Year: 2011

Home>News>2011

WASHINGTON – The National Transportation Safety Board has updated its “Most Wanted” transportation safety improvements. Included are recommendations for improved bus, rail and aviation safety.

Following are the NTSB’s comments of interest to UTU members:

Fatigue

Airplanes, buses and trains are complex machines that require the full attention of the operator, maintenance person and other individuals performing safety-critical functions.

Consequently, the cognitive impairments to these individuals that result from fatigue due to insufficient or poor quality sleep are critical factors to consider in improving transportation safety.

Operators of transportation vehicles need to have sufficient off-duty time to obtain sufficient sleep. But duty schedules are only part of the equation. Even when an individual has enough time to get rest, medical conditions, living environment, and personal choices can affect the ability to obtain quality sleep.

Human fatigue is subtle; at any given point, the traveling public could be at risk because those operating airplanes, buses or trains, or the individuals responsible for maintaining vehicles, do not realize until it is too late that they cannot safely complete their duties because of fatigue.

To make matters worse, people frequently are not aware of, or may deny, ability impairments caused by fatigue. Just because an operator or mechanic is not yawning or falling asleep does not necessarily mean that he or she is not fatigued.

What can be done: Continued research on the manifestations of fatigue will help in further identifying mechanisms that can counter, and ultimately eliminate, fatigue.

Such research needs to recognize the unique aspects of fatigue associated with each mode of transportation, such as the effect of crossing multiple time zones or being required to work during periods of the day when circadian rhythms increase the risk of fatigue.

Fatigue-countering mechanisms must include science-based, data-driven hours-of-service limits.

The medical oversight system must recognize the dangers of sleep-related medical impairments, such as obstructive sleep apnea, and incorporate mechanisms for identifying and treating affected individuals.

Employers should also establish science-based fatigue management systems that involve all parties (employees, management, interest groups) in developing environments to help identify the factors that cause fatigue; and monitor operations to detect the presence of fatigue before it becomes a problem.

Because “powering through” fatigue is simply not an acceptable option, fatigue management systems need to allow individuals to acknowledge fatigue without jeopardizing their employment.

Bus Safety

Motorcoaches are among the safest vehicles on the road. They are rarely involved in highway accidents.

However, motorcoaches transport 750 million passengers annually, with each bus carrying a substantial number of people. Therefore, when something does go wrong, more people are at risk of death or injury. As in any traffic crash, an occupant’s chance of surviving and avoiding injury increases when the person is retained in the vehicle, and particularly in his or her seating position.

Without standards for roof strength, window glazing, and a protected seating area, motor coach accidents can be catastrophic. Even when the motorcoach remains relatively intact during an accident, passengers lacking a protective seating environment can be thrown from their seating area and killed or injured.

What can be done: Adequate standards for roof strength, window glazing, and occupant protection must be developed and implemented. These standards must ensure that the vehicles maintain survivable space for occupants during all types of crashes with significant crash forces, including rollovers.

Manufacturers are moving ahead with various seating area safety options, such as seat belts, but the development and implementation of government standards is needed to ensure a consistent level of safety across the fleet. Motorcoach interiors should be more occupant friendly in order to prevent injury in the event of a crash.

In addition, after a crash, occupants need to be able to identify exits and quickly leave the vehicle.

Commercial Aviation

Crew resource management (CRM) training is designed to improve crew coordination, resource allocation and error management in the cockpit. CRM training augments technical training, enhances pilots’ performance and encourages all flight crew members to identify and assertively announce potential problems by focusing on situational awareness, communications skills, teamwork, task allocation, and decision-making within a comprehensive framework of standard operating procedures.

Takeoffs and landings, in which the risk of a catastrophic accident is particularly high, are considered the most critical phases of flight.

Unlike the airspace above the United States, which spans millions of square miles, the runway environment is a far more limited area, often with a steady stream of aircraft taking off and landing on intersecting runways, sometimes in poor weather and with limited visibility.

What can be done: Reducing the likelihood of runway collisions is dependent on the situational awareness of the pilots and time available to take action — often a matter of just a few seconds. A direct in-cockpit warning of a probable collision or of a takeoff attempt on the wrong runway can give pilots advance notice of these dangers.

Requiring specific air traffic control clearance for each runway crossing would reduce the chances that an airplane will inadvertently taxi onto an active runway on which another aircraft is landing or taking off.

