood of Railroad Signalmen
• International Association of Sheet Metal, Air, Rail and Transportation Workers ─ Transportation Division including Yardmasters

"These new agreements, which follow the terms established in the earlier agreements, bring us closer to the resolution of negotiations with all the unions," said A. Kenneth Gradia, Chairman of the National Carriers' Conference Committee (NCCC), the railroads' bargaining representative. 

The NCCC represents more than 30 railroads, including BNSF, CSX Transportation, Kansas City Southern, Norfolk Southern and Union Pacific, in national bargaining with twelve rail unions.  Bargaining began in 2015.

SOURCE National Railway Labor Conference