CSX, SMART-TD B&O agree on sick-leave benefits

CSX yesterday announced it reached a tentative agreement with the Sheet Metal, Air, Rail and Transportation Workers-Transportation Division B&O (SMART-TD B&O) to provide CSX trainmen and conductors with paid sick leave benefits.

If ratified by SMART-TD B&O members, the agreement will increase the number of CSX operating employees with paid sick leave benefits to more than 10,000, or 60% of the company’s union-represented workforce, CSX officials said in a press release.

Agreement terms call for five days of paid sick leave annually plus an opportunity to convert two days from personal leave to sick leave.

The agreement is the latest that CSX has negotiated with unions representing rail workers. Others that have negotiated paid sick leave include the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW); the Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employes Division (BMWED), which represents track workers; the Brotherhood of Railway Carmen (BRC), which represents mechanical employees; the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM), which represents railroad machinists; and the National Conference of Firemen and Oilers (NCFO), which represents CSX’s utility workers.