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UTU Agreement Ratified (Passes)
By overwhelming margins within each craft, members of the United Transportation Union have ratified a new national rail agreement covering wages, rules and working conditions.
The ratified agreement is retroactive to Jan. 1, 2005, and remains in force through Dec. 31, 2009.
"In the face of recurring news reports of overall wage declines in American industry, tens of thousands of American job losses, and reductions in health-care benefits and pensions for millions of workers, UTU members covered by this agreement gain a 17 percent wage hike, retroactive pay, no change in work rules, an increase in the meal allowance, and a cap on health care contributions with no reduction in health-care benefits," said UTU International President Mike Futhey.
Effective Jan. 1, 2010, new-hires will gain health-care coverage in just 30 days rather than the previous 120 days.
"The ratified agreement also provides for arbitration to settle the dispute over entry rates tied to training, and with arbitrators we will have a hand in choosing," Futhey said. The arbitration process will begin within 30 days under terms of the ratified agreement.
"Additionally," said Futhey, "the UTU continued the COLA, beginning in 2010 while a new agreement is being negotiated. The COLA put some $7 more per day in members' pockets while we were at the negotiating table this round.
"We also retained, undisturbed, our locally negotiated crew-consist agreements, and the carriers retreated from their attack on the Federal Employers' Liability Act (FELA)," Futhey said.
Voting closed at midnight, June 9, and the American Arbitration Association, which conducted and tabulated the telephone balloting, reported that 18,076 votes were cast, with 15,313, or 85 percent, voting in favor of the agreement. Some 45,000 ballots were mailed, meaning 40 percent of those eligible to vote cast ballots.
The tentative agreement sent out for ratification was reached Jan. 23, following more than 38 months of negotiations with the National Carriers' Conference Committee, which represents BNSF, CSX, Kansas City Southern, Norfolk Southern, Union Pacific and numerous smaller carriers party to the agreement.
UTU District 1 general chairpersons voted unanimously in February to recommend a "yes" vote.
Futhey credited the negotiating committee with pursuing a positive and cooperative interest-based bargaining approach with the carriers when stalled negotiations were resumed in January -- "and the carriers responded with a positive and cooperative attitude, leading to the tentative agreement," Futhey said.
A reconstituted negotiating committee, which sat down again with the carriers in January, included Futhey, Assistant President Arty Martin, International Vice Presidents John Babler, J.R. "Jim" Cumby and Robert Kerley, National Legislative Director James Brunkenhoefer, and General Chairpersons John Lesniewski and Delbert Strunk.
Prior to voting, the UTU International officers conducted dozens of meetings nationwide to explain the agreement and provide members opportunity to ask questions "to ensure members were fully informed as to all provisions of the contract prior to their casting a ballot," Futhey said.
The tentative agreement also was posted in its entirety on the UTU Web site prior to its being mailed, along with agreed upon questions and answers jointly written by UTU negotiators and the carriers.
The ratified agreement covers conductors, brakemen, engineers, firemen, hostlers, switchmen and yardmen. Yardmasters voted separately on an agreement similar in most respects to the national agreement covering all other crafts represented by the UTU.
Members will receive retroactive pay from the carriers within 60 days.
This was only the second national rail agreement ratified by members in the 39-year history of the UTU. The 2002 national rail agreement was ratified by all crafts, with 76 percent of those voting in 2002 favoring the agreement.
Following is the breakdown of voting by craft, as reported by the American Arbitration Association after voting closed at midnight, June 9:
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