SMART Union
One Bismarck man has ridden the rails from shoveling rock and swinging a spike mallet in the railyard to top official of the country’s largest railway employee union.
John Risch has been elected national legislative director of the International Association of Sheet Metal, Air, Rail and Transportation Workers. His five-year term starts Oct. 1.
Read the complete story at The Bismarck Tribune.
One of the top executives at the nation’s leading hauler of crude oil in trains said Friday that the proposed Keystone XL pipeline wouldn’t take away any of his company’s business.
Matt Rose, the executive chairman of BNSF Railway, told Fox Business Network’s Maria Bartiromo that the controversial pipeline project would move primarily heavy crude oil from western Canada to refineries on the Gulf Coast.
Read the complete story at McClatchy D.C.
As I prepare for retirement, there are many things on my mind about the future of our industry and transportation workers that I have had the honor to represent during my career.
The most important item on my agenda today, and every day during the past 31 years that I have been a legislative officer, is that our members are treated fairly when decisions are being made concerning safety, job security, health care and pensions.
Looking back on my career that started in 1966, change is the only constant thing I’ve witnessed.
The hours of service law was reduced from 16 hours to the present 12. We went from 48 Class I railroads to the present seven. There has been a dramatic expansion of public transportation around the country, and the best news of all is that there has been a significant reduction in injuries and fatalities of transportation workers.
Our union has worked hard on improving safety and expanding passenger rail and that focus will continue long after I’m gone. Just as there have been constant changes in our industry over the past 31 years, constant changes will continue for the next 31 years and beyond.
The good news is the vast majority of rail and transit workers in America are organized and because they have a union, they can demand that future changes benefit them as well as the CEO and company investors.
Perhaps the most significant advances we have seen in the past decade are that of communications. When I hired out, they hooped up manually-typed train orders to passing trains and you stuck your arm out the locomotive window at 60 mph to grab them.
Today, information is instantaneous and constantly being updated. I’m convinced that as communication and information technology improves, our rail members will all have predictable work schedules and our transit members will have more appropriate work schedules that include frequent bathroom breaks.
With improvements in information technology, there is no excuse for our members to be uninformed about what is taking place in our industry and in our union. But it’s up to you as a member to make some effort at staying informed.
How you and our union react to future changes will directly impact your safety, your work environment and your paychecks. I’m convinced that when our members are involved and work with other members through our union, we are up for the challenge.
The good news is we already have a strong legislative presence in Washington and in every state capital and capable contract-negotiation teams on our general committees and at the national level.
In closing, I believe “knowledge is power.” I urge you all to stay informed and participate in your union by attending meetings and running for elected office. By hanging together and working through our union, you and your co-workers can benefit as well as the CEO and corporate investors when changes do occur.
I’m “pulling the pin” and I’m able to retire because of our union’s efforts to establish and maintain the best pension in America, Railroad Retirement. While I will be retired, I will be paying close attention from the sidelines.
Thanks to all of you who have made my career so enjoyable. Farewell.
James A. Stem Jr.
National Legislative Director
SMART?Transportation Division
The Senate committee that deals with transportation issues approved a bill to beef up the panel of federal regulators that is supposed to oversee operations on the nation’s freight and passenger railways.
The measure, which was approved unanimously on Wednesday by the Senate Commerce Committee, emboldens the Department of Transportation’s Surface Transportation Board (STB) to be more proactive in its oversight of freight rail companies that operate on tracks in the U.S.
Read the complete story at The Hill.
A bill that would cut Amtrak’s authorization for new construction spending by 40 percent was unanimously approved Wednesday by the House Transportation Committee.
The measure, which was passed on a voice vote with little debate, would reduce Amtrak’s authorized spending level for new construction from approximately $1.3 billion per year under the last Amtrak funding measure to about $770 million annually beginning next year.
Read the complete story at The Hill.
Edward Wytkind, president of the Transportation Trades Department of the AFL-CIO, issued the following statement Sept. 17 about the consideration of the Passenger Rail Reform and Investment Act of 2014 (PRRIA) by the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee:
“Today’s approval by the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee of the Passenger Rail Reform and Investment Act of 2014 is welcome news and represents important progress for both Amtrak and its almost 20,000 employees. This is not a perfect bill: we have specifically called on Congress to provide Amtrak the resources it needs to meet growing demand and to fund improvements and upgrades to an aging system. Still, this legislation is a bipartisan compromise, which we urged the committee to pass today. It rejects efforts made by some lawmakers to demonize Amtrak and undercut public support for passenger rail. We have gone from cheap political stunts that accomplish nothing to serious, thoughtful legislating. I want to commend Chairman Shuster, Ranking Member Rahall, Subcommittee Chair Denham and Ranking Member Brown for their cooperative approach and work on this legislation. We look forward to continuing efforts to provide Amtrak with the tools it needs to make our passenger rail network a driver of economic expansion and a creator of good, middle-class jobs.”
WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration today announced a final rule requiring employers to notify OSHA when an employee is killed on the job or suffers a work-related hospitalization, amputation or loss of an eye. The rule, which also updates the list of employers partially exempt from OSHA record-keeping requirements, will go into effect on Jan. 1, 2015, for workplaces under federal OSHA jurisdiction.
The announcement follows preliminary results from the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ 2013 National Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries.
