Year: 2011

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We are into the season of losing limbs and lives in yard accidents.

More career-ending injuries and fatalities occur during winter months – even in warmer climates – than any other season of the year.

Even veteran rails – not just new yard employees — lose their situational awareness during this period, and the price they pay is devastating.

Maybe it’s the holidays. Maybe it’s concern over bills that arrive after the holidays. Maybe it’s seasonal darkness. Maybe it’s thoughts of summer’s return. Maybe, maybe, maybe.

But what we know is that when we lose situational awareness, the likelihood of losing limbs or life skyrockets, and the objective of zero switching accidents and fatalities flies out the window faster than heat through an open window into chill air.

Consider the cold, hard facts:

* 23 percent of yard fatalities occur in December and January.

* 50 percent of fatalities from being struck by mainline trains occur in December and January.

* 2011 is stacking up as a more dangerous year than 2010. Just through September 2011, according to the Federal Railroad Administration, 51 severe injuries occurred vs. 47 for the first nine months in 2010. Eight amputations occurred during the first nine months of 2011 vs. same period in 2010.

Here are some tips to help you avoid a career-ending injury or loss of your life this winter season:

* Be sure winter clothing does not restrict movement, or degrade hearing and vision.

* Identify any winter-related conditions affecting safety. For example, ice can cause derailments. Ice, snow and mud can cause falling. And snow can muffle sound and reduce visibility.

* Adjust productivity expectations based on darkness and weather.

* Discuss winter conditions in safety briefings, and post any weather-related concerns on bulletin boards.

* Above all, don’t lose situational awareness no matter other circumstances in your family or personal life.

Finally, as in all months of the year:

* Review current operating and safety rules that specifically address remote control locomotive and conventional switching operations that require employees to go between rolling equipment, and determine whether those rules provide adequate protection to employees, or need to be updated or revised.

* Develop, implement and monitor sound communication protocols that require employees on multi-person switch crews to notify their fellow crewmembers when the need arises to enter between two pieces of rolling equipment – regardless of whether the employee is the primary RCO or working on a conventional crews.

* Review SOFA Safety Recommendation No. 1 relating to adjusting knuckles, adjusting drawbars and installing end-of-train devices, and communicate procedures implementing that recommendation to employees working in yards or other locations where the possibility of entering between rolling equipment exists.

That recommendation provides: Any crew member intending to foul track or equipment must notify the locomotive engineer before such action can take place. The locomotive engineer must then apply locomotive or train brakes, have the reverser centered, and then confirm this action with the individual on the ground.

Additionally, any crew member that intends to adjust knuckles/drawbars, or apply or remove an EOT device, must ensure that the cut of cars to be coupled into is separated by no fewer than 50 feet. Also, the person on the ground must physically inspect the cut of cars not attached to the locomotive to ensure they are completely stopped; and, if necessary, a sufficient number of hand brakes must be applied to ensure the cut of cars will not move.

* Recognize that personal safety is your responsibility.

* Always perform tasks safely and in compliance with established railroad rules and procedures.

To view more information on rail safety, click on the following link:

https://www.smart-union.org/safety/

WASHINGTON – The Department of Transportation has ordered the following minimum random drug and alcohol testing rates for 2012:

For workers in safety sensitive positions and whose safety is regulated by the Federal Railroad Administration, the Federal Transit Administration or the Federal Aviation Administration, employers must perform random drug tests on at least 25 percent of covered workers, and perform random alcohol tests on at least 10 percent of covered workers.

For workers in safety sensitive positions and whose safety is regulated by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, employers must perform random drug tests on at least 50 percent of covered workers, and random alcohol tests on at least 10 percent of covered workers.

propeller; airplane propellerUTU-represented pilots and flight attendants at Great Lakes Airlines received good news with the announcement that the carrier would be taking over service in North Dakota and Minnesota from Delta Air Lines.

Delta had been serving Devils Lake, N.D., but switched from turboprop aircraft to regional jets. The airport’s runway is not long enough for the jets to land in windy weather, so Great Lakes’ turboprops, and crews, won the business.

