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10/4/2024
Members of the American Train Dispatchers Association (ATDA) have ratified labor agreements with BNSF Railway Co. and Norfolk Southern Railway. ATDA members ratified a new five-year agreement with BNSF to increase wages, accelerate paid vacation accrual and add other contractual improvements, according to a BNSF press release.
The announcement comes a month ahead of the opening of the next collective bargaining round and provides a 3.5% average wage increase per year over the next five years. It also offers railroaders more vacation earlier in their career and makes meaningful enhancements to an already robust suite of health care benefits, BNSF officials said.
"We thank our labor leaders who collaborated on this agreement and worked to make sure our employees are taken care of on and off the railroad," said BNSF President and CEO Katie Farmer. "We are looking forward to continuing to work together in providing our customers with the high-quality service we deliver here at BNSF."
Yesterday, ATDA announced it voted "overwhelmingly" in favor of ratifying a five-year agreement with NS to increase wages and address quality of life issues. The agreement includes general wage increases of 17.5% over five years (before compounding), as well as a market rate wage adjustment to better align the compensation of NS dispatchers with their Class I counterparts, ATDA officials said in a press release.
Altogether, the total compensation package marks the largest total wage increase for NS dispatchers in any round of bargaining in over 25 years, excluding those obtained through Presidential Emergency Board 250 in 2022, ATDA officials said. It also represents the first comprehensive agreement reached between the parties outside of national bargaining since 2009.
In addition to the wage increases, the NS deal features several important work rule improvements. Among these are important enhancements to agreement language covering vacation, sick leave and schedule, union officials said.