PRESCOTT, Ariz. – John Stevenson can relate to the thousands of people who flock to the Peavine Trail each year to take in the imposing views of Granite Dells, the Daily Courier reports.

In a completely different era, Stevenson also spent plenty of time walking and riding through the scenic corridor. Only, for him, the trips were not recreational, and they occurred either alongside a train or on one.

Even though the Peavine route was a regular one for Stevenson in his years as a railroad brakeman on the route, he said the views were not lost on the crew.

“It was beautiful – especially when you got into the Granite Dells area,” said Stevenson, 73, now a retired railroad worker living in Clarkdale. “We had to get out sometimes and walk it. I remember walking alongside the train, looking at the views.”

(Stevenson is an Alumni Association member and retiree of Local 113, Winslow, Ariz.)

Some of those memories likely will be front and center this week when Stevenson and a group of several dozen of his former Peavine coworkers meet for a reunion at a restaurant in Prescott.

“It’s an annual get-together of all of the guys who worked on that railroad,” Stevenson said noting that the Peavine stretched from Phoenix to Williams. He expects about 40 former employees to gather for the event, including a number who still live in the Prescott area.

Stevenson, who retired in 1998 after working for the Atchison Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad for 44 years, began his career in 1954, when Prescott was still the major base for the line.

For a time in the late 1950s and early 1960s, Stevenson was one of the 50 to 60 people who lived in Prescott and worked on the railroad.

He vividly remembers the day in 1960 when railroad officials announced that the company would build a new route that would bypass Prescott.

“We were pretty despondent,” Stevenson said of hearing the news. “We thought, ‘Prescott’s going to dry up.’ The town just went ballistic.”

Stevenson also recalled the event in one of several historic essays he wrote about his days working on the Peavine. “I felt bad that Prescott would probably become a ghost town, Whiskey Row would dry up, and Buckey O’Neill would ride off into the sunset,” he wrote.

By 1962, the new bypass route through the Drake area was complete, and the Prescott route became a “spur line,” which Stevenson said got less and less use. Ultimately in the 1980s, he said, “God intervened,” and a major storm washed out sections of the Prescott spur, leading the railroad to abandon the line.

Even so, Stevenson maintains that there is value in remembering the Peavine route’s heyday.

“When I was young, I used to love listening to the stories” from the older railroad workers, Stevenson said, noting that some of his early coworkers began their careers when Arizona was a still a territory.

“The Prescott portion of the Peavine was an important part of Yavapai County history,” Stevenson said, adding “there are very few people left” with personal experience working the route.

The Peavine reunion will take place at 11 a.m. Wednesday at the China Buffet Restaurant at 201 Walker Road.

(This item appeared Aug. 9, 2010, in the Daily Courier. Additional information added by UTU editors.)

The summary plan description booklets for both the National Railway Carriers and UTU Health and Welfare Plan (NRC/UTU) and the Railroad Employees’ National Health and Welfare Plan are now available on the SMART TD website.
Both booklets give information on the Comprehensive Health Care Benefit (CHCB); the Managed Medical Care Program (MMCP); the Mental Health/Substance Abuse Benefit (MH/SA), the Managed Pharmacy Services Benefit (MPSB), plus additional information on all aspects of the medical benefit plans covering railroad operating employees and their eligible dependents.
All employees should have received a copy of the applicable plan book in the mail; this web posting provides an alternate source for this important information.
Click here to be directed to the NRC/UTU booklet; click here to be directed to the National Health and Welfare plan book.

By International President Mike Futhey

Are things better now than they were three years ago?

Have you witnessed an improvement in representation, union finances, internal procedures and management transparency since Arty Martin, Kim Thompson and I took office Jan. 1, 2008?

Here are the facts:

  • Union bank balances, after payment of expenses, improved in each successive month (with the exception of two months each year with three staff payrolls) — more than doubling since 2007.

General Secretary & Treasurer Kim Thompson aggressively cut operating costs; and UTU International officers reduced travel expenses through coordination of assignments and expanded use of electronic communications.

The UTU International’s move to smaller, more efficient headquarters space, and the addition of modern computers, will further reduce costs, while improving member services.

