advertisement

---

On Friday, the United Transportation Union (UTU) announced that members in each of six crafts eligible to vote ratified a national contract with the National Carriers’ Conference Committee (NCCC), which bargains for more than 30 U.S. railroads, including the Class Is.

Retroactive to Jan. 1, 2010, and covering 38,000 UTU members, the contract provides a 17 percent wage increase over a 60-month period and 78-month cap on health insurance contributions, plus health care benefit improvements. Lump-sum payments of the retroactive portion of the wage increases will be paid by carriers as follows: 2 percent for the period from July 1, 2010, through June 30, 2011, and 2.5 percent from July 1, 2011, according to the UTU.

“The 17 percent wage increase over the life of this agreement is significantly higher than the rate of price inflation — providing a greater boost in purchasing power than any other national contract in the past 40 years,” said UTU International President Mike Futhey in a prepared statement. “The $200 monthly cap on health care insurance contributions, through July 1, 2015, is less than half what federal workers currently are paying; and is more than $140 less than the average currently paid by private-sector workers.”