A safety warning has been issued by the Association of American Railroads after a razor blade was found “strategically placed in the eye of the airbrake release rod” on a hopper car set out at an industrial plant in Baton Rouge, La.
Although the razor blade was found and removed without injury, the AAR is concerned that vandals may have sabotaged other freight or passenger cars with the intent of causing severe injury to workers who come in contact with rail equipment.
“This type of vandalism may have been perpetrated on multiple railcars that can arrive at numerous facilities across the country,” the AAR warned.
“Employees should be advised to inspect not only air brake release rods for such traps, but also safety appliances, coupler operating levers, angle cocks and any other surfaces employees may contact,” the AAR said.
Railroads have been asked to report such incidents to AAR so that the entire industry may be alerted to these acts and assist railroad police and federal law enforcement in searching for the criminal or criminals.
Train and engine workers should remain alert to this potential danger and report to carriers if they encounter a similar instance of vandalism intended to cause bodily harm.
SAN ANTONIO — For the scores of Teamster Union members in their fourth week on the picket line here in a strike against Pioneer Flour Mill, times are tougher than usual. UTU Local 756 (UP, San Antonio) Chairperson John Dunn understands the hardship, and as so often occurs among UTU members, Dunn became a point-of-light, personally stepping up to the plate on behalf of his striking Teamster brothers and sisters with a random act of kindness. Filling his pickup truck bed with 10 cases of Gatorade he purchased at a local store, Dunn headed out to the picket line one afternoon in May to distribute the beverages to the striking Pioneer workers. The flour mill has been using managers and temporary workers to operate during the strike, and Union Pacific is utilizing managers to switch cars of corn, wheat and starch across picket lines into the mill, according to the San Antonio Express newspaper.
WASHINGTON — Democrat Harry Hoglander has been nominated by President Obama for a fourth three-year term — this one to expire in June 2014 — on the three-member National Mediation Board, which administers the Railway Labor Act.
Earlier this year, Obama nominated Republican Thomas M. Beck to succeeded Republican Elizabeth Dougherty for a term expiring in June 2013.
It is expected the two nominations will move forward in tandem for Senate confirmation.
Democrat Linda Puchela is the third member of the NMB, serving a term that expires in June 2012.
Prior to Senate confirmation to his first term in 2002, Hoglander was a legislative aide to Rep. John Tierney (D-Mass.), where he focused on aviation and rail issues. Previously, Hoglander was a Trans World Airlines pilot and executive vice president of the Air Line Pilots Association. Educated as an attorney, Hoglander was a U.S. Air Force fighter pilot and retired with the rank of lieutenant colonel.
Beck, an attorney, has been serving as a Senate-confirmed member of the Federal Labor Relations Authority, which administers labor-management relations for non-Postal Service federal employees. Previously, Beck practiced labor law in the private sector and was a part-time professor of public policy at George Mason University in Fairfax, Va.
Great Lakes Airlines flight attendants represented by UTU Local 40 have unanimously ratified a four-year agreement.
The UTU represents some 300 flight attendants and pilots on this regional airline based in Cheyenne, Wyo., and with hubs in Albuquerque, N.M.; Billings, Mont.; Denver; Kansas City; Los Angeles; Milwaukee; and Phoenix.
The ratified flight attendants’ contract provides for wage increases, a signing bonus, a per diem rate, a doubling of the sick-leave accrual rate, improvements to the uniform allowance and relocation expenses, and enhancements in working conditions.
Also included in the contract is a significant improvement in the discipline rule, which now requires the carrier to hold an investigation, issue a formal decision, respond to an appeal of the UTU, and hold a conference, if requested. An agency shop rule also is included in the ratified agreement.
UTU International Vice President John Previsich, who assisted with the negotiations, praised the efforts of Local 40 officers “for doing a good job of polling the membership to identify the needs and desires of the workgroup and for attending every session fully prepared and ready to negotiate.
“They did their homework, knew the contract inside and out, and did thorough research on industry-standard pay and rule provisions,” Previsich said. “Their efforts were essential in obtaining such a favorable contract at a time when the country and the airline industry struggles in a very challenging economic and political climate.” Previsich also thanked UTU International Vice President Paul Tibbit for his participation and “wise counsel.”
The UTU continues to negotiate on behalf of Great Lakes pilots, with negotiating sessions scheduled for June and July.
Great Lakes Airlines serves 48 of its destinations through the Essential Air Service program and is the nation’s largest provider of Essential Air Service. Great Lakes Airlines operates 30-passenger Embraer aircraft and 19-passenger Beechcraft airplanes.
Train and engine employment on the nation’s major railroads rose again in April and is more than six percent higher than one year ago, reports the U.S. Surface Transportation Board.
