Members of the Transportation Communications Union (TCU) and its Brotherhood of Railway Carmen (BRC) Division have voted to ratify their respective tentative agreements with Norfolk Southern (NS), becoming the first to approve new five-year contracts with the company months before the start of the next collective bargaining round, the Class I recently announced.
According to NS, these first two agreements cover nearly 10% of the Class I’s union workforce and “ensure that covered employees will enjoy significant improvements to pay, health care, and vacation in the upcoming year. “To date, NS has reached tentative agreements with nine of its 13 unions covering nearly 65% of its craft workforce.
The newly ratified agreements provide a 3.5% average wage increase per year over the next five years, offering NS railroaders more vacation earlier in their career and making “significant improvements to an already robust suite of health care benefits.”
“Employees have told us they are tired of waiting on a multi-year bargaining process to receive their hard-earned raises. I’m proud of the work this company has done, in partnership with our labor leaders, to address that feedback, reaching early agreements with so many of our unions,” said NS President and CEO Mark R. George. “Looking ahead, we will continue to collaborate with our labor leaders on critical safety, training, and quality-of-life initiatives to ensure we provide a safe and rewarding career for our craft railroaders.”
In addition to BRC and TCU, NS has reached similar tentative agreements, which are still subject to ratification, with the American Train Dispatchers Association (ATDA), the Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employes Division (BMWED), the International Association of Sheet Metal, Air, Rail and Transportation Workers – Mechanical Department (SMART-MD), the International Association of Sheet Metal, Air, Rail and Transportation Workers – Transportation Division (SMART-TD), the International Association of Sheet Metal, Air, Rail and Transportation Workers – Transportation Division Yardmasters (SMART-TD-YDM), the International Brotherhood of Boilermakers and Blacksmiths (IBBB), and the National Conference of Firemen and Oilers (NCFO).
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