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The National Carriers’ Conference Committee (NCCC) gave negotiations another try with a rail labor union coalition. Now, the committee is ready to give mediation another go.

On June 10, the NCCC filed separate applications with the National Mediation Board seeking mediation with the seven members of the Rail Labor Bargaining Coalition (RLBC). The committee previously filed for mediation in March, but voluntarily withdrew its applications last month to resume negotiations with the coalition.

Officials from the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen (BLET) division of the Teamsters Rail Conference cancelled a bargaining session last week, which will “delay rather than advance mutual efforts to reach a voluntary agreement,” NCCC officials said in a prepared statement.

Issues in the current round of negotiations, which began Nov. 1, are “complicated but no more difficult” than matters resolved through negotiations in the past, said NCCC Chairman Robert Allen.

The NCCC bargains for 32 U.S. railroads, including all the Class Is. The committee’s current bargaining round involves negotiations with 13 major rail labor unions.

In addition to the BLET, RLBC members include the Teamsters Rail Conference’s Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employes Division, Brotherhood of Railroad Signalmen, National Conference of Firemen and Oilers, Sheet Metal Workers International Association, International Brotherhood of Boilermakers and American Train Dispatchers of America.