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Members of the Transportation Communications Union (TCU) and its Brotherhood of Railway Carmen division recently ratified new contracts with the National Carriers’ Conference Committee (NCCC).

The union and division had negotiated national contracts with the NCCC — which bargains for more than 30 U.S. railroads, including the Class Is — since January 2010. The parties reached tentative agreements last month.
                                                      
The agreements, which cover about 16,500 rail employees, include recommendations made by a Presidential Emergency Board (PEB) in early November. The agreements are the first to be ratified since President Obama appointed the PEB, and the third and fourth to be ratified in the current bargaining round. The United Transportation Union (UTU) and its yardmasters department previously ratified pacts with the NCCC.
 
Eight other unions have reached tentative agreements with the railroads and are awaiting ratification votes. The only union without a tentative agreement, the Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employes Division (BMWED), previously agreed with the railroads to extend a “cooling off” period until Feb. 8.

Meanwhile, the UTU announced that trainmen and engineers employed by Evansville Western Railway Inc. ratified a new five-year contract, and trainmen and engineers employed by Iowa Interstate Railroad Ltd. ratified a new six-year pact.

The Evansville Western contract provides “substantial” wage increases with full back-pay, freezes health care contributions, preserves cost-of-living adjustments and improves working conditions, while the Iowa Interstate contract provides wage increases and establishes a seniority maintenance provision that enables covered employees to gain coverage under the UTU’s national health and welfare plan, as well as national dental and vision plans, UTU officials said in a prepared statement.