Year: 2013

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The SMART Transportation Division opened its Boston regional meeting July 1 with a town hall forum at which SMART members were able to pose questions directly to the union’s leadership.

More than 800 members, guests and presenters are attending the regional meeting.

After opening ceremonies and remarks from SMART General President Joe Nigro and Transportation Division President Mike Futhey, the presidents were joined by SMART General Secretary-Treasurer Joe Sellers and Transportation Division Assistant President and General Secretary & Treasurer John Previsich to respond to questions concerning the merger of the United Transportation Union and the Sheet Metal Workers International Association and other issues.

The session was moderated by Transportation Division International Vice President John Lesniewski.

futhey_nigro_bostonSMART Transportation Division President Mike Futhey, left, and
SMART General President Joe Nigro prepare to receive questions at the
regional meeting’s town hall forum.

On Tuesday, July 2, U.S. Rep. Stephen Lynch (D-Mass.) and Amtrak President and CEO Joseph Boardman addressed meeting attendees during lunch, stressing the nation’s need to fund public transportation, address rail security needs and tend to its transportation infrastructure.

“We have a (competitive) edge in this country because of a great transportation industry,” Said Lynch. “There is an ongoing need to focus on that competitive advantage so we don’t lose it.”

Lynch said he recently sponsored a rail summit and traveled to Mumbai to study the weaknesses in their rail security system following terrorist attacks there. He also discussed rail security issues with representatives from the United Kingdom and Russia.

“The next threat, I think, will be to our local rail systems and infrastructure,” he said. “There is a growing sense of awareness that this is an area both Democrats and Republicans can agree on. We have grown complacent when it comes to our rail security.”

futhey_lynchU.S. Rep. Stephen Lynch of Massachusetts receives a UTU clock from
SMART Transportation President Division Mike Futhey following an address to
regional meeting attendees and guests.

Boardman also addressed Amtrak’s rail security issues, noting that Amtrak has 500 police officers, 50 bomb-sniffing dogs and is a leader in explosive-detection technology.

He told the transportation employees and guests that the railroad of the future is coming, but that additional resources are needed.

He said that long-distance trains do not make money and have never made money, but that they provide a means of travel for many individuals who do not have access to other modes of transportation.

Referring to government funding of Amtrak, Boardman stressed that “it is not a subsidy, it is a cost for providing mobility. We are destroying long-distance trains by de-capitalizing them. We need to change that.”

qualy_boardmanMinnesota State Legislative Director Phillip Qualy speaks with Amtrak President and
CEO Joseph Boardman following lunch at the SMART Transportation Division’s
Boston regional meeting.

anthony_foxx
Foxx

CHARLOTTE, N.C. – Former Charlotte mayor Anthony Foxx is expected to be sworn-in as the U.S. Secretary of Transportation on Tuesday after he officially resigned his position with the city on Monday afternoon.

Foxx resigned as Charlotte’s mayor during a special meeting with city council on Monday afternoon.

Read the complete article at television station WBTV.

 BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – A federal appeals court July 1 ruled that Alabama discriminated against railroads by forcing them to pay a sales tax on fuel when it exempts its competitors – trucking and barge companies.

The U.S. 11th Court of Criminal Appeals issued its opinion in CSX Transportation, Inc.’s appeal in its 2008 lawsuit against the Alabama Department of Revenue.

Read the complete article at The Birmingham News.

mta_long-island-railroad-logo[1]About 600 Long Island Rail Road retirees will lose their disability benefits after a federal agency voted last week to halt the payments, amid a sweeping investigation into what prosecutors have called a major disability fraud scheme, according to agency documents and officials.

The agency, the United States Railroad Retirement Board, which over more than a decade granted disability benefits to hundreds of railroad retirees based on fraudulent medical evidence with little scrutiny, took the action on Thursday during a five-minute meeting at its headquarters in Chicago. The vote approved procedures under which the board will cut off the benefits, which, officials said, are costing the agency $2 million a month.

Read the complete article at The New York Times.

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The latest SMART The Members’ Journal is available online. Read it here.

Due to heavy overnight rains, telephone service at the UTU/SMART Transportation Division and UTUIA International offices has been disrupted. Callers are currently receiving a busy signal. Repairs are underway.

Nigro
Nigro

By SMART General President Joe Nigro – 

This article, submitted to the Members’ Journal by James Jackson, SMART’s Director of Canadian Affairs, applies not just to Canadian members and trade unionists, but to all of us in the United States, Canada and Puerto Rico. Share your message of pride via text or through a simple image meme to unionpride@smart-union.org and we will not only spread your message, but enter you in a contest for an iPad mini. All messages and related images will be placed on SMART’s Facebook page at facebook.com/smartunion. The top entry with the most likes and the top entry with the most shares on the SMART Facebook site will receive a new iPad mini. The two winners will be announced on Labor Day, Sept. 2, 2013.

