86% of those UE Hallcon drivers who submitted ballots voted YES to ratify the 2026-2030 Contract between the Union and Hallcon. The new Contract took effect on October 12th. Below are important takeaways about the new Contract.

Click here for a digital copy of the new contract. Paper contract books will be printed soon and Stewards will have copies to pass to members.

Base Wages

All locations have won immediate 2026 base raises ranging from $0.51 to $1.54. Drivers in Chicagoland, Los Angeles County, and San Bernardino County won exactly $1.00. Many drivers in Local 977 won over $1.00, to fix the poverty wages Hallcon was previously paying. The full wage chart is at the bottom of this document and in Appendix A of the Tentative Agreement. 

All locations will receive the below annual raises (Article 35.9), a clearer and fairer structure than the previous percentage system:

• $0.45 in 2027 
• $0.50 in 2028
• $0.55 in 2029

Road Driver Bonus and Hours 

Road drivers have won a new bonus of $100 per paycheck (Appendix B). The company will pay this bonus to all drivers who, for each pay period:

• Remain available on the board regular hours,
• Accept 85% of trips, and 
• Do not get into any accident

Hallcon will begin paying the bonus three months after the new contract is ratified, and the Union and the company will meet twice over the next nine months to ensure the bonus is implemented smoothly and fairly. To ease implementation of the bonus, the UE bargaining unit’s Van Park areas will move to a “windows of availability” structure in many locations, where road drivers will bid by seniority for 12 hour windows in which they stay on the board. The Union believes that this will improve coverage, limit board manipulation, and ensure that road drivers get their hours. The new contract also eases the process (Article 3.5) for the union to fix overall low hours on a road board. As always, this process works best when affected members work together with stewards to hold Hallcon accountable.

Other Wage Improvements

Longevity (Article 35.10): Drivers with seniority over 3 years will continue to receive longevity raises, both this year and in the remaining three years of the contract. This is a change from the last contract, but coupled with overall raises, senior drivers will not lose wage increases.

To calculate your raise with longevity, here is what you need to do:

• Drivers with 3 to 10 years of seniority: add your location raise to your current pay, then multiply this number by 1.015 – this will be your new pay rate.
• Drivers with 11 or more years of seniority: add your location raise to your current pay, then multiply this number by 1.025 – this will be your new pay rate.

Shift differential (Article 35.6): the night and weekend shift differential will increase from $0.30 per hour to $0.40. This is the first improvement to the shift differential in eight years.

Cell phone pay (Article 40): yard and radius drivers will now be paid $0.40 and $0.50 per shift in cell phone pay respectively, a gain of $0.15. Road drivers who were previously earning $0.45 per trip will now earn $0.50 per trip. Road drivers who were previously earning $0.55 per trip will remain at $0.55.

Backpay (Article 35.5): If the Union members ratify the Agreement, then the company will pay back-date 2026 wages to August 23rd, 2026. This means that all active drivers will receive backpay for all hours worked between August 23rd and the day of ratification. The backpay will be equal to the difference between your 2025 rate and your 2026, multiplied by all hours worked during the backpay period. 

Paid Time Off and Vacation 

Drivers with 3-5 years of seniority will now accrue an additional day of PTO annually, compared to the old contract. Drivers with 8 years of seniority of more will accrue an additional two days. Here is the new PTO accrual chart. 

Years of Service	PTO Days	Unpaid Days
90 Days	3 days***
6 months	1 day	0 days
1 year	5 days	5 days
3 years	7 days	8 days
5 years	8 days	6 days
8 years	10 days	5 days
10 years	14 days	5 days
13 years	15 days	5 days
16 years	16 days	5 days
20 years	17 days	5 days

Other Benefits and Language Improvements

There are several other improvements to drivers’ quality of life from this contract. They are listed here:

• Health benefits: drivers will gain access to Hallcon’s telehealth benefit. Additionally, the company will adopt a twelve-month “look-back” period for insurance eligibility, which will mean that drivers’ insurance eligibility will be disconnected from seasonal changes in hours. 
• Van safety: drivers won the right to continue getting paid if they refuse to drive an unsafe vehicle. Road drivers will stay at the top of the board and will receive cancellation pay. Yard drivers will remain on the clock. 
• Safety cameras: Hallcon will not use the new Motive cameras to surveil drivers. “Points” cannot be used against drivers for disciplinary purposes. If your manager writes you up and cites your “points” as a reason why, contact your steward immediately. 

February 2022

Congratulations to all UE Local 1077 PTI drivers in California (CA) and Nevada (NV). January 15 through January 20, PTI drivers successfully ratified their first union contract with the Company. Drivers made history with the first Union contract with PTI in these states. During the contract ratification process, PTI drivers had Zoom meetings to review the tentative agreement. Drivers voted online with a majority vote to ratify the new three-year union contract with PTI.

The new 3-year union contract has improved benefits, wages and includes more job security protections. PTI already implemented the first round of wage increases guaranteed under the contract. Your Union Bargaining Committee composed of drivers Lela Jankowski (driver from Dunsmuir, CA) and Ed Stephenson (driver from Sparks, NV) did an amazing job, and along with dozens of drivers that were part of the Contract Support Committee, PTI drivers showed unity and strength during these very tough negotiations.

The Next Steps:
UE Union is a rank and file union which means the union members, the drivers, run the union. The drivers elect their leadership from their co-workers, decisions are made democratically by member voting. Under a rank and file union, the members manage and set their dues system. There are open nominations and elections for UE Local 1077 Union Executive Board (E-Board). Notices of nominations were mailed to all drivers. We encourage PTI drivers to nominate co-workers.