Delta also had been serving Brainerd, Minn., and Great Lakes will also be taking over that service.

Dates of the takeovers have yet to be announced, but officials at both Delta and Great Lakes said they were cooperating to make the changeover as seamless as possible.

James Williams; William, James
Williams

LOS ANGELES – The almost 5,000 UTU members employed by Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (LACMTA) have ratified a new contract, through June 30, 2014, by better than a three-to-one margin.

The new contract provides for wage increases, a signing bonus, improved work rules, narrows the pay gap between the top and bottom tiers of employees, and maintains health care and pension benefits.

LACMTA General Chairperson James Williams led the negotiations, with assistance from UTU International Vice President Vic Baffoni.

“We have high praise for all the general committee and local officers who supported our efforts during a difficult two-year process to obtain this agreement,” Baffoni said. “We gained stability and job security in a very troubling economic environment and we are in a position to build on this agreement, on behalf of our membership, in better economic times.”

The agreement affects UTU Locals 1563, 1564, 1575, 1607 and 1608.

Almost 26 million Americans suffer with diabetes. Shockingly, another 79 million have pre-diabetes, and many are not even aware they have the disease.

It is estimated that by the year 2050, one-in-three American adults will have diabetes unless serious steps are taken to stop or prevent it. 

Diabetes often goes unnoticed and, therefore, untreated because the associated symptoms seem harmless. But they are anything from harmless.

Learning the symptoms of diabetes is important as early detection can lessen the chance of developing more serious complications from this disease.

What is diabetes?

Diabetes is a disease characterized by high blood glucose levels that result from the body’s inability to produce and/or use insulin.

There are three types of diabetes:  

Type 1, also known as juvenile diabetes, is usually diagnosed in young adults and children and accounts for about 5 percent of all diabetics.  Insulin therapy is needed because the body does not produce insulin.
 
Type 2, also known as adult onset diabetes, it is the most common form of the disease. More than 90 percent of all diabetics have Type 2. Type 2 diabetics can produce insulin, but either the pancreas is not producing enough insulin or the body cannot use the insulin adequately.

Gestational diabetes occurs in pregnant women who did not have diabetes prior to their pregnancy. It develops in women who experience high blood glucose levels later in their pregnancy.    

What are the symptoms of diabetes?

Diabetes often goes undiagnosed because many of the symptoms seem harmless or go unnoticed. Learning the symptoms of diabetes is important as early detection can decrease the chance of developing more serious complications from this disease.

Symptoms of Type 1 diabetes:

* Frequent urination
* Unusual thirst
* Extreme hunger
* Unusual weight loss    

Symptoms of Type 2 diabetes:   
   
* Any of the Type 1 diabetes symptoms
* Frequent infections
* Blurred vision
* Cuts or bruises that are slow to heal

Who is at greatest risk for Type 2 diabetes?

* Those overweight
* Those over age 45
* Those with a family history of diabetes
* Those with impaired glucose tolerance
* Those who do not exercise regularly
* Those with a low HDL cholesterol level
* Those with a high triglycerides level
* Those with high blood pressure
* People of certain racial/ethnic groups
* Women who had gestational diabetes or a baby weighing nine pounds or more at birth

What are the health risks of diabetes?

Diabetes is the leading cause of kidney failure and of new cases of blindness among adults. More alarming, two out of three people with diabetes will die from heart disease or stroke.

The good news is that many individuals with diabetes can prevent or delay the onset of the complications of this disease with proper treatment and recommended lifestyle changes. Some of the more serious health risks are:

* Glaucoma and cataracts
* Foot problems such as poor blood flow and numbness
* Skin complications such as fungal infections and itching
* Heart disease and stroke
* Anger and depression
* Hearing loss

Contact your physician if you have any of the symptoms of diabetes.

For more health care information, visit the UTU health care page by clicking on the following link:

https://www.smart-union.org/td/healthcare/

bus; CATS; CATS busCHARLOTTE, N.C. – Members of UTU Local 1715 have ratified a new agreement with Charlotte Area Transit by a three-to-one margin.

