Railroads reach agreement with largest union

Railroads reach agreement with largest union    The nation’s largest freight railroads have reached a tentative labor agreement with their largest union, the United Transportation Union.
   UTU, which represents about 38,000 workers, said Monday it reached a five-year national rail agreement covering wages, benefits and working conditions with the National Carriers’ Conference Committee (NCCC), which represents BNSF, Union Pacific, CSX, Kansas City Southern, Norfolk Southern and many smaller railroads.
   The agreement is retroactive to Jan. 1, 2010, and extends through Dec. 31, 2014. The tentative contract, which amends the existing national agreement, must be ratified by each affected UTU craft under the craft-autonomy provisions of the UTU Constitution. The existing national agreement remains in force under provisions of the Railway Labor Act.
   Details of the tentative agreement are being withheld pending its presentation to a yet-to-be-scheduled meeting of the Association of UTU General Chairpersons.
   UTU said the deal was reached voluntarily without need for mediation, but that two members of the National Mediation Board — Elizabeth Dougherty and Linda Puchala — served as facilitators during the two most recent rounds of talks between UTU and NCCC
   Other labor organizations — bargaining as part of two separate coalitions — remain in negotiations with the National Mediation Board, and mediation has been invoked in those separate talks.
   One coalition includes the Transportation Communications Union, the American Train Dispatchers Association, the International Association of Machinists, the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, and the Transport Workers Union.
   A second coalition still negotiating with the NCCC includes the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen, the Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employees, the Brotherhood of Railroad Signalmen, the Brotherhood of Boilermakers and Blacksmiths, the National Conference of Firemen and Oilers, and the Sheet Metal Workers International Association.