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Two rail labor union coalitions have rejected the terms of the tentative United Transportation Union (UTU)/National Carriers’ Conference Committee (NCCC) national agreement as a basis for voluntarily settling their national contracts with the NCCC, which represents more than 30 U.S. railroads, including the Class Is.

About two weeks ago, the UTU announced that its tentative five-year national agreement includes the highest wage increase — in excess of the current and projected consumer price index — in the union’s 41-year history. The pact calls for a 17 percent wage increase over six years, the retention of a $200 monthly cap on health care cost-sharing, a faster process for new hires to reach full pay rates and no rollback of a January 2011 cost-of-living adjustment.

“We believe that 17 percent in wage increases over six years is not a fair settlement in light of the carriers’ record profitability, nor we do accept the need for the radical restructuring of our health plan,” said Bob Scardelletti, president of the Transportation Communications Union — which is a member of a five-union coalition seeking to negotiate a national agreement with the NCCC — in a prepared statement.

The TCU is bargaining along with the American Train Dispatchers Association, International Association of Machinists, International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers and the Transport Workers Union. The coalition demanded to be released from mediation in December and February; the National Mediation Board (NMB) rejected the first request and has not responded to the February request, said Scardelletti.

The Rail Labor Bargaining Coalition (RLBC) — which includes the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen, Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employes Division, Brotherhood of Railroad Signalmen, International Brotherhood of Boilermakers, National Conference of Firemen & Oilers and Sheet Metal Workers International Association — also has rejected terms of the tentative UTU/NCCC agreement, he said.

“Our coalition met with the other coalition last week. We agreed that we could work together before a single Presidential Emergency Board,” said Scardelletti. “We plan to renew our demand for release at NMB-called negotiations scheduled for June 28 and 29.”

Meanwhile, the RLBC has asked to be released from federal mediation because the NMB’s “best efforts have not been successful in bringing about an amicable settlement of this [contract] dispute through mediation,” coalition officials said in a prepared statement.

The proposed changes to the UTU’s separate health insurance plan “cannot be incorporated into the Railroad Employees‚ National Health and Welfare Plan, which covers RLBC-represented and other railroad workers,” they said. “Moreover, the industry’s position that significant economic elements of the tentative UTU agreement are inapplicable to RLBC-represented workers means that the parties’ differences are irreconcilable and further mediation is unwarranted.”