Year: 2014

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WASHINGTON –U.S. Sens. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) and Susan Collins (R-Maine), chair and ranking member of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee for Transportation, respectively, June 17 introduced a bill that would authorize a new Short Line Rail Safety Institute to enhance the safety practices and culture of short line railroads. There are 550 short line railroad companies that operate over 50,000 miles of track, or nearly one third of the national railroad network. The tracks can be as short as two miles or up to more than 1,000 miles long.

The legislation introduced by Sens. Collins and Murray would authorize funding to support grants for research, development, evaluation, and training efforts.

“Whether a train is carrying crude oil on a major rail line or on a short, local route through small towns across America, we need to make sure everyone is safe, both on the train and near the tracks,” Senator Murray said. “We need to have the right policies in place to prevent accidents and respond to emergencies wherever they happen, and establishing a Short Line Rail Safety Institute is a strong step in the right direction.”

“The horrific derailment that occurred in Lac-Megantic, Quebec, last year – just 30 miles from the Maine border – brought to light the importance of ensuring the safe transportation of energy products,” Senator Collins said. “We must ensure that we are taking the necessary steps to prevent another Lac-Megantic, while not overburdening an industry that has a proven track record of safety.”

The new Short Line Rail Safety Institute would:

Assess the operations and safety programs of short line railroads;
Develop best practices and work with short lines to implement these practices;
Provide professional on-site safety training for short line employees;
Purchase and utilize safety training assets (such as locomotive simulators);
Assist FRA in implementing its railroad R&D and outreach programs, and tailor such programs for short line railroad operations; and
Help improve safety culture, including a reduction in the frequency and severity of injuries and incidents, as well as improved compliance with regulatory requirements.

On May 15, the two senators sent a letter to U.S. Department of Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx expressing support for the creation of such an institution.

“As we discussed when you testified before our Subcommittee, there is no silver bullet to improving rail safety. It is a complicated multi-faceted issue involving prevention, mitigation, and response aspects,” the Senators wrote in the May 15 letter. “The proposed Short Line Railroad Safety Institute could be an important part of the larger solution and would help improve the safe transportation of crude oil and other hazardous materials.”

The bill follows an April hearing held by Murray and Collins to specifically focus on safety issues related to rail shipment of crude oil. Secretary Foxx, National Transportation Safety Board Chairman Deborah Hersman, Director of the Seattle Office of Emergency Management Barb Graff, and Rangeley, Maine, Fire Chief Tim Pellerin, who led emergency response efforts after a train carrying crude oil derailed in Lac-Megantic, Quebec, in 2013, each testified at that hearing.

Tags Foxx, Sen. Patty Murray, Sen. Susan Collins, Short Line Rail Safety Institute, short lines

Former UTU Designated Legal Counsel Frank O. Burge Jr., 87, passed away June 13.
A native of Birmingham, Burge graduated from Ramsay High School. He earned his undergraduate and law degrees from Tulane University. After college, he served in the U.S. Marine Corps and later the reserves, attaining the rank of colonel.
Burge was a lawyer in Birmingham for more than 50 years. He loved representing people, and as an advocate, he had few peers. He was recognized as a Fellow by the Alabama Law Foundation, a designated legal counsel by the United Transportation Union and listed for years in The Best Lawyers in America.
He is survived by his wife of 63 years, Jeannine (Kitten) Burge; children: Courtney Brown (Phil), SMART Transportation Division Designated Legal Counsel Frank Tucker Burge (Mary), Claire Morgan and Paul Allan, whom he also considered one of his children.
A memorial service was held Monday, June 16, at Shades Valley Presbyterian Church in Birmingham.

Tags Frank O. Burge Jr.

The International Association of Sheet, Metal, Air, Rail and Transportation Workers (SMART) and its allied unions on the Long Island Rail Road urge all members, friends and supporters of organized labor to a “LIRR Labor Rally” on Saturday, June 21, at 11 a.m. at the Massapequa Train Station.

Click to RSVP and view directions.

LIRR employees have worked without a contract since June 15,2010. In a ruling delivered May 20, a Presidential Emergency Board found decisively in favor of LIRR employees in their ongoing dispute with New York’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) over wages, work rules and pension reforms.

Please forward this message to all your friends, family and co-workers and urge them to attend this important rally.

The more of us who take a stand, the louder our voices will be.

Click to RSVP

PHILADELPHIA – Passengers expressed relief Sunday that Philadelphia-area commuter trains were back on track after a one-day strike threatened to disrupt work schedules for tens of thousands of commuters in the coming week.

Employees ended their walkout after President Barack Obama appointed an emergency board to mediate the contract dispute between the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority and two of its unions.