The new contract provides for wage increases, freezes employee contributions to health care insurance, restores travel time, adjusts work rules as sought by the membership, and adds a retiree health care plan.

Negotiations were led by General Chairperson Kevin Moss and Vice General Chairperson Hasson Trent, with assistance from Calvin Studivant, who is alternate vice president of the UTU Bus Department.

Studivant praised the efforts of Vice Local Chairperson Donnell Taylor, Local President Bruce Wright, Secretary Bill Brown and former General Chairperson Brenda Moore, along with Glennie Holland, Cheryl Brown, and Derrick Moss, and UTU International organizer Mike Lewis.

U.S. Capitol Building; Capitol Building; Washington D.C.WASHINGTON — In the face of bipartisan get-tough-with-labor legislation introduced in the House and Senate, two of the remaining unions without national rail contracts agreed to a tentative settlement Dec. 1, and a third reached agreement with the carriers Dec. 1 to extend a cooling-off period into February.

With these agreements, the threat of a national railroad strike has been averted for now.

Previously, the Transportation Communications Union, the Brotherhood of Railroad Signalmen and the various shopcrafts, including the Sheet Metal Workers International Association, reached tentative six-year agreements with the National Carriers Conference Committee (NCCC). The NCCC represents BNSF, CSX, Kansas City Southern, Norfolk Southern, Soo Line, Union Pacific and numerous smaller railroads in national handling.

UTU members earlier ratified a five-year national rail contract.

The Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen and the American Train Dispatchers Association agreed Dec. 1 to a tentative six-year agreement as recommended last month by Presidential Emergency Board No. 243. References to the UTU’s ratified national rail contract are extensive in the PEB recommendations.

While the BLET is in national handling for health care, it previously reached ratified wage agreements with BNSF, CSX and Norfolk Southern for lower wage increases than the UTU and other organizations, and continues separate talks on wages with Union Pacific.

Also, the Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employes reached agreement with the NCCC to extend into February a cooling-off period that was to expire Dec. 5.

The BLET and train dispatchers’ tentative agreements, and the cooling-off period extension agreed to by the BMWE Dec. 1, came in the face of separate House and Senate resolutions.

The House resolution, H.J. 91 and introduced by House Transportation & Infrastructure Chairman John Mica (R-Fla.), would have imposed as a final agreement on the BLET, the train dispatchers and the BMWE the PEB recommendations.

Separately, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) was set to introduce for immediate Senate vote an identical resolution (S.J. 31). After the BLET, train dispatchers’ and BMWE agreements were announced late Dec. 1, Sen. Reid said:

“I applaud all the stakeholders who worked to avert a work stoppage that would have hurt our nation’s economy just as the holiday season gets underway. It is Congress’ constitutional duty to ensure the unfettered flow of interstate commerce, and to protect the nation’s economic well-being. I am pleased with this outcome and congratulate all sides, including the White House and Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, for their effort to find common ground that protects our economy and keeps it on-track.”

Effective Jan. 1, all Pennsylvania employers, which includes labor unions, must withhold from employee paychecks the income tax due localities.

This is a requirement of a law that reformed and standardized the local earned-income tax system in the state and applies to all employers who maintain worksites in Pennsylvania.

The law, known as Act 32 and effective Jan. 1, requires uniform withholding of earned income taxes and remittance to a single local collector or tax officer.

Employers are required to withhold the higher of the employee’s resident earned income tax (where they reside) or the employee’s municipal non-resident earned income tax (where they are employed).

Employers are required to obtain information via a Residency Certification Form for each employee, which the employee must complete and sign. The form can be downloaded off the following webpage, which also includes more information on Act 32:

www.newpa.com/node/6711

Once you receive the completed and signed Residency Certification Form from your employees, you should visit the following website for additional instructions:

http://munstatspa.dced.state.pa.us/registers.aspx

Philadelphia residents are exempt from Act 32 as their current tax system is administered by the Philadelphia Department of Revenue.

If you have additional questions, you may call your UTU auditor or the UTU International at (216) 228-9400.

Wisconsin Rally; Wisconsin; Rally; protest“On Wisconsin” is the fight song of the University of Wisconsin.