  • UTU Insurance Association reserves stand at $24 million as the UTUIA added policyholders and proved its products to be secure and price competitive.
  • Discipline Income Protection Plan (DIPP) reserves now exceed $8 million. Instead of the DIPP facing liquidation as it did three years ago, it now aggressively protects members by paying claims that competing plans frequently disallow.
  • Increased research, drawing on senior staff skills in finance and economics, made the UTU a more formidable presence at the bargaining table. More in-depth research into carrier finances provides credible justification for our Section 6 notices.
  • The workload of local treasurers has been cut substantially through application of Winstabs and the UTU International’s direct receipt of dues. Treasurers say that what previously took five hours to accomplish now is accomplished in one hour.
  • Organizing the unorganized brought hundreds of workers in the airline, bus, rail and transit industries into the UTU.
  • The UTU succeeded in having a bus portfolio — aimed at lobbying Congress and regulatory agencies on bus safety and driver training — added to the responsibilities of the AFL-CIO Transportation Trades Department in Washington.
  • Not only does the UTU have a diversity program; but diversity was applied within the UTU so that every voice within the organization is heard and respected.
  • An expanded get-out-the-vote drive, using modern communication tools, is helping elect candidates to state legislatures and Congress who understand the needs of working families.

Those elected with UTU support return to seek advice from UTU state legislative directors and the UTU National Legislative Office.

The UTU Auxiliary, led by Carol Menges, works closely with the National Legislative Office assisting members and their families to register to vote and to vote on Election Day.

Increased UTU PAC contributions help elect labor-friendly candidates.

  • Since passage of the Rail Safety Improvement Act, which tightened penalties for carrier intimidation and harassment and added whistleblower protection, UTU designated legal counsel have pledged to support members each and every time a carrier violates one of the law’s provisions.
  • A UTU Rail Safety Task Force was created to supplement efforts of the UTU Switching Operations Fatalities Analysis (SOFA) Group and the UTU Transportation Safety Team to improve workplace safety. Results of a recent task force survey of members on fatigue, harassment and intimidation are already being reviewed by the FRA.
  • The UTU successfully partnered with Amtrak for a $300,000 federal grant for the UTU to train — by producing manuals and videos — on-board passenger-train staff in recognizing behavioral traits of terrorists and deranged individuals.

The UTU has approached the Class I railroads about expansion of the program to freight carriers. There are favorable indications that the carriers are interested.

  • Among accomplishments of the National Legislative Office was gaining an FRA requirement that, in implementing positive train control, carriers must provide separate computer screens in each cab, one for the engineer and one for the conductor, validating that two sets of eyes and ears are essential for train safety.
  • A promise was kept to yardmasters that in addition to preservation of their craft autonomy, they would continue to have a voice at the UTU International.
  • Officer training now includes additional and more needs-directed regional meetings workshops, such as training in situational awareness and for hazmat first responders.

You have become warriors through your commitment that we stand united in support of our membership.

Let the message go forth that if anybody tries to tread on us, they will be beneath our feet.

UTU Alumni offering tour to Opryland

The UTU is offering members of its Alumni Association a holiday tour they will not soon forget: the newly renovated Gaylord Opryland hotel and convention center, plus the Grand Ole Opry theater, in Nashville, Tenn.

The “Country Christmas” tour will take place Tuesday, Dec. 7, through Friday, Dec. 10, at the Gaylord Opryland resort.

The tour includes three nights at the Gaylord Opryland Hotel; tickets to “The Radio City Christmas Spectacular, starring the world-famous Rockettes;” tickets to Louise Mandrell’s special dinner show; tickets to “ICE: Nashville’s Winter Wonderland;” the “Treasure for the Holidays” craft show featuring a variety of handmade and novelty gifts; the “Hall of Trees” holiday-tree display; a coupon book good for discounts throughout the resort; luggage handling, taxes and resort fees.

The cost of the tour, arranged through the UTU Alumni Association’s designated travel professionals, Landfall Travel, is $495 per person double occupancy; $415 per person triple; $375 per person quad, and $725 per single.

Parking is an additional $18 per day, if desired.

A non-refundable deposit of $100 is due with the reservation. The balance is due by Oct. 15. Landfall representatives can also handle requests for air travel, upgraded room accommodations or other special requests.

