The Federal Railroad Administration June 3 issued a safety advisory on the importance railroad safety procedures to ensure the safety of the traveling public and railroad employees when highway-rail grade crossing warning systems and wayside signal systems are temporarily removed from service for purposes of testing, inspection, maintenance, or repair. Read more.
Month: June 2013
CHARLOTTE, N.C. – SMART Transportation Division organizers, representatives and members of Local 1715 at Charlotte, N.C., have turned back the International Brotherhood of Teamsters in an attempted raid of SMART membership.
Local 1715 represents bus operators employed by the Charlotte Area Transit System (CATS).
On May 31, the National Labor Relations Board released the official tally of a representation vote held earlier that day in which SMART was chosen by nearly a 3-1 margin.
SMART TD Director of Organizing Rich Ross gave the official vote count as 267-97 in favor of SMART. There are approximately 600 drivers employed in the system.
The SMART TD is the collective bargaining agent for both CATS’ bus operators and bus mechanics (Local 1596), but the mechanics were not targeted during the raid.
Ross said rallying the SMART membership here was truly a team effort and he thanked International Organizers Mike Lewis and Calvin Studivant and General Chairperson Alvy Hughes for their outstanding effort. He also ackowledged the efforts of North Carolina State Legislative Director Ron Ingerick, Vice General Chairpersons Hasson Trent and Cheryl Brown, General Committee Secretary Bill Brown and local officers Bruce Wright, Kevin Moss, Brenda Moore, Debra Franklin and Donell Taylor.
“I believe it is now our responsibility to show the people that voted against UTU-SMART why they should have voted for us,” Ross said.
The transit system’s website says that CATS is the largest transit system between Atlanta, Ga., and Washington, D.C., with more than 70 local, express and regional bus routes, a light rail line and services for the disabled.
Local 1715 Legislative Rep. Debra Franklin, International Organizer Mike Lewis and
Local 1715 Chairperson Kevin Moss rally Charlotte Area Transit System bus operators
during a representation vote May 31.
SMART Transportation Division-represented hostlers employed by the Canadian National Railway have ratified a new five-year agreement by a unanimous majority.
The agreement provides for wage increases, back pay and health and welfare benefits that mirror the 2011 UTU National Agreement.
UTU International Vice-President Dave Wier, who assisted with the negotiations, congratulates GO 436 General Chairperson Jim Herndon for “the exceptional effort put forth during the long and difficult negotiations which resulted in an agreement with improvements in wages and benefits.”
The Rail Workers Hazardous Materials Training Program prides itself on delivering the most valuable worker safety training available. Peer instructors are members of the railroad labor community and take pride in offering the latest and most up-to-date information, teaching techniques and peer support.
The goal of the rail program is to build a nationwide pool of skilled peer trainers to deliver awareness level hazardous material training.
The DOT-funded train-the-trainer courses provide regional peer trainers with the skills and knowledge necessary to deliver this training at their job-sites, union meetings and in their communities. There are no pre-requisites required to participate in the six-day train-the-trainer course.
Two DOT Train-the-Trainer courses will be held July 14-20, 2013, and Sept. 22-28, 2013, at 15101 Sweitzer Lane, Laurel MD, 20707.
Interested rail workers can register online at www.hazmatgmc.org by selecting the course desription tab, followed by the “Register Now” link for the Hazardous Materials Instructors Training.
For more information, call Freddie Thomas in the Hazmat office at (301) 431-5457, or email fthomas@nlc.edu.
Long an advocate for the region’s train system, Sen. Frank Lautenberg will ride the rails one last time on the way to his final resting place in Arlington National Cemetery.
Funeral ceremonies for Lautenberg will be held at 11:30 a.m. Wednesday at the Park Avenue Synagogue in Manhattan, according to Riverside Memorial Chapel.
Read the complete article at The Star-Ledger.
The following comments were offered by SMART Transportation Division New Jersey State Legislative Director Dan O’Connell:
“It’s fitting that he will travel by rail – as he did many times to Washington, D.C. – one last time.
“I first met Sen. Lautenberg after I became state legislative director in 1996. We discussed Amtrak, mass transit (New Jersey Transit), labor issues and more. He couldn’t have been nicer. I let him know that I had, as a Conrail employee, worked Amtrak trains between New York City and Washington, D.C.. As our meeting was coming to a close, he asked about working in the engines of those trains. I watched him transform from the U.S. senator from New Jersey to another man mesmerized by trains. He turned to his aides with him and said ‘you really have to experience this, being on the head-end of a train at 110 mph.’ Our members, especially those in passenger service, owe him a great debt for his fights to secure funding for the survival of Amtrak, to allow commuter rail to grow and for being a reliable supporter of the working men and women of this country.
“Thanks to him, our members at Amtrak and New Jersey Transit have better infrastructure, locomotives, rail cars, and improved stations. Because of that, they have a more secure employment.
“He was one of the cosponsors of the Railroad Retirement Reform legislation that has made our pension system more secure for our active and retired members. He had been one of the prime movers behind the ARC tunnel before the project was cancelled. He was working to insure that Amtrak’s Gateway Project would go forward, adding another rail tunnel under the Hudson River along with a new Amtrak station in New York City. That will allow more trains into and out of New York City and that will mean more jobs.
“I mention these things for two reasons. One, because in most of the articles that have been written about him and his accomplishments, these either get a quick mention or no mention at all. Second, many Americans are disgusted by our politics these days and after reading the news, one can understand why. But, when you see what one man – Sen. Lautenberg – accomplished after serving in World War II and using the GI Bill after the war to found a company that employs more than 55,000 people, he should be respected.
“In some 30 years as our senator, he never forgot his roots as a poor kid from Paterson whose father died when he was young. He cared about working people and people that needed a hand up. He made our country a better place and that should be what politicians aspire to today.”