Engineers to receive a cost of living adjustment on January 1 CLEVELAND, December 16 -- Locomotive Engineers covered by the December 16, 2003 National Agreement will notice an increase in their pay checks on January 1.
Under the terms of the national agreement, engineers will be allowed a cost of living adjustment of 31 cents per hour or $2.48 per basic day. The adjustment, called Harris COLA, is set out in the agreement as 50 percent of the cost of living adjustment in Article III of the agreement.
Also effective January 1, the monthly contribution that engineers covered by the National Agreement make toward the cost of health and welfare benefits will be increased by $25.85 to $127.64. Under the terms of the National Agreement, the increase in monthly contributions is equal to the lesser of half of the increase in the railroads' cost or half of the COLA.
Engineers on the following railroads are covered by the National Agreement: · The Belt Railway Company of Chicago · BNSF · Consolidated Rail Corporation · CSX (Baltimore & Ohio Chicago Terminal Railway Company; Gainesville Midland Railroad Co.; Richmond, Fredericksburg & Potomac Railway Co.) · DM&IR · Elgin, Joliet & Eastern · KCS · Longview Switching Co. · Northeast Illinois Regional Commuter Railroad Corp. (Metra) · Portland Terminal Railroad Co. · UP · Utah Railway Co. · Winston Salem Southbound Railway Co.
The new rates are available in the Members Only area of the BLET website at the following location:
http://www.ble-t.org/members/rate/0106
The next cost of living adjustment is scheduled for July, unless a new national agreement is reached before then. | 
