A SMART Transportation Division member was killed on the job Wednesday (Oct. 9) afternoon in a railroad switching accident at a Colorado Springs, Colo., industrial complex.
According to media reports, BNSF Railway conductor Dawn Trettenero, 42, was trapped between two rail cars. Firefighters told Television Station KKTV that they arrived within minutes of being notified of the accident, but Trettenero was already dead when they arrived.
“There were other employees present when this occurred, so we have witnesses that we are talking to,” said police spokesperson Lt. Catherine Buckley.
Trettenero was a member of Transportation Division Local 202 at Denver. She joined the union in December 2011. She is the second Transportation Division member to die on the job this year
Colorado State Legislative Director Carl Smith, a member of the SMART Transportation Division’s Transportation Safety Team, has been assigned to assist the National Transportation Safety Board with its accident investigation.
Local 202 Chairperson Brent Conlin reports that a memorial service for Trettenero will be held from 2-4 p.m., Wednesday Oct. 15, at Olinger Crown Hill Mortuary and Cemetery. It is located at 7777 W. 29th Ave. in Wheatridge, Colo.
SMART Transportation Division members represented by General Committee of Adjustment GO 875 have approved a new agreement with the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority that attains all of the goals sought by the committee’s negotiating team.
The general committee represents bus and light and heavy rail operators throughout the county’s transportation system, as well as schedule makers and schedule checkers for the agency.
“The major issues given to the committee’s negotiators by the membership were discipline policies and work rules, an elimination of a two-tier wage scale and the security of the health and welfare trust. This contract accomplishes all of those goals,” said SMART International Representative Vic Baffoni. “The committee sought to address these issues, first and foremost, and our members approved of their accomplishments.
“Preservation of our work rules was paramount, and we totally renegotiated the discipline policy to provide our members with job security and fair treatment.”
The general committee represents approximately 5,000 LACMTA employees and is the largest bus and transit property represented by SMART.
The negotiation team was led by GO 875 General Chairperson James Williams and general committee members Local 1607 Chairperson Lisa Arredondo, Local 1563 Chairperson Robert Gonzalez, Local 1564 Chairperson Ulysses “Butch” Johnson, Local 1565 Chairperson Eddie Lopez and Local 1608 Chairperson John M. Ellis.
In preparation for the negotiations, Williams held meetings with California Gov. Jerry Brown and Los Angeles City Mayor Eric Garcetti. Preliminary negotiations with the agency commenced in February, following discussions with members at local meetings to pinpoint their objectives for a new contract. Negotiations with LACMTA officials began in earnest in March.
“This General Committee is extremely proud of the work that was put into crafting the new work rules for our members. Other transportation unions have gone on strike to get a fraction of what our committee was able to accomplish. There is not a doubt in my mind that these rules will serve as a model for other bargaining units in the future,” Williams said.
Under the new contract, an unfair and divisive two-tier wage system was eliminated for good and was replaced by a seniority-based rate schedule. Under previous agreements, operators hired after July 1, 1997, were paid significantly less than operators hired on or before that date.
Employees will now see wage increases after five, six, 10, 11 and 17 years of full-time service.
“If you put in the time and do the job, any operator can now reach the top of the pay scale,” Williams said.
During the life of the contract, all operators will see at least one significant pay increase, with the top-rate employees receiving a 4.5 percent pay increase immediately. Trainees, schedule checkers and schedule makers, and some part-time operators, will receive rate increases as well.
GO 875 represents members of Transportation Division Locals 1563, 1564, 1565, 1607, 1608. LACMTA Metro operates 2,228 vehicles over 1,433 square miles. The authority reports its total calendar monthly system-wide boardings for July 2014 at 38,327,115 riders.
Pictured, from left, are Local 1564 Chairperson Ulysses “Butch” Johnson, Local 1608 Chairperson John M. Ellis, General Chairperson James Williams, Local 1607 Chairperson Lisa Arredondo, Local 1563 Chairperson Robert Gonzalez and Local 1565 Chairperson Eddie Lopez, GO 875 members who negotiated the LACMTA contract.