Read the complete story at the Associated Press.

Tags SEPTA

After serving two terms on the Sedalia, Mo., City Council, retired Union Pacific conductor Stephen J. Galliher was elected the city’s mayor in April.

Galliher, 65, a member of SMART Transportation Division Local 933 at Jefferson City, Mo., was sworn into office at a city council meeting April 21.

He received 68.45 percent of the vote in the town of about 22,000 residents.

“Back before I was on council, I had a couple of buddies that kept telling me, ‘you need to run, you need to run,’ so to get them off my back, I said OK,” Galliher said. “Once I got in (council), I really enjoyed it and I still enjoy it. That’s why I decided to run for mayor. It’s a part-time job, but it’s been full-time for me.”

Asked what has been the most rewarding aspect of his political career, Galliher directed the conversation to his constituents.

“More than any one thing, getting a phone call and being able to help one of your constituents, that gives me the most satisfaction. That’s the best thing about being on council and being mayor, being able to help folks when they need it.”

Galliher said he’s a Democrat, but his politics run mainly down the middle of the road. “We’re not too partisan here. You know, if our big government could work like some small cities, we could actually get something done. We have the best city employees and staff anywhere. They’re happy, and that’s why our city is growing.”

During his political tenure, the city has had a $30-million dollar sewer project, built a new fire station, purchased a new fire truck and repaired a library that was damaged by shifting due to drought conditions. Galliher said he’s proud of all of those things.

Married to his wife, Sherry, for 40 years, the couple has two children and four grandchildren. Asked what Sherry thought of his political involvement, Galliher said, “She told me, ‘you do what you want to do.’”

His daughter still lives in Sedalia and her sentiments are the same. “She doesn’t mind. She knows I like it, so she’s behind me, too. I have a good, supportive family.”

He also has the support of SMART Transportation Division Missouri State Legislative Director Ken Menges. “Steve has worked hard to see that all city employees are paid a fair wage and has worked to protect the rights of the employees who work for the city,” Menges said.

Galliher hired out with Missouri Pacific in 1971 and retired from UP Feb. 1, 2010.

He was happy to hear from the SMART Transportation Division News and looks forward to receiving a copy of the newspaper. “Once UTU, always UTU,” he said.

To keep up on Galliher and Sedalia, visit the city’s website at http://ci.sedalia.mo.us.

Missouri State Legislative Director Ken Menges, right, meets with the new mayor of Sedalia, Mo., retired conductor Stephen J. Galliher of Local 933 at Jefferson City, Mo.

Tags Ken Menges, Stephen J. Galliher

Long Island Rail Road union leaders and MTA managers will meet Friday for their first face-to-face contract negotiation session in nearly two months, five weeks before a possible strike that could strand 300,000 daily commuters, a key union official and an MTA source said.

“It’s a good start that we’re getting in the room,” Anthony Simon, general chairman of the LIRR’s largest labor group, the Sheet Metal, Air, Rail and Transportation Union/United Transportation Union, said Thursday. “If it goes well, we’ll go to a second day, then a third day. If we’re making progress, we’ll continue to sit down.”

Read the complete story at Newsday.

Tags LIRR, Long Island Rail Road

By John Previsich,
SMART Transportation Division President –

Organizing – it is good for you, for our members, for our union and also for America.

Those of us who enjoy the benefits of working as organized labor are acutely aware of the value that our membership in the union provides for us and for our families. Good wages, excellent health care and retirement programs that are the envy of working people everywhere are goals that are strived for by every union negotiator in every contract. The success of unions in achieving these goals is beyond argument. There is no industry where workers who do not belong to a union are better off than those who have chosen to bargain collectively.

Why is organizing good for you, our members and our union? Aside from the obvious benefits of better wages and working conditions, union jobs provide better security, protection from discriminatory employment practices and the opportunity to negotiate as a group for improvements to income and work rules. As successes are achieved on short lines, bus companies and airlines, our membership grows, resulting in a stronger union. But just as importantly, good contracts raise the bar industry-wide. For example, when the railroad industry first started to spin off branch lines after the Staggers Act deregulation of the 1980s, it was not unusual for “mom and pop” operators to come in and pay near minimum wage for seasoned, professional railroad workers. Now, after many years of successful organizing, the short line world is much different, operated to a great extent by large companies who pay a good union wage. This has changed the financial incentives for creating short lines and as a result, the jobs of our members on the larger railroads are more secure than ever before.

Why is organizing good for America? Setting aside the occasional stumble due to recessionary cycles, business has done very well in the last half of the 20th century and the first years of the 21st century. During the industrialization era that followed World War II, American workers shared in that prosperity, creating an economic engine that was second to none. Unionized labor was widespread, workers received a fair share of the profits that they helped to create and as a result, were able to purchase a house or a new car and send their children to college to continue the upward mobility of the middle class.