Call Landfall toll free at (800) 835-9233; check out the Alumni Association page on www.landfalltravel.com or email travel@landfalltravel.com for more information.

This tour is open to all UTU Alumni Association members, family and friends; other UTU members are welcome to join them as space permits.

Federal law now requires the reporting of Social Security numbers (SSNs) for covered dependents to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS).

Employees who have not yet provided dependent SSNs will have their dependents’ coverage terminated on July 31.

This includes participants of all medical plans, including the Railroad Employees National Health and Welfare Plan and the National Railway Carriers and United Transportation Union Health and Welfare Plans.

In addition, if a covered dependent is eligible for Medicare, then the Medicare Health Insurance Claim Number (HICN) is also required.

To comply with these reporting requirements, Railroad Enrollment Services has mailed a final notice to those members identified with missing dependent SSNs and/or HICNs.

If you have received a notice from Railroad Enrollment Services, provide the SSN and/or HICN for any dependent who is listed as missing this information — and sign, date and return the Social Security Reporting Form by the requested return date to the address provided.

If you do NOT receive a notice requesting missing dependent SSNs and/or HICNs, you need not take any action at this time.

The following will occur if the requested SSNs are not provided:
  • For any dependent who was newly added to the plan between Jan. 1, 2009 and May 31, 2010: If Railroad Enrollment Services does not receive the Social Security number for any newly added 2009/2010 dependent whose SSN is missing by July 31, 2010, the dependent(s) will be disenrolled from the plan effective July 31, 2010.
  • For any dependent who was added to the plan before Jan. 1, 2009: If Railroad Enrollment Services does not receive the Social Security number for any dependent whose SSN is missing by Jan. 31, 2011, the dependent(s) will be disenrolled from the plan effective Jan. 31, 2011.

When Railroad Enrollment Services transmits the SSNs and/or HICNs to CMS, they will maintain all physical, electronic and procedural safeguards that comply with federal standards to guard your personal information.

For additional information regarding the new CMS federal law pertaining to this requirement, visit:

www.cms.hhs.gov/MandatoryInsRep/.

If you have questions or need another copy of the notification sent you, call Railroad Enrollment Services at (800) 753-2692.

Train and engine workers are the eyes and ears of railroads — the first to spot trouble, and the first to suffer when trouble occurs.

On railroads, trouble too often means career-ending injuries and death.

The UTU Rail Safety Task Force was created by UTU International President Mike Futhey to develop strategies to reduce rail-employee risk while on the job. Members include Arizona State Legislative Director Greg Hynes, Arkansas State Legislative Director Steve Evans and Michigan State Legislative Director Jerry Gibson.

Earlier this year, the task force asked UTU members to share their workplace concerns. The member survey revealed overwhelmingly that fatigue, harassment and intimidation are distracting members from situational awareness and placing them in harm’s way.

The comments, below, have been culled from some 1,300 member responses. Some have been edited to correct grammar and spelling, and to remove names of railroads and individuals.

President Futhey will be sharing these member comments with carrier officials. The national legislative office will be sharing them with FRA officials.

Here is a sample of comments from UTU members:

We have an increased burden thinking of what will happen to our home and family because of harassment and constant operational testing. It affects everyone when a few easy targets are harassed.

The harassment has to stop. You cannot do your job without worrying about these officials.

An alarming number of workers are in fear of losing their jobs. Harassment is now the number-one concern in the discharge of duty.

The number-one problem is horrendous lineups. I would say if the carrier could get a handle on when they run trains, members could get properly rested to go work.

Intimidation is the prime motivator for these new young managers, who have zero clues as to how a conductor/trainman performs his or her tasks.

I have never seen any other companies harass and retaliate against employees like the railroad. They got the military beat.

Biggest safety issue? Bad lineups, bad lineups, bad lineups.

I always tell friends or strangers when asked about employment, to look elsewhere. I tell them about the working environment that is almost unbearable. The carrier is all about intimidation.

How can you work safely if you know they are watching you perform your work? That person is taking your mind off your job.

If you take too long to get out of the yard you have just put a target on your back and they will try to fire you.

