Five More Unions Reach Agreement With Freight Railroads, Accords Now Cover 96,000 Workers in Nation

[Omaha Steve]

http://sev.prnewswire.com/transportation-trucking-railroad/20070717/DCTU07417072007-1.html

Five More Unions Reach Agreement With Freight Railroads
Accords Now Cover 96,000 Workers in National Bargaining

WASHINGTON, July 17 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- With the help of National Mediation Board Mediator Ernie DuBester, the nation's major freight railroads reached a tentative agreement Tuesday with five rail labor unions representing about 30,000 unionized employees. The agreements, which now go to members for ratification, would bring to 12 the number of unions that have reached agreements with the railroads.

Negotiators for a coalition representing the five unions -- the Transportation Communications International Union (TCU), the Brotherhood Railway Carmen (TCU-Carmen), the Transportation Workers Union (TWU), the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM&AW) and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) -- agreed on the new contracts in negotiations this week in Washington with the National Carriers' Conference Committee (NCCC), the bargaining agent for the railroads.

In June, members of six other unions, part of the Rail Labor Bargaining Coalition (RLBC), ratified agreements with the railroads, setting a pattern for future settlements with the unions still in negotiations. Members of another RLBC union, the American Train Dispatchers Association, began voting again this month on the tentative agreement they narrowly rejected in June. In all, tentative or final agreements have now been reached with unions representing more than 96,000 or two-thirds of the 145,000 employees of Class I railroads covered in national bargaining.

"The agreements with this coalition bring us closer to a successful voluntary resolution of negotiations with all unionized rail workers," NCCC chairman Robert F. Allen said. "This clearly demonstrates that collective bargaining works for the benefit of both employees and the railroads."

Like the previous agreements, the new accords will provide rail employees with a generous package of wages and benefits that will keep them among the nation's best compensated industrial workers. In addition, the agreements include provisions that will help better manage health care costs that have risen over 130 percent since 1999.

More than 30 railroads, including BNSF Railway, CSX Transportation, Kansas City Southern, Norfolk Southern and Union Pacific, have been engaged in national bargaining with the rail unions since the current round of negotiations began in November 2004.

The National Carriers' Conference Committee represents the railroads in national (multi-employer) collective bargaining with the 13 major rail unions.