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By UTU Assistant President Arty Martin

As a union, we can’t make the economy better, but we always attempt to make life better for our members caught up in the downturn.

Many younger members, having left non-railroad employment to take railroad jobs, have now found themselves furloughed, and their hopes for a better future for their families are in a shambles.

At the International and general committee levels, we continue to work to protect those affected members and their families, as well as all our brothers and sisters.

As reported in the May issue of the UTU News, we are assisting our members in preserving health-care benefits during this economic downturn.

On Delbert Strunk’s Norfolk Southern general committee (GO 687), Strunk convinced NS to suspend a contract clause requiring newly hired furloughed employees to be terminated permanently following 365 days of consecutive furlough. Thus, they will continue to accrue seniority for time on furlough and not have to go through the rehiring process when the economy improves, no matter how long the layoff.

In meetings with the National Carriers’ Conference Committee, which represents all major railroads, we have asked the carriers to explore productive alternatives to layoffs. We emphasized that short-term economic gains from layoffs could backfire as we approach the peak vacation season and implementation in July of new hours of service regulations, both of which will limit availability of qualified operating crews.

One small solution is to find an innovative way to keep furloughed employees on a partial work schedule, which continues their family health-care benefits, Railroad Retirement credits and seniority accumulation. That, we told carriers, is good business, as it lessens the likelihood that younger employees will depart the railroad permanently, triggering, eventually, an expensive search for new hires who have to be trained from scratch. 

As an example, on Union Pacific, at numerous locations, we have negotiated creation of continuous employment boards, which provide younger employees, subject to layoff, with a minimum of eight days’ work per month. These continuous employment boards do not affect operation of any existing extra board.

With such boards in place, the younger employees retain full health-care and retirement benefits, and continue to accrue seniority. These workers are able to pursue part-time employment elsewhere, with knowledge that their families are protected, and that when the recession ends, they will return to full-time employment with the railroad.

We would like to see this model extended to all carriers.

The UP recognized this as good business sense, for history shows that laid-off employees frequently do not return to railroad employment, creating a significant cost to the carrier of hiring and training replacements when business levels return to pre-recession levels.

Moreover, given that train and engine service employees work mostly unsupervised, keeping the morale of the workforce at high levels is crucial to providing world-class customer service and ensuring safe operations.

Be assured that at the International and general committee levels, we will continue efforts to convince carriers it is good business to provide workers with financial security, which translates to high levels of morale, loyalty and job expertise.

By Vic Baffoni
Vice president, Bus Department

Negotiations are underway on UTU’s largest bus property, the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (LACMTA).

The UTU negotiating committee, headed by General Chairperson James A. Williams, exchanged contract proposals March 19 with the LACMTA negotiating team.

The first negotiating session was held April 9, and dates have been set for additional meetings. The current contract expires June 30.

A difficult financial climate in California will be an important factor in negotiations.

UTU goals include the closing of wage tiers, protecting current work rules, and preserving of one of the transit industry’s finest health-care and pension packages.

Affected UTU members were sent a comparison of the proposals, with the general committee pledging to protect the members and their families. 

By International President Mike Futhey

Compromise is the art of successful negotiations. But when one party goes to the negotiating table unwilling to compromise, the results can be unpleasant for both, and produce a result that might not be the best choice.

Such was the case with the Rail Safety Improvement Act passed by Congress last fall.

Repeatedly, rail labor told the carriers that if we don’t jointly reach a negotiated agreement on employee fatigue, limbo time, availability policies and arbitrary discipline, that a major rail accident would force Congress to write legislation that neither the carriers nor labor would like.

The UTU and the other rail unions, whose members are subject to hours-of-service regulations, had three objectives:

  1. An end to limbo time, with a short phase-out period.
  2. Advance notice of start times, or a minimum of a 10-hour call.
  3. An end to arbitrary discipline tied to unreasonable availability policies.

The carriers refused to accept rail labor’s objectives. So, when a series of severe and headline-grabbing rail accidents occurred, it became clear that Congress was going to act on its own.

The fatigue mitigation piece of the Rail Safety Improvement Act had been on Congress’s agenda for 15 years. The fatal accident in Chatsworth, Calif., involving a commuter train, was the ice breaker.

Rail labor’s position was consistent throughout the process.

