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UTU members and their dependents insured under the Railroad Employees National Early Retirement Major Medical Benefit (ERMA) Plan (GA-46000) will have their lifetime maximum amount of coverage increase effective Jan. 1.

ERMA is a comprehensive benefits plan for employees who retire at or after age 60 with 30 years of service. The plan covers qualified employees, spouses and dependents until the employee reaches age 65. Once the employee qualifies for Medicare or attains age 65, ERMA no longer covers the employee or dependents.

The maximum will increase $5,900 over the current $113,000 for a new maximum of $118,900.

The formula for increasing the lifetime maximum under ERMA was agreed upon by labor and management in 2001. The new lifetime maximum was derived by utilizing the October 2009 Consumer Price Index data for hospital and related services and physician services.

For individuals who have reached the lifetime maximum, the incremental maximum available is applied to eligible expenses submitted for dates of service on or after Jan. 1, the effective date of the new maximum.

The UTU has selected Lincoln National Life Insurance Co., a member of the Lincoln Financial Group, to provide a national group voluntary short-term disability plan for all bus members.

Coverage is for off-duty accidents and illness, and is automatic unless bus members opt out.

The Lincoln National Life disability insurance plan provides a basic “safety net” of coverage for UTU bus members, and is designed to work in combination with state-mandated disability programs.

The Lincoln National Life plan pays up to $200 per week for up to 52 weeks a year, and provides coverage for off-the-job accidents and sickness.

The cost is $26.50 per month, and is collected through payroll deduction.

New UTU members will be enrolled automatically, unless they choose to opt-out of the plan by submitting a waiver form to the UTU International.

A disability-plan membership information kit will be mailed to all new members and will include a plan overview, as well as instructions for waiving coverage (opting-out of the plan) if they so choose.

Any member waiving coverage who desires to obtain coverage under the plan in the future, must make application to Lincoln at that later date. There will be no guarantee of acceptance.

Once enrolled, everyone is subject to a so-called 3/6 pre-existing condition provision. This provision excludes, for the first six months that a member is covered, any disability claims relating to treatment, diagnoses or existing condition that existed in the three months just prior to the enrollment date.

After the first six months that an enrollee is covered, the pre-existing condition limitation expires.

The member information kit describes the plan in greater detail, and also provides answers to frequently asked questions. Members are not required to complete any paperwork to enroll in the plan, but must complete a waiver form if they choose not to participate.

Members desiring additional disability insurance coverage may purchase an individual policy through the UTU Insurance Association. This individual coverage would pay in addition to the Lincoln plan, without any offset or reduction in benefits to either plan. Contact your Field Supervisor or call the UTUIA Sales Department at (216) 228-9400 for more information.

A confidential close call reporting system pilot project is up and running systemwide on New Jersey Transit, with the UTU, American Train Dispatchers Association and the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen participating.

This is the first pilot project involving a passenger operation. NJT operates 794 commuter trains each weekday. The project does not apply to NJT trains operating over Amtrak and Conrail lines.

UTU members participating include more than 1,200 conductors, assistant conductors and yardmasters.

Sponsored by the Federal Railroad Administration, and administered by DOT’s Bureau of Transportation Statistics (for the purpose of compiling data), the project permits an employee to make a confidential report of safety concerns, and even violations of operating rules, while receiving immunity from sanction by the employer and the FRA.

The object is for otherwise unreported or underreported information on unsafe events to be made available for study by an on-property peer review team of labor, management and FRA representatives.

The analysis of this data will then be used to recommend corrective action, which might include new or improved training methods, changes in the physical plant, changes in existing federal safety laws or regulations, or changes in carrier operating rules.

“The involved labor organizations, NJT and U.S. DOT agencies worked closely to forge a quality memorandum of understanding to ensure the program will work on this property,” said UTU General Chairperson (NJT Local 60) Pat Reilly. “We all worked together with one goal in mind: a safer workplace.”

Reilly, a former accident investigator for the National Transportation Safety Board and also a former FRA safety inspector, said the project is “the best I have ever seen in my 38-year railroad career. I believe this project will identify and correct potential problems before they turn into major problems or possible accidents.”

The Bureau of Transportation Statistics ensures that the identity of those reporting close calls, as part of the project, remains confidential, including any information as to date or location of the event that could otherwise lead to identification of employees making the report.

