Never before has the Northern California Sheet Metal Workers’ Local Union No. 104 seen such a vast mobilization of members as it did on Saturday, March 1st in Livermore, California. The 2014 Campaign for Jobs Conference hosted over 500 dedicated members who are willing to fight to secure future hours for their Local Union.
The theme of the Conference was Sheet Metal Warriors: Fighting to Build a Sustainable Future because as Local 104 Apprentice Tony Lam put it, “We are not just Sheet Metal Workers, we are SHEET METAL WARRIORS.” Tony and many others including California Governor Jerry Brown, California State Building Trades President Robbie Hunter, former California Secretary Treasurer Phil Angelides, and Local 104 Business Manager Bruce Word stressed the need for the Campaign for Jobs in the upcoming election year and how crucial it is to actively participate in our communities in order to protect future work and middle class jobs throughout the state.
The 2014 Campaign for Jobs plans on having over 800 members participate in actions ranging from phone banking and precinct walking during the election to attending City Council and planning meetings to let their own communities know that the Sheet Metal Warriors are here to defend Middle Class Jobs!
Year: 2014
TORONTO — The crude oil that exploded during a fatal derailment in Quebec last year that killed 47 people had characteristics similar to that of unleaded gasoline, a highly flammable liquid, Canada’s transportation safety agency said Thursday.
The Transportation Safety Board said in a newly released report that the crude tested by Canada’s transportation agency had a low flash point, which refers to the temperature at which the crude gives off enough vapor to ignite in air.
Read the complete story at The Bismarck Tribune.
A video utilizing stop-motion animation by Evan Orlando, a sheet metal apprentice at Local 16 in Portland, Oregon. According to John Candioti, Local 16 Business Manager, “the video helps explain layout so much that the School Boards we invite to our Training Center for tours get it when they see the video instead of us trying to explain the process to them.” Click here or on the image to view the video.
The SMART Transportation Division Transportation Safety Team (TST) is comprised of 21 members of the SMART TD, each of whom is on call 24 hours a day to assist in determining the facts in rail-related accidents.
The team members are selected by the SMART Transportation Division president based upon their knowledge of operating rules and understanding of general railroad operations, train movements and dispatching. Each member receives extensive training from the National Transportation Safety Board.
When a major rail accident occurs, the TST coordinator immediately assigns one or more TST members, who immediately depart for the scene. The coordinator also notifies the SMART TD general chairpersons in the region and the respective state legislative director, as well the NTSB. TST members assist the NTSB in ascertaining factual data relating to the accident.
Transportation Safety Team members also assist NTSB investigators in locating crew members and others familiar with the territory where the accident occurred, as well as operating rules in force, the motive power, equipment and signal systems in use, and characteristics of track and rail operation.
When a serious rail accident occurs, and the NTSB launches an investigation, the team’s chairperson/coordinator assigns one or more TST members, who immediately depart for the scene. The chairperson/coordinator also notifies SMART TD general chairpersons in the region and the respective state legislative director.
The NTSB is a congressionally created fact-finding body, with no regulatory authority. SMART TD Transportation Safety Team members walk a very narrow line. Their role is to assist NTSB investigators as requested. Two of their toughest responsibilities are never to speculate and always to keep their lips sealed.
From experience, NTSB investigators and safety team members know first-hand that with facts, the devil is in the details. Initial eyewitness reports often are incomplete or even incorrect. Even after the NTSB conducts exhaustive interviews with those involved and those who may have witnessed an accident, facts often are cloudy. Evidence must be collected and laboratory tests conducted.
It can be weeks and even months before the NTSB has enough evidence to reach a determination as to cause. When the NTSB does reach a determination as to the probable cause of an accident, it generally makes recommendations for new safety regulations and laws. In fact, 85 percent of NTSB recommendations result in new federal guidelines, regulations and laws.
The Transportation Safety Team also performs another important service of direct benefit to SMART members. A SMART member involved in an accident can demand that a safety team member or union officer be present during questioning to serve as a witness to what was said.
Transportation Safety Team members can also assist SMART members in ensuring that a SMART TD officer is present should railroad officials seek to question a SMART TD member – and that railroad officials not violate terms of the UTU/SMART TD contract with that carrier.
The Transportation Safety Team should not be confused with the three-person SMART TD Transportation Safety Task Force, which is chaired by Georgia State Legislative Director Matt Campbell. Its role is to craft, in conjunction with the FRA, an action plan to reduce rail-employee risk while on the job.
Last month, President Obama announced an initiative to improve the fuel efficiency of trucks. That’s a lofty goal, but here’s an even better idea: Let’s make an effort to move more freight by rail and less by road. Trains are far more energy-efficient than trucks – and they always will be.
Trains have a significant friction advantage over trucks. The degree of “stickiness” between two surfaces is expressed mathematically as the coefficient of friction. For a steel wheel rolling over a steel rail, its value is approximately 0.001. For a rubber tire rolling over pavement, the coefficient is between 0.006 and 0.010, or roughly an order of magnitude greater. Some friction is good – it stops the vehicle when a person runs out in front of it. But too much friction means less energy driving the vehicle forward.
Read the complete story at The Washington Post.
The shakeup of NJ Transit’s upper management is becoming a clean sweep.
In the same week that Jim Weinstein’s four-year tenure as NJ Transit’s executive director officially ended, his directors of rail and bus operations, Kevin O’Connor and Joyce Gallagher, are being forced out, said sources close to the agency.
Just like that, the top boss at NJ Transit and the top officials in the rail and bus divisions of the statewide transportation agency are gone or going.
Read the complete story at NJ.com (The Star-Ledger).
ALGONA, Iowa – Officials said on Wednesday (March 5) they won’t be releasing the name of a railroad employee injured when he was pinned under a train car on Tuesday near Algona.
Canadian Pacific said it won’t release the worker’s name citing it as an “internal matter.”
Read the complete story at the Globe Gazette.
America’s railroads today are handling more business more efficiently and safely and for better profits than ever before in their nearly 200 years of existence. They remain a growth industry.
The record $15 billion they invested in 2013 will no longer be a record in 2014, considering that two of the Class I’s alone will be spending close to $10 billion.
Read the complete story at Railway Age.
The following appeared on the website Politico, which covers political news with a focus on national politics, Congress, Capitol Hill, lobbying, advocacy and more, on its Morning Transportation blog.
“The passenger rail service has strong support in North Dakota – not exactly the first state one thinks of when pondering where Amtrak’s loudest boosters live. North Dakota has one daily train that runs to the West Coast and east toward Chicago. Eighty-three percent of the 400 respondents said they haven’t ridden on Amtrak in the last two years – but 80 percent support an extra train heading to somewhere relatively close, like Minneapolis.
“Seventy-three percent want Amtrak funding to stay the same or increase – even after being informed that Uncle Sam kicks in over $1 billion each year to keep the trains running. And don’t think the survey, partially funded by the SMART Transportation Division, checked in only with liberal, train-loving residents.
“Thirty-eight percent of those surveyed called themselves a Republican; only 28 percent identified as a Democrat. The poll is the latest in a series showing high levels of support for Amtrak in several Republican districts.”
To view the SMART Transportation Division’s survey conducted by DFM Research, click here.
Warren Buffett, the Omaha billionaire who four years ago bought the nation’s second-biggest railroad, said Monday that rail tank cars need to be upgraded to safely transport the surging production of oil from North Dakota and Texas.
“It’s fair to say that we’ve found in [the] last year or so that it’s more dangerous to move certain types of crude than was thought previously,” Buffett said in an interview on CNBC. “There’s no question about it.”
Read the complete story at the Star Tribune.