The result was not all that rail labor or the carriers wanted in a rail safety bill. The 10-hour call principle was included only as a pilot project, and 10 hours of rest between each shift was mandated.

Had the carriers negotiated with us in good faith, the result could have been a joint recommendation to Congress that maximum flexibility be afforded carriers and rail labor to craft solutions based on the reality of local situations.

The best legislation always starts with an agreement in principle with the involved parties, but the railroads would not agree to any change in the application of unlimited limbo time, to accurate lineups, or an absenteeism policy that would force safety-critical employees to work when they were fatigued.

Instead, lawmakers took the one-size-fits-all approach because of the railroads’ refusal to discuss fatigue solutions.

We are now working to find local flexibility options to fine-tune the principles contained in the Rail Safety Improvement Act.

We are not optimistic that this can be achieved in so short a time frame, even though the carriers similarly want more flexibility in the law.

What we may be able to achieve is permission from the FRA for an FRA-monitored pilot project that permits flexible approaches instead of one-size-fits-all regulations.

The UTU and other rail operating unions are committed to do everything in their power to achieve more flexible regulations that recognize that situations are not equivalent across all railroads, all operating districts or all rail yards.

We will keep you informed.

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA), which was signed into law by President Obama on Feb. 17, 2009, may temporarily reduce the premium you have to pay to purchase Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act (COBRA) continuation coverage under the medical, dental and/or vision plans for yourself and your qualified dependents, if you meet certain criteria.

All potentially affected employees will be receiving a notice from UnitedHealthcare that will be sent by April 18, 2009, if they experienced a COBRA qualifying event at some time from Sept. 1, 2008, through Feb. 16, 2009.

Only employees who are losing coverage due to involuntary termination, which means that the employee stopped rendering compensated service due to a dismissal, a suspension or a furlough from employment, are eligible for the COBRA premium reduction. Involuntary termination status is determined by your former employer.

This group of employees may be eligible for the temporary premium reduction for up to six (6) months, and in some cases nine (9) months, beginning in March of 2009.

To help determine whether you qualify for the ARRA premium reduction, you should read the notice from UnitedHealthcare carefully.

Members who either declined an earlier opportunity to enroll for COBRA, or elected COBRA but chose to discontinue the coverage, may be eligible for a second opportunity for enrollment and be eligible for the reduced COBRA premium.

The criteria for eligibility will be set forth fully in the notice from UnitedHealthcare, and you are urged to read this notice very carefully, as there are certain timeframes in which you must elect this coverage.

If you are eligible for COBRA coverage for any reason other than the involuntary termination of the employee, including, but not limited to, resignation, retirement, disability, pregnancy leave or other voluntary leave of absence, then you will NOT be eligible for the reduced premium rate.

If you qualify for the reduced COBRA premium rate, you will be responsible for only 35 percent of the current COBRA monthly premium. The federal government will pay the remaining 65 percent of the cost.

This reduced cost would only be available to you beginning in March 2009. It is not available earlier, even if you were enrolled for COBRA coverage prior to March 2009.

If you were enrolled for COBRA continuation coverage in January and February of 2009, your payments for those months would remain at the standard COBRA premium rate and your rate for March and any subsequent months in which you were eligible for the premium reduction, would be at the reduced 35 percent premium rate.

Once you are no longer eligible for the reduced premium rate, you may continue your COBRA coverage at the standard premium rate, for up to the remainder of your COBRA eligibility period (18, 29 or 36 months).

You should note that although you may now be eligible for this second opportunity to enroll for COBRA continuation coverage, and elect COBRA coverage beginning on March 1, 2009, when the reduced premium rate took affect, your COBRA continuation coverage eligibility date does not change to March 1, 2009.

For purposes of determining how long you may continue your COBRA coverage (18, 29 or 36 months), your original COBRA eligibility date will govern.

The information to be received from UnitedHealthcare will fully set forth all the details about the manner in which to enroll for COBRA at this time and how to obtain the ARRA subsidy.

Also, while the initial notice only pertains to those members who were involuntarily terminated and eligible for COBRA between Sept. 1, 2008, and Feb. 16, 2009, those employees involuntarily terminated after Feb. 16, 2009, will also receive a notice setting forth similar details.

