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Next week, the Transportation Communications International Union (TCU) plans to mail ratification packets to clerks and carmen covered by the tentative agreement recently reached with the National Carriers’ Conference Committee (NCCC).

The packets will include a postcard ratification ballot, summary highlights of the agreement and the pact’s complete text. Ballots are due to the TCU by Dec. 22.

The agreement includes terms that mirror a Presidential Emergency Board’s recommendations, including wage increases of 20.1 percent over a six-year period and a 1 percent bonus, according to the TCU.

So far, the more than 30 U.S. railroads represented by the NCCC — which include the Class Is — have reached 10 agreements covering more than 60 percent of the 132,000 employees affected by the bargaining round. The railroads and remaining three unions that haven’t yet reached agreements remain in a 30-day “cooling off’ period, which ends Dec. 6, during which strikes and lockouts aren’t permitted.