6 of 7 Rail-Worker Unions Ratify Contract
By Bloomberg News
Six of seven unions representing workers at Union Pacific Corp. and other major U.S. railroads have ratified a contract that includes a 17 percent wage increase over five years, a labor group said.
The agreement with more than 30 U.S. railroads, including the five largest, was voted on by about 85,000 workers, the Washington- based Rail Labor Bargaining Coalition said in a statement Monday. Members of the American Train Dispatchers Association rejected it, Teamsters spokesman David White said.
The contract was negotiated over 2 1/2 years ending in May, runs through 2009 and covers about half the railroads’ employees, the labor group said. The carriers include Union Pacific, Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corp., CSX Corp., Norfolk Southern Corp. and Kansas City Southern, the five biggest in the United States.
“We’ve never gotten anything over 12 percent in the last 30 years” on wage increases, said George Francisco Jr., president of the National Conference of Firemen and Oilers, one of the unions that ratified the contract.
Francisco credited the labor-friendly Democratic Party’s victory in the November 2006 congressional elections and the railroad industry’s record profits for helping the unions get increased wages and benefits.
“A pattern was set on wages, health-care plans and other issues in this round of bargaining,” said Robert F. Allen, chairman of the National Carriers’ Conference Committee, which represented the companies. “These ratifications solidify that pattern and demonstrate that collective bargaining continues to work in the freight rail industry.”
Rail shares rose more than twice as fast as the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index in the five years to May 31. Railroads are benefiting from high oil prices that make trucks less competitive and from demand for energy sources such as coal and ethanol. Railroads are the main carriers for the corn and fertilizer used to produce ethanol.
The dispatchers union, which rejected the contract, represents about 1,500 workers, said Joanna Moorhead, a spokeswoman for the companies’ bargaining group.
In addition to Francisco’s union, the contract was ratified by the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen, the Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employees Division, Brotherhood of Railroad Signalmen, International Brotherhood of Boilermakers and Sheet Metal Workers’ International Association. The engineers and maintenance workers unions are part of the Teamsters.
Members of the National Carriers’ Conference Committee ship more than 90 percent of U.S. railroad freight, Moorhead said.
(c) 2007 Deseret News (Salt Lake City). Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.