Unions for Regional Rail engineers and conductors reach tentative contract agreements with SEPTA

SEPTA and the union representing Regional Rail locomotive engineers have reached a tentative contract agreement that will boost their wages, currently about 28% lower than pay at other passenger railroads in the Northeast United States.

The Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen announced the tentative three-year deal in a statement Wednesday, and SEPTA’s board approved the contract Thursday afternoon.

The deal would shorten from 15 years to seven the time required for an engineer to reach the top of the wage scale, a change long sought by the union.

“Wage compression, combined with the agreed-to annual raises … will bring us closer to our peers in the industry and help SEPTA recruit and retain the engineers needed to keep the trains moving,” said Don Hill, a Regional Rail locomotive engineer and general chairman of BLET Division 71, which represents about 170 people.

SEPTA said it also reached a separate tentative deal with SMART-Transportation Division Local 61, the union representing about 400 Regional Rail conductors and assistant conductors. That contract was also approved by SEPTA Thursday.

After 15 years on the job, SEPTA locomotive engineers are paid $39 an hour — compared to an average of about $50 an hour for their counterparts at other passenger railroads in the region, said James P. Louis, a national vice president for the BLET union.

The wage comparison is based on pay at Amtrak, NJ Transit, the Long Island Railroad, Metro-North, and PATH, which links Newark, Jersey City, and Hoboken to Manhattan, Louis said.

Commuter rail workers are governed by the federal Railway Labor Act, putting them in a different situation from SEPTA bus, trolley, and subway operators and mechanics. Contracts technically never expire but become amendable, and the parties are subject to a lengthy, multistep process designed to prevent strikes and lockouts, because passenger railroads are critical to interstate commerce.

The engineers and conductors would each get raises of 13% in stages, starting when the unions ratify the contracts to February 2026, according to SEPTA summaries.

Time until top pay scale would also shorten from 15 years to seven for conductors and assistant conductors.

BLET’s national office will mail ballots to its members at SEPTA and report results of the ratification vote on July 17, the union said. Its bylaws require elections to be conducted by mail due to the work hours and spread-out job assignments for locomotive engineers.

Regional Rail workers also would be eligible for pandemic bonuses of up to $2,200 and signing bonuses of $3,000, as well as four weeks’ paid pregnancy disability leave and two weeks of paid parental leave.

“This is what we like to see — voting on signed contracts,” said SEPTA board chairman Ken Lawrence Jr., who pledged improved labor relations when he took over the top spot in February.

SEPTA and the BLET union had been in negotiations for more than two years, while the engineers worked under the terms of the previous agreement.

In November both Regional Rail engineers and conductors voted to strike if released from mandatory talks by the National Mediation Board, the federal agency that governs labor relations in the railroad and airline industries.

Word of the agreements came after a contract dispute between NJ Transit and its locomotive engineers’ local moved closer to a work stoppage.

A federal mediation board released the parties from further mandated contract talks, triggering a 30-day “cooling off” period before BLET can strike or NJ Transit can lock them out. But it is likely the matter would head to a presidential emergency board, which would push a possible service interruption back at least 120 more days.

Federal law requires President Joe Biden to appoint an emergency board if either party or the governor of an affected state requests it. NJ Transit said it would ask for one.