Situational awareness is also important in addressing runway excursions. Pilots need accurate information on runway conditions. Equipment should be properly set for takeoff or landing and function properly.

Pilot training and procedures should emphasize conducting distance assessments for all landings, especially on contaminated runways; training on maximum performance stopping on a slippery runway; and identifying the appropriate runway for their aircraft.

PITTSBURGH – In another high-profile bus crash, a tour-bus driver died and 23 passengers were injured June 27 when the bus struck the rear of a tractor-trailer near here on the Pennsylvania Turnpike, reports Reuters.

The bus, owned by New Oriental Tours and carrying Asian tourists, was enroute to New Jersey from Kentucky.

In May, four died when a tour bus crashed in Virginia after the driver fell asleep. In March, 17 died in two separate tour-bus crashes – one in New York City; the other in New Jersey.

ORLANDO, Fla. — House Transportation & Infrastructure Committee Chairman John Mica (R-Fla.) wants to privatize Amtrak’s Northeast Corridor, which is seen by critics as a first step toward destroying Amtrak.

In his home state, Mica opposed using state funds for a now-mothballed high-speed rail project to link Tampa and Orlando.

Yet Mica is actively supporting state financing for construction of a $1.2 billion, 61-mile Orlando commuter rail project – SunRail — that, according to The New York Times, is ranked by the federal government “as one of the least cost-effective mass transit efforts in the nation.” Florida taxpayers could pay some $640 million of the project’s costs, says The New York Times.

SunRail would link suburban communities, requiring riders to use a bus at origin and destination.

Says The New York Times, “[S]keptics question whether Mr. Mica’s real goal is to give a taxpayer-financed gift to CSX, the freight rail giant and a generous Mica campaign donor, which would get $432 million for its tracks and for upgrades to tracks it owns elsewhere in the state.”

The newspaper quotes Republican FlorIda State Senator Paula Dockery that Mica’s “dedication to SunRail is not for mass transit — it is for helping CSX to get government funds for its private freight lines.”

Florida’s Republican governor, Rick Scott, froze state four contracts involving SunRail, says The New York Times.

FALLON, Nev. – An Amtrak conductor was killed and an assistant conductor seriously injured here June 24 when a tractor-trailer combination rammed the side of a double-deck passenger car of Amtrak’s westbound California Zephyr in a fiery crash at a highway-rail grade crossing. The crash site is some 70 miles east of Reno.

Lee

Killed was conductor and UTU Local 166 member Laurette Lee, age 68, of South Lake Tahoe, Calif.

Injured — a broken right arm and severed finger — was assistant conductor and UTU Local 166 member Richard d’Alessandro, age 49, of Elk Grove, Calif.
The truck driver also was killed, and news agencies are reporting at least four others dead, with scores injured — many having been trapped inside two burning passenger cars. The Nevada Highway Patrol said that because of the extent of the fire and damage to the passenger cars, the search for bodies continued into late Saturday.
Amtrak said some 204 passenger names were on the manifest, with 14 crew members aboard the train, which was utilizing Union Pacific track. The train was enroute from Chicago to Emeryville, Calif.
Lee, a mother of three, was from a railroad family. Her grandfather and great-grandfather were rails, her brother is an Amtrak dispatcher and her nephew, Ben Rankin, is an Amtrak conductor and member of UTU Local 1732 (San Jose, Calif.). A family member told the Contra Costa (Calif.) Times newspaper that Lee began her railroad career in 1988 as a baggage handler and later was promoted to conductor.
News reports say the U.S. 95 crossing at Fallon is equipped with warning bells, lights and gates. A National Transportation Safety Board spokesperson said an outward facing camera in the Amtrak locomotive recorded that the signals and gates were working. The NSTB spokesperson called the crossing safety devices, “state of the art” and said the signals should have been visible to the truck driver a half-mile from the crossing.
The NTSB, with assistance from the UTU Transportation Safety Team, is investigating the accident along with the Federal Railroad Administration.
“This is just a confirmation that the only safe grade crossing is a grade crossing that has been separated or closed,” said UTU National Legislative Director James Stem. “Until we adopt the Interstate highway values of no grade crossings, these accidents will continue.”
Heroic acts in saving passenger lives by UTU-member conductors  — one off duty and riding the train — have been told to NTSB investigators and will be reported at www.utu.org as the facts are developed.

WASHINGTON — In a 5-4 decision, the Supreme Court June 23 declined to tighten the standard of proof injured rail workers must demonstrate to win an award under the Federal Employers’ Liability Act (FELA).

