ARTICLE X - GENERAL PROVISIONS

Section 1 - Court Approval

This Agreement is subject to approval of the courts with respect to participating carriers in the hands of receivers or trustees.

Section 2 - Effect of this Agreement

(a) The purpose of this Agreement is to fix the general level of compensation during the period of the Agreement and is in settlement of the dispute growing out of the notices dated November 1, 1999 served by and on behalf of the carriers listed in Exhibit A upon the organization signatory hereto, and the notices dated on or subsequent to November 1, 1999 served by the organization upon such carriers, except as otherwise provided in Article IV of this Agreement.

(b) This Agreement shall be construed as a separate agreement by and on behalf of each of said carriers and their employees represented by the organization signatory hereto, and shall remain in effect through December 31, 2004 and thereafter until changed or modified in accordance with the provisions of the Railway Labor Act, as amended.

(c) The parties to this Agreement shall not serve nor progress prior to November 1, 2004 (not to become effective before January 1, 2005) any notice or proposal for changing any matter contained in:

(1) This Agreement,

(2) the proposals of the parties identified in Section 2(a) of this Article, and

(3) Section 2(c) of Article XV of the Agreement of January 27, 1972, and any pending notices which propose such matters are hereby withdrawn, except as otherwise provided in Article IV of this Agreement.

(d) The parties to this Agreement shall not serve nor progress prior to November 1, 2004 (not to become effective before January 1, 2005) any notice or proposal which might properly have been served when the last moratorium ended on January 1, 2000.

(e) This Article will not bar management and committees on individual railroads from agreeing upon any subject of mutual interest.

SIGNED AT WASHINGTON, D.C. THIS 20th DAY OF August, 2002.