The 62,872 train and engine workers employed by Class I railroads in April is still almost 12 percent below the January 2007 level (71,103), and more than seven percent below the January 2008 level (67,908).
The good news is that T&E numbers have been rising steadily over the past year as the economy continues its slow recovery from the depth of serious recession. Since January 2011, T&E employment is up almost three percent on Class I railroads.
WASHINGTON — Amtrak President Joseph Boardman told the Senate Appropriations Committee May 17 that Amtrak will never “be able to cut costs enough on long-distance trains to make them profitable. It becomes more a question of policy whether we are going to have border-to-border, coast-to-coast connectivity.”
Boardman urged the lawmakers not to cut back on long-distance train subsidies, which he said would deprive a significant area of the country with train travel that is essential to rural Americans without airport options.
The Amtrak CEO also testified that he wants to increase security patrols of the nation’s rail passenger network — much of it owned by freight railroads over which Amtrak trains travel — using new technologies, including ultrasonic and laser devices, to provide advance pinpoint warning of track tampering in the face of elevated terrorist concerns.
He warned lawmakers that trains are more vulnerable to attack than commercial airliners because terrorists have widespread access to the track, bridges and tunnels used by passenger trains.
Just as you balance your personal checkbook and compare income to expenses in making decisions where to spend and where to save, we at UTU International make similar decisions with your dues.
Accepting responsibility to protect the interests of our members also includes accepting responsibility to use the funds entrusted to the International so as to obtain the most value from every dues dollar received.
There is no silver bullet for managing finances. Resource utilization is regularly assessed and needed adjustments are made. Demanded action is met with a cost-effective response. This same standard is applied to funds managed for the Discipline Income Protection Program and the United Transportation Union Insurance Association (UTUIA).
During the current administration, the UTU’s General Fund, accounting for most day-to-day operations of the International, has increased from $2.1 million to nearly $2.6 million.
The balances of all other funds have improved by an even greater extent, with the total of all International funds increasing from $7.5 million to nearly $16 million — an increase of 111 percent.
The Convention Fund balance assures that necessary funds are available to finance the 11th Quadrennial Convention convening in August.
This is all in spite of reduced membership owing to the deep recession and employee layoffs, and extraordinary administrative and legal expenses.
In 2007, our Discipline Income Protection Program reserve fund suffered a $2 million loss and was left with a balance of just over $5 million. Today, our reserves are at more than $9 million, assuring sufficient funds to satisfy all outstanding liabilities and provide the protection our members expect and deserve.
The UTUIA, meanwhile, earned more than $400,000 from operations during 2010, and remains financially strong with nearly $26 million in surplus.
Union assets are invested primarily in cash accounts and short term bonds, and are largely unaffected by the stock market problems.
The UTUIA, as all insurance providers — and even the Railroad Retirement Trust Fund — has assets invested in the stock market, as well as in bonds and cash accounts. But UTUIA investments are generally conservative in nature. UTUIA investment advice is obtained through independent advisers who have no financial benefit from actual transactions, but are paid on a fee-for-service basis.
Prior to this administration assuming office, it was said that the UTU was broke and could not survive on its own. In addition to precariously low reserves, our nation fell into the worse economic recession since the Great Depression of the 1930s. During the depths of this recession, more than 15 percent of our members were furloughed.
Disciplined finance management by this administration enabled continued growth.
Now, as the railroads recall employees and hire new workers, the resulting increased receipts will add to these reserves, assuring availability of funds for continued quality representation.
By Calvin Studivant Alternate vice president, Bus Department
Fatigue management was a topic of significant importance earlier this month at a National Transportation Safety Board forum I attended in Washington, D.C.
The troubling news from the forum is that non-union bus operators, employed by so-called low-cost carriers, are being forced to work too many hours, with many of the drivers clearly in violation of hours-of-service regulations.
For too many non-union bus operators, pay is so low they are compromised into working excessive hours to feed their families — and that means driving while fatigued. That’s not only unlawful; it’s dangerous.
Medical experts who study fatigue have concluded that going to work fatigued is like going to work drunk.
An effective solution is not necessarily revising the hours-of-service regulations; but rather revising the law that permits non-union carriers to avoid paying their drivers overtime rates.
At no time should low driver earnings be allowed to compromise safety, but that is the situation too many low-paid, non-union operators face.
Lack of training is another problem for non-union operators employed by carriers whose primary interest is putting a driver — no matter how poorly paid or poorly trained — behind the wheel.
Much emphasis is being placed on revising hours-of-service regulations and installing new technology such as collision warning systems and lane departure warnings. Yes, they are important in assuring safety.
Too often overlooked is the ability of carriers to intimidate drivers into violating the hours-of-service law; and the fact that new technology is not, in itself, a solution to the fatigue problem.
In my mind, it makes eminent good sense to put equal or more emphasis on assuring only qualified, alert and non-fatigued drivers are behind the wheel — drivers who are properly trained and properly recruited with competitive wage and benefits packages.
