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Next month, the National Carriers’ Conference Committee (NCCC) and United Transportation Union (UTU) plan to hold another round of negotiating talks. The parties — which held a bargaining session in Kansas City, Mo., Jan. 11 and 12 — will meet Feb. 16 and 17 to discuss pay, and work rules and conditions for about 40,000 train and engine-service workers represented by the union. A National Mediation Board senior mediator is leading the bargaining discussions.

Contract negotiations between the UTU and NCCC — which bargains for more than 30 U.S. railroads, including the Class Is — began in November 2004. Under the Railway Labor Act, contracts between railroads and unions don’t expire, remaining in force until changes are negotiated.

A federal court continues to consider UTU’s petition seeking to prohibit the NCCC from bargaining over crew consist agreements and the Federal Employers’ Liability Act.