Year: 2011

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WASHINGTON — Speaking to labor’s rank-and-file via an AFL-CIO electronic town hall meeting last week, Vice President Joe Biden warned of “barbarians at the gate” of working families as attacks on collective bargaining and union membership move forward in numerous state legislatures.

“The only people who have the capacity — organizational capacity and muscle — to keep, as they say, the barbarians from the gate, is organized labor,” Biden said.

“And make no mistake about it: The guys on the other team get it. They know if they cripple labor, the gate is open, man. The gate is wide open.”

Encouraging organized labor to continue the fight against extremists who would destroy labor unions, Biden said, “You built the middle class. We don’t see the value of collective bargaining, we see the absolute positive necessity of collective bargaining.”

MADISON, Wis. — It may be only a temporary restraining order, but the decision of a Wisconsin judge last week to block the state legislature from revoking the collective bargaining rights of public employees reflects the controversial nature of the action and keeps it before ever-increasing citizen wrath.

Wisconsin Circuit Court Judge Maryann Sumi, appointed by former Wisconsin Republican Gov. Tommy Thompson, issued the temporary restraining order, barring Wisconsin’s secretary of state from publishing the law, effectively staying its implementation.

The challenge accuses Republican lawmakers — who control both the Wisconsin House and Senate — of violating the state’s requirement for open meeting requirements when they passed the law. It is alleged that because Democratic members of the legislature were not present, the open meeting requirements were violated.

An appeal to a higher court of the temporary restraining order is expected this week, and Judge Sumi also later could permit the law to be published following a hearing she scheduled to begin March 28.

Additionally, Wisconsin Republicans, who control the legislature, could bring the bill up again for a vote, now that Democratic members — who had fled in an earlier unsuccessful attempt to block the law’s passage — have returned.

“We highly doubt a Dane County judge has the authority to tell the legislature how to carry out its constitutional duty,” said Republican Sen. Scott Fitzgerald and Republican Rep. Jeff Fitzgerald.

The fight is far from over in Wisconsin or elsewhere.

It's not just Wisconsin. UTU members participate in a rally in Lansing, Mich., last week where the legislature there is considering bills whose intent is union busting. Similar rallies are taking place nationwide as union members and non-union members are speaking as one against the assault by right-wing extremists against collective bargaining rights.

 

WASHINGTON — Two commuter railroads — Los Angeles Metrolink and Chicago Metra – get it. They recognize that commuters aren’t hogs and logs on freight trains, and passenger and crew safety is paramount.

Unfortunately, 24 other commuter railroads don’t get it.

Under the umbrella of the American Public Transit Association (APTA), those other commuter railroads are pleading with Congress to delay for three years implementation of the life- and limb-saving technology offered by positive train control (PTC).

Instead, those other 24 commuter railroads are looking to spend the money on gussied up passenger stations, platforms and even new office buildings for executives.

Indeed, at a hearing of the House Rail Subcommittee March 17, APTA, in emphasizing everything except passenger and train-crew safety, asked that the deadline for implementation of PTC on commuter rail routes be delayed for three years — from Dec. 31, 2015, to Dec. 31, 2018.

By contrast, Los Angeles Metrolink and Chicago Metra are putting the highest priority on passenger and crew safety by moving forward to meet the 2015 deadline — established by the Rail Safety Improvement Act of 2008 — for installation of PTC.

Los Angeles Metrolink and Chicago Metra are the only two commuter railroads opposing the three-year delay sought by the other 24 in the PTC implementation date.

At Los Angeles Metrolink — a 512-mile system that is the second largest commuter railroad in size and fifth largest in ridership — the recently installed CEO, John Fenton, has made a commitment to put passenger safety first.

Metrolink has taken the lead in selecting vendors, setting equipment standards and implementing new training programs in preparation for meeting the 2015 PTC mandate.

“We are fully dedicated to meet or beat the PTC implementation deadline of 2015,” Fenton said in testimony submitted to the subcommittee. “We don’t think there is any time to waste given the unforgiving nature of the environment within which we operate.”

Fenton and Metrolink employees know this first hand.

Each wears a green wrist band with the words, “Never Again,” reminding them of the horrific accident in Chatsworth, Calif., Sept. 12, 2008, between a Union Pacific freight train and a Metrolink commuter train that killed 25 and injured 135. “We still walk in the shadow of that pain in mourning for all those touched by the tragedy,” Fenton said.