Any questions members have regarding the ARRA COBRA subsidy provisions should be referred to UnitedHealthcare at (800) 842-5252, or contact them at the following address: UnitedHealthcare, Railroad Accounts, P.O. Box 150453, Hartford, CT 06115-0453.

Aetna has corrected the coordination-of-benefits policy of the national dental plan it administers for UTU members employed on freight railroads and Amtrak. The change applies only where Aetna is the secondary payer and the primary payer is another dental-insurance plan.

An audit of the national dental plan late last year revealed that Aetna was administering the coordination-of-benefits (COB) provision incorrectly when it was the secondary payer and the primary payer was another plan.

As a result, effective Jan. 1, 2009, Aetna began applying the COB provisions as spelled out in the summary plan description.

Before the error was discovered, Aetna had been paying 100 percent of its reasonable and customary rate, minus the amount paid by the primary policy. The correct method is for Aetna to pay the difference, if any, between the primary plan’s benefit and what Aetna would have paid had it had been the primary insurer.

If the Aetna benefit is the same or less than the primary plan’s benefit, Aetna pays nothing, as provided for in the summary plan description.

This change does not apply where a husband and wife are both covered by the national dental plan.
 

By UTU International President Mike Futhey

For more years than I care to count, we having been telling the carriers that if we couldn’t come up with a mutually acceptable solution at the bargaining table to the problem of availability policies and train-crew fatigue that we were going to ask Congress to impose a solution.

And still the carriers dithered, placing profits ahead of safety and ignoring the quality of life and safety threats of 30-day availability policies, seemingly never-ending limbo time, rolling the dice on circadian rhythms with wild swings in start times, and assuming human beings could maintain situational awareness as their cumulative sleep deficits mounted.

We provided the carriers with exhaustive evidence of train crews being called to work in a fatigued condition; and reminded the carriers that sleep scientists have concluded that going to work fatigued is equivalent to going to work drunk.

Even in the face of horrific accidents involving deadly hazmat releases and NTSB findings with regard to crew fatigue, the carriers continued to ignore our pleas to negotiate a solution to the fatigue problem. The carriers refused to negotiate.

So we went to Congress in the fall of 2008 which enacted the most far-reaching rail safety bill in decades. It was our only relief. The law didn’t give us everything we wanted, but it is a good, overdue and necessary law.

Most troubling now is that even with the new safety law’s changes in hours of service and limbo time elimination, the carriers continue to resist providing train and engine service employees with predictable starting times.

How can it be that an industry so fully computerized can’t provide its operating crews with predictable starting times?

The fact is, the railroad industry can.

In fact, on Canadian National, which Wall Street analysts say is the most efficient North American railroad, senior management is committed to train scheduling. CN CEO Hunter Harrison considers this good business, safe business and appropriate labor-management policy.

We are now negotiating with CN in hopes we can reach agreement permitting CN and the UTU jointly to petition the Federal Railroad Administration for a pilot project — under provisions of the new safety law — to demonstrate every railroad can efficiently provide train and engine-service employees with start and stop times within a predictable range of hours.

We stand willing to negotiate with any carrier a similar joint petition to the FRA for such a pilot project if that carrier is agreeable to structured start times.

Our objective is a changed culture that reduces employee fatigue, fully eliminates limbo time, assures situational awareness of all crew members, improves our members’ quality of life, boosts customer service, and contributes positively to each carrier’s bottom line.

It is high time to bring the railroad industry into the 21st century. This pilot project has the potential to do just that.

The economic stimulus package, formally known as the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, contains provisions that will provide retirees with one-time payments of $250, extend unemployment benefits an additional 13 weeks, and subsidize employee-paid health-care insurance for laid off workers participating in COBRA.

Railroad Retirement and Social Security annuitants will be receiving a one-time $250 payment — a separate check delivered the same way the regular benefit is delivered. That $250 one-time payment will not be considered as taxable income.

Additionally, the economic stimulus package extends unemployment benefits – including those paid under the Railroad Unemployment Insurance Act (RUIA) – for an additional 13 weeks.

For more information, including eligibility, contact the Railroad Retirement Board via its automated hotline at (800) 808-0772.

Also, the stimulus package provides a subsidy to help unemployed workers pay the costs of health-care insurance extended under COBRA, which stands for Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act (COBRA) of 1986.