Within the UTU, we recognize this in our contracts, and it is time for federal and state regulators to recognize the issue among the growing number of so-called low-cost bus companies that put profit ahead of safety.
Take, for example, a bill currently being considered by the U.S. Senate — S. 453, the Motorcoach Enhanced Safety Act. The bill would require safety improvements in construction of new buses, but missing in that bill is recognition that assuring the hiring and retention of properly qualified, fully trained and competitively paid drivers is equally important in assuring safe passenger transportation.
I will be leading discussions on these issues at our regional meetings in San Antonio and New York in June and July, and I hope as many of our drivers as possible will attend these regional meeting bus workshops.
We also will be discussing the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s new rules for obtaining a commercial driver’s license (CDL) and commerical learner’s permit (CLP). Those new rules are posted on the UTU webpage.
In the San Antonio and New York regional meetings we also will be discussing opportunities for federal grants to help improve the skills of labor negotiators and encourage innovative approaches to collaborative labor-management problem solving. We will work with the UTU National Legislative Office and President Futhey to make application for a grant to the UTU.
I also call your attention to the Bus Department page of the UTU website at www.utu.org. A link has been added on that page to a recent DOT Motorcoach Safety Action Plan. Scroll down on that page and the link is in the fourth column to the right, under “Bus Safety”. The new FMCSA rules on obtaining a CDL and CLP also appear there.
Football season is long over. The New York Jets never made it to the Super Bowl. National Football League players are locked out by their owners. The upcoming football season could be in jeopardy. And how about Norfolk Southern conductor and former Jets defensive back Keith Fitzhugh, who last fall turned down a Jets’ offer to return to the team in favor or being a conductor? “I’m so happy,” Fitzhugh, age 24, recently told The Associated Press. “It turned out just right for me.” When we previously visited with Fitzhugh last fall, he had spurned the Jets’ offer and was in conductor training. Many called his decision to stay with NS “crazy.” Job security and a steady income were and are more important to Fitzhugh, especially in an economy where jobs are scarce and good benefits even more scarce. Indeed, some of his former – and now locked-out – NFL teammates, have asked Fitzhugh if they could get him a similar job on Norfolk Southern, reported the Associated Press. “They’re, like, ‘Hey, Keith, if this doesn’t work out for me …’ and I just tell them, ‘Just go ahead and apply, just like I did,'” he told the Associated Press. “No big-name guys,” Fitzhugh told the Associated Press, “but guys who are straddling that line like I was. When they hear about what I do, it’s kind of exciting to them, too, because you turn into a kid all over again. You’re riding a train that has 4,000 or 5,000 horsepower and you really can get into the thrill of it. It’s a fun job, man.” Fitzhugh is now a full-time conductor and member of UTU Local 511 in Atlanta, and most often working a run between Atlanta and Chattanooga, Tenn. He resides in Hampton, Ga. Could Fitzhugh eventually return to the NFL? He told the Associated Press that NS officials promised him a leave of absence if another opportunity presented itself. “I’m still young and I keep my body in shape,” he told the Associated Press. “I don’t know if the opportunity will ever come with this lockout, but I can’t say yay or nay. You never know who might call me and give me an opportunity.” “For me, having job security is important,” Fitzhugh told the UTU News last fall when he made the decision to stay with NS. “I was released three times [twice by the Jets, once by the Baltimore Ravens]. There is no job security [in the National Football League]. Why risk losing a good job with Norfolk Southern? I have buddies with two degrees who can’t find a job. “Working for Norfolk Southern is one of the best prestigious jobs you can have,” Fitzhugh told the UTU News last fall. “I have to look out for what’s best for me and my family. I think riding on a locomotive is one of the coolest things.”
GILA BEND, Ariz. — A westbound Union Pacific freight train hit a U.S. Border Patrol SUV here May 12 as two Border Patrol agents, reportedly chasing suspected undocumented immigrants, suddenly entered an unmarked private crossing in their unmarked SUV as the train approached.
Both Border Patrol agents were killed in the collision, which occurred about 80 miles from the Mexican border.
News reports say the train’s crew members saw the SUV driving parallel to the tracks “when the unmarked SUV suddenly turned south into the crossing.” The engineer reportedly blew his horn prior to the crash, trying to get the SUV driver’s attention.
The Maricopa County Sheriff’s Department said the three-locomotive, 75-car UP train, enroute to Yuma, was traveling about 62 mph when it struck the SUV, pushing it about one-mile down the tracks.
News reports say sheriff’s deputies later arrested a group of eight suspected undocumented immigrants traveling on foot near the scene of the accident. They reportedly were carrying 315 pounds of marijuana.
By General Secretary & Treasurer Kim Thompson
