CSX, BLET reach tentative labor pact

CSX late last week announced it reached a tentative five-year labor agreement with the Brotherhood of Locomotives Engineers and Trainmen (BLET) representing 3,400 locomotive engineers.

Terms of the tentative pact mirror the wage increases, health care and quality-of-life enhancements in CSX's 13 other agreements with other unions, CSX officials said in a press release.

The remaining major union-represented group CSX has yet to reach an agreement with is the International Association of Sheet Metal, Air, Rail and Transportation Workers. 

CSX is also the first Class I to reach an agreement with BLET in this bargaining round, company officials said. Locomotive engineers make up 20% of CSX's front-line workers, CSX officials said.

If the BLET agreement is ratified, nearly 75% of CSX unionized workers would be covered under new agreements announced over the past nine months.