A 42-year-old woman died after being trapped between two train cars in a southeast Colorado Springs industrial complex Wednesday, Colorado Springs police and fire officials said.
Officials have ruled the death an industrial accident.
California’s two major railroad companies have filed suit in federal court challenging a state law requiring railroads to come up with an oil spill prevention and response plan.
The lawsuit, filed Tuesday in the U.S. District Court in Sacramento, contends federal laws largely prohibit states from imposing safety rules on railroads such as the ones California began imposing July 1 of this year. The plaintiffs in the matter are the Union Pacific Railroad, the BNSF and the Association of American Railroads.
FARGO, N.D. – Grain elevator and agriculture groups are cautiously optimistic that a more extensive reporting system for railroads, ordered Oct. 8 by the U.S. Surface Transportation Board, will at least allow agricultural shippers to see whether they’re getting the same kind of service as oil, coal and other industries.
The STB, which regulates railroads, ordered all of the nation’s Class I railroads to provide weekly data about shipping. That’s more than the agricultural shipping reporting they had required of only BNSF Railway and Canadian Pacific Railway earlier this summer.
BNSF Railroad will invest $235 million in its system in Washington state this year, nearly double the amount invested in 2013.
This suggests that the company is continuing to upgrade a system that supported $28.5 billion in state economic activity, according to a study released Monday.
WASHINGTON — Two railroad industry trade groups have quietly asked the U.S. Department of Transportation to drop its requirement that rail carriers transporting large volumes of Bakken crude oil notify state emergency officials.
The railroads have maintained that they already provide communities with adequate information about hazardous materials shipments and that public release of the data could harm the industry from a security and business standpoint. But they haven’t been successful in convincing numerous states or the federal government.
Train operators in Canada’s burgeoning freight rail industry report falling asleep at the controls and coming to work exhausted at an alarmingly high rate, according to an ongoing CBC News investigation into rail safety.
“I have had instances where I have just snapped back into reality, and kind of, for a few seconds, not really realized or recognized where I am,” one Ontario-based CN rail engineer told CBC News, recalling how he’d missed a signal at the controls of a three-kilometre-long train.
SMART Transportation Division-represented trainmen and yardmasters employed by the Terminal Railroad Alabama State Docks have ratified a new six-year agreement by an overwhelming majority.
The new agreement provides for six, three percent annual general wage increases retroactive to April 1, 2012, with the final three percent general wage increase on April 1, 2017, resulting in a cumulative wage increase of 19.1 percent over the life of the agreement, with full back pay.
The agreement establishes a $5 certification pay for yard foreman; increases meal periods to thirty minutes with a one hour meal payment on certain assignments; provides a thirty minute training payment for yard foreman, helpers and yardmasters, and reduces the vacation qualifying years to 12 years for four weeks of vacation and 23 years for five weeks vacation.
The agreement provides for calculating paid military leave days as a start for five day work weeks and allows employees to bank up to 60 personal leave days.
Transportation Division Vice President Dave Wier, who assisted in negotiations, thanks General Chairperson Mark Cook (GO 898), Alabama State Legislative Director Neil Elders, Local 598 Chairperson Blake Kyser and Local 598 Vice Chairperson Billy Johns, “for putting forth exceptional effort in bringing the members’ concerns to the bargaining table and negotiating an agreement with substantial improvements in wages and working conditions.”
California’s two major railroad companies have filed suit in federal court challenging a state law requiring railroads to come up with an oil spill prevention and response plan.
FARGO, N.D. – Grain elevator and agriculture groups are cautiously optimistic that a more extensive reporting system for railroads, ordered Oct. 8 by the U.S. Surface Transportation Board, will at least allow agricultural shippers to see whether they’re getting the same kind of service as oil, coal and other industries.