SMART Union
WASHINGTON – Amtrak is suspending some trains as a winter storm threatens the South and the Northeast.
Amtrak says the suspensions Wednesday are meant to reduce the exposure of passengers, crews and equipment to extreme weather.
Read the complete story at the Associated Press.
A preliminary feasibility study for a proposed1,600-mile rail link from British Columbia to Alaska will be completed in March, officials with G7G Railway Corp., a Vancouver, B.C-based company, told state legislators in Juneau Jan. 30.
G7G hopes to ship Alberta oil by rail from Fort McMurray, Alberta, to Delta for export through the Trans-Alaska Pipeline System and the Valdez Marine Terminal, said its president, Matt Vickers.
Read the complete story at the Alaska Journal of Commerce.
BOSTON – Homeland Security in Washington DC has awarded the MBTA about $7 million to outfit buses with the latest in live video technology.
Sophisticated new 360-degree lenses embedded in the ceilings and walls of the buses will now capture everything. And on some buses, there will even be flat screens for passengers to see what is going on.
Read the complete story at CBS Boston.
Coby Messier was employed as a sheet metal worker for over a decade before being laid off in May 2012. A Local 49 member, he began collecting unemployment insurance while he looked for work and was able to find another job in September of that year. Unfortunately, he was laid off once again in February 2013 due to a lack of available work and went on unemployment insurance to help make ends meet during his job search. On December 28, 2013, however, he was cut off from that vital economic lifeline when Congress failed to renew the program. Since then, his family has struggled to live on the salary of his wife, who serves as a public school teacher. Coby has been trying to start his own business, but that has been made more difficult since losing his unemployment insurance.
Brother Messier of Albuquerque was a guest of Congresswoman Lujan Grisham’s to President Obama’s State of the Union Address.
“The House of Representatives has taken 25 roll call votes since emergency unemployment insurance expired on December 28 of last year. Sadly, not a single one of those votes has been to restore this vital economic lifeline to the nearly 7,500 New Mexico jobseekers who have been left out in the cold,” Rep. Lujan Grisham said. “Every day that Congress fails to renew unemployment insurance, it harms more and more Americans just like my guest, Coby Messier – people who, in addition to fighting to find a job, now have to fight just to keep a roof over their head, feed their family and pay their bills. It’s long past time for Congress to stop putting New Mexico families in peril and do what’s right for our constituents, our communities and our economy.”
“I am honored that Congresswoman Lujan Grisham has invited me to attend the State of the Union Address on behalf of the nearly 7,500 New Mexico jobseekers who have lost their emergency unemployment insurance,” Mr. Messier said. “I want to thank Congresswoman Lujan Grisham for continuing to call for action on this important issue and for her tireless commitment to helping New Mexico families.”
The loser in the battle for a $2.68 billion contract to run Massachusetts commuter rail trains is not going away quietly, vowing that it will appeal to state officials Friday to change their minds.
Executives from the Massachusetts Bay Commuter Railroad Co. said they intend to argue that the newcomer chosen to run the trains, Keolis Commuter Services, failed to provide crucial information to the state during the selection process. Massachusetts Bay, known widely by the acronym MBCR, said it will assert that state transportation officials turned a blind eye to those omissions.
Read the complete story at The Boston Globe.
Amtrak will launch the first of a fleet of new locomotives out of Boston’s South Station on Friday, officials said.
The 70 new locomotives have advanced technology and modern equipment that company officials hope will provide more reliable service.
Read the complete story at the Boston Globe.
State of the Unions is an excellent and very readable analysis of the current struggles and past triumphs of the American labor movement. Longtime respected labor reporter Phil Dine makes a compelling case that a much stronger labor movement is integral to any effort to restore fairness for working families and reduce America’s widening income gap.
Dine takes a look at what happened to organized labor in America and what can be done to restore it to its role of the defender of middle-class values and economic well-being.
Dine offers firsthand accounts of the union members striving to make their voices heard in a political landscape increasingly shaped by corporate interests, including how:
A reporter who has covered labor for two decades, Dine not only details where labor has gone wrong, but he also offers ideas on how it can adapt to a global economy to recover the ground it lost over the last quarter century. His book also has been updated to cove the latest assault on workers from Wisconsin to Ohio, to today’s current war in Pennsylvania and everywhere in between.
A link to purchase his book is available here.
Minnesota Gov. Mark Dayton on Thursday (Feb. 6) proposed initiatives to enhance railroad safety on the same day that rail workers protested Canadian Pacific’s safety practices by picketing its U.S. headquarters in Minneapolis.
The governor announced through his press secretary that he will urge legislative leaders to hold hearings on the United Transportation Union’s reports of deteriorating safety conditions at Canadian Pacific – allegations the company flatly denied.
Read the complete story at the Star Tribune.
Union Pacific Corp. named Lance M. Fritz as president and chief operating officer of its Omaha-based railroad Thursday and said Jim Young has retired from his executive duties.
Young took a leave of absence in March 2012 to undergo treatments for pancreatic cancer. Union Pacific said he retired Jan. 31 but will continue as non-executive chairman of the parent corporation. He had been president, chairman and chief executive officer of Union Pacific since 2007.
Read the complete story at the Omaha World Herald.
The head of New Jersey’s transit agency Feb. 3 defended the response to delays for thousands of fans leaving the Super Bowl by train, as officials sought to understand how ridership estimates could have been so far off base.
About 33,000 people took the 7-mile ride between MetLife Stadium and the Secaucus rail transfer station, more than double the highest estimates made by organizers and transportation experts before the game. The overcrowding on the platform grew so severe immediately following the game that the stadium scoreboard flashed a sign asking fans to remain inside.
The Super Bowl was held Sunday, Feb. 2, at Met-Life Stadium in New Jersey. It was billed as the first outdoor/mass transit Super Bowl.
“I received an email this morning from New Jersey Transit Vice President and General Manager Kevin O’Connor, thanking our UTU/SMART members for a job well done,” said New Jersey General Chairperson Michael J. Reilly. “Our members of Local 60 in Newark, N.J., came out in force, as there were more than 70 extra assignments to be filled on both Saturday and Sunday. Not only did they come out, our crews were exceptional in their duties and professional in very demanding situations.”
In a message to Reilly and Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen General Chairperson Dave Decker, O’Conner wrote: “Just wanted to express my thanks to both of you, as well as to your members. We filled virtually every job on Saturday and Sunday and on Sunday carried an unprecedented 28,000 people to the Meadowlands and took out over 32,000. I spoke to many employees as I saw them on Saturday and Sunday and thanked them for their efforts, but of course that was only a fraction of the work force, so please pass this on to everyone.
Great job by all and greatly appreciated. Thank you.