FACT SHEET

FREIGHT RAIL COLLECTIVE BARGAINING KEY FACTS

  • 50+ agreements deliver higher wages, better benefits, and more paid time off.
  • New contracts include an 18.8% wage increase over 5 years, enhanced healthcare, and earlier vacation access.
  • The Railway Labor Act guides freight rail bargaining.

Freight railroads and the unions that represent their employees negotiate changes to wages, benefits and work rules through a process called collective bargaining.

The current national collective bargaining agreements reopened for negotiation on Nov. 1, 2024, when the parties exchanged Section 6 notices. The industry’s goal in this bargaining round is to finalize timely, voluntary agreements that build on its strengths: providing safe, high-paying jobs with professional growth opportunities, maintaining affordable and reliable customer service and continuing to invest in infrastructure and innovation.

Class I rail carriers and several of their union partners have already reached — and in many cases, ratified and implemented — more than 50 local and national collective bargaining agreements to resolve the 2025 bargaining round. These agreements address key employee priorities with wage increases, enhancements to world-class health benefits and earlier access to paid time off. 

Key highlights of these pattern agreements include:

  • Wage increases of 18.8% over five years. Based on current inflation projections, this increase will translate to real wage growth for covered railroaders and pay certainty for the life of the contract. 
  • Enhancements to world-class health and welfare benefits with no increase to the employee contribution rate. In 2025, health care premiums decrease to about $277/month, well below the national average of more than $500/month for employer-provided family coverage. 
  • Access to more paid vacation time for employees earlier in their careers. 

Check out the National Rail Labor Conference (NRLC) status page for up-to-date details.

Here’s how collective bargaining works in the freight rail industry.

Because of freight rail’s critical role in America’s supply chain, the industry’s collective bargaining process differs from most other private-sector labor negotiations.

For almost a century, the Railway Labor Act (RLA) has governed collective bargaining between freight railroads and labor organizations. To facilitate negotiations without interruptions to commerce, freight rail labor agreements remain effective until new terms are agreed upon. While the RLA process includes mechanisms for third-party mediation in case of a stalemate, most national freight rail negotiations have resulted in voluntary agreements.

Freight railroads’ long history of progress at the bargaining table reinforces what many in the industry have always known: railroading is important, skilled work that powers the economy while providing careers with high compensation and world-class benefits.