The bureau operates under a federal statute that assures protection of the accumulated data from legal discovery, freedom of information requests, and even demands by other federal agencies to view the data.

A close call is defined by the FRA as “a situation in which an ongoing sequence of events was stopped from developing further, preventing the occurrence of potentially serious safety-related consequences. Personal injuries and/or reportable train accidents of any kind do not fall in the category of a close call.”

Examples of close calls include running through a yard switch that does not result in a train accident, improper blocking, and a train in non-signal territory that proceeds beyond its authority.

The UTU is participating in similar pilot projects already in place on Union Pacific in North Platte, Neb., and Canadian Pacific in Portage, Wisc. The UP project is in its third year, and the CP project is in its second year.

UTU engineer members covered for employee and/or dependent health care under the Railroad Employees’ National Health and Welfare Plan, and who may have elected to participate in the National Flexible Benefits Program, will no longer be able to participate in the program effective Dec. 31.

Railroads have canceled the program owing to a contractual provision with BLET permitting them to cancel if participation failed to exceed five percent of eligible employees.

UTU members and/or dependents covered under the National Railway Carriers and UTU Health and Welfare Plan (NRC/UTU) are not affected. Affected only are engineers with a health savings account tied to the BLET national rail agreement.

Participants will receive a letter from UnitedHealthcare providing more details of the cancellation, and information on submitting claims incurred during calendar year 2009.

Further questions should be directed to UnitedHealthcare’s enrollment services, at (800) 753-2692.

Vaccine for the highly contagious H1N1 virus (commonly called “swine flu”) is now being released to the public as supplies become available. The information below will help you decide if you should obtain the vaccine.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) currently recommends that certain priority groups should receive the H1N1 flu vaccine. These groups are:

  • pregnant women;
  • caregivers for children younger than six months of age;
  • health care and emergency medical services personnel;
  • children and young adults from six months through 24 years old;
  • persons aged 25 through 64 years who have underlying health conditions (such as asthma, diabetes, conditions that suppress the immune system, heart disease and kidney disease) that might increase their risk for flu-related complications.

In an effort to minimize the occurrence of H1N1 flu among railroad plan participants and their dependents, the Railroad Employees National Health and Welfare Plan and the National Railway Carriers and United Transportation Union Health and Welfare Plan and their medical vendors (Aetna, Highmark and UnitedHealthcare), as well as the Railroad Employees National Early Retirement Major Medical Benefit Plan and its medical vendor (UnitedHealthcare), have taken a number of steps to reduce the cost of immunization.

To that end, effective immediately, the plans named above will cover the administration of the H1N1 vaccine through the end of December 2009 for covered plan participants and dependents, with no co-pays, deductibles or coinsurance payments.

A decision as to whether or not this special coverage handling will be extended into 2010 will be made by the end of the year.

Where to get the vaccine

Employees and their dependents have a broad range of options from which to choose where to get the H1N1 flu vaccine:

  • Public health clinics: The H1N1 vaccine should be available at most local public health clinics at no cost. Please call the health clinic first to make sure it has the vaccine.
  • Retail pharmacies and other clinics: Please call the pharmacy or other clinic first to make sure it has the H1N1 vaccine available.
  • Doctor’s office: Contact your primary care physician or network provider to find out if the H1N1 vaccine is available and if you should be immunized. Please note office visit co-pays will not apply if you see your doctor solely to obtain the H1N1 flu vaccine.

For the latest information on the H1N1 flu vaccine, please visit the Centers for Disease Control website (www.cdc.gov/h1n1flu/) and/or contact your benefit administrator:

The UTU International is conducting a Treasurers’ Workshop and BNSF Railway Direct Receipts of Dues training session Jan. 19, 2010, in Kansas City, Mo.

All BNSF locals are being converted to the direct receipts billing system with the February 2010 billing, and local treasurers of all BNSF locals are encouraged to attend.

Due to advances in technology, the UTU has developed a new tool for local treasurers called the “Treasurer’s Web Application,” powered by the International’s iLINK system. TWA has been designed to provide treasurers with the ability to download reports from the International using Internet-based technology.

