Year: 2011

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Two separate two-day online dialogues focusing on unique issues for women in blue-collar transportation careers are offered at no charge by the U.S. Department of Transportation.

July 11-15: How do we best describe and promote women working in skilled, blue-collar transportation-related careers?

July 25-29: How do we leverage existing programs that promote recruitment and hiring of women working in transportation-related trades?; and, What ideas, suggestions or strategies do you have for retaining and advancing women’s talent within your industry?

Participants in the dialogues will have the opportunity to submit, comment on, and rate ideas interactively with colleagues from across the country, creating a national exchange of ideas, suggestions and best practices for women in blue-collar transportation careers.

The online discussions will be accessible for 24 hours during their scheduled dates, and registered participants can easily log on from home.

For more information, visit www.dialogueforwomen.ideascale.com

WASHINGTON – The Republican leadership of the House Transportation & Infrastructure Committee will introduce legislation July 8 to slash Amtrak’s federal subsidy by 25 percent, prevent federal funds from being used to create additional rail passenger services unless they are high-speed projects, and cut federal transit funding by 30 percent.

Committee Chairman John Mica (R-Fla.), and Rail Subcommittee Chairman Bill Shuster (R-Pa.) have previously made known their dislike for Amtrak and intention to destroy the national intercity rail passenger network through funding cuts and privatization of Amtrak’s Northeast Corridor.

The senior Democrat on the Transportation & Infrastructure Committee, Rep. Nick Rahall of West Virginia, put the Mica/Shuster legislation in perspective: “The bill, as we have seen so far, cannot pass the [Democratic-controlled Senate].”

Opposition to the bill also is being voiced by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which has joined with the AFL-CIO to lobby against it. The UTU’s National Legislative Office already is working with members in the House and Senate against Amtrak and transit funding cuts.

Amtrak funding has previously and regularly been in the crosshairs of its detractors, and another tough fight is brewing. On Amtrak’s — and transit’s — side are tens of millions of Americans who continue to make clear to their elected congressional lawmakers that they want more, not less, rail passenger and transit service.

The proposed cuts for Amtrak and transit are contained in a six-year bill entitled, “The Safe, Accountable, Flexible, Efficient Transportation Equity Act: A Legacy for Users, or SAFETEA-LU.” Senate Democratic leaders are pushing for a two-year bill that would be more generous toward Amtrak and transit – although at lower spending levels than sought by the Obama administration.

The House bill would also extend the deadline beyond 2015 for implementation of positive train control (PTC).

The bill also would remove a federal requirement that states use Highway Trust Fund revenue for non-highway transportation purposes, such as mass transit; but would allow states to make such decisions unilaterally.

There are, however, provisions in the House bill that have been sought by the UTU – and those provisions are expected to survive. They include:

  • Increasing a low-interest loan program for state transportation projects.
  • Encouraging states to create and capitalize state infrastructure banks to provide loans for transportation projects.
  • Improving transit options for the elderly and disabled.
  • Insulating motor carrier safety programs from any spending cuts.
  • Requiring federal regulators to keep unsafe buses off the road.
  • Improving access to the Railroad Rehabilitation and Improvement Financing (RRIF) program; and making high-speed rail projects eligible for RRIF loans.
  • Strengthening the rail transit safety oversight program.
  • Establishing annual inspection programs for buses.
  • Requiring regulations to establish minimum training requirements for commercial drivers.

MILWAUKEE – The president of regional railroad Wisconsin & Southern, William Gardner, was sentenced to 24 months’ probation by a state court here after pleading guilty to improperly donating some $53,000 to the election campaign of Wisconsin’s Republican Gov. Scott Walker.

Prosecutors charged that at Gardner’s direction, his employees wrote campaign contribution checks from their own accounts, and that Gardner then reimbursed the employees. Prosecutors said the scheme was intended by Gardner to avoid state limits on campaign contributions.

WITI television in Milwaukee quoted Gardner as telling the judge, “My actions were stupid illegal and selfish. The fault is mine and mine alone and there is no excuse for what I did. I apologize deeply. Since April of 2010, I think it is fair to say I have done everything I can to make this thing right.”

The UTU does not represent any Wisconsin & Southern employees.

Arty Martin

NEW YORK — If we don’t vote our paychecks and help to elect labor-friendly candidates, then lawmakers seeking to reduce union-member wages and benefits and weaken workplace safety laws and regulations will be the ones controlling state and federal legislative bodies, UTU Assistant President Arty Martin warned members at the UTU’s eastern regional meeting here.

In dozens of state legislatures, political extremists have introduced legislation to eliminate or curtail collective bargaining rights and otherwise reduce the ability of unions to represent working men and women, Martin said.

And in Congress, political extremists are pushing an agenda to weaken workplace safety regulation, fold Railroad Retirement into Social Security, privatize Social Security and Medicare, and privatize Amtrak as an initial step toward eliminating all federal subsidies for rail passenger service, Martin said.

