The Soo Line Railroad has a new short-term contract with the United Transportation Union, the union whose members struck the company for 47 days last summer before President Clinton ordered them back to work.
Union representatives and Soo officials signed the pact Monday night, after the union’s 1,100 members overwhelmingly ratified the pact.
Workers will get a 10 percent pay increase, and the Soo will be able to reduce the size of train crews, meaning some brakemen will be cut, Soo officials said. Only brakeman hired after May 1, 1993, may be laid off.
Because the new contract expires Dec. 31, negotiators will be back at the table soon. But the union will work under the present contract until a new one is completed, Soo officials said.
The union struck Minneapolis-based Soo Line in July. Other rail unions honored the strike, and the Soo was forced to reduce operations and run trains with management personnel.
