SEATTLE (AP) — The nation's largest freight rail carriers have announced they will provide health care benefits to the same-sex spouses of their employees, one day after legally married, gay engineers filed a federal lawsuit in Seattle.
|Gus Melonas, a spokesman for BNSF Railway Co., read the statement from the National Railway Labor Conference in a telephone interview with The Associated Press on Wednesday. The conference represents the railroad companies in dealings with labor groups.
|The statement says the carriers will provide dependent health coverage to same-sex spouses beginning Jan. 1, even though the conference does not believe it is required by law or by existing collective bargaining agreements.
|Two BNSF engineers in Washington state sued the company Tuesday over its refusal to provide benefits to their spouses.
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