North Dakota’s Bakken oil patch has thrived thanks in large part to the once-niche business of hauling fuel on U.S. rail tracks. New safety rules may now test the oil train model.
Within weeks, the Obama Administration is due to unveil a suite of reforms that will rewrite standards conceived long before the rise of the shale oil renaissance, at a time when crude rarely moved by rail and few Americans had ever seen the mile-long oil trains that now crisscross the nation.
“I just returned from a trip to Europe, and really enjoyed riding the high-speed Eurostar and TGV. Why can’t we have something like that here in the U.S.?” So asked a reader, and the fundamental answer is simple: The United States, as a nation, does not and will not enjoy a robust passenger rail system because, as a nation, it doesn’t have the will to develop and operate one.
Other places do have the will. Between 2003 and 2013, China built more than 6,000 miles of new true high-speed rail lines. Japan and Spain now have almost 1,600 high-speed miles, with more being built or planned. In two years, Switzerland will open a 35-mile tunnel through the heart of the Alps, and the British are digging a new line across all of London. Other countries in Africa and Asia are building or adding to their systems.
The theme of the SMART Transportation Division’s Convention in San Diego, Calif., June 30-July 2, was “Strong, Proud, United,” and videos were presented to the delegates and attendees each day during the convention that embodied those concepts. SMART Transportation members from around the country appear in the videos and, in their own words, express their opinions regarding these principles and their membership in the union. Members from SMART Transportation Division Locals 23, 40, 506, 1409, 1741 and 1933 appear. At the request of the delegates in attendance, the videos are being made available here to the SMART Transportation Division’s general membership. Please take a few minutes to hear what your fellow members have to say about union membership and feel free to share this content with other members of your local. SMART Transportation Division thanks all SMART officers and members who assisted and participated with the videos and Cloverlea Entertainment and Long Story Short Media for their assistance in producing them. Click here to view the videos.
SLINGER, Wis. – A southbound Canadian National freight train was rounding a curve in Slinger when it struck the cars of another train Sunday night shortly after 9:00 p.m. The incident happened where CN and Wisconsin and Southern Railroad tracks cross.
Two people in the train were injured, and one of them taken to Aurora Medical Center in Grafton. The extent of their injuries has not been released.
A message from President John Previsich, SMART Transportation Division:
This office is receiving numerous inquiries regarding two tentative agreements recently proposed by a general committee for its members on a portion of Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway. One of the agreements addresses crew consist issues and the other is a wage proposal contingent upon successful ratification of both proposed agreements.
While crew consist and wage proposals such as these are within the authority of each general committee to negotiate and propose to its members, it must be noted that it is the membership working under the jurisdiction of the respective committees who have final approval in accordance with the ratification requirements of our constitution. The proposed agreements, if approved by the affected members, will apply only to the members working under the jurisdiction of the negotiating BNSF General Committee of Adjustment GO 001.
It is noteworthy that the crew consist provisions of the proposed agreements can be implemented only in the event that regulatory authorities permit one-person train crews to operate on our nation’s railroads. Accordingly, the position of the SMART Transportation Division is not affected by the agreement proposals – simply stated, the only safe and secure operation of any train includes a minimum of two people on each and every crew. Issues of predictability, fatigue, task saturation, operating requirements, crossing separation for emergency reasons, security and other issues remain at the forefront of any discussion regarding crew size, and to date, all such concerns remain unresolved.
Although technology has produced many benefits for our industry and clearly aids in improving the safe movement of trains, it is imprudent for anyone to assert that technology can replace the safety and security of a two-person train crew. Operations requirements cause it to be necessary that crews perform a number of tasks concurrently while operating the train. This can result in what the National Transportation Safety Board calls “task saturation.” There are so many things to do that one of them falls off the radar screen.
No one would permit an airliner to fly with just one pilot, even though they can fly themselves. Trains, which cannot operate themselves, should be no different. The check, double check, extra set of eyes and ears watching both sides of the train and division of tasks are safety measures that cannot be duplicated by written rule or technology. Every safety professional knows this and to remove the second person is to compromise safety.
The dangers are great and not confined to trains carrying hazardous materials (review the runaway train wreck in San Bernardino in the 1990s where a loaded rock train left the rails with catastrophic results).
We as a society don’t permit corporate profits to compromise safety in food products, pharmaceuticals, hospitals and other industries and transportation should be held to the same standard. We will continue our efforts in every forum to secure legislative and/or regulatory action to protect the safety of our members, other employees and the general public.
The theme of the SMART Transportation Division’s Convention in San Diego, Calif., June 30-July 2, was “Strong, Proud, United,” and videos were presented to the delegates and attendees each day during the convention that embodied those concepts. SMART Transportation members from around the country appear in the videos and, in their own words, express their opinions regarding these principles and their membership in the union. Members from SMART Transportation Division Locals 23, 40, 506, 1409, 1741 and 1933 appear. Also below is a video tribute to former UTU President Al Chesser that was shown at both the SMART Transportation Division Convention and the First SMART General Convention. At the request of the delegates in attendance, the videos are being made available here to the SMART Transportation Division’s general membership. Please take a few minutes to hear what your fellow members have to say about union membership and feel free to share this content with other members of your local. SMART Transportation Division thanks all SMART officers and members who assisted and participated with the videos and Cloverlea Entertainment and Long Story Short Media for their assistance in producing them. Video footage from the SMART General Convention has also been added. The footage includes a speech by AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka and delegates and SMART officers discussing two-person crew legislation and general committee autonomy.
Strong
Proud
United
Chesser: A Purpose Filled Life
First SMART General Convention, Aug. 11-15, 2014
Richard Trumka, Aug. 14, 2014
SMART Delegates Discuss Two-Person Crews and Autonomy
A tentative deal has been reached to avoid a strike at the nation’s largest commuter railroad, sparing hundreds of thousands of commuters the headache of finding alternate routes to and from the city, Gov. Cuomo announced Thursday.
