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UTU Membership Survey National GOTV ProgramWASHINGTON – New polling shows that Americans across the ideological spectrum support more public funding of Amtrak passenger rail service.

“We polled people who mostly do not live in large passenger rail regions and yet they overwhelmingly said they want the same level of or more federal funding for Amtrak,” said John Previsich, president of the SMART Transportation Division. “What’s interesting about this poll is that a majority of Democrats, Independents and Republicans alike all want to maintain or expand Amtrak service. It is now time for Congress to listen.”

In a poll conducted by DFM Research of St. Paul, Minn., from February to September 2013, eight districts in Colorado, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas and Missouri were polled and 70 percent of respondents said they support a robust federal government role in funding Amtrak. In Illinois’ 3rd District, which includes the Chicago Amtrak hub, the percentage jumped to 80 percent.

“This new polling confirms what we have always known: Americans want more, not fewer, transportation choices,” said Edward Wytkind, president of the Transportation Trades Department, AFL-CIO (TTD). “And while too many politicians in Washington are saber rattling about government spending, people across the nation, from conservatives to liberals, believe the federal government has a responsibility to play in supporting and funding Amtrak passenger rail service.”

Previsich added that in the weeks ahead, SMART Transportation Division activists will be working with TTD and the other rail unions to make the case for more federal funding for Amtrak as lawmakers prepare to rewrite federal passenger rail law (known as PRIIA). “This polling will boost our effort to advocate for common sense passenger rail legislation that gives Amtrak and its employees the resources they need to deliver first- class passenger rail service that Americans are clearly telling us they want.”

The full survey results can be found here.

The SMART Transportation Division represents a variety of employees in the freight and passenger rail, mass transit and airline industries throughout the United States.

The Transportation Trades Department, AFL-CIO, represents 32 member unions in the aviation, rail, transit, motor carrier, highway, longshore, maritime and related industries. For more information, go to www.ttd.org or find TTD on Facebook and Twitter.

PORTLAND, Maine – A rail safety review ordered by Maine Gov. Paul LePage following a fiery train derailment that claimed 47 lives north of the border in Quebec has determined that existing practices are adequate, but it didn’t address the issue of single-person crews for trains hauling oil and other hazardous materials.

Maine Transportation Commissioner David Bernhardt said it’s rare for railroads to use one crew member for freight trains in Maine, but he acknowledged there’s no federal rule to prevent the practice. He also said he’s not prepared to advocate for mandating the crew size.

Read the complete story at the Connecticut Post.

 

Aviation_CockpitNews broke recently that two pilots reported falling asleep while operating a long-haul Airbus 330 flight to the U.K. full of passengers. For an unknown length of time, autopilot kept the aircraft flying. Before the Aug. 13 flight, the pilots had slept only five hours over the previous two nights. The event brings yet another reminder of the dangers posed by fatigued pilots.

The Federal Aviation Administration will soon address the issue, implementing long-overdue new fatigue standards for pilots. But those requirements won’t apply to cargo aircraft pilots, not even when they’re flying a Boeing 747 halfway around the world. By excluding cargo pilots from its new rules, the FAA is failing to adhere to its mission of making safety the first priority in aviation. If the FAA believes even one life lost in an accident is too many, shouldn’t that principle also apply to cargo pilots?

Read the full story at The Wall Street Journal.

BNSF_Color_LogoSEATTLE – BNSF Railway has announced it will pay $5,000 for information leading to the arrest of the suspect or suspects who fired at least 15 shots at one of its freight trains west of Quincy at 8:15 p.m. Sept. 24.

Gus Melonas, spokesman for the Fort Worth, Texas-based railroad, said neither of the train’s two-man crew were injured in the incident, which began as the westbound train approached Trinidad, eight miles west of Quincy at Bear Springs Road.

Read the complete story at The Wenatchee World.

CTRAN L.L.C., Cogent Energy Solutions L.L.C. and Stonepeak Infrastructure Partners have announced they secured all permits, funding and customers to begin construction on a crude-by-rail terminal adjacent to the Casper Natrona County International Airport in Casper, Wyo.

To be completed in spring 2014, the terminal will be served by BNSF Railway Co. and accommodate unit train and manifest loadings of both heavy and light crude, said officials of CTRAN — a Granite Peak Development/BDW Co. joint venture — in a press release. The facility will feature an initial storage capacity of 750,000 barrels of crude and can be expanded to eventually handle 2 million barrels, they said.

Read the complete story at Progressive Railroading.

RRB_seal_150pxUnder the Railroad Retirement Act, a “current connection” with the railroad industry is one of the eligibility requirements for occupational disability annuities and supplemental annuities, and is one of the factors that determine whether the Railroad Retirement Board or the Social Security Administration has jurisdiction over the payment of monthly benefits to survivors of a railroad employee.

