Year: 2011

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A new year under the Railroad Unemployment Insurance Act for unemployment and sickness benefits begins July 1.

The maximum daily benefit rate payable remains at $66 in the new benefit year.

Benefits are normally paid for the number of days of unemployment or sickness over four in 14-day registration periods. Thus, the maximum benefits for biweekly claims will continue to total $660.

During the first 14-day claim period in a benefit year, benefits are payable for each day of unemployment or sickness in excess of seven, rather than four, which, in effect, provides a one-week waiting period.

Initial sickness claims must also begin with four consecutive days of sickness. However, only one waiting period is required during any period of continuing unemployment or sickness, even if that period continues into a subsequent benefit year. Claimants already on the rolls will normally not be required to serve another waiting period because of the onset of the new benefit year.

To qualify for railroad unemployment or sickness benefits in the benefit year beginning July 1, an employee must have had railroad earnings of at least $3,325 in calendar year 2010, not counting more than $1,330 for any month. Those who were first employed in the rail industry in 2010 must also have at least five months of creditable railroad service in that year.

Under certain conditions, employees who do not qualify in the new benefit year on the basis of their 2010 earnings may still be able to receive benefits beginning July 1.

Employees who received normal benefits in the benefit year ending June 30, might still be eligible for extended benefits.

Ten-year employees may be eligible for accelerated benefits, if they have rail earnings of at least $3,325 in 2011, not counting earnings of more than $1,330 a month.

Application forms for unemployment and sickness benefits may be obtained from railroad employers, UTU local or general committee offices, any Railroad Retirement Board (RRB) office, or the Railroad Retirement Board’s website at www.rrb.gov.

Applications for unemployment benefits may be filed on-line.

Since November 2010, claimants have been able to file biweekly claims for sickness benefits over the Internet as well. However, rail employees who miss work due to illness or injury still must file a paper form that serves as their initial application for sickness benefits.

To access Railroad Retirement Board online services, employees must first establish an RRB Internet Services account. For security purposes, first-time users must apply for a Password Request Code, which they will receive by regular mail in about 10 business days.

To do this, employees should click on “requesting a Password Request Code (PRC)” in the “Benefit Online Services Login” section of the www.rrb.gov home page.

Once employees establish their online accounts, they will be able to file their applications and biweekly claims for unemployment benefits as well as conduct other business with the RRB over the Internet.

Employees are encouraged to initiate an online account while still employed so the account is established if they ever need to use these or other select RRB Internet services. Employees who have already established online accounts do not need to do so again.

Claimants with questions about unemployment or sickness benefits should contact an RRB office by calling toll free at (877) 772-5772. Field office locations can also be found online at www.rrb.gov.

The number of trailers and containers hauled by major U.S. railroads hit its highest peak for 2011 during the week ending June 11, but the increase in train and engine service workers slowed from previous months.

Major U.S. railroads originated more than 237,000 trailers and containers for the most recent week reported by the Association of American Railroads. That was some 3,000 more than the previous high reached the week of May 28.

The number of train and engine workers on Class I railroads reached 63,078 in May – up 6.6 percent from May 2010, but up only 0.33 percent from April 2011.

Here are the total number of train and engine workers employed by the major U.S. railroads in May, as reported by the U.S. Surface Transportation Board:

Union Pacific 19,828
BNSF 16,053
Norfolk Southern 11,726
CSX 10,719
CN (GTW & IC) 2,074
CP (Soo) 1,412
Kansas City Southern 1,266

 

 

 

 

 

Additionally, Amtrak employs 3,433 train and engine workers.

Train and engine workers are the largest category of Class I employees.

Train & Engine 63,078
Maintenance of Way 36,021
Shopcraft 28,963
Professional & Admin. 13,546
Exec. & Officials 9,231
Transp. (non-T&E) 6,678

 

Calvin Studivant

WASHINGTON – Bus Department Alternate Vice President Calvin Studivant has been named by Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration Administrator Anne Ferro to a 20-member congressionally created Motor Carrier Safety Advisory Committee.

The committee will provide advice and recommendations to Ferro on safety programs and regulations affecting bus and truck drivers, their equipment and employers.

Studivant is a member of Local 759 (Newark, N.J.) and is employed as a driver by Community Coach, where he is UTU general chairperson and delegate from his local. He also serves as chairperson of the Association of General Chairpersons, District 3.

He recently assisted officers of First Student, Buffalo, N.Y., and the Red Arrow Division of the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority in Philadelphia negotiate new contracts, and is currently assisting in contract negotiations on behalf of Charlotte Area Transit System drivers who recently voted to return to UTU representation.