I have never worked in industry with so much aggression, from management toward its employees.

Lineups are our biggest concern. Deadheads not being in the lineup before they are called causes many people to go to work without being rested.

The policy of the carrier is to intimidate, harass and assess capricious discipline on all its employees. We have gone from about three investigations last year at my location to over 20, just in the last three months.

The issue with rest isn’t time off; it is knowing when you are going to work.

The carrier uses testing to discipline and to dismiss, not for training.

Harassment is daily, and when you go to work you always wonder if you will make it through the day and have a job the next.

It’s bad when you’re out doing your job as safely as you can do it and wondering if a trainmaster or official is hiding behind the trees or bushes to try to catch you doing something wrong.

The carrier follows you around, hiding in the bushes, waiting for you to break a rule.

I can only figure when I’m going to work about 10 percent of the time.

Their safety program is based on nothing more than threats, harassment and intimidation.

Testing is so rampant that we’re afraid to look back around a curve for fear of missing a yellow board or other test.

If it takes too long to do a job safely the carrier will start to impose operational testing and follow employees around.

Managers frequently change their stories and make their stories fit the definition of a failure if they find out that the initial operations test failure in the field was not a valid failure under the written rule.

They interpret rules and assess failures based on their interpretation rather than what the rule states in black and white in the General Code of Operating Rules. This environment has caused a workplace that is less safe because of employees being more concerned about how rules will be interpreted.

The engine cab is our office, and they are never cleaned! This is basic; here is where it starts.

Efficiency tests in our terminal have increased, with an increasing number of petty failures.

Carrier intimidation creates animosity between crewmembers.

It affects everyone when a few easy targets are harassed.

They don’t care about our safety; it is all about the budget.

Many incidents, injuries and/or fatalities occur during the final portion of our duty hours. Taking into account fatigue issues, “running for the quit” is a common and dangerous practice.

Some carrier officers are very disrespectful.

It is pretty bad when you feel the need to look over your shoulder constantly.

They change jobs, starting times, crew sizes at will without regard to the men and women on the front lines. It would be nice to discuss upcoming changes rather than have them shoved down our throats without any input from the members who perform the service.

Many times I would be first out on the same extra board for more than 16 hours, and as soon as I try to get more rest the call comes in for a 12-hour run out of town. It’s a lineup for an accident.

Twelve hours off at the other end of my run is too long. I can only sleep four or five hours and then I stay awake, waiting for a call. By the time I go to work I am tired again.

When I am writing in my signal awareness form all the info the company wants, I am not looking up and around to see any unforeseen or possibly a event that could be prevented. We need more time looking instead of writing with head down, potentially missing or seeing late an important situation arising ahead of the train.

It appears carrier officials only want employees to comply with rules when they are watching/testing.

Rest is a problem on account of laying over 18 to 30 hours at away-from-home terminal. When you lay around a motel that long you are wore out.

Long lay-in times between shifts in through freight pools and extra lists is the number-one cause of fatigue in the rail industry and the carriers are increasing those times to break consecutive days worked.

The biggest safety issue in my opinion is the lack of training. There are too many people forced to do their jobs without the adequate experience to do it.

Unfortunately there is no rule or test for common sense.

All we do is watch the computer because we are constantly run around by deadhead crews while we are waiting for a train.

Affecting workplace safety is the revolving-door rulebook that changes daily.

I have been tested 21 times, had four failures, with 132 different rules, and not once has an officer ever said that we were doing a good job.

I believe there needs to be much better training on territory qualifications.

The only time a switch gets oiled or adjusted is if someone calls it in as being hard to throw. If one person were to call all of them in, management would think they are whining.

There is nothing wrong with listing a train’s movement in station order on the line it is running on ahead of other trains even if it will get run-around enroute at some point, which should give a better idea when we might be going to work.

Employees feel threatened by mass confusion and constant change, which leads to loss of focus and bitterness.

Many trainmasters have little knowledge of railroading beyond their limited
classroom training. They have a “gotcha” attitude that creates an environment that is adversarial rather than cooperative.

Not knowing when I am going to work and not knowing when to get my rest is a definite safety hazard. Usually both of us on the crew are equally tired.

