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The ratified implementing agreement with Metra governs 307 BLET members. Photo courtesy of Cory Rusch, BLET Division 659
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BLET members last week ratified an implementing agreement related to Metra’s takeover of services from the Union Pacific Railroad. Ballots were mailed to 307 members. It will cover BLET members with Engineer seniority in Divisions 96, 176, 404, 405, 683, and 848.

As background, UP has provided operating crews to Metra since its purchase of the former Chicago & NorthWestern Railroad in the mid-1990s, but UP has sought to hand off the commuter operations for some time now. A new operating entity known as the Northeast Illinois Regional Commuter Railroad Corporation (NIRCRC) will handle those operations. The newly-ratified implementing agreement governs vacation, flowback, and additional provisions for BLET members working for the new NIRCRC.

The office of BLET General Chairman Dick Crow, Union Pacific-Northern Region GCA, handled negotiations. Metra is the primary commuter rail system in the Chicago metropolitan area serving the city of Chicago and its surrounding suburbs.