The ruling is a significant victory for injured rail workers.

The FELA — a railroader’s most cherished workplace safety assurance — was passed by Congress more than a century ago to make railroads liable if an employee injury or death results “in whole or in part” from the negligence of any of its officers, agents or employees, or from any defect or insufficiency in equipment or roadbed.

At the time of the FELA’s passage in 1908, more than 4,000 railroaders were killed annually, and some 63,000 more suffered serious injuries each year.

The Supreme Court previously held that the FELA was “designed to put on the railroad industry some of the costs of the legs, arms, eyes, and lives which it consumed in its operation.”

The June 23 Supreme Court decision turned on a crossover vote by conservative Justice Clarence Thomas, who joined liberals Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Sandra Sotomayor, Elena Kagan and Stephen Bryer to rule against CSX and in favor of an injured CSX locomotive engineer.

The engineer had won a monetary award from a federal district court after being injured on the job in 2004 while operating a locomotive that the engineer contended was not suited for switching operations.

CSX twice unsuccessfully appealed the trial court’s decision – the first before the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals and the second appeal before the Supreme Court. CSX contended in both unsuccessful appeals that injured rail workers should meet a more demanding standard of proof as is required in all non-FELA personal injury cases, not, as the trial court instructed the jury, that CSX was responsible for negligence if its negligence “played a part – no matter how small – in bringing about the injury.”

CSX sought a ruling that the employer’s action must be the “primary cause” of the injury. In fact, the “in whole or in part” language comes from the FELA itself, and that legislative language clearly impressed the Supreme Court’s majority in this case.

Writing for the majority, Justice Ginsburg said: “Juries in such cases are properly instructed that a defendant railroad ‘caused or contributed to’ a railroad worker’s injury ‘if [the railroad’s] negligence played a part – no matter how small – in bringing about the injury.’ That, indeed, is the test Congress prescribed for proximate causation in FELA cases.”

Earlier Supreme Court cases upheld the right of unions to advise injured workers to obtain expert legal advice, and the right of unions to designate legal counsel possessing specialized knowledge in railroad operations and the FELA.

A listing of UTU Designated Legal Counsel is provided at www.utu.org by moving the cursor to “About UTU” in the red horizontal bar at the top of the home page and then clicking on “Designated Legal Counsel.” A listing of Designated Legal Counsel also may be obtained from local union officers or your general chairpersons.

If you are injured on the job, the FELA and your UTU Designated Legal Counsel are the best friends you and your family have. These successful trial lawyers are specialists in handling FELA claims, and are fully experienced in dealing with railroad claim agents and railroad lawyers.

And remember: Contributory negligence is not a bar to recovering under the FELA; and the FELA prohibits railroads from retaliating against employees who provide Designated Legal Counsel with factual information on injuries to fellow employees, or who testify in support of injured workers.

Each FELA lawsuit sends to the carriers a message about improving workplace safety that they cannot ignore

To read the June 23 Supreme Court decision, CSX Transportation, Inc. v. Robert McBride, click on the following link:

www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/10pdf/10-235.pdf

International President Mike Futhey

SAN ANTONIO — Stronger protections for members, improved finances, successful organizing drives and superior wage and benefits agreements characterize the United Transportation Union in 2011, International President Mike Futhey told some 600 attendees in his state-of-the-union report at the first of two 2011 regional meetings here June 22.

“Before this administration took office Jan. 1, 2008, people said we couldn’t organize, couldn’t negotiate with carriers and couldn’t solve the union’s financial problems,” Futhey said. “We proved them wrong on each allegation. The UTU is stronger than ever.

“As this administration completes its fourth year in office,” said Futhey, “an average of one new air, bus, rail or transit property has been organized every seven weeks, two national rail agreements have been negotiated providing a combined 40 percent wage increase, the latest tentative agreement provides the highest increase in excess of the Consumer Price Index in the UTU’s 41-year history, and UTU and UTUIA finances have been improved dramatically.

“The UTU Collective Bargaining Defense Fund helped finance a petition drive in Ohio that put on hold – pending a November voter referendum — a bill to eliminate collective bargaining rights,” Futhey said. “In Wisconsin, UTU members were among the leaders of a successful petition drive forcing supporters of an anti-union bill to face recall elections in July and August. The Ohio and Wisconsin efforts forced political extremists in Indiana to shelve legislation to eliminate collective bargaining rights.

