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Canadian Pacific Railway recently reached a tentative five-year agreement with the Teamsters Canada Rail Conference (TCRC), which represents 4,500 CPR locomotive engineers and conductors.

The contract calls for wage increases, benefit improvements, pension provisions and the “introduction of work/life balance issues,” said TCRC Vice President Douglas Finnson in a prepared statement.

The union soon will present the agreement to members and hold a ratification election.

Meanwhile, the Transportation Communications Union (TCU) and its Brotherhood of Railway Carmen (BRC) division have tabulated ratification votes for a five-year tentative national agreement reached in July with the National Carriers’ Conference Committee (NCCC).

Eighty-four percent of TCU members and 75 percent of BRC-represented workers voted in favor of the contract, which includes 2.5 percent, 3 percent and 3 percent wage increases retroactive to July 2005, July 2006 and July 2007, respectively. The pact also calls for a 4 percent pay hike on July 1, 2008, and a 4.5 percent hike on July 1, 2009, and various benefit improvements.

TCU/BRC reached the agreement with the NCCC as part of a four-union coalition. The other coalition members — the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers and Transport Workers Union — haven’t yet released results of their ratification elections. The unions represent about 36,000 electrical workers, machinists, clerks and carmen employed at more than 30 U.S. railroads, including the Class Is.