Many of these political extremists, said Martin, came to office with support of union members who focused on emotional ballot-box issues apart from job security and workplace safety. “These issues are important to many of our members, but the most important issues are our jobs and the ability to return home safely from work,” he said.

He used Ohio and Wisconsin as two examples. In both states, anti-union legislation was passed by state legislatures and signed into law. When union members realized that the rug had been pulled out from under collective bargaining rights, and that the political extremists supporting the bills had an even broader anti-union agenda, the lights went on in union households.

In Ohio, UTU members, other union members and other concerned citizens collected some 1.3 million signatures in a petition drive to put that state’s anti-union legislation on hold pending a voter referendum on the bill this November.

And in Wisconsin, UTU and other union members collected sufficient signatures in multiple petition drives to force recall elections of many anti-union state senators who supported the legislation curtailing collective bargaining rights.

Martin urged UTU members to contribute to the UTU Collective Bargaining Defense Fund, which is fighting anti-union legislative efforts in various states, and to become more involved in the UTU PAC, which supports union-friendly candidates for state and federal office.

NORTONVILLE, KY. — Ruth Virginia Byrum Hicks, 85, wife of former four-term UTU International Vice President James M. “Jim” Hicks, died July 2 at their home here. They were married 68 years.
Jim Hicks was local chairperson of Local 904, Evansville, Ind., for 11 years before election in 1963 as general chairperson on Louisville & Nashville Railway (now part of CSX). He was elected alternate vice president of UTU predecessor Brotherhood of Railroad Trainmen in 1968, and re-elected in 1971 and 1975 during UTU conventions. He first took office as an International vice president in 1976. Hicks also served as manager of the UTU Field Service Department from 1981 to 1983. He retired in 1990.
Besides her husband, Mrs. Hicks is survived by two sons and six grandchildren.
The family suggests any remembrances be made to Green River Hospice, 109 S. Second St., Central City, KY 42330; or Shriners Hospital for Children, 2900 Rocky Point Dr., Tampa, FL 33607.

Elliott

NEW YORK – Former UTU Associate General Counsel Dan Elliott, now chairman of the U.S. Surface Transportation Board — the federal agency regulating rail mergers, line sales, abandonments and labor protection — returned to his roots July 4, speaking to more than 500 UTU officers and members attending the union’s eastern regional meeting here.

Terming train and engine workers “the unsung heroes” of the freight railroad industry’s renaissance, Elliott said, “None [of the resurgence] would have been possible without the people in this room. Labor was a major contributor to the rebirth of the rail industry as productivity shot through the roof [since Congress partially deregulated railroads through the Staggers Rail Act of 1980]. This is all thanks to your working harder, smarter and better,” he said.

Elliott recalled that prior to partial deregulation afforded by the Staggers Act, railroad bankruptcies were increasing, track often was in such poor repair that there were standing derailments, service quality had deteriorated and job security was problematic.

The Staggers Act, said Elliott, set loose market forces, giving railroads “greater flexibility to make decisions, develop better ideas and operate more efficiently. There are fewer trucks on the highway and the United States has some of the lowest freight rates in the world. It has all been done with private investment.” He said his job and the job of the STB is to “make sure the industry stays healthy.”

As for his elevation to the STB – which required a nomination by President Obama and confirmation by the Senate — Elliott said, joking, it was something he had long sought. Reflecting on an early-career appearance before the STB’s predecessor agency, the Interstate Commerce Commission, Elliott recalled having to make a difficult argument seeking labor protection.

“I was told to say my piece and sit down. So I went to Washington to the ICC Building. There were scores of railroad attorneys, a press table and spectators. I said my piece. And the chairman asked me to explain why UTU members should have lifetime income protection when nobody else in the room had it. I knew right then and there that I wanted to be the one asking the questions and not answering them,” Elliott said.

It is said by some opinion leaders and decision makers that labor unions are on the decline — that labor unions have become irrelevant in our society and ineffective in influencing public policy.

Recent events in Ohio and Wisconsin properly send such notions to the rubbish bin.

Recall that political extremists in both states used extraordinary tactics to muscle through legislation stripping public employees of their collective bargaining rights.

It was the first step toward weakening the link between workers and labor unions – the first step toward privatizing Social Security, Railroad Retirement and Medicare, weakening workplace safety regulations, and returning to the days of take-it-or-leave-it offers by employers to their workers.

What union-busting lawmakers did not expect is the public backlash generated by organized labor and its members, whom they thought were so weak and irrelevant that they would retreat with barely a whimper.

Oh, yeah?

In the wake of the Ohio and Wisconsin assaults on collective bargaining rights, union brothers and sisters worked collectively and tirelessly to educate the media and the public – through, for example, the UTU Collective Bargaining Defense Fund — about the assault launched by political extremists on middle-class values.