WASHINGTON — An assault on the future of Amtrak and its employees was launched June 15 by the chairman of the House Transportation & Infrastructure Committee, Rep. John Mica (R-Fla.), and the chairman of the House Rail Subcommittee, Bill Shuster (R-Pa.)

The UTU and other rail labor organizations are gearing to fight this effort to privatize the Northeast Corridor, which would be the first step toward eliminating Amtrak on the Northeast Corridor as well as its long-distance passenger trains outside the Northeast Corridor. The proposal likely would destroy America’s national rail passenger network.

Mica and Shuster said they will introduce legislation to strip from Amtrak its ownership of the Northeast Corridor – linking Washington, D.C., Baltimore, Philadelphia, New York and Boston – and look to unnamed private operators to bid on operating high-speed passenger trains on the 437-mile long corridor.

Destruction of Amtrak could cause a crushing financial blow to the Railroad Retirement system if private operators were permitted to place their employees under coverage of Social Security rather than Railroad Retirement.

“I think we can make the service even better and reduce subsidization,” Mica said. “The whole concept of this is attracting private capital.” He opposes an Amtrak plan to operate 220-mph trains over the corridor in the future, saying so-far unnamed private operators could provide better service at a much reduced cost to taxpayers.

Amtrak President Joseph Boardman responded, “The Mica/Shuster proposal takes Amtrak apart only to put something in its place that looks quite similar.

“The Northeast Corridor is not just a piece of real estate,” Boardman said. “It is a major transportation artery and a vital component of the regional economy, carrying more than 250,000 intercity and commuter passengers every day. Amtrak provides the region the best opportunity to achieve the needed improvements. The Northeast Corridor is a success under Amtrak stewardship and many components of our next-generation high-speed rail vision plan are already moving forward.

“We don’t want to run the risk of adopting something that won’t work, that compromises safety, or that simply costs more than we can afford,” Boardman said. “The last thing the Northeast needs is a plan that’s poorly thought through and that doesn’t take key issues into account.”

Boardman recently told a rail labor group that privatization of British Rail has not been a success and increased costs.

Former Amtrak President David Gunn was blunt in a statement he made about British Rail privatization when Gunn ran Amtrak: “Since privatization [of British Rail], the system has had more accidents and delays.” And former Amtrak President Tom Downs, when he ran Amtrak, called privatization of British Rail “a disaster … They have multiple rail companies and fares, and trouble even issuing a national ticket.”

The conservative Economist magazine reported in 2005, “The privatization of British Rail has proved a disastrous failure … a catalogue of political cynicism, managerial incompetence and financial opportunism. It has cost taxpayers billions of pounds and brought rail travelers countless hours of delay.”     

In responding to the Mica/Shuster proposal, Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said, “Amtrak is the entity most capable of taking the next steps to modernize rail service in the Northeast Corridor.”

The Mica/Shuster proposal, which likely will have support of the House Republican majority, will face tough opposition in the Democratic-controlled Senate.

Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.), said June 15, “I will fight in the Senate to stop any plan that threatens Amtrak and commuters on the Northeast Corridor.”

Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.), said the Mica/Shuster proposal “makes as much sense as privatizing Medicare or Social Security. In other words, no sense at all.”

Senate Republicans also are likely to oppose the Mica/Shuster proposal. The current ranking Republican on the Democratic-controlled Senate Commerce Committee, Kay Bailey Hutchison of Texas, told The Washington Post some years ago, “There will be a national system or there won’t be an Amtrak at all.”

In fact, in passing the Passenger Rail Investment and Improvement Act of 2008, a bipartisan congressional majority said, “It is the sense of the Congress that long-distance passenger rail is a vital and necessary part of our national transportation system and economy; and Amtrak should maintain a national passenger rail system.”

Rep. Nick Rahall of West Virginia, the senior Democrat on the House Transportation & Infrastructure Committee, said of the Mica/Shuster proposal, “They want to hand over the conductor’s cap to the same folks who ran the stock market off a cliff. Privatizing passenger rail in the Northeast Corridor will not merely affect train service in that region; it will have a crippling domino effect on train service from sea to shining sea.

“Because of its national scope, Amtrak is able to invest profits from [its profitable Acela service on] the Northeast Corridor to offset less profitable long-distance lines in other parts of the country,” Rahall said. “Two years ago, the U.S. Department of Transportation invited proposals from private companies to develop high-speed rail in the United States. Not one single proposal was submitted by the private sector for developing high-speed rail in the Northeast Corridor. Not a one.

“We ought to be looking at ways to help Amtrak achieve the goal of high-speed rail; not looking at ways to dismantle it,” Rahall said.

