BLET Advances Agreements With CF&E, PHL

Chicago, Fort Wayne & Eastern Railroad Photograph (top) Courtesy of Cory Rusch, BLET Division 659; and Pacific Harbor Line Photograph Courtesy of Anacostia Rail Holdings.

Members of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen (BLET) have ratified an agreement with Genesee & Wyoming’s Chicago, Fort Wayne & Eastern Railroad (CF&E) and reached a tentative agreement with Anacostia Rail Holding’s Pacific Harbor Line (PHL).

Union members at CF&E reached a tentative contract agreement in May and have now voted to ratify it, BLET reported in the June 21 edition of its weekly email newsletter. The five-year on-property agreement governs rates of pay, benefits and work rules for 45 operating employees. It will run through 2029 and provide general wage increases of 29.5% (33% compounded) over the life of the contract (5% in 2023, 4% in 2024, 4% in 2025, 4% in 2026, 4% in 2027, 4% in 2028 and 4% in 2029). According to BLET, other contractual improvements include:

• A $2,000 signing bonus.
• Training pay increased to $15 per day.
• Probationary period decreased to 120 days.
• Meal allowance increased to $40 per each 24 hours on layover assignments.
• Extra Board employees can now hold down week-long temporary vacancies.
• Boot allowance increased to $300 per year.

The union members at CF&E, a 323-mile short line that operates from Tolleston, Ind., to Crestline, Ohio, belong to BLET Division 537 (Fort Wayne, Ind.) and are a part of the BLET’s Norfolk Southern-Northern Lines General Committee of Adjustment.

At PHL, a tentative contract governing rates of pay for approximately 150 BLET members has been reached, the union reported in its weekly email newsletter dated June 21. If ratified by the members, the agreement would run through 2027. It is a two-year extension of the current five-year contract ratified in 2020 at railroad, which provides switching services to customers in the ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles, Calif., and dispatches all BNSF and Union Pacific trains within those ports. The new deal would include general wage increases of 5% retroactive to May 2024, 3% in September 2024, 4% in 2025, and 4% in 2026, according to BLET. Ballots have been mailed to members and are due July 12, 2024.

PHL members belong to BLET Division 214 (Long Beach), and the union’s negotiating team was led by Union Pacific-Western Lines/PHL General Chairman Brian P. Carr and Division 214 Local Chairman Jose L. Covarrubias, with assistance from National Vice President Gary Best.

BLET in January reported securing a retention agreement, including up to $18,000 in bonus payments, for its members at PHL.

In related developments, Arizona Eastern Railway T&E employees recently voted to join BLET, and BLET members have voted in favor of an implementing agreement regarding CN’s proposed acquisition of Iowa Northern.