The agreement, which still must be ratified by union members, settles a four-year contract dispute between the Metropolitan Transportation Authority and the eight unions that represent the Long Island Rail Road’s 5,400 workers.
I am pleased to report that SMART (International Association of Sheet Metal, Air, Rail and Transportation Workers) members at the Long Island Rail Road, along with their brothers and sisters at allied Unions, have finally attained a hard earned and fair contract that will avoid a disaster for workers and communities on Long Island. These members have sacrificed much during these past five years while never faltering in servicing the traveling public with their unmatched professionalism and dedication. This is not a fight they chose but, nevertheless, they fought tooth and nail to ensure a fair contract to fulfill the fair day’s pay for the fair day’s work they contribute day in and day. I would like to personally thank GCA 505 Chair Anthony Simon, who served as the leader of the Union coalition, for his tireless leadership and patience during this crisis. He is not only a credit to this organization, but a valuable leader with a bright future in this organization and within the American Labor Movement. I would also like to recognize General Chairman John McCloskey who represents railroad sheet metal mechanical and engineering workers at the LIRR. I would also like to thank Transportation Division President John Previsich who stood side by side with us in support of the members working at the Long Island Rail Road. Governor Cuomo and the bipartisan delegation of leaders across Long Island who stood with us also are deserving of praise. Our work is not yet done. Members of this organization, sheet metal workers across the United States and Canada, conductors, engineers, rail road mechanics, aviation workers, sign workers and everyone in between, stood shoulder to shoulder in solidarity with our brothers and sisters in Long Island. Our work paid off. Now it is time to apply our strengths everywhere else – the strength that comes from the solidarity of this membership and working families across this country. SMART, the International Association of Sheet Metal, Air, Rail and Transportation Workers, is one of North America’s most dynamic and diverse unions with 216,000 members. SMART’s members ensure the quality of the air we breathe, promote energy efficiency, produce and provide the vital services that move products to market and passengers to their destinations. We are sheet metal workers, service technicians, rail road mechanics, bus operators, engineers, conductors, sign workers, welders, production employees, airline employees and more. With members in scores of different occupations, we advocate for fairness in the workplace, excellence at work and opportunity for all working families. Joseph Nigro SMART General President
NEW YORK – With a Long Island Rail Road strike potentially set to start Sunday, the unions and the Metropolitan Transportation Authority returned to the bargaining table Wednesday and talked for several hours without reaching a deal.
But both sides were set to work through the night remotely as they went off to hotels, and were set to return to the bargaining table at 9 a.m. Thursday (July 17).
We deeply regret that MTA’s irresponsible actions will cause a strike beginning this weekend. The unions representing Long Island workers have done all in our power to reach a reasonable settlement in four years of bargaining. We have accepted the compromise recommendations of two Presidential Emergency Boards, comprised of six renowned arbitrators, including the selection of our last best offer as the “most reasonable”. We have offered to delay the strike for sixty days or less. We have made counter-offers that address MTA demands, but every time MTA just moves the ball. MTA’s latest take it or leave it offer is worth far less than both Emergency Board’s recommendations. MTA knows full well that the selection of the most reasonable offer by a second Presidential Emergency Board is almost always accepted by both sides. The only time that hasn’t happened is when the party not satisfied with the recommendation forces a strike. That has not happened in the last twenty years. But that is the course MTA has chosen. Why? It is not because they cannot afford the settlement without raising fares. If it were about money, the MTA Chairman would not have given his blessing to the state diverting $49 million from MTA revenues, saying “our needs are being met.” If it were about money, MTA management would stop their own windfall benefits, like free lifetime medical coverage, for which MTA pays exorbitantly at active, not retiree, rates. If it were about money, MTA would impose the so-called “modest” pension changes they are demanding from union workers on themselves. MTA union workers and management are under the same pension plan. Management pays zero, union workers pay 4% for ten years, and now MTA is demanding payment for life. The unions have offered to increase the duration of contributions, but MTA says it is not enough. The public should demand that when a contract is reached, MTA management pays the same as union workers for the same pension. If it were about money, MTA wouldn’t be wasting precious dollars on dishonest attack ads instead of finding time to negotiate. MTA has refused every compromise. It has decided a strike is its best course. It refuses to delay the strike past the summer season so vital to the Long Island economy. Yet, while telling the press it doesn’t want congressional intervention, MTA has been on Capitol Hill begging for a delay until December. At MTA, politics matters, people don’t. The concessions MTA is demanding do not produce any savings until well into the future. MTA can seek all of them in negotiations that will begin in just a year and a half. MTA’s stated goal is to change the Railway Labor Act. They believe they can achieve that by provoking a strike. It is a reckless and cynical strategy that will inflict much unnecessary pain on the people and business in the New York area. Two neutral Presidential Emergency Boards were not wrong. MTA is. We regret that their intransigence will now cause a strike.
– Anthony Simon, SMART General Chairman and Coalition Spokesperson.
North Dakota’s Bakken oil patch has thrived thanks in large part to the once-niche business of hauling fuel on U.S. rail tracks. New safety rules may now test the oil train model.
“I just returned from a trip to Europe, and really enjoyed riding the high-speed Eurostar and TGV. Why can’t we have something like that here in the U.S.?” So asked a reader, and the fundamental answer is simple: The United States, as a nation, does not and will not enjoy a robust passenger rail system because, as a nation, it doesn’t have the will to develop and operate one.
The theme of the SMART Transportation Division’s Convention in San Diego, Calif., June 30-July 2, was “Strong, Proud, United,” and videos were presented to the delegates and attendees each day during the convention that embodied those concepts.