“A firm sense of resolve is clear,” he said. “PTC can be the technological edge that helps Metrolink achieve the safest operations possible when combined with a culture of positive safety, management leadership by example, sound operating rules and practices, a collaborate approach to stakeholder involvement and our crash-energy-management car fleet.”

While the other 24 commuter railroads complain of the cost of PTC and assert there is “no off-the-shelf technology” readily available, Los Angeles Metrolink has been at work to make PTC happen and to meet the 2015 installation deadline.

Within two months of passage of the 2008 congressional mandate for PTC installation, Metrolink assembled a PTC development team, which defined the scope, schedule and budget to create a glide path for PTC implementation by 2015. A vendor contract was awarded in October 2010.

If Los Angeles Metrolink and Chicago Metra have any complaints, it is with the other 24 commuter railroads fighting the 2015 installation mandate. By so doing, say safety experts, those 24 are reducing incentives for vendor research and development, limiting competition among vendors, and thereby further driving up the costs of implementation of which they already complain.

“We believe that PTC is perhaps the most important safety innovation in our lifetime,” Fenton said. “Our families, co-workers, friends and neighbors ride our trains every day. Their safety is our responsibility. It is our core value. PTC is too important in our mission of zero safety incidents.”

Also providing testimony was rail labor, supporting maintenance of the 2015 implementation date for PTC — for commuter railroads as well as freight railroads.

Emphasizing that many deaths — passenger and crew — could have been saved and will be saved by PTC, the rail labor organizations told the subcommittee, “There is no such thing as federal regulatory overreach when it comes to returning our members safely to their families.”

Said UTU National Legislative Director James Stem: “Implementation of PTC is a small price to pay for saving lives and limbs. PTC, long advocated by the National Transportation Safety Board, will become an integral part of the safety overlay protecting passengers, the public and train crews.”

PTC is collision avoidance technology that monitors and controls train movements remotely. It can prevent train-to-train collisions, prevent unauthorized train movement into a work zone, halt movement of a train through a switch left in the wrong position, and stop trains exceeding authorized speeds.

To view an animated depiction of how PTC works as a safety overlay system to improve railroad safety, click here.

BOSTON — UTU-represented conductors and assistant conductors on Massachusetts Bay Commuter Railroad (MBCR) have ratified a four-year agreement covering wages, benefits and working conditions.

The agreement is retroactive to July 2009, and may be reopened for amendment in July 2013 under provisions of the Railway Labor Act.

BLET-represented engineers on MBCR also ratified a new four-year agreement. The UTU and the BLET negotiated jointly to reach those separate craft agreements, with the expectation that a better agreement for each craft would result if negotiations were held jointly.

Included in the UTU amended agreement with MBCR are retroactive pay, a signing bonus, a 13.7 percent overall increase in wages by July 2013, certification pay for conductors, a cap on health care cost-sharing, and a provision that discipline records will not be retained beyond a maximum of 36 months (other than substance abuse violations, which are subject to record-keeping under federal law).

The agreement also includes an increase in compensation for release-time — from the decades-old 50 percent of the full-time rate to 62.5 percent.

UTU International Vice President John Previsich, who assisted with the negotiations, commended General Chairperson Roger Lenfest and Assistant General Chairperson Dirk Sampson (both, Amtrak, GO 769), along with Local 898 Chairperson Don Wheaton “for their participation in securing substantial improvements to wages and working conditions in today’s difficult economic environment.

“It is through their extraordinary efforts that the negotiating team was able to add groundbreaking enhancements such as conductor certification pay and increased pay for release time,” Previsich said.

The Transportation Communications Union and shopcrafts previously were released from mediation with MBCR by the National Mediation Board, but the sides have returned to the bargaining table.

MBCR, operated under contract by Veolia Transportation, transports more than 131,000 riders daily between Boston and outlying areas.

Containerized auto-parts shipments from Japan to the U.S. are expected to be cut significantly in the weeks and even months ahead, which could have a direct short-term impact on rail shipments and employment.

Flooding, shortages of electricity and damage to roads and bridges have combined to cause factories across Japan to close or scale back production.

The auto industry is the largest U.S. importer of containerized shipments from Japan, says the Journal of Commerce, and “any slowdown of parts shipments can also affect production facilities inside the U.S.” Auto-parts traffic from Japan represents 28 percent of U.S. imported auto parts, the Journal of Commerce reports.

Moreover, Japan is the world’s third-largest exporter of all containerized freight to the U.S., and the second largest importer of all containerized freight from the U.S., said the Journal of Commerce. Much of that traffic moves to and from U.S. Pacific coast ports via rail.