“Back to Wisconsin” is the fight song of the UTU Collective Bargaining Defense Fund and other organizations determined to continue a successful “red zone” defense against anti-union political zealots.

Organized labor – with considerable assistance from the UTU Collective Bargaining Defense Fund – helped engineer the recall of two Wisconsin state senators who plotted to eliminate collective bargaining rights for state workers in that state, and then defeated, at the ballot box, an Ohio legislative attempt to do the same.

Elected lawmakers nationwide, as well as political analysts, fully digested that those successes by organized labor and its friends and now recognize organized labor is not to be abused or ignored. 

Now the focus turns to a recall of Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, the architect of the Wisconsin assault on collective bargaining rights and organized labor. A successful recall could stop dead in its tracks further efforts by anti-labor zealots — nationwide and in Congress — to attack the fundamental rights of working Americans to organize and bargain collectively.

Indeed, in union there is strength, and now that strength is being focused on obtaining 540,000 signatures of Wisconsin voters to force a recall of Gov. Walker – the anti-union politician who started this unnecessary fight.

As the Associated Press reported, the drive to collect the 540,000 signatures is “fueled by anger over Walker’s successful push to take away nearly all public worker collective bargaining rights.”

It is fueled also by recognition among working families — union and non-union — that this was only the opening salvo in an effort to destroy labor unions and return America to the days when workers were entirely beholden to the daily whims of management.

In Wisconsin, the UTU Collective Bargaining Defense Fund is helping to organize rallies, buy television and radio air time to explain the recall effort, engage in door-to-door canvassing of voters, operate phone banks, send letters to the editor, meet with media editorial boards, and establish “sign the petition” booths throughout the state.

Less than two weeks into the recall campaign, volunteers have collected more than 300,000 signatures. With 540,000 signatures, a recall election could be held as early as April 2012.

In an incredible statement, Gov. Walker told a Wisconsin radio station, in response to the rallies, “You see a total disregard for people’s families and others here.” One would have thought he was responding to his own anti-labor efforts.

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

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

 

By Bonnie Morr
Alternate Vice President – Bus Department

Operating a bus may be the most stressful job in America.

Early in November, 100 Detroit bus operators walked off the job after repeated passenger assaults. In New York, a study found a pattern of physical and verbal assaults on drivers.

Add to the fear of being assaulted the long hours spent in congested traffic and passengers interfering with bus operation with repeated questions and complaints, and one shouldn’t be surprised that the mental toll on drivers is significant. An article in Slate calls it “a potent stress cocktail.”

Driving a bus, according to The Journal of Occupational Health Psychology, is “a high stress occupation.” One psychologist said bus drivers face two unacceptable choices: Make the schedule by driving recklessly, or drive safely and irritate passengers who are too often likely to assault or otherwise abuse the driver.

And it’s not just city buses. The number of physical and verbal assaults on school bus operators has been increasing.

Increasingly, bus operators suffer from high blood pressure, heart disease, sleep apnea and gastrointestinal disorders traceable to job stress.

As cash-strapped transit agencies reduce service and raise fares, the pressures on drivers is only going to increase.

While lawmakers and regulators frequently focus on improved safety standards for bus manufacture, cell phone bans, and tougher qualifications for bus operators, they too often ignore management pressure to adhere to schedules, overtime demands and a refusal to install bus-operator safety shields.

These are issues we continue to make known to lawmakers and regulators, and we will continue doing so until acceptable legislation and regulations are imposed.

A bill now before Congress, the Local Flexibility for Transit Assistance Act (H.R. 3200), introduced by Rep. Russ Carnahan (D-Mo.) and Steve LaTourette (R-Ohio), is a step in the right direction. It would allow local transit systems in areas with more than 7 percent unemployment or substantially higher gasoline prices to gain access to federal funds to maintain service and return furloughed employees to work.

The UTU will continue to keep lawmakers informed on problems faced daily by bus operators, while the UTU PAC will continue to support candidates who demonstrate an understanding of our problems and a determination to take legislative action to solve the problems.