MADISON, Wis. – A divided state supreme court here June 14 ruled in a 4-3 decision that the state’s controversial law revoking collective-bargaining rights for public employees may go into effect – overturning an injunction issued by a lower court.

This is important to UTU members for two reasons:

  • Political extremists in other states and in Congress will be emboldened by this decision, and that means a more concerted attack to fold Railroad Retirement into Social Security; privatize Social Security and Medicare, ending those programs as we know them; eliminate federal funding for Amtrak as a first step toward shutting it down; abolish income protection in railroad mergers, line sales and abandonments; and decimate workplace safety regulations and income.
  • The Wisconsin state supreme court decision would have gone the other way had a labor-friendly challenger to the incumbent won that seat on the court in a recent election. The challenger, written off early as unelectable, came within a few thousand votes of victory only because the state’s attack on collective-bargaining rights so enraged Wisconsin voters. Those voters became enraged because of a public outcry fueled by labor-union activism made possible by the UTU Collective Bargaining Defense Fund and similar programs initiated by other labor organizations.

In fact, labor-union activism in Wisconsin generated such substantial support that many of the lawmakers who voted to strip public employees of their collective bargaining rights now face recall elections this summer. The UTU Collective Bargaining Defense Fund will assist in educating Wisconsin voters and helping to energize them to go to the polls and cast votes to recall those lawmakers.

If the recall is successful, it is possible that the law will be changed by a more moderate Wisconsin legislature where many lawmakers who supported the anti-union measure are now rethinking their votes in light of the public outrage. In the Wisconsin House, language is being prepared for insertion in a budget bill to reinsert the collective bargaining language that was stricken under the leadership and bullying of political extremists.

Additionally, in Ohio, where the legislature passed a state law similarly curtailing public employee collective bargaining rights, the measure is now on hold and headed for a voter referendum in November because of labor-union activism made possible by the UTU Collective Bargaining Defense Fund and similar programs by other labor organizations.

Voters across the nation are recognizing the threat posed to working families by political extremists intent upon dismantling government and turning back decades of progressive legislation.

Hundreds of UTU members and retirees, along with UTU locals and general committees, have made generous contributions to the UTU Collective Bargaining Defense Fund.

More is needed. The Collective Bargaining Defense Fund is accomplishing what it was established to do.

Meanwhile, the UTU PAC is in need of additional contributions to help labor-friendly candidates challenge and defeat extremists in congressional and state elections in November 2012.

For more information on the UTU Collective Bargaining Defense Fund, click on the following link:

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

For more information on how UTU members can join the UTU PAC, or increase their contributions, send an email to legis@utu.org, or click on the following link:

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

The UTU, Amtrak and other labor organizations have designed a survey to aid in the development of training and awareness programs to assist Amtrak employees deal with unruly, disorderly or aggressive passengers.

While development of this program is intended for Amtrak, all UTU members employed in passenger transportation – air, bus, rail and transit – are asked to take the survey.

Education in situational awareness – while initially developed for Amtrak — will help all UTU members minimize potentially dangerous confrontations with passengers in air, rail, bus and transit service.

Click on the link, below, to take the survey. A timely response is essential to designing an educational program.

Note that while your name and email address are required — to limit multiple responses or responses by non-UTU members — such information will be kept confidential.

www.caseexperts.com/our-partners/transportation-agencies/passenger-and-commuter-railroads/transportation-survey/

WASHINGTON – Increased authority for random safety inspections of tour buses and money for more safety inspectors received a lukewarm reception by the Republican leadership of the House Transportation & Infrastructure Committee June 14 following the request by Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) Administrator Anne Ferro.

The committee hearing was called in the wake of recent high-profile tour-bus accidents — one in New York that killed 15, and another in Virginia resulting in four dead. Since January, there have been six serious bus accidents that killed a total of 25, Ferro said. She also is seeking an increase in the maximum fine from $2,000 to $25,000 for bus safety violations.

Under existing federal law, intercity buses may be inspected only at their point of origin or destination; but not enroute unless police see an expired safety sticker.

“The last thing I want to see on an interstate highway is a bus inspection and passengers unloaded,” said the committee’s chairman, Rep. John Mica (R-Fla.), who also was cool to a request for $50 million to hire additional FMCSA safety inspectors.

Rep. John Duncan (R-Tenn.) said, “I hope we don’t go overboard in reaction to a couple of bad operators.”

The ranking Democrat on the committee, Nick Rahall of West Virginia, said, “Unsafe bus companies have no business operating on our roads and putting the traveling public at risk.”