That law gives employees, retirees, spouses and dependent children losing coverage under employer health-care plans the right to temporary (18-36 months) continuation of health coverage at group rates. Under COBRA, participants must pay for those health-care insurance benefits.

Under the economic stimulus package, workers laid off since September 2008 are eligible to receive, for a maximum of nine months, a 65 percent federal subsidy toward their payment of COBRA-extended health care insurance.

Government officials warn, however, that until the 65 percent federal contribution kicks in, unemployed workers electing COBRA continuation should continue to pay their premiums in full so as not to lose coverage. The federal government will be providing details shortly on how to apply for the 65 percent subsidy.

For more information on COBRA, go to the following Department of Labor Web site: www.dol.gov/ebsa/faqs/faq_consumer_cobra.HTML.

You may also refer to the COBRA section of the current health-plan description book or contact United Health Care at (888) 445-4379.

By UTU International President Mike Futhey

While railroads oppose our efforts to obtain for new hires equal pay for equal training, responsibility and accountability, they are spending tens of millions of dollars to defend their pricing power that pads their bottom lines.

With NBC charging up to $6 million per minute for Super Bowl advertising, freight railroads bought time during the third quarter of the game to congratulate themselves on their impressive productivity, even though it is mostly the result of fewer train and engine service employees taking on more responsibilities.

In 2008, freight railroads spent some $40 million on lobbyists to protect their monopolies; and millions more on radio, television, magazine and newspaper ads to create a positive image.

Railroads have become so profitable that Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway fund has acquired 22 percent of BNSF stock; and hedge funds, banks and investment houses now own about one-third of railroad stock shares.

During 4th quarter 2008, with most industries on the financial ropes, UP earnings rose 35 percent; BNSF earnings rose 19 percent; Norfolk Southern, 17 percent; and CSX, 16 percent.

The Financial Times reported that “North America’s principal rail companies underlined their growing resilience and pricing power by reporting improved operating profits for the quarter while the economic downturn started in earnest.”

Wall Street analysts say that coal, grain and chemical shippers — those with no effective alternatives to shipping by rail — are so captive that the railroads will continue raising their freight rates (which translate into sharply increased profits) with little fear of losing the business.

Analysts report that railroads paid millions in year-end bonuses to their top executives in December, while fighting every attempt by the UTU to eliminate a two-tier wage structure that pays new hires considerably less, even though the new hires are given equivalent skills, responsibility and accountability as fellow conductors and yardmasters with at least five years of seniority.

Meanwhile, railroads have renewed their push to eliminate the craft of conductor and operate trains with one-person crews. Having been stopped by a federal court from making such demands in national handling, they are now pursuing that objective through local agreements.

For more than 40 years, rail labor has assisted the carriers in reducing government oversight and  collecting federal subsidies, which produced a frenzy of mergers, reduced head counts and permitted monopoly pricing.

The carriers’ repeated promises to share their increased wealth with employees evaporated when the time for sharing arrived.

Now, our most effective response is in the legislative arena, where railroads need labor’s political support to turn back captive shipper efforts to trim rail market power.

I met recently with the head of a shipper advocacy group to discuss their legislative effort to require the Surface Transportation Board be more aggressive in its oversight of the handful of major rail systems that now dominate the railroad map. The shippers also are seeking legislation placing railroads under the same antitrust laws as all other American industries.

This is not reregulation. It’s simply requiring regulators to do what the law tells them to do.

We are examining closely our Washington relationship with carriers and shippers. Our lobbying power before a labor-friendly Democratic-controlled Congress and White House may be our most effective tool to assure employees are treated equitably at the bargaining table.

We will also be continuing our efforts before a wage and rules panel to convince carriers that the time is now for reaching an equitable solution to the entry-level pay problem.

We remain optimistic that carrier CEOs will recognize the value of having a joint coalition with organized labor, where workers benefit from the railroad renaissance as executives and stockholders have been benefiting.

Now, let’s do it together.

WASHINGTON — Any federal funds flowing to freight railroads as part of a stimulus package, or investment tax credit or loans should be accompanied by a requirement that the railroads not use the money for technology that eliminates jobs.

