Arlington, Va. (Nov. 13, 2024) – Today, the National Carriers Conference Committee (NCCC) reached tentative national collective bargaining agreements with the Transportation Communications Union (TCU) and the Brotherhood of Railway Carmen (BRC). These agreements, reached on behalf of the NCCC-represented railroads who had not earlier reached local pattern agreements with the aforementioned unions, are subject to member ratification on those railroads. Reflecting terms consistent with those pattern agreements, the tentative national agreements were entered just days after the parties exchanged section 6 notices to open the national bargaining round and build on the early progress made across the industry over the past several months.
“The NCCC is encouraged to see this progress so early in the national bargaining round,” said Jeff Rodgers, chairman of the NRLC and the NCCC. “These agreements address employee priorities, providing an 18.8% wage increase over five years, enhancing health and welfare benefits at a lower cost and giving railroaders access to more paid vacation earlier in their careers. Importantly, they reinforce the pattern set by early agreements reached between carriers and unions at the local level, which will help guide prompt, stable outcomes for the entire industry.”
The NCCC’s goal is to negotiate national agreements that build on the freight rail industry’s core strengths: safe, high-paying jobs for employees with professional growth opportunities, affordable and reliable service for customers, and ongoing reinvestment in infrastructure and innovation.
About the National Bargaining Round
The current round of national bargaining began with the service of Section 6 notices on November 1, 2024. Prior to the start of the round, several NCCC member railroads reached local agreements with a number of rail labor organizations that:
- Increase pay by 18.8% over five years, and based on current inflation projections, will translate to real wage growth for covered railroaders along with pay certainty for the life of the contract.
- Enhance world-class health and welfare benefits with no increase to the employee contribution rate. In 2025, health care premiums will decrease to about $277/month, well below the national average of more than $500/month for employer-provided family coverage.
- Give employees access to more paid vacation time earlier in their careers.
The new local agreements, which already cover thousands of rail employees, build on the historic 24% wage increase from the 2022 bargaining round. Taken together, wages for employees covered by these agreements will increase by nearly 50% (compounded) from 2020–2029. The NCCC’s Section 6 notices propose early resolution of the national bargaining round based on the pattern established by these local agreements.
A list of carriers and unions participating in national handling can be found here. Carriers and unions that have reached a ratified agreement to resolve the bargaining round for a particular craft do not participate in national handling with respect to that craft. Additional information about the bargaining round can be found at railnegotiations.com.
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The National Railway Labor Conference (NRLC) is an association representing all U.S. Class I freight railroads — and many smaller freight and passenger lines. Through its NCCC, the NRLC leads national negotiations with the 12 major rail labor organizations.