A Houston, Texas, transportation official, David Palmer, expressed concern over so-called “curbside” intercity bus companies that, after being shut down by the FMCSA for safety violations, change their name and pick-up passengers from different locations. Such firms typically advertise their services on the Internet or on printed flyers that are circulated. He said those operators are skillful at avoiding origin and destination safety inspections.

The committee was told that there has been an explosion in the number of curbside bus companies that transport passengers directly from one city to another at low fares. Many of those operators are said to hire drivers with minimal training, limited knowledge of English, and who often drive without sufficient rest, while the buses they drive sometimes do not meet federal safety standards.

Few states put a priority on bus-safety inspections, and increased federal authority is required, witnesses told the committee

The president of the American Bus Association, Pete Pantuso, told the committee, “We see a lot of [states] that just don’t put enough emphasis on bus inspections. We’ve got to get [the unsafe buses] off the highway.”

Pantuso said half the deaths resulting from intercity bus accidents involve carriers and/or drivers in violation of federal motor carrier safety standards.

CHICAGO — Newspapers and television and radio stations here June 14 were asking Union Pacific, “Is this any way to run a railroad?” after a shortage of UP engineers caused the cancellation of six morning Metra commuter trains and inconvenienced thousands of passengers trying to reach their jobs here.

Metra pays UP to operate and staff the Metra trains on its west suburban line.

The Chicago Tribune reported that “half a dozen engineers were allowed to take vacation simultaneously, and another called in sick.” Additional engineers qualified to operate the commuter trains and called by UP had already exceeded their hours-of-service following signal maintenance delays Sunday and could not report for work.

Metra’s CEO told the Chicago Tribune the fault was with UP and its “poor manpower planning.”

A UP spokesman responded, “We are looking at our crew management team to find out what happened and make sure it doesn’t happen again.”

DePaul University Transportation Professor Joseph Schwieterman, who has written extensively on railroads, told the Chicago Tribune, “This is something we expect with an airline, but not with a railroad. The lesson is, UP needs to have better contingency plans.”

Bonnie Morr

PERRIS, Calif. – Bus drivers and mechanics of Southland Transit here have voted “UTU, yes” by an almost four-to-one margin.

This is the 23rd organizing victory – air, bus and rail — for the UTU since January 2008, an average of almost one new property organized every seven weeks.

“In these difficult economic times, it takes courage to vote against management’s wishes,” said UTU Bus Department Alternate Vice President Bonnie Morr, who led the organizing drive. “These 136 dedicated and previously unorganized workers reached out to the UTU and we will provide the resources necessary to negotiate a wage, benefits and working conditions contract they can be proud of.”

Southland Transit is a community transit operation serving the disabled and elderly in the Southern California counties of Riverside and San Bernadino, providing transportation on demand and over fixed routes.

John England

Working with Morr on the organizing drive were General Chairperson (BNSF, GO 20) John England, UTU Local 1496 Secretary and Treasurer and Vice Local Delegate Chris Hubbell, and UTU Local 23 Vice Local Chairperson and Delegate Eduardo Montesino.

Assisting was Southland Transit employee Gary Miller, whom Morr said “worked tirelessly and with great determination to organize his fellow workers and bring home this victory.

“This was a very difficult process,” Morr said. “It was a second election following a successful appeal to the National Labor Relations Board that the employer had engaged in improper conduct during the first vote. The workers persevered.”

This is the new United Transportation Union official website.

We’ve changed our look.

This new website design responds to member requests for greater emphasis on materials and news of interest to UTU members.

To the right is an addition members told us is essential: a membership toolbox that contains answers to the most frequently asked questions regarding membership, representation and benefits.

Are there questions for which we have not yet provided an answer? Look to the lower right for the “Feedback” button. Tell us what questions or other materials you would like to see added or changed.

We also welcome other constructive suggestions, which may be sent to us by using the “Feedback” button.

The search engine has been improved. See the “Search this website” button on the upper right of this page, which will take you to older news stories or topics of interest.

Also toward the top of the page, in a grey horizontal bar, are a series of drop-down menus to help you find materials of interest.

At the very top of the page is a red horizontal bar with additional drop-down menus with information about the UTU, plus links to specific UTU crafts.

Other buttons allow you to click and change your mailing address, sign up for email alerts and view current and past issues of the UTU News.

Further additions are coming, including a UTU Facebook page, and an ability to follow the UTU on Twitter. For those with personal Facebook and Twitter accounts, see the “Facebook” and “Twitter” links at the upper right, which allow you to share materials from the website on your own Facebook page and via your own Twitter account.

This is your webpage. Take a test drive. Tell us what you think. Become a frequent visitor.