October Update
- 2025 Tentative Agreement -
Today, Thursday October 24th is the last day to vote on the Tentative Agreement.
Ballots for the 2025 Tentative Agreement (TA) have been mailed to all SMART members for a vote. SMART members should have received the ballot by mail and through a text message. Voting will be allowed until Thursday, Oct. 24th at 5pm ET. Only SMART members are allowed to vote. Some of the more recent members may not have been in the system in time to receive a ballot.
A copy of the TA can be found HERE, or a copy of the TA is also included in the ballots.
One thing that I think hasn’t been made clear in the discussions surrounding this TA, is that if this agreement passes, Norfolk Southern is locked out of one man crew negotiations before 2030. If this TA fails to pass Norfolk Southern would have the right to serve notice that they would like to implement one man crews, forcing us into negotiations. The TA failing to pass would also most likely mean that the negotiating process will start from scratch, going to the traditional national negotiating process under the Railway Labor Act, which would take an undetermined amount of time to complete, delaying any potential wage increases until an agreement is reached and ratified. For context, the last round of national negotiations took nearly 3 years.
Other than that, the TA includes the following:
WAGE INCREASES
17.5% wage increase (18.75% compounded)
July 1, 2025 - 4.0%
July 1, 2026 - 3.75%
July 1, 2027 - 3.5%
July 1, 2028 - 3.25%
July 1, 2029 - 3.0%
VACATION CHANGES
All new hire employees will get a week of vacation.
Since New Hire Employees won’t be able to schedule a week of vacation in prior Oct./Nov., they will receive individual vacation days, prorated depending on the month in which they are promoted:
January/February - 7 days
March/April - 5 days
May/June - 4 days
July/August - 3 days
September/October - 2 days
The number of vacation weeks each employee is awarded will be changed to accrue additional weeks of vacation 2 years earlier:
0/1 Year - 1 week
2 Years - 2 weeks
6 Years - 3 weeks
15 Years - 4 Weeks
23 Years - 5 Weeks
HEALTH AND WELFARE
Coverage for dependents of deceased employees will extend through the end of the 6th month following the employees’ death.
Vasectomies will be covered by insurance
Annual Maximum dental benefit will be increased from $1500 to $2500
Annual Maximum Orthodontic benefit will be increased from $1000 to $2500
Vision frame benefits will be increased from $115 every 2 years to $250 every 2 years.
Employees who opt out of health coverage will receive $200 instead of $100 per month
Single employees will be able to pay a reduced-rate that has higher deductibles and higher out of pocket maximums
If you have any questions about the Tentative Agreement, or about how the agreement process works, please don’t hesitate to call any of your Local Chairmen. We’d all be more than happy to answer any questions, or explain any of the processes.
- Reduced Insurance Premiums -
Regardless of how the TA is voted, insurance premiums will reduce from $309.21 to $277.54, effective Jan. 1st, 2025.
- 2024 Holiday Party -
The 2024 SMART Local 622 Holiday Party will be Thursday, December 5th 6pm - 9pm at Ferus Artisan Ales 101 Beech St Suite111 Trussville, Al
- 2025 Vacation Submissions -
2025 Vacations can be scheduled between now and Nov. 30th. In order to qualify for vacation, you must have a total of 240 total qualifying days. To look at how many total qualifying days you have accumulated, go to option 8, and hit F6. If you have 240 or more qualifying days, you’ll qualify for vacation in 2025. If you haven’t quite hit 240 yet, but are getting close, you will keep accumulating them until December 31st, and will still be able to schedule your vacation. If you don’t have 240 or more as of December 31st, then unfortunately, you won’t qualify for a vacation in 2025.
To schedule your vacation, go to the Crew Pro app on either your MTR or on a computer. (OWP.NSCorp.com) and select Schedule Vacation. From there, you have to select 12 preferences. Put your most preferred week of vacation as choice number 1 and your least preferred week as choice number 12.
If you don’t get any of the 12 weeks you’ve selected, your Local Chairman will contact you at some point in December and work with you to schedule one of the remaining weeks.
When scheduling your vacation, you can selecting “1” in the dropdown menu next to “Weeks as days” if you would like to be awarded 7 individual vacation days instead of a scheduled week of vacation.
October 15th was the snapshot date to determine what Vacation List you will fall under and are as follows:
ALBICOEE - East End Carded Jobs, Pool Turns, East End and West End Locals
ALBITRAG - AGS Carded Jobs, Pool Turns, Locals, and the Combined Extraboard
ALBITRBI - Yard Jobs