That was the principal message Jan. 28 of the UTU to the House Rail Subcommittee, which sought public comment on the current state and future of the rail industry.

With the Obama administration and Congress committed to putting Americans back to work and keeping them on the job, any actions by railroads to use public dollars for elimination of jobs would be in violation of public policy, said the UTU. 

UTU National Legislative Director James Stem testified that the slumping economy already is responsible for the furlough of some 12 percent of train, engine and yard employees, and more job cuts are expected.

“We hope that the requirements of receiving any federal funds will neither promote nor allow a race to the bottom on wages or elimination of existing jobs,” Stem said. 

He said that “at least one railroad is planning to pay for the implementation of the positive train control (PTC) system required by Congress by attempting to operate their trains with only one employee on the train, and using federal funds to accomplish the goal.”

Public safety is another reason why single crew-member operation of trains with PTC is not feasible, Stem said.

“The responsibilities of the railroad to operate safely over public rail-highway grade crossings, to inspect the moving train at every opportunity, to open public crossings quickly when blocked by a stopped train, and to interact with emergency responders are issues that are not addressed by any PTC system, and such systems were never designed to do so,” he said.

Two crew persons are required to make simple repairs and to interact with local emergency responders following a derailment, a grade-crossing collision, or a trespasser injury or fatality. Over a recent five-year period, said Stem, more than 22,500 grade-crossing accidents, trespasser fatalities and suicides on train tracks occurred in the U.S.

“The use of federal funds to install a PTC system, while attempting to experiment with single person operation, would disregard the safety of other railroad crews, the communities that are served, and the customers’ well being,” Stem said.

“We strongly encourage Congress to clearly specify how any federal funds could be used by railroads, and to prohibit the use of any federal funds — whether tax credits, grants or loans — in a way that would eliminate jobs.”

The UTU also recommended that Congress allow for the issuance of one federal credential for entry into security controlled sites, rather than requiring rail workers to carry multiple identify cards that include their locomotive and/or conductor certification. A single card displaying all credentials would “simplify the process for railroads and their employees,” Stem said, “and use fewer federal resources.”

Additionally, the UTU observed that the National Transportation Safety Board has diluted the functions of its rail division, with the result that fewer investigations are launched into the cause of rail employee fatalities. Stem urged subcommittee members to work with rail labor and the Obama administration to restore NTSB’s focus on rail accident investigation, which is an important step toward improved rail safety.

 

Click here to read the entire UTU congressional testimony.

 

 

WASHINGTON — By unanimous voice vote, former Rep. Ray LaHood (R-Ill.) was confirmed by the Senate Jan. 22 as President Obama’s transportation secretary. A day earlier, the Senate Commerce Committee enthusiastically recommended the confirmation.

LaHood becomes the 16th transportation secretary since DOT was created by Congress in 1967. A listing of his predecessors is found, below.

Over the next week, LaHood is expected to meet with prospective modal agency heads and make his recommendations for nomination to the Obama transition team.

Among DOT agencies of special interest to UTU members for which chiefs are to be nominated are the Federal Railroad Administration, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, the Federal Transit Administration and the Federal Aviation Administration. A nomination to the three-member Surface Transportation Board also is expected.

LaHood now heads the 60,000-employee DOT and its various modal agencies that regulate transportation safety, administer Amtrak and highway funding, and regulate railroad mergers, abandonments and freight rates paid by captive shippers.

At his confirmation hearing, LaHood expressed strong support for Amtrak and increased funding for the national intercity rail passenger network. He said he also would focus on public-private partnerships to increase funding sources for projects bringing roads, bridges and other forms of infrastructure to “a state of good repair.”

Additionally, LaHood expressed support for new infrastructure spending to improve freight transportation by rail, and he supported and increased spending on commuter transit programs.

LaHood said his position as a Republican member of a Democratic president’s cabinet will enable him to find consensus on a variety of issues affecting transportation policy.

Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.), told LaHood that “after years of neglect, Congress finally passed a long-term Amtrak authorization last fall that provides strong support for our national railroad. As secretary, I will be looking to you and the department to fully and quickly implement this bill and to further pursue the development of high-speed rail corridors in areas where such service can help alleviate highway and aviation congestion.

“On the freight rail side,” said Rockefeller, “I’m hoping you’ll help