Those interested in attending the session should contact the office of the general secretary and treasurer for further details. Call (216) 228-9400, or e-mail Executive Assistant Nancy Miller at n_miller@utu.org. The deadline to register is Dec. 21.

The workshop is offered at no cost to local treasurers, but locals are responsible for the travel, hotel and meal expenses. The expenses connected with your attendance may be reimbursable, if pre-approved at a local meeting, as an allowable expense of the local.

The workshop will be held at the Drury Inn & Suites, 7900 N.W. Tiffany Springs Parkway in Kansas City, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Attendees who are interested in overnight accommodations at the hotel should contact the hotel at (816) 880-9700. The UTU room rate is $65 and participants should provide the UTU group number 2076386 to obtain the UTU corporate rate.

Training sessions will be conducted by UTU International auditors.

Space is limited and registrations will be accepted on a first-come, first-serve basis. It is recommended that those attending make their hotel reservations at the time of registration.

Be sure to bring your notebook computer.

To court, again, over crew consist

The UTU has asked a federal district court in East St. Louis, Ill., to rule, yet again, that the UTU has no obligation to bargain nationally over crew consist, or what the carriers now are terming, “staffing and consolidation.”

That same federal district court so ruled on March 10, 2006, after the railroads’ bargaining agent, the National Carriers’ Conference Committee (NCCC), demanded that the UTU negotiate, at the national level, that crew size be reduced. The carriers had sought, during the 2005 round of negotiations, to eliminate conductor and brakemen positions on all through-freight trains.

The UTU successfully contended that existing agreements relating to minimum train crew size are negotiated on a railroad-by-railroad basis through UTU general committees of adjustment, and any attempt by the carriers to change those agreements must be handled at the general committee level and not in so-called national handling where the major railroads coordinate their bargaining through the NCCC.

The court agreed in 2006.

But in serving on the UTU their latest intended amendments to agreements affecting rates of pay, rules and working conditions, the NCCC on Nov. 2 said it wants to “Explore opportunities for mutually beneficial alternatives to existing staffing models that enhance safety and productivity, fairly address employee interests and concerns, and recognize the unique opportunities still available to the parties to negotiate meaningful changes.”

Citing the March 10, 2006, decision of the federal district court, as well as similar court decisions dating to 1967, the UTU asked that yet another ruling be made that “crew consist or ‘staffing and consolidation’ is not subject to national handling” and that the court award the UTU its costs and attorney’s fees incurred in this proceeding, as well as “such other and further relief as the court deems just and proper.”

To keep current on this round of national handling, click on the “National Rail Contract” link at www.utu.org, where the so-called Section 6 notices of the UTU and the NCCC — intended amendments to agreements affecting rates of pay, benefits and working conditions — are also posted.

By UTU International President Mike Futhey

The devastating news that Staff Sgt. Amy Seyboth Tirador, 29, daughter of UTU Local 95 (Rensselaer, N.Y.) member Gerard Seyboth, died in Iraq brings all too close to home the sacrifices being borne by brave American soldiers stationed around the globe to protect our nation and our way of life.

Amy brought brains along with bravery to battle. She was an Arabic-speaking interrogator on her second tour of duty in Iraq, and had been credited, during her first tour of duty in Iraq, where she served as a medic, with saving the life of a fellow soldier shot in battle.

Our hearts go out to Amy’s family and friends. There is scant solace in knowing one’s child and family member is a true American hero when grief is so overwhelmingly devastating.

As we celebrate this Veteran’s Day, Nov. 11, we honor each brave American soldier who made the supreme sacrifice in defense of the liberties Americans so cherish.

Our nation was born in revolutionary war; and war, unfortunately, is a continuing price we pay to preserve liberties that, in the long history of humankind, are so scarce and are too often smothered by tyrants.

Within our UTU family, there is an innumerable caravan of brave soldiers who have given their lives in defense of our nation and our way of life, and their sacrifices are rightfully recognized on monuments and plaques across America.

Scores of UTU members, their children and spouses are currently serving on active duty, or recently returned from active duty. More than 100 current UTU members are on active duty.

During 2010, we will be recognizing many of those soldiers on the pages of the UTU News. If you have a family member who has recently served, or is serving, in the armed forces, please forward that information to our public relations department, along with a photo of that soldier in uniform.

