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In a letter to members, Transport Workers Union (TWU) International Vice President and Railroad Division Director Gary Maslanka recommends they ratify a tentative five-year contract with the National Carriers’ Conference Committee (NCCC).

In July, the TWU and coalition partners the Transportation Communications Union (TCU), International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers and International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers reached an agreement with the NCCC covering 36,000 electrical workers, machinists, clerks and carmen employed at more than 30 U.S. railroads, including the Class Is. The parties had been negotiating a contract for more than two years.

The contract includes 2.5 percent, 3 percent and 3 percent wage increases retroactive to July 2005, July 2006 and July 2007, respectively. The pact also calls for a 4 percent pay hike on July 1, 2008, and a 4.5 percent hike on July 1, 2009. In addition, the agreement stipulates various benefit improvements, including a new approach to health care cost-sharing that will “limit the burden on the workers,” Maslanka wrote.

Members of the TCU and its Brotherhood of Railway Carmen division previously ratified the agreement by a 3-to-1 margin.