First by the hundreds, then the thousands, then the tens of thousands, and then by the hundreds of thousands did citizens respond to the messages of union brothers and sisters. The outrage initially was expressed in huge and loud rallies around the states. Then came the action.

In Ohio, UTU members joined with brothers and sisters in other labor organizations to launch a petition drive to put the union-busting legislation on hold pending a voter referendum in November. With Ohio State Legislative Director Glenn Newsom coordinating the efforts, members from 22 UTU locals in Ohio fanned out across the state seeking signatures on the petitions. They were joined by brothers and sisters from other labor organizations.

To succeed, 231,000 voter signatures were required. Five times that number — more than 1.2 million voters – signed the petitions.

You can be certain that the number of signatures obtained on these petitions is sending waves of remorse through the ranks of those who voted with the political extremists. After all, they, too, must face the voters.

In Wisconsin, meanwhile, petition drives coordinated by State Legislative Director Tim Deneen – and other labor organizations — are forcing many of the political extremists responsible for the anti-union legislation in that state to face recall elections in July and August.  By the scores – and of  this you can be certain — lawmakers in Wisconsin are discussing how to separate themselves from the anti-union political extremists facing recall, and regain the support of voters.

On July 5, International President Mike Futhey will hold, via telephone conference call, town hall meetings with Ohio and Wisconsin UTU members to discuss the next steps to ensure voter repeal of the Ohio legislation in November, and the recall of the anti-union Wisconsin lawmakers in July and August.

When union brothers and sisters act together in solidarity, organized labor proves not just to be relevant, but to be darn effective in influencing public policy.

Need we say more as to why UTU members should donate to the UTU Collective Bargaining Fund, and to the UTU PAC, which helps to elect and re-elect union-friendly lawmakers at the state and federal level?

Ok, we will say just a few more words: The jobs and economic futures you save through these actions may well be your own jobs and the economic futures of your families.

To learn more about the UTU Collective Bargaining Defense Fund, click on the following link:

https://www.smart-union.org/collective-bargaining-defense-fund/

To learn more about the UTU PAC, click on the following link:

https://www.smart-union.org/td/washington/utu-pac/

A decision by an arbitrator to determine whether the merger agreement between the UTU and the Sheet Metal Workers International Association is an enforceable agreement is not expected before September.

The UTU and the SMWIA made presentations before arbitrator Michael H. Gottesman in early and mid-June. Briefs by both sides are to be delivered to Gottesman July 29.

Gottesman was named to arbitrate the dispute by AFL-CIO President Rich Trumka following a March 4 ruling of Federal District Court Judge John Bates.

Judge Bates, in his March 4 ruling, said a separate action by several UTU members challenging the validity of the merger is not within the arbitrator’s jurisdiction and he would delay a ruling on that complaint pending the outcome of the arbitration.