UNION PRIDE

Unions are under attack, forever and a day, from all directions. If it is not coming from the federal government in Canada in the form of Bill C377 or other potential draconian legislation, then it is the provincial and or local governments proposing similar ideas. Beyond those measures, we have the right wing-controlled media jumping on the union-bashing bandwagon at every opportunity.

All these attacks come because unions want to provide a better standard of living for working men and women, while ensuring a safe working environment for everyone. If unions want these for all working persons, not just union members, how evil can unions be?

Here are a few questions to consider:

Are you still proud of your union? Are you still proud to be a union member? Are you still proud of the decision you made to be a union brother or sister, or are you succumbing to mounting pressure from the right wing that insists unions are bad and the world would be better without them?

If you are wavering on your commitment, that’s exactly what the right wing hopes to achieve: a union-free environment with no rules except the ones that employers can arbitrarily dictate.

Next question.

If there were no unions, would you be earning the wages and benefits you currently receive? Would there be overtime pay for hours worked outside the regular workweek? Would there even be a regular workweek? Would paid holidays, parental leave or bereavement leave even exist? I believe we all know the answers. Without unions, none of these would exist. No employer or policy maker woke up one day and suddenly decided that overtime pay or parental leave or any of the advances working people made in the last century was the right thing to do. These advances came about because working people formed unions to fight for them and then protect what they accomplished.

I know we have the interest out there. Recently, I received email from a member asking if I had any union stickers or other paraphernalia that he could get to show “union pride.” He did not say his union pride, just “union pride.” It felt really good to read an email from a member who knows the meaning of those words.

It seems to me that we have become far too complacent over the years when it comes to the union bashing going on out there.

Fighting fire with fire does not always work, and it can create an even bigger fire. But if we fight fire with water, we can put the fire out, and that is what we want – an end to union bashing.

It is high time we started showing more “union pride.” We must begin to speak positively about ourselves and not take for granted the things we have today – protections and benefits that our brothers and sisters in the past fought hard to obtain. There are over 3 million union members in Canada. If just once a day, every union member said something positive about their union, there would be over 3 million positive statements a day and over a billion in a year. Do you think any right wing-minded government or media can match that? Even if only 10 percent of our union brothers and sisters made a single positive comment, that would be very difficult for the naysayers to match. Saying something positive about ourselves not only makes us feel good, but others start to listen as well. More positive statements generate more listeners and the possibility of a wide-reaching change in attitude.

With all the existing technology, it should be so easy to get the positive message about unions out there, but we are not doing it enough.

On the basis that a lot of union pride is out there, I am asking every Sheet Metal and Transportation member in SMART to help us share your union pride message as widely as possible.

Fraternally with union pride,

James Jackson,
SMART Director of Canadian Affairs

Train and engine workers employed by DeQueen & Eastern Railroad voted June 20 to elect SMART’s Transportation Division as their collective bargaining representative.

The employees were formerly represented by the UTU, but their collective bargaining agreement was terminated in 2010 when the railroad’s former owner, Weyerhaeuser, sold the company to Patriot Rail.

“It is great to see that these workers sought to return to the UTU and SMART. They never wanted to lose their representation, and we did not abandon them. Their agreement with the railroad was terminated,” said SMART TD Director of Organizing Rich Ross.

Ross commended the hard work of International Organizer Mike Lewis, who led the effort to return the D&ER employees to the SMART TD fold.

Lewis thanked Arkansas State Legislative Director Steve Evans for his assistance throughout the organizing drive.

D&ER and Texas, Oklahoma & Eastern Railroad are two connecting railroads that operate as one over a total of 91 track miles in southeast Oklahoma and southwest Arkansas. They interchange with BNSF Railway via the Kiamichi Railroad at Valliant, Okla.; Kansas City Southern in DeQueen, Ark., and Union Pacific at Perkins, Ark.

D&ER hauls around 35,000 rail carloads a year, primarily forest products, gypsum board, grain and paper.

 

The American Short Line and Regional Railroad Association (ASLRRA) has named Jo Strang vice president for regulatory affairs, effective July 1.

She most recently served the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration. Prior to that, Strang had a long career at the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA). In her last position, as associate administrator for railroad safety and chief safety officer, she provided regulatory oversight for rail safety, including the development and enforcement of safety regulations and programs related to the rail industry.

Read the complete story at Progressive Railroading.