And then things changed. Over the past few decades, there has been a disturbing trend in the economics of our country. Rules that support unions have been weakened and right-to-work-for-less laws have been enacted in many states. Companies have moved manufacturing offshore, taxes on the wealthy have been reduced and loopholes created that allow Warren Buffet to be taxed at a lesser rate than his secretary. Conglomerates are permitted to park their profits outside of the country, effectively paying no tax at all while sitting on hundreds of billions of dollars that were not shared with their substandard-wage workers overseas. Income that used to be shared with the employees now either sits offshore, goes toward stock buy-backs or is used to pay senior management salaries that are thousands of times greater than that of their workers.

As more and more of the available capital is gathered up by fewer and fewer people at the top, workers are forced to compete for an ever-shrinking piece of the pie. This drives down wages, reduces spending power and contributes to the overall widening of the gap between workers and the wealthy. The current path is unsustainable and its continuance contributes to a downward spiral for our country and its workers.

The benefits of organizing new members are many. The downside of not organizing is substantial. Accordingly, the SMART Transportation Division Board of Directors and the SMART General Executive Council have approved my budget request to expand our already very effective organizing department. We are in the process of doing so and will keep you updated on the outcome of our efforts in the months ahead.

Tags John Previsich

Delegate credentials for the first SMART Convention in Las Vegas have now been emailed to all Transportation Division local secretaries, except those secretaries for whom no email address was available. This credential is for the so-called “automatic delegate,” that is, the local delegate of record and presumed to be attending the Transportation Division Convention in San Diego.

If your local is going to be represented in Las Vegas by the alternate delegate, the local secretary must email smartbase@smart-union.org advising that the alternate delegate will be attending. Information contained in the email about the alternate delegate should include: the last four digits of the social security number, first and last name, email address, telephone number and street address.

Once the alternate delegate information is received and confirmed, a new credential will be created for the alternate delegate and emailed to the local secretary.

Upon receipt of these delegate credentials, they must be properly executed by the local and the duplicate credential returned to the SMART offices in Washington, D.C. The original credential must be properly executed by the local and given to the delegate for presentation at registration upon arrival at the Las Vegas convention.

For those locals electing additional delegates for attendance in Las Vegas, the secretary must be a registered SMART Base user in order to submit the required election information. To become a SMART Base registered user, visit http://smartbase.versiform.net.

Delegates and guests should go to the “Cvent” registration site in order to properly register for the convention. The web site for this purpose is http://cvent.com/d/z4qs82.

It is very important that the handling of credentials and registration of delegates and guests be completed as soon as possible to avoid any potential delays or problems upon arrival in Las Vegas for the first SMART Convention.

If there are any questions, feel free to contact the SMART offices in Washington or Cleveland, or email questions to smartbase@smart-union.org.

Tags credentials, First SMART Convention

gavel Judge Peter Economus of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Ohio ruled Wednesday, June 11 in favor of a motion for summary judgment to permanently maintain the final three days of early voting.

“In-person early voting is restored on the three days immediately preceding all future election days for all eligible voters. Secretary of State Jon Husted shall be responsible for setting business hours for such voting to preserve the right of all Ohio voters to cast his or her vote with said hours to be uniform throughout the state and suitable to the needs of the particular election in question,” Economus said in the decision.

Earlier this year, Husted issued a directive setting uniform statewide early voting hours for the 2014 election that didn’t include any Sundays or the Monday before Election Day.

The court’s action follows a previous decision that restored early voting hours leading up to the 2012 election.

Secretary Husted said he would comply with the court’s ruling and hailed it as a vindication of his effort to impose uniform voting procedures statewide.

“I am pleased that the federal court has affirmed what I have long advocated – that all voters, no matter where they live, should have the same opportunity to vote. Thankfully, uniformity and equality won the day,” Husted said.

Secretary Husted had urged the legislature to pass a law setting uniform early voting hours statewide but got little interest from his Republican colleagues.

“This ruling shows how important these last three days are to ensure equal access to the ballot, and the hours set by Secretary Husted should reflect that,” Ohio Democratic Party Chairman Chris Redfern said in a statement.

Democratic National Committee Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz said 96,000 Ohioans cast their ballots during the final three days of early voting in the 2012 presidential election.

“This November and beyond, thousands more will be able to join them,” Schultz said.

The court case stems from a series of legislative actions last session when Republicans passed a far-ranging elections measure that reduced the early in-person voting period.

Tags early voting, Ohio, voting