This is a story about heroes.
It is a story about two UTU conductor heroes in Fallon, Nev., June 24.
In utter disregard of their own safety, these UTU conductor heroes braved intense flames and choking smoke, repeatedly returning inside two burning Amtrak passenger cars to save the lives of dozens of disoriented, injured and frightened passengers — passengers who otherwise would have been hopelessly trapped in the burning wreckage hit by a tractor-trailer combination at a highway-rail grade crossing.
And in the custom of American band-of-brothers soldiers, one of these UTU conductor heroes went back one last time to bring out one of his own – removing the body of a fellow conductor before the growing flames could consume the body.
Senior military officers would be considering Bronze or Silver stars, a Navy Cross — even the Medal of Honor — for such selfless acts of extreme bravery. Amtrak President Joe Boardman is said to be considering a special honor for these two UTU conductor heroes.
Don’t expect these UTU heroes to be anything but modest. Fact is, you find UTU conductor heroes everywhere who serve and protect.
On 9/11, it was UTU conductors on Port Authority Trans Hudson in New York City who wouldn’t allow the doors of the last train below the World Trade Center to close until every person on the platform was safely on board. Hundreds of lives were saved by these selfless UTU conductor heroes.
In Covington, Va., in February, UTU conductor Dale Smith disregarded his own safety to dash down a steep embankment and into the partially frozen Jackson River to save the life of fellow conductor Alvin (A.J.) Boguess, who had fallen from a trestle, 55-feet above the water.
Author F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote, “Show me a hero and I’ll write you a tragedy.” UTU conductors regularly prove Fitzgerald had it backwards. Time and again, UTU hero conductors validate, “Show me a tragedy and I’ll write you a story about heroes.”
Indeed. Six died in this tragic Amtrak accident; many more likely would have had it not been for these UTU conductor heroes.
In the harrowing moments following the horrendous accident, assistant conductor and UTU Local 166 member Richard d’Alessandro, who initially was knocked unconscious in a dormitory car that took the initial hit from the truck, recovered finding himself laying outside in the desert to discover his arm broken and a finger missing.
In complete disregard for his personal safety, and ignoring his own painful injuries, he took to his radio to broadcast help – “Dispatch everything you have.”
He climbed back into the burning cars, worked his way through the dark smoke and flames in search of passengers who were completely disoriented – many injured — leading one, then another, and still others to safety through emergency exit windows.
His rescues complete, d’Alessandro’s next action was to obtain water for the elderly, which he began distributing.
Also in the dormitory car was off-duty conductor and UTU Local 1525 (Carbondale, Ill.) member Loxie Sanders, traveling to California to be with a daughter facing surgery.
With flames surrounding him, Sanders knocked out emergency windows, joining with d”Alessandro to lead injured, disoriented and frightened passengers to safety. As he heard a voice, he led the passenger to an exit window, helping them out and down to other rescuers 10-feet below the car.
Only when all passengers he could find had been led to safety did Sanders, suffering from smoke inhalation, exit the burning car.
But he went back. He went back in search of 68-year-old conductor and UTU Local 166 member Laurette Lee, whom he found dead under a metal door. Ignoring the flames and dense smoke, Sanders lifted the body and carried it outside the car away from the all-consuming flames.
Concerned that more passengers might still be in the growing inferno, Sanders went back again – his hand severely burned from scaling the car to gain entry.
Listening for voices, Sanders worked his way to more disoriented passengers, leading them, also, to safety. Only when there were no more voices to be heard in the smoke that made vision almost impossible did Sanders consider his own safety and exit the burning car a final time.
Said NTSB investigator Ted Turpin, “That was the greatest act of heroism I’ve seen in my [15 years] as an [accident] investigator.”
More heroes appeared – from a Union Pacific freight train following the ill-fated westbound Amtrak California Zephyr. Unidentified crew members from the UP train ran to the scene and assisted the passengers.
d’Alessandro and Sanders were transported to a local hospital. Among their first visitors was Amtrak President Boardman, who had taken the first available flight to Reno to be at the scene of the disaster.
As injured passengers were interviewed by investigators, they recalled most and vividly the heroic actions of these selfless rails – d’Alessandro, Sanders, and the still unnamed UP crew.
Hardened accident investigators from the NTSB and Federal Railroad Administration choked with emotion as they listened, reports UTU Arizona State Legislative Director Greg Hynes, a member of the UTU Transportation Safety Team, who was assisting the NTSB in the investigation.
“Brave men. Brave men,” was all Hynes could say. It was more than enough.
 
Sanders with Amtrak CEO Joseph Boardman
d’Alessandro and Boardman

FALLON, Nev. – The truck driver who died when his tractor-trailer slammed into Amtrak’s westbound California Zephyr here June 24, had accumulated nine traffic tickets since 2007 – five for speeding in a commercial vehicle, twice for speeding in his personal automobile, once for a seat belt violation and once for illegally using a cellphone while driving.

Also killed in the highway-rail grade crossing accident was an Amtrak conductor and UTU member – Laurette Lee – and four passengers. Scores were injured, including Amtrak assistant conductor and UTU member Richard d’Alessandro.

Three of truck driver Lawrence Reuben Valli’s five speeding violations were issued while he was a school-bus driver for an unnamed California school system, reports The Los Angeles Times, citing information from the Nevada Department of Motor Vehicles.

In 2007, according to the San Francisco Examiner, Valli, while operating his own automobile, slammed into the rear of another auto near Reno on I-80 and was ticketed for speeding.

There has been no statement from the National Transportation Safety Board whether Valli was traveling in excess of the highway’s posted speed limit when his truck crashed into the Amtrak train. Skid marks on the highway were found and may help investigators determine the truck’s speed prior to impact.

NTSB member Earl Weener, serving as the agency’s spokesperson at the accident scene, said an outward facing camera in the Amtrak locomotive recorded that the signals and gates were working.

The NTSB said June 27 that a cellphone found in the wreckage, and thought to belong to Valli, will be examined to determine if it was in use while he was driving.

The San Francisco Examiner quoted a spokesperson for the Nevada Department of Motor Vehicles that Valli had other offenses on his driving record that could not be disclosed – “Oh, yeah, lots more. He was a busy guy,” the spokesman said. Yet, according to the Nevada Department of Motor Vehicles, there is no record of Valli having had his commercial driver’s license suspended or revoked.

As for the trucking company that employed Valli, the Associated Press reported that it had been issued seven safety violations over the past year, and one vehicle had been ordered out of service.

A trucking publication, Fleet Owner, reported, “Make no mistake, along with the lives lost and the injuries caused by the wreck, the crash is a sharp stick in the eye of all those in trucking and government alike who have been very publicly working across numerous fronts this year to increase commercial-vehicle safety performance.”