NCFO members ratify labor pacts with BNSF, Norfolk Southern

National Conference of Firemen and Oilers (NCFO) members who work for BNSF Railway Co. have ratified their collective bargaining agreement with the Class I, BNSF announced last week. 

NCFO members also recently ratified the union's tentative agreement with Norfolk Southern Railway. To date, NS has reached tentative agreements with 10 of its 13 unions covering 67% of its workforce, NS officials said in a press release.

According to press releases from BNSF and NS, the respective agreements will provide employees with a 3.5% average wage increase per year for the next five years and offer employees more vacation time earlier in their career, as well as enhanced health-care benefits.

Additionally, BNSF reached a tentative five-year collective bargaining agreement with the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW), the Class I announced late last week. The agreement with IBEW is the ninth tentative agreement announced by BNSF in the past two months ahead of the collective bargaining round. Those agreements represent 53% of BNSF’s union workforce.