“Today, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that 4,405 workers were killed on the job in 2013. We can and must do more to keep America’s workers safe and healthy,” said U.S. Secretary of Labor Thomas E. Perez. “Workplace injuries and fatalities are absolutely preventable, and these new requirements will help OSHA focus its resources and hold employers accountable for preventing them.”
Under the revised rule, employers will be required to notify OSHA of work-related fatalities within eight hours, and work-related in-patient hospitalizations, amputations or losses of an eye within 24 hours. Previously, OSHA’s regulations required an employer to report only work-related fatalities and in-patient hospitalizations of three or more employees. Reporting single hospitalizations, amputations or loss of an eye was not required under the previous rule.
All employers covered by the Occupational Safety and Health Act, even those who are exempt from maintaining injury and illness records, are required to comply with OSHA’s new severe injury and illness reporting requirements. To assist employers in fulfilling these requirements, OSHA is developing a Web portal for employers to report incidents electronically, in addition to the phone reporting options.
“Hospitalizations and amputations are sentinel events, indicating that serious hazards are likely to be present at a workplace and that an intervention is warranted to protect the other workers at the establishment,” said Dr. David Michaels, assistant secretary of labor for occupational safety and health.
In addition to the new reporting requirements, OSHA has also updated the list of industries that, due to relatively low occupational injury and illness rates, are exempt from the requirement to routinely keep injury and illness records. The previous list of exempt industries was based on the old Standard Industrial Classification system and the new rule uses the North American Industry Classification System to classify establishments by industry. The new list is based on updated injury and illness data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The new rule maintains the exemption for any employer with 10 or fewer employees, regardless of their industry classification, from the requirement to routinely keep records of worker injuries and illnesses.
For more information about the new rule, visit OSHA’s website at http://www.osha.gov/recordkeeping2014.
RENO, Nev. – A Nevada trucking company could be forced to pay more than $5.7 million if a judge formalizes a jury verdict that faulted one of its drivers for a fiery 2011 crash with an Amtrak train that killed six people and injured dozens.
A federal jury in Reno awarded $4.5 million to Amtrak and $210,777 to Union Pacific Railroad for damages resulting from John Davis Trucking Co.’s negligence when one of its trucks slammed into the side of a passenger train at a rural crossing 70 miles east of Reno.
Read the complete story at U.S. News and World Report.
(SMART Transportation Division member Laurette Lee, 68, of Local 166 at Salt Lake City was killed in the crash.)
For conductor and Norfolk Southern GO 680 Vice General Chairperson Robert C. “Bubba” Chandler III, the rhythm of the rails is in his bones.
Long before he began riding the rails, the rhythm of the music was in his soul. A self-taught six-string guitar picker for more than 35 years, Chandler is an accomplished professional musician and singer. His latest release, Another Evening with the Music of John Denver, is his unique and heartfelt tribute to one of his greatest musical influences, the late John Denver.
A member of Transportation Division Local 363 at Roanoke, Va., Chandler was born near Birmingham, Ala., and his southern musical influences run deep.
He recalls listening to his parents’ records, primarily Grand Ole Opry artists such as Patsy Cline, Hank Williams and the Carter Family. This exposure awakened his interest in bluegrass, country and folk styles, ultimately leading to his earnest study of the two Johns: John Prine and John Denver.
After high school, he moved to Kirksville, Mo. “It was there I was introduced to John Prine’s music and decided to get a guitar and learn a few chords. After seeing that I did better with the ladies with a guitar in my hands, it kind of stuck,” Chandler said.
His musical interests broadened to include southern rock artists such as the Allman Brothers and Lynyrd Skynyrd.
“Denver’s music is melodic. It is about the beauty in country living, love, hope and joy. There is nothing down about it,” he said.
On his John Denver tribute album, the vibe is laid back and the arrangements are true to the originals. True to Denver’s music, there is nothing down about Chandler’s playing.
Chandler has performed and recorded with the highly acclaimed bluegrass group Lost and Found (Allen Mills, Gene Parker, Roger Handy and the late Dempsey Young). When Handy quit the band, Chandler filled in from 1979 to 1983.
During his time with Lost and Found, he toured Europe, had a public television show and released two albums that helped produce some of the staples of bluegrass music today. Although he personally has yet to perform at The Grand Ole Opry, his band mates from Lost and Found have.
“Since leaving bluegrass, I have drifted back to my folk and Southern rock roots,” he said.
Chandler, who currently resides in Virginia, prefers to play guitars made by Martin or by Breedlove. His music is now available on iTunes, CDBaby, Amazon and Rhapsody. For more information on Chandler, visit his website at www.bubbachandler.com.
CLEVELAND – An Ohio school bus driver is being hailed as a hero after tossing a child out of the way of a rolling bus Tuesday morning before the vehicle rolled over the driver herself and she was killed.
“She sacrificed her own life to save the life of this 10-year-old girl,” said Akron police Lt. Rick Edwards.
Read the complete story at the Associated Press.
SNOHOMISH, Wash. – A Snohomish man says he’s out hundreds of thousands of dollars he’s owed and is struggling to support his family — all because he was trying to protect you from an oil train derailment.
Moving into a new house is usually cause for celebration, but Curtis Rookaird, his wife, and their two young sons are all in tears Tuesday (Sept. 16).
Read the complete story at Television Station KIRO.