The Wall Street Journal reports that most auto and auto-parts factories in Japan have been closed since the earthquake and tsunami, and that while many prepare to reopen next week there are questions as to the ability to transport finished product to Japanese ports for export.

Also, as Japan is a major worldwide supplier of electronics for new automobiles and trucks, and as most auto factories operate on a just-in-time inventory schedule, a delay in export of those components could affect U.S.., Canadian and Mexican auto assembly, further adversely affecting U.S. rail shipments of finished automobiles.

General Motors’ president for North American operations told The New York Times that GM is concerned that Japanese-made transmissions for the popular Volt might become in short supply. “We just don’t know from a supply standpoint; there’s so many great things that come out of Japan for the whole industry,” he said.

LANSING, Mich. — In another blow to public employee collective-bargaining rights, the Michigan House and Senate have passed legislation allowing non-elected emergency financial managers in financially struggling cities and school districts to terminate union contracts for teachers and other public employees.

The bill is now before Republican Gov. Mitch Snyder for signature.

 

 

UTU International HQ employee Dan Lough braves the rain in Strongville, Ohio, March 15,
where he participated with some 2,000 other Ohioans protesting the state’s attack on
collective bargaining rights for public employees.

WILMINGTON, Del. — Amtrak is naming its refurbished station here in honor of Vice President Joe Biden, who regularly commuted between Washington and his home in Wilmington for most of his U.S. Senate career that spanned almost 25 years.

The official name will be the Joseph R. Biden Jr. Railroad Station. A ceremony will be held at the station Saturday, March 19.

A station on New Jersey Transit in Secaucus, N.J., is named for Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.), who has championed rail-commuter and Amtrak investment his entire Senate career that spans 30 years.

By International President Mike Futhey

In state after state, anti-union right-wing extremists are targeting labor unions for destruction.

It started with public-employee unions, but that’s not the end game. The end game is destruction of all labor unions in America.

Extremist U.S. Sen. Jim DeMint of South Carolina and Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker have advocated the destruction of labor unions and the defeat of labor-friendly lawmakers.

Arch-conservative Pat Buchanan said of Wisconsin’s assault, “That’s the end for labor.”

And the Financial Times quoted an extremist as wanting to eliminate Railroad Retirement.

Today’s battle targets public employees; but if the extremists succeed, airline, bus and railroad unions are next.

The attacks on public-employee collective bargaining rights have nothing to do with state finances. Public employee unions already agreed to concessions.

The extremists’ agenda is the destruction of labor. Period.

The Wisconsin legislation, revoking collective bargaining rights, also cancels collection of union dues from paychecks, imposing on unions huge new costs to collect dues — costs intended to break unions financially. And it requires annual representation elections — another huge cost aimed at destroying organized labor.

Right-wing extremists are terrified by our boots-on-the-ground and knock-on-the-doors activism that helps elect labor-friendly lawmakers from both the Democratic and Republican parties.

By destroying labor unions, right-wing extremists will control legislatures and Congress, with an expectation of imposing lower wages and fewer benefits on working families, while further increasing corporate profits and tax breaks for the most wealthy.

According to the New Yorker magazine, in 1980, the best-off tenth of American families collected about a third of the nation’s income. Today, they’re collecting almost half. The top one percent is getting a full fifth, double what it got in 1980. And the super-rich — the top one-tenth of the top one percent — have seen their income quadruple, while ordinary workers are lucky just to have a job and get paid.

Brothers and sisters, a line has been drawn in the sand from which organized labor and the middle class cannot retreat. If we lose this battle, working families will be destroyed.

The UTU will fight shoulder to shoulder with every labor union in America — regardless of whether they are affiliated with the AFL-CIO — to win this fight.

With approval of our state legislative directors and general chairpersons, we have created the UTU Collective Bargaining Defense Fund to take this fight to those seeking to destroy workplace democracy.

The UTU Board of Directors has approved an expenditure of $150,000 from our Education Fund to begin this effort.

More is needed for demonstrations, to help launch recall efforts of those voting to destroy organized labor, and for signs, bumper stickers, T-shirts with slogans, and other activities to increase public support for preserving workplace democracy and the union movement in America.

We ask each local, general committee, state legislative board and individual members to step up to the plate and contribute to the UTU Collective Bargaining Defense Fund.

And we ask each member not now a member of the UTU PAC to join the PAC and contribute; and those already members to increase their contributions.

