BLET, CN reach tentative agreement for Wisconsin Central engineers

Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen (BLET) recently reached a tentative agreement with CN covering 600 locomotive engineers at CN's Wisconsin Central Railway subsidiary.

The agreement — which was attained after several months of negotiations and requires ratification by members — would provide quality-of-life improvements, BLET officials said in a news release.

The pact would improve the traditional seniority system; standardize all extra board positions to five days on and two days off; and increase pay for extra board engineers to time and one half for working on rest days. In addition, all engineers could achieve a maximum of 13 personal leave days; currently half are capped at five days.

The BLET members are expected to vote on the tentative agreement over the next month.