“UTU political activism has awakened and outraged voters in numerous states where political extremists are attacking middle-class values, including efforts to curtail their ability to vote through tougher registration procedures and fewer absentee voting days,” Futhey said. “We will do all we can to protect the integrity of the voting system.”

At the UTU International, said Futhey, automated billing and auditing, coupled with targeted cost cutting, reassignment of functions and upgrading of information technology allowed International funds to increase from $7.5 million to nearly $16 million. “There is no proposal for a dues increase at the upcoming quadrennial convention,” Futhey said.

The Discipline Income Protection Program reserve fund was turned from a $2 million loss in 2007 to a positive balance of more than $5 million today, “allowing sufficient funds to provide the protection UTU members expect and deserve,” Futhey said. “The UTU Insurance Association surplus has been made stronger and now stands at near $26 million.

“Our computer-based UTU University – a classroom without walls – is training officers to better serve their members at the negotiating table and in grievance handling,” Futhey said. “The awards data search engine has been improved, regional meeting workshops have been expanded to meet member requests, iLink provides better access to controlling awards and offers secure chat rooms for various levels of elected officers to exchange information and ideas.”

Among other achievements cited by Futhey:

  • The redesigned UTU website includes a Membership Toolbox with answers to member concerns and questions; and allows a feedback to UTU officers. “Member questions and concerns will be answered,” Futhey said.
  • A federally funded agreement was reached with Amtrak for the UTU to train employees to deal with unruly passengers; and another is being finalized with Terminal Railroad Association of St. Louis to train workers to recognize, respond to and report terrorist threats. Discussions are underway to expand these training programs to other carriers.
  • Legislative activities succeeded in gaining conductor certification, minimum training standards, a requirement that an injured employee’s doctor — not the carrier — determine when to return to work, a prohibition against denying injured workers medical care or disciplining them for reporting injuries, and installation of positive train control.
  • The UTU is working with friends in Congress to amend the Rail Safety Improvement Act to require a 10-hour call for all unassigned road service; allow regular yard jobs only eight hours off-duty between shifts; require yardmaster assignments be covered by hours-of-service provisions; require advance notice of interim release periods; and a limitation on limbo time to a maximum of two hours for each tour of duty.
  • On behalf of our bus and transit members, the UTU is working to gain limitations on revocation of a commercial driver’s license for traffic violations when operating a personal automobile, a better appeals process for drivers taken out of service, limitations on civil actions against drivers, mandatory training for drivers, federal grants to assist with training of bus officers in negotiating skills, and greater flexibility to use transit capital grants for operating costs to preserve service and jobs.
  • On behalf of airline members the UTU is working to preserve Essential Air Services grants and improve safety provisions for pilots and flight attendants.
  • The UTU is working within the AFL-CIO to prevent privatization of Railroad Retirement, Social Security and Medicare. “Political extremists will not mess with your retirement,” Futhey said.

“This administration has delivered on its promises,” Futhey said. “Our record speaks for itself. We will never back up. We will never back down. We will always move forward.”

 

WASHINGTON – Legislation to privatize Amtrak’s Northeast Corridor, as a first step toward destruction of Amtrak, will almost certainly be dead-on-arrival in the Democratic-controlled Senate, and will face a tough challenge in the Republican-controlled House; but the authors of the bill – House Transportation & Infrastructure Committee Chairman John Mica (R-Fla.) and House Rail Subcommittee Chairman Bill Shuster (R-Pa.) – continue to press ahead.

And beyond the slim likelihood this legislation might pass both the House and Senate, it is highly unlikely to survive a judicial challenge.

According to the senior Democrat on the House Transportation & Infrastructure Committee, Rep. Nick Rahall of West Virginia, the bipartisan Congressional Research Service reported to him that the Mica/Shuster proposal is probably unconstitutional.

The Mica/Shuster bill violates the Appointments Clause and the Takings Clause of the Constitution, Rahall said in referencing the information he obtained from the Congressional Research Service.

The Transportation Trades Department of the AFL-CIO warned that the Mica/Shuster proposal would cancel labor agreements covering all of Amtrak’s unionized workers, and eliminate coverage under the Railway Labor Act and the Railroad Retirement Act.

Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.) previously said the Mica/Shuster bill has “no legs” in the Senate. Nonetheless, said a UTU official, “The legislation remains a rat hole worth watching, and our National Legislative Office will work diligently toward its defeat.”