Some test to get it done and some keep at it until they find something.

Some don’t understand the rule they are watching us for. We never have a rules or safety class.

The piling on of new rules and frivolous demands are distractions in themselves.

While working, most members of our crew look for testing, not actual safety hazards. This is due to managers wanting us to fail.

Production quotas always take priority in the daily switching operation. When a defect is reported a manager evaluates the problem and says it’s okay to use anyway.

Trash and tripping hazards everywhere.

I always have to be thinking about if they are hiding in the weeds.

I’m not perfect by any means, but the rulebook is thicker than the Bible! Even someone who tries to work by these rules cannot possibly do so.

The carrier does not allow power naps. I have been with engineers that stayed awake in sidings and at stop signals only to have them have a hard time staying awake finishing the trip.

Our train lineup is not accurate enough for us to plan our rest.

I have noticed when I report unsafe conditions on the hotline, the carrier at times shows the condition to be corrected, when in actuality it really is not a true statement. It only looks good when someone is reading the reports.

It is the inability to plan our rest that creates the danger.

An employee who is always looking over his shoulder for a company officer hiding in the bushes trying to find you breaking a minor rule, especially a young employee, will never work safe and will never be focused on his job and will be danger to himself and others.

I heard a first line supervisor say don’t drag the job or you will get a failure.

My biggest concern is when I get called for a job I’ve never done and the carrier denies me a pilot. It’s very dangerous being on a job in an unknown area for the first time.

The changing of the lineup happens at one time or another almost each day. This seems to be, for me, the most crucial element of not being able to get proper rest before having to report for duty, especially at the away-from-home terminal.

Dispatchers will ask how long a task will take and want a time commitment. The company wants us to hurry, yet the word “hurry” isn’t anywhere in the rulebook.

As a yardmaster the most unsafe thing we do is work while we are tired. Yardmasters do not fall under the hours-of-service law. We are required to double through to a second shift if nobody else is available. This means we are required to sit in the same location, without the ability to leave, for 16 straight hours.

I have seen engines reported for defects at least five times in the last month yet no one knows anything about it and your ordered to just take it because “there is no one here that can fix it.”

Biggest distraction is conductor’s log. Because penalty for multiple missing entries is so severe it takes precedence when, at times, situational awareness would dictate focus in other job areas.

Even when I report safety issues it seems that the carrier doesn’t address them in a timely manner.

Good railroaders need mentoring. Give me a chance to develop these young, talented railroaders. When they are ready, let their peers decide.

The things that we most often are being tested on are minor rules infractions. This puts a great level of stress on the employee.

Far too many officers have no experience doing real railroad work yet are told to tell us what to do and how to do it. Far too often we are asked to operate unsafely because they really do not understand what is happening.

At times I feel forced to hurry by company officials that stand and watch and, at times, hide and watch. The threat of constantly being disciplined is extremely distracting.

There have been too many changes in rules and too many different interpretations by company officers, so even though I might think I’m complying some officer might not.

It seems that managers try to get creative to compete with the knowledge of either the employee or another manager. I often find myself looking, nervously around, for tricky managers rather than focusing on the task at hand.

We are more concerned about not missing a little step in the procedure and losing our job than the job at hand or safety.

Way too much rushing you out the door when you get to work. No time to update time books, get operating bulletins, job briefings, etc. Every day is the same story. The second you walk in the door “we need you to get going right away….gotta get this train out and moving.”

Having a trainmaster hover over me while I look over my train papers or utilize the bathroom is just ridiculous.

Biggest problem is being watched by inexperienced supervisors.

The morale has never been so low and lack of truly experienced carrier officers so high.

When I report issues, I get the feeling they do not really care until somebody gets hurt.

We need bosses to tell us when they see us doing something wrong, instead of trying to fire us.

We are tested constantly and are treated with no respect whatsoever.

The last rule added to test brake effectiveness is a good example. It may work well for road trains left in a pass, but working trains, locals to be specific, are really hampered by the rule, and in some cases you don’t have enough cars to place brakes on to hold the balance of the train that is going to cut away. I was told to use my railroad experience in such cases. The rulebook is used only when it is convenient to the carrier.