The UTU Collective Bargaining Defense Fund will be limited to financing efforts to raise public awareness and support for workplace democracy.

The UTU PAC helps support the election campaigns of labor-friendly candidates at the state and federal level — regardless of party affiliation. We want those running for office who support organized labor — Republicans and Democrats — to know we can and will help support them financially and will be there for them in the next election.

As Benjamin Franklin warned, “We must all hang together or most assuredly we shall all hang separately.”

Please make your contribution today by writing a check to the UTU Collective Bargaining Defense Fund and sending it to:

UTU Collective Bargaining Defense Fund
United Transportation Union
Suite 340
24950 Country Club Blvd.
North Olmsted, OH 44070-5333

And please join the UTU PAC today or increase your PAC contribution by notifying your local treasurer or state legislative director.

Brothers and sisters, if you believe in something strong enough, you fight for it.

Right-wing extremists don’t get to decide if we’re a union. We get to decide.

Together, in solidarity, we can and will win this fight and emerge stronger than ever.

If you wish to attend a rally in support of public-employee collective bargaining rights and workplace democracy, contact your state legislative director.

The UTU National Legislative Office, in conjunction with the AFL-CIO, is keeping each state legislative director updated as to dates, times and locations of rallies.

UTU state legislative directors also are being provided with detailed information on various anti-union bills being considered by state legislatures.

For state legislative director contact information, click on the following link:

https://www.smart-union.org/td/state-legislative-directors/

WASHINGTON — At a hearing of the House Rail Subcommittee March 11 into prospects for privatizing portions of Amtrak, rail labor and Amtrak sounded a warning that intercity rail passenger operations in the U.S. cannot succeed or continue without a an adequate, consistent and assured stream of federal financial assistance.

“Private sector involvement is not the silver bullet that ensures success,” an Amtrak official said. “Amtrak is not afraid of competing to operate high-speed and intercity passenger rail services. However, other companies that wish to operate passenger rail service must be subject to all of the laws and regulations that apply to Amtrak, including labor, liability and insurance requirements.”

The Transportation Trades Department (TTD) of the AFL-CIO told the subcommittee: “We are not opposed to private sector participation in passenger rail — in fact, there is plenty of private involvement today. But we are opposed to breaking up Amtrak. Those who believe that privatization is a panacea ignore the fact that under this model, service would only be provided where it is profitable to do so for private investors.

“If other entities other than Amtrak are going to provide passenger rail service, then employee protections and major rail statutes must be applied to ensure a level playing field,” the TTD said. “It is wrong to allow private sector competition but then create an artificial cost advantage over Amtrak and its workers based on an ability to evade federal statutes.”

House Rail Subcommittee Chairman Bill Shuster (R-Pa.) and Transportation & Infrastructure Committee Chairman John Mica (R-Fla.) advocated more private sector involvement in delivery of intercity rail passenger service,

But Federal Railroad Administrator Joseph Szabo said that the 2008 Passenger Rail and Improvement Act of 2008, which was designed to solicit private sector initiatives in the development of high-speed rail, “did not result in many proposals — in part because the roles of the federal government, states and the private sector in developing high-speed rail are still being worked out.

“Realization of the president’s vision for high-speed rail in America will require significant capital investment, but also a long-term commitment from government and private enterprise,” Szabo said.

Szabo said he is aware that the subcommittee has “a particular interest” in increasing completion in the delivery of rail passenger service — and that the 2008 law provides for a pilot program for competition on up to two Amtrak routes. He said the FRA intends to move forward with a rulemaking to permit private sector competition as provided in the law.

“States currently have the ability to choose their own operators for rail service,” Szabo said.

“Additional competition may have the potential to improve efficiency and drive down costs,” Szabo said. “Key considerations include a commitment and dedication to safety, tangible benefits to passengers in terms of fast efficient service, effective accountability for any liability associated with operations, and a level playing field whereby all providers of intercity passenger rail service are railroads covered by the full panoply of railroad laws.”

Said Mica: “Internationally, the private sector successfully operates passenger rail and can turn a profit. There’s no reason we shouldn’t be attracting private sector capital and expertise to operate intercity passenger rail in the United States. In the next surface transportation reauthorization bill, we will ensure that we improve provisions to encourage private sector investment and participation in providing passenger rail service in this country.”

Said Shuster: “I firmly believe that we can make intercity passenger rail more effective and more affordable by partnering with the private sector and by bringing competition to the marketplace.”