The following questions and answers describe the current connection requirement and the ways the requirement can be met.

1. How is a current connection determined under the Railroad Retirement Act?

To meet the current connection requirement, an employee must generally have been credited with railroad service in at least 12 months of the 30 months immediately preceding the month his or her railroad retirement annuity begins. If the employee died before retirement, railroad service in at least 12 months in the 30 months before death will meet the current connection requirement for the purpose of paying survivor benefits.

However, if an employee does not qualify on this basis, but has 12 months of service in an earlier 30-month period, he or she may still meet the current connection requirement. This alternative generally applies if the employee did not have any regular employment outside the railroad industry after the end of the last 30-month period which included 12 months of railroad service and before the month the annuity begins or the month of death.

Once a current connection is established at the time the railroad retirement annuity begins, an employee never loses it, no matter what kind of work is performed thereafter.

2. Can nonrailroad work before retirement break a former railroad employee’s current connection?

Full or part-time work for a nonrailroad employer in the interval between the end of the last 30-month period including 12 months of railroad service and the month an employee’s annuity begins, or the month of death if earlier, can break a current connection.

Self-employment in an unincorporated business will not break a current connection. However, if the business is incorporated, self-employment may break a current connection.

Federal employment with the Department of Transportation, the National Transportation Safety Board, the Surface Transportation Board, the National Mediation Board, the Railroad Retirement Board, or the Transportation Security Administration will not break a current connection. State employment with the Alaska Railroad, as long as that railroad remains an entity of the State of Alaska, will not break a current connection. Also, railroad service in Canada for a Canadian railroad will neither break nor preserve a current connection.

3. Are there any exceptions to these normal procedures for determining a current connection?

A current connection can be maintained for purposes of supplemental and survivor annuities if the employee completed 25 years of railroad service, was involuntarily terminated without fault from his or her last job in the railroad industry, and did not thereafter decline an offer of employment in the same class or craft in the railroad industry, regardless of the distance to the new position.

If all of these requirements are met, an employee’s current connection may not be broken, even if the employee works in regular nonrailroad employment after the 30-month period and before retirement or death. This exception to the normal current connection requirements became effective Oct. 1, 1981, but only for employees still living on that date who left the rail industry on or after Oct. 1, 1975, or who were on leave of absence, on furlough, or absent due to injury on Oct. 1, 1975.

4. Would the acceptance of a buy-out have any effect on determining whether an employee could maintain a current connection under this exception provision?

In cases where an employee has no option to remain in the service of his or her railroad employer, the termination of the employment is considered involuntary, regardless of whether the employee does or does not receive a buy-out.

However, an employee who chooses a buy-out instead of keeping his or her seniority rights to railroad retirement employment would, for railroad retirement purposes, generally be considered to have voluntarily terminated railroad service, and consequently would not maintain a current connection under the exception provision.

5. An employee with 25 years of service is offered a buy-out with the option of either taking payment in a single lump sum or of receiving monthly payments until retirement age. Could the method of payment affect the employee’s current connection under the exception provision?

If the employee had the choice to remain in employer service and voluntarily relinquished job rights prior to accepting the payments, his or her current connection would not be maintained under the exception provision, regardless of which payment option is chosen. Therefore, nonrailroad work after the 30-month period and before retirement, or the employee’s death if earlier, could break the employee’s current connection. Such an employee could only meet the current connection requirement under the normal procedures.

6. What if the buy-out agreement allows the employee to retain job rights and receive monthly payments until retirement age?

Then the RRB considers the buy-out to be a dismissal allowance. When a monthly dismissal allowance is paid, the employee retains job rights, at least until the end of the period covered by the dismissal allowance. If the period covered by the dismissal allowance continues up to the beginning date of the railroad retirement annuity, railroad service months would be credited to those months. These railroad service months could provide at least 12 railroad service months in the 30 months immediately before the annuity beginning date and maintain a regular current connection. They will also increase the number of railroad service months used in the calculation of the railroad retirement annuity.

7. Could the exception provision apply in cases where an employee has 25 years of railroad retirement coverage and a company reorganization results in the employee’s job being placed under social security coverage?

The exception provision has been considered applicable by the RRB in cases where a 25-year employee’s last job in the railroad industry changed from railroad retirement coverage to social security coverage and the employee had, in effect, no choice available to remain in railroad retirement covered service. Such 25-year employees have been deemed to have a current connection for purposes of supplemental and survivor annuities.