WASHINGTON — The Federal Railroad Administration will soon publish final rules instituting conductor certification and imposing new hours-of-service limitations on intercity passenger-train and commuter employees in safety sensitive positions.

FRA Associate Administrator for Safety Jo Strang made the announcement at the UTU’s regional meeting June 21 in San Antonio, Texas.

She observed that since former UTU Illinois State Legislative Director Joe Szabo became FRA administrator, the partnership between the UTU and the FRA in seeking improved workplace safety “has certainly been strengthened.”

Conductor certification, which becomes effective Jan. 1, 2012, “recognizes the level of professionalism required by our conductors today,” Strang said.

A notice of proposed rulemaking on conductor certification was published in November and is the product of a collaborative effort through the FRA’s Rail Safety Advisory Committee, which includes carriers, rail labor and the FRA.

UTU members serving on the RSAC Conductor Certification Working Group include Local 1470 Chairperson David Brooks, General Chairperson (CSX, GO 049) John Lesniewski, Local 538 Legislative Rep Ron Parsons, Local 645 Local Chairperson Vinnie Tessitore, National Legislative Director James Stem, Alternate National Legislative Director John Risch, and UTU safety consultant Larry Mann.

Strang said the passenger hours-of-service regulation will apply sleep science and fatigue management to railroad hours-of-service, “which is the first time in our industry’s history that this has been done. It recognizes the inherent differences between freight and passenger service.”

For example, intercity passenger and commuter railroads operate on fixed schedules. Commuter railroads operate primarily during daylight hours, and most commuter employees return to their home terminals every night.

The passenger hours-of-service regulation will “balance the need to manage fatigue with the need to maximize income,” Strang said. “The rule also recognizes the significant safety contribution that a defined start time has for the employees involved. When the employee knows when they must report for service, they can manage the necessary lifestyle adjustments. The outstanding safety record of our passenger and commuter rail operations is an excellent example of just what it means to have a regular start time.”

Strang also mentioned risk reduction programs, acknowledging that their FRA-sponsored implementation on some railroads “have earned a bad reputation. Let me be clear about FRA’s viewpoint,” Strang said. “Building strong safety cultures can only be accomplished through the establishment and nurturing of voluntary risk mitigation policies and procedures — setting realistic benchmarks and milestones, and favoring constructive corrective behavior over punitive discipline. To be clear, both railroads and labor have to define boundaries since compliance with the rules is at the heart of safety.

“Railroads have had the same culture for 180 years,” Strang said. “We have been trying to change it for five years.”

WASHINGTON – In a move organized labor has long pushed for, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) June 21 proposed new representation-vote rules that will speed-up the voting process and give more transparency to employer actions intended to discourage a “union, yes” vote.

NLRB rulings impact UTU Bus Department members. Rail and airline labor relations are administered by the National Mediation Board.

The NLRB ruling – intended to reduce time-consuming litigation prior to a rep vote, and ensure information about organizing drives is disseminated more quickly — is open for public comment for 75 days, after which the NLRB is expected to issue a final rule.

“The UTU has long been pushing for transparency and streamlining of the rep-vote process,” said UTU National Legislative Director James Stem. “This will restore some level of integrity to the rep-vote process, which has been subject to manipulation by employers.”

Under the proposed rule, employers no longer would be able to delay rep-votes through legal challenges over which employees are eligible to vote. Instead, such litigation would be allowed only after the rep-vote has taken place.

Additionally, the NLRB proposes to allow electronic filing of authorization cards and requests for a rep-vote; and a requirement that employers provide, in a timely manner to union organizers, a voter list of all employees, including phone numbers and email addresses.

The NLRB also proposes that employers disclose the identity of all consultants hired to provide “advice” to the employer on how to respond to organizing drives, or who write materials used by the employer to communicate with workers about the organizing drive. Currently, employers need only provide the identity of consultants who communicate directly with workers.

Friends and former co-workers of UTU Local 1177 member Corey Kluver will hold a fundraiser for the Kluver family Saturday, June 25.
Kluver, a 31-year-old BNSF conductor and father of three, lost both legs in a Willmar, Minn., rail yard accident Feb. 3.
The benefit, including a luncheon, bake sale and silent auction, will be held from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. at American Legion Post 537 in New London, Minn.
Donations may also be sent to the Corey Kluver Benefit Account, Lake Region Bank, Box 1740, Willmar, MN 56201.