The profession of arms too often is a thankless one. So please, on this Veteran’s Day, join me in taking a moment of silence to honor their faithful service and sacrifice.

And when you see a soldier in uniform, as we so often do, consider offering them a warm smile and a heartfelt, ‘thank you.’

God bless them all, and God bless the United States of America.

Vaccine for the highly contagious H1N1 virus (commonly called “swine flu”) is now being released to the public as supplies become available. The information below will help you decide if you should obtain the vaccine.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) currently recommends that certain priority groups should receive the H1N1 flu vaccine. These groups are:

  • pregnant women;
  • caregivers for children younger than six months of age;
  • health care and emergency medical services personnel;
  • children and young adults from six months through 24 years old;
  • persons aged 25 through 64 years who have underlying health conditions (such as asthma, diabetes, conditions that suppress the immune system, heart disease and kidney disease) that might increase their risk for flu-related complications.

In an effort to minimize the occurrence of H1N1 flu among railroad plan participants and their dependents covered under group health insurance plans GA-23111 (for former railroad employees and their dependents), the cooperating rail labor organizations and UnitedHealthcare have taken a number of steps to reduce the cost of immunization.

To that end, effective immediately, group health insurance plans provided under GA-23111 will cover the administration of the H1N1 vaccine through the end of December 2009 for covered plan participants and dependents, with no co-pays, deductibles or coinsurance payments.

Where to get the vaccine

Employees and their dependents have a broad range of options from which to choose where to get the H1N1 flu vaccine:

  • Public health clinics: The H1N1 vaccine should be available at most local public health clinics at no cost. Please call the health clinic first to make sure it has the vaccine.
  • Retail pharmacies and other clinics: Please call the pharmacy or other clinic first to make sure it has the H1N1 vaccine available.
  • Doctor’s office: Contact your primary care physician or network provider to find out if the H1N1 vaccine is available and if you should be immunized. Please note office visit co-pays will not apply if you see your doctor solely to obtain the H1N1 flu vaccine.

For the latest information on the H1N1 flu vaccine, please visit the Centers for Disease Control website (www.cdc.gov/h1n1flu/) and/or contact UnitedHealthcare at (877) 201.4840; www.myuhc.com.

Vaccine for the highly contagious H1N1 virus (commonly called “swine flu”) is now being released to the public as supplies become available. The information below will help you decide if you should obtain the vaccine.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) currently recommends that certain priority groups should receive the H1N1 flu vaccine. These groups are:

  • pregnant women;
  • caregivers for children younger than six months of age;
  • health care and emergency medical services personnel;
  • children and young adults from six months through 24 years old;
  • persons aged 25 through 64 years who have underlying health conditions (such as asthma, diabetes, conditions that suppress the immune system, heart disease and kidney disease) that might increase their risk for flu-related complications.

In an effort to minimize the occurrence of H1N1 flu among railroad plan participants and their dependents, the Railroad Employees National Health and Welfare Plan and the National Railway Carriers and United Transportation Union Health and Welfare Plan and their medical vendors (Aetna, Highmark and UnitedHealthcare), as well as the Railroad Employees National Early Retirement Major Medical Benefit Plan and its medical vendor (UnitedHealthcare), have taken a number of steps to reduce the cost of immunization.

To that end, effective immediately, the plans named above will cover the administration of the H1N1 vaccine through the end of December 2009 for covered plan participants and dependents, with no co-pays, deductibles or coinsurance payments.

A decision as to whether or not this special coverage handling will be extended into 2010 will be made by the end of the year.

Where to get the vaccine

Employees and their dependents have a broad range of options from which to choose where to get the H1N1 flu vaccine:

  • Public health clinics: The H1N1 vaccine should be available at most local public health clinics at no cost. Please call the health clinic first to make sure it has the vaccine.
  • Retail pharmacies and other clinics: Please call the pharmacy or other clinic first to make sure it has the H1N1 vaccine available.
  • Doctor’s office: Contact your primary care physician or network provider to find out if the H1N1 vaccine is available and if you should be immunized. Please note office visit co-pays will not apply if you see your doctor solely to obtain the H1N1 flu vaccine.

For the latest information on the H1N1 flu vaccine, please visit the Centers for Disease Control website (www.cdc.gov/h1n1flu/) and/or contact your benefit administrator: