advertisement

---

On Friday, the United Transportation Union (UTU) announced it reached a tentative five-year national agreement with the National Carriers' Conference Committee (NCCC) covering wages, benefits and working conditions. The pact would be retroactive to Jan. 1, 2010, and expire on Dec. 31, 2014.

The tentative agreement amends an existing national contract with the NCCC, which represents more than 30 U.S. railroads, including the Class Is. Agreement details are being withheld pending ratification by members, UTU officials said in a news item posted on the union’s website. The pact would cover about 38,000 UTU members.

“This is the first agreement reached this round of national bargaining with the NCCC, [and] it was reached voluntarily, without need for mediation,” UTU officials said.

Other rail labor unions, which are bargaining as part of two separate coalitions, remain in negotiations with the National Medication Board because mediation was invoked in their contract talks, according to the UTU. One coalition includes the Transportation Communications Union, American Train Dispatchers Association, International Association of Machinists, International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers and Transport Workers Union.

The other coalition still negotiating with the NCCC includes the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen, Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employes, Brotherhood of Railroad Signalmen, Brotherhood of Boilermakers and Blacksmiths, National Conference of Firemen and Oilers, and Sheet Metal Workers International Association.