8. Where can a person get more specific information on the current connection requirement?

Railroaders and former employees can contact a field office of the RRB for more information by calling toll-free at 1-877-772-5772. They can also find the address of the RRB office serving their area by calling this number or by visiting www.rrb.gov. Most RRB offices are open to the public from 9:00 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., Monday through Friday, except on federal holidays.

Previsich
John Previsich

John Previsich has been elevated to the office of president of the Transportation Division of the International Association of Sheet Metal, Air, Rail and Transportation Workers following the official retirement of former President Mike Futhey, effective Oct. 1.
UTUIA
John Previsich is the president of the Transportation Division of the International Association of Sheet Metal, Air, Rail and Transportation Workers, formerly the United Transportation Union. He is a member of Local 31 in San Jose, Calif.
Previsich began his railroad career on the Southern Pacific Railroad, where he commenced work as a train service operations employee in San Francisco, Calif. He later transferred to engine service and achieved certification as both a railroad conductor and locomotive engineer.
Previsich started doing work as a local union officer in the mid-1980s. Thereafter, he moved into a system-wide position as a general chairperson in the early 1990s, followed by his election to International Vice President in 2007. He was re-elected in 2011, elevated to the position of assistant president in 2012 and assumed the responsibilities of the general secretary and treasurer position on Jan. 1, 2013. He was elevated to the position of president effective Oct. 1, 2013.
During the course of his career, Previsich has advocated on behalf of his members in mergers and consolidations in the rail and airline industries, 13(c) transactions, divestitures, national and local contract negotiations and countless arbitrations and mediations, securing and defending collective bargaining agreements on properties large and small.
Having a special interest in transportation-industry safety issues, Previsich is the SAMRT Transportation Division representative on the Federal Railroad Administration’s Rail Safety Advisory Committee and has served on numerous sub-committees associated with RSAC. In addition, he is a Cabinet–level appointee to the National Freight Advisory Committee, a group that reports directly to the Secretary of Transportation on MAP-21, a program charged with assisting in the development of administration policy on a national freight plan for the 21st century.

BNSF_loco_K.D.McLaughlinAMARILLO, Texas (AP) – A Texas Panhandle collision involving three freight trains has left four BNSF Railway crewmembers hurt – two critically – and derailed up to 30 cars.

The Department of Public Safety says the accident happened before dawn Wednesday just east of Amarillo.

Click here to read more. 

The following letter from AFL-CIO Transportation Trades Department President Edward Wytkind was sent to the Federal Highway Administration in support of maintaining the administration’s “Buy America” policy standards. 

Dear Mr. Yakowenko,

On behalf of the Transportation Trades Department, AFL-CIO (TTD), I write in response to the Federal Highway Administration’s (FHWA) Buy America policy notice and request for comments. For reasons explained below, we support FHWA’s decision to review several waivers to Buy America regulations and offer specific recommendations on how these rules should be applied to strengthen U.S. manufacturing.

TTD and our affiliates have long embraced the principle that a strong transportation system and strong manufacturing sector are intrinsically linked. To ensure that investments in our nation’s infrastructure will sustain domestic manufacturing and the millions of jobs it supports, we have consistently advocated for the inclusion of strong Buy America policies in federal transportation infrastructure investments.

As the agency notes, FHWA’s Buy America requirements date back to the 1980s when Congress established a domestic sourcing preference for American-made iron, steel and manufactured products for FHWA-funded infrastructure projects. Soon after, FHWA issued a blanket general waiver for manufactured products, thereby exempting these goods from the Buy America standards and significantly limiting the scope of the Buy America rules enacted by Congress. The agency subsequently issued two other general waivers for ferry boat equipment and for pig iron and processed, pelletized and reduced iron ores as well. Allowing these waivers to stand perpetually without review runs counter to the intent of the Buy America statute, and we agree with FHWA’s decision to consider whether these three general waivers should be maintained, discontinued or altered.

As part of this effort, FHWA is seeking input on whether a domestic content level and final assembly requirement should apply to fuel efficient and low emission vehicles and related equipment purchased with FHWA’s Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality Improvement (CMAQ) Program funds. While these goods are correctly identified as manufactured products which would otherwise fall under the general waiver mentioned above, FHWA recently determined that it is appropriate to apply Buy America requirements to federally funded purchases of such vehicles and equipment.

As FHWA reviews these waivers, we urge the agency to maintain the use of the term ‘steel’ as defined in FHWA’s Buy America statute (23 U.S.C. Section 313) and interpreted by the agency for decades. Under this section, steel is considered domestically produced when iron and other inputs are melted and poured in a blast or arc furnace that is located in the U.S. In particular, since the 1980s, FHWA has applied the term to mean that “All manufacturing processes of the steel material in a project (i.e., smelting, and any subsequent process which alters the steel material’s physical form or shape or changes its chemical composition) must occur within the United States to be considered of domestic origin.” Defined this way, FHWA captures the essence of steel production: the labor-intensive process of using domestic furnaces to transform inputs into steel slab.