We also need to build and recruit co-workers to be Shop Stewards and build a Shop Steward council. Shop Stewards are the first line of defense of the contract Shop Stewards help enforce the contract, file grievances, and represent co-workers. Shop Stewards and E-Board members also help set Labor-Management meetings with PTI management to address issues further. To become a steward, a driver must have their co-workers fill out a petition for stewardship, the potential steward must sign the Pledge of 1077 and agree to participate in training.

In the next coming weeks, there will be a series of union yard meetings taking place in all PTI yards in CA and NV for drivers to start nominating Shop Stewards and go over any workplace issues that we can enforce the contract. Drivers are encouraged to sign the union membership card to be a member in good standing. Under the contract and CA Labor Law, PTI drivers will have the option of being members of the union in good standing, or if drivers don’t join the union, their other option would be to be an agency fee payer. The best choice is to join the union that your co-workers and drivers like you build and make your union of PTI drivers strong. The Union is as strong as its members are.

Please contact UE Field Organizer Fernando Ramirez @ 323-572-4668 or fernando.ramirez@ueunion.org if you wish to nominate a co-worker for any of the Union Executive Board open positions or want to become a Union Shop Steward or want to nominate a co-worker for Union Shop Steward.

Thursday January 13, 2022, the UE and PTI bargaining committees reached a tentative agreement for a complete contract. The agreement includes many provisions including wage increases, vacation, a grievance procedure, safety protections and more. The UE Bargaining Committee is recommending a yes vote. Of course, each member will decide for themselves how they vote. Please see the attached TA’s for the complete contract.

No contract provisions will go into effect until the members vote. Drivers can only vote if they join the Union by going here: https://railcrew.ueunion.org/pti/ and signing up.

Now it is time for the members to learn, debate and vote on the package. Attached below is the full draft contract, please read it.

We will hold 3 zoom sessions that you are invited to join, and discuss with your co-workers:

Zoom session #1 Saturday 15, 2022 03:00 PM PACIFIC Time (US and Canada)

Zoom Link https://ueunion.zoom.us/j/85346369501?pwd=NXZ0OUdKOERYMi9meWZTR3ZIVGlDZz09

Or call in at: (669) 900-6833 add meeting ID 853 4636 9501, enter password: 948494

Zoom session #2 Sunday Jan 16, 2022 10:00 AM PACIFIC Time, use link and phone number above.

Zoom session #3 Sunday Jan 16, 2022 03:00 PM PACIFIC Time use link and phone number above.

The vote on the contract offer will be run through the website Election Buddy. Once you sign a membership card, again, go here: https://railcrew.ueunion.org/pti/ to join, you will be texted a ballot to vote for or against the contract offer on Monday January 17, 2022. The results of the vote will be announced via text Tuesday am.

If you have any questions about the offer, please call the UE Bargaining committee Lela Jankowski @ 530-859-2683 – Ed Stephenson @ 775-742-2242 or UE Staff Fernando Ramirez @ 323-572-4668 or J Burger @773-263-4341

Ed Stepheson, Lela Jankowski and J Burger from UE met with Jake Fulcher (attorney), Steve Kessler and Chris Bernfield from PTI met for 3 days in Reno Nevada at the beginning of November. We made progress in getting contract language settled with some items remaining, but the dollars and cents from the boss are not there.

What are we still fighting for?
The Union proposed 29 new sections for the contract: everything from road board rules to yard job bidding, seniority to safety. Five or so non-economic items remain open and the Union is fighting to keep strong protections for drivers.

We have not agreed to language on subcontracting, which PTI wants. The Union is demanding protections for when PTI sends out of town drivers to a different area. We are holding the line that the regular drivers works first and when out of hours, then the out of towner gets behind the wheel.

Drivers want more money in wages, more vacation, shift differential and cell phone payments, the Union began with 17 economic proposals. Many of the proposals remain open and we have no agreement as of yet.

As you are reading this flier, the bosses at PTI are offering a lousy 1.25% wage increase or $.010 over minimum wage for 2021 and 1.5% for 2022. THAT IS NOT ENOUGH! The Union bargaining committee continues the fight for retroactive wages to March 5th, 2020 for drivers that came over from Hallcon and over $1.00/hour for all drivers in 2021 and 2022. We have not agreed to the length of the contract. We are holding out for call-in/report-in pay of 2 hours minimum for safety meetings and drug testing, they want to pay you just the time spent.

PTI is proposing less vacation days than they give us now. The Union has stated that drivers are not interested, at all. We are fighting to get the right to take vacation because many drivers report they are being denied requests.

We are proposing that drivers get money in a Health Savings Account (HAS), just like the corporate employees get. Drivers could use that HSA money to offset copays, deductibles and pharmacy costs.

The Union still fights on for shift differential and for payment for use of our cell phones.

The Union bargaining committee knows PTI is not offering enough. We may have one more meeting with the Company officials before they try to cram substandard wages down our throat. To fight this, the bargaining committee has to know that they are fighting for something YOU will fight for. Now we need you to join the fight.

Next steps in the fight for a FAIR CONTRACT.
1. Share this leaflet with your coworker. Discuss it with them, and

2. Find out who your contract support committee (CSC) in your area. Tell them what you are willing to do to fight for a Fair Contract. Call UE Field Organizer Fernando Ramirez @ (323) 572-4668 to find out their name and number, and

3. Get copies of the RailCrew Supports PTI Driver Fight for a Fair Contract. Please ask every crew member to read and sign the card and return it to you. Return the cards ASAP by texting a picture to Lela Jankowski at (530) 859 2683.

If PTI management does not significantly increase its wage and economic offer, the Union will begin circulating a Strike Petition to gauge drivers willingness to fight for more.

Below is the September 2021 UE Railcrew newsletter that contains updates from around the country.