For IC's UTU employees, three contract options

Railway Age, Jan, 1997

A ratification vote on a labor-management agreement is usually a simple yes-or-no proposition. But United Transportation Union members at Illinois Central are getting three options--and "no" is not one of them.

The three options are to accept:

A $23-per-hour wage rate, plus a one-time payment of $60,000 per employee in exchange for elimination of a productivity fund that has been part of agreements for a number of years.

A slightly modified version of the national agreement that was imposed through arbitration last year.

Binding arbitration.

The first option would replace the traditional mileage pay system with an hourly-based system that IC believes would make its UTU-represented employees among the highest paid in the industry. This is a concept based on a form of assigned service and assigned days off that would allow conductors and trainmen to work and rest on a more regular schedule than is typical in railroad operations.

UTU and management negotiators initialed a similar deal last year, but members then voted it down. The new version, IC says, should resolve employee concerns, especially those involving seniority issues, that helped to defeat the earlier proposed agreement.

The second option would closely parallel the 1996 national agreement. In the national bargaining situation, negotiators also thought they had an agreement but it failed of ratification, after which the carriers and the UTU accepted arbitration and the arbitrators imposed the settlement the negotiators had approved.

Acceptance of either option would settle outstanding issues between IC and the union into the next century. Whichever option gets the most votes (including the arbitration option) will be the one adopted. IC has about 700 UTU-represented employees, about 22% of its work force. Voting has been under way, and results were expected on Jan. 17.