Maintaining this definition is important because as the agency notes, steel is one of the four most prevalent products used in highway construction. Our member unions represent thousands of workers employed in the iron ore industry and additional thousands who melt and pour steel through blast furnaces. And there are thousands of others who produce steel in electric arc furnaces. These jobs have been maintained and expanded as a result of the FHWA’s long-standing interpretation of the term steel and the subsequent demands for products used in highway and bridge construction. Consequently, it is critical that FHWA continue defining steel in this manner, without modifications, to support the many Americans employed in steel production.

FHWA is also considering whether the current “minimal use threshold” for steel should be maintained or altered. The agency has long applied this standard for determining the amount of foreign-made steel permitted in FHWA-funded highway projects. The current threshold allows the use of minimal amounts of non-domestic steel in construction projects if the cost of the materials is no more than .1% of the total contract cost or $2,500 (whichever is greater). While we accept the minimal use of foreign steel in construction projects, it is critical that the allowance threshold be kept low.

Our Buy America standards are designed to promote domestic manufacturers. The existing percentage and total contract cost threshold works well to support American workers by ensuring that only limited amounts of foreign steel are used in FHWA-funded projects. We agree with the agency that there are no existing standards or straight forward methods for raising the threshold, and we have serious concerns that raising the permitted amount of foreign steel would harm domestic steel producers. Accordingly, we support the existing minimal use threshold and urge the agency to maintain the current rate.

TTD agrees with and supports FHWA’s decision that while fuel efficient and low emission vehicles and related equipment are manufactured products, these goods should be subject to Buy America standards, especially as states and localities increasingly use CMAQ funds to purchase these goods. In order to maximize the impact of federal tax dollars on local economies and support domestic manufacturers, the agency must require that vehicles and equipment purchased with CMAQ funds meet a minimum domestic content standard.

Specifically, we believe FHWA should set the standard at 60% or greater and increase the minimum over time, sliding to a full 100% of American-made content. We also believe that the definition of steel as defined above should be applied to high value items incorporated into vehicles, such as vehicle chasses. By measuring the American-made composition, FHWA helps expand domestic supply chains for fuel efficient and low emission products, attracting investors to our manufacturing sector along the way.

We recognize that the agency has concerns for how it can effectively determine where parts are manufactured, but for the passenger cars and trucks that states/localities are likely to purchase, resources are readily available to consumers and federal agencies that identify vehicle and vehicle parts’ country of origin, country of final assembly and percentage value of domestic content. We also note that other DOT modal agencies are already applying comparable domestic sourcing standards. The Federal Transit Administration, for instance, has a 60% domestic content requirement for the procurement of rolling stock, and the Federal Railroad Administration applies a 100% content standard for high speed rail cars. Given their success in enforcing strong domestic content standards for products that are as complex as low emission and fuel efficient vehicles, TTD believes FHWA is capable of enforcing similar standards to ensure its funds support American workers.

Furthermore, we are opposed to implementing Buy America standards based solely on final assembly. While we agree that a final assembly requirement must apply, we believe that if left to stand as the lone requirement, it would do more to encourage offshoring of the production of vehicle parts than it would to support the U.S. manufacturing base capable of making the same products.

Millions of Americans are employed in the production of parts, components and subcomponents for passenger or specialized vehicles. Several hundred thousands are represented by our member unions alone. If FHWA requires only that the vehicle or piece of construction equipment is assembled in the U.S., the agency would cut out these workers from the production process.
However, when final assembly is coupled with the abovementioned 60% domestic content standard, the incorporation of American-made products is encouraged, which in turn supports the millions of workers who manufacture various vehicle parts and those who assemble the parts in U.S. assembly plants. As a result, FHWA would ensure that federal funds are used to support our own manufacturing sector, helping to spur the expansion of a domestic supply chain, which will in turn create investment incentives and produce new middle-class jobs.

At a time of stubbornly high unemployment rates, FHWA has the opportunity to help grow jobs and investment in our own manufacturing sector by implementing its Buy America statute. We believe FHWA must seize this opportunity, and we hope the agency will take our comments on how best to do so into consideration.

Sincerely,

Edward Wytkind
President

metra_logoUnlike his predecessor, who ran a Los Angeles bus company, Metra’s new interim executive director is a veteran “railroad guy” who actually knows how to drive a train.

Donald Orseno broke into the railroad business collecting tickets, helping set up trains and checking doors on the Rock Island Railroad.

Read the complete story at the Chicago Tribune.