This is my 35th year on the railroad and I have been in a constant state of unrest for practically the whole time. I’m not sure when anyone will realize I am the only person that can tell you when I’m tired. No amount of regulating, policymaking or rulemaking will ever change that fact.

I love my job. I want to work safe, but the company keeps saying that we are taking too much time.

Why is it that every time a FRA official comes onto any carrier property, they are always joined at the hip by one or more carrier officials? They never come on property with union or state legislative officials to converse with crews.

One of the most dangerous things is wide-body engines that have the angle cock on the head-end on the engineer’s side. I’m constantly climbing over these engines to turn the angle cock just to climb back over to turn an angle cock on cars I’m switching. On the road you have to go to the live track side to get to these angle cocks.

I feel that there is a greater pressure on first-line supervisors to find failures than to promote safety.

Click here to see a summary, in percentage terms, of member safety concerns.

Also, the UTU Rail Safety Task Force has its own Web page, accessible at www.utu.org by clicking on the red “Rail Safety Task Force” button.

 July 19, 2010

National rail contract talks are continuing between the UTU and the National Carriers’ Conference Committee (NCCC).

The NCCC represents BNSF, CSX, Kansas City Southern, Norfolk Southern, Union Pacific and numerous smaller carriers.

Four negotiating sessions have been conducted since Jan. 1, when the existing contract came open for amendment under provisions of the Railway Labor Act.

In the initial two bargaining sessions, the UTU discussed with the carriers the topics of employee productivity, railroad finances and the general economic environment.

A May bargaining session focused on health care issues; and the sides met again in late June.

The next bargaining session is scheduled for September, where the parties will revisit economic and health care issues.

The existing agreement, covering some 40,000 UTU members, remains in force until amendments are concluded under provisions of the Railway Labor Act.

 

Paper checks may be a thing of the past for U.S. Railroad Retirement Board (RRB) beneficiaries who still receive them, under a recent initiative announced by the Department of the Treasury, according to the Railroad Retirement Board.

One part of the Treasury initiative would eliminate the vast majority of paper checks for federal benefit payments over the next 3 years. New recipients of federal benefits would receive such payments by electronic means starting March 1, 2011. Individuals already on the benefit rolls as of that date could continue to receive paper checks until March 1, 2013.

The most common form of electronic payment for Railroad Retirement, Social Security and veterans benefits is through Direct Deposit, in which the amount is automatically transferred to an individual’s bank account. The RRB currently pays approximately 90 percent of its benefits by Direct Deposit, which is greater than the government-wide average of about 85 percent.

However, a significant number of beneficiaries who receive paper checks do not have bank accounts. As a result, the new initiative will use Treasury’s Direct Express debit card to pay these individuals. The amount of the government benefits will be loaded onto the card, which can then be used like an ordinary debit card.

Currently, individuals applying for federal benefits can obtain a waiver from electronic payment by certifying that they do not have a bank account or that it would otherwise impose a hardship. Under the Treasury proposal, agencies would still be able to grant waivers, but in very limited cases. Examples include payment to individuals living in foreign countries, certain disaster or military situations, and non-recurring, one-time payments.

While it only costs 10.5 cents to issue an electronic payment, it costs the government $1.03 to issue a paper check. By shifting the 136 million federal benefit checks issued in a year to electronic payment, the government will save about $125 million in processing costs and more than 2 million pounds of paper.

In addition to cost considerations, electronic payment has the added benefit of providing a faster, more secure means of payment. Electronic payments are credited to the recipient’s account the day the payment is due, and there is no opportunity for the payment to be lost in the mail, stolen or forged. The debit cards, which currently carry a MasterCard logo, also allow the holder to avoid paying fees for check-cashing services. The primary benefit of these cards is that recipients will be able to use them to purchase goods and services at the point of sale or obtain cash through a nationwide network of automated teller machines.

Treasury published proposed regulations to implement this initiative in the Federal Register on June 17, 2010, with comments accepted until August 16, 2010. Additional information on the initiative is also available on Treasury’s web site, www.godirect.gov.

If you are planning to retire in the coming months, you are sure to have concerns and many more questions.

Understanding retirement benefits, Medicare and Medigap – and, especially, assuring you obtain all you are entitled to – is no simple task. There is help, however, and SMART TD can help you.

Many of your pre-retirement questions can be answered at the UTU Internet home page, at www.utu.org by clicking on “UTU Alumni Association” (located along the top under “About UTU”).
See, for example, the article headlined, “Preparing for Your Retirement,” which provides advice on tasks to consider in the months before your actual retirement.

The topics include, “Money and health,” “Medicare and more,” “Pension plans,” “Investment income,” “Monthly income,” information for UTUIA policy holders, and advice on documents you will need to complete or obtain before applying for certain retirement benefits.

Also provided are contact information – phone numbers and Web addresses – where additional retirement information (such as veteran’s benefits for surviving spouses) may be obtained.

A new addition to that the Alumni Association page is a link to UnitedHealthcare’s “Retirement Made Easy Kit,” crafted for railroaders about to retire.

For Bus and Aviation Department members, there is a link for Social Security information.

Don’t overlook information on joining the UTU Alumni Association, which will keep you in touch with other UTU retirees and continuing news about the UTU, your past employer and current events affecting airlines, the motorcoach industry and railroads.

Those nearing retirement also should click on the “Health Care” link in the grey tile area at the top of the UTU homepage at www.utu.org. You will find there additional links to information on health care benefits, disabilities and Medicare prescription drug benefits.

Advance planning is an important first step toward assuring smooth sailing toward a successful and enjoyable retirement.

(The following is a security alert from the UTU’s Rail Safety Task Force.)

Rail security remains a constant threat to the nation’s railroads and our members. President Futhey wrote of this concern in a recent leadership message, “We need training to spot trouble.”

Based on recent events, the UTU’s Rail Safety Task Force strongly encourages all railroaders to remain vigilant in our effort to recognize potential threats.

That message was hammered home at a recent FRA hazardous materials seminar in Hot Springs, Ark. The hazardous materials specialist told a chilling story of a recent routine inspection of a rail yard.

The FRA specialist was approached by a conductor and asked, “Are you back again? We were just inspected a few days ago.”

The FRA specialist inquired about the suspicious individual’s description and what happened. Immediately, he realized that the FRA had no one in the region that fit the description.

The facts became more chilling.

When the possible terrorist was asked by a crew member as to whom he was, the individual flipped out a badge and quickly closed it without giving the crew member an opportunity to inspect it. The suspicious individual went as far as to inquire about the chemicals vinyl chloride and ammonia nitrate — if there were any cars in the yard with those chemicals, and the frequency they were there.

With rail crews subjected to physical abuse, robberies and threats from public trespassers, the potential for a breach in security seems to be trending in the wrong direction.

The UTU Rail Safety Task Force reminds our members to focus on the following:

KNOW YOUR WORKSITE: Know your area officers, co-workers, FRA and TSA inspectors — if not personally, at least by name or face.

If a person or vehicle looks out of place, and you are unsure of who an individual is, or if suspicions arise for any reason, follow your railroad’s guidelines to ensure that person remains on the property. In many cases this may involve contacting the proper authority to handle the threat.

All federal agents are required to present proper identification upon request. In cases of trespassers, caution should always be taken and it may be best to let those authorized to handle such situations handle them.

 MAINTAIN SITUATIONAL AWARENESS: Be aware of suspicious individuals and items. We generally travel and work the same areas. If something looks out of place, report it immediately. Do not leave a potential threat for others to handle.

Be aware of high risk locations, such as fuel facilities, hazardous materials cars, radio towers, and dimly lit areas. Make sure to inspect safety appliances and use them if they are required.

Inspect all locks, gates, doors and derails that are used as safety devices, and report those that are found to be damaged or missing to the proper authority.

As always, our first line of defense is ensuring that any issues that may impair our personal safety are properly handled in an expedient manner. Those on the ballast see or hear it first, and it is those on the ballast who are most in harm’s way.

For more information on the UTU Rail Safety Task Force, click below:

http://utu.org/utu-rail-safety-task-force/

In solidarity,

UTU Rail Safety Task Force

Greg Hynes, UTU Arizona state legislative director

Steve Evans, UTU Arkansas state legislative director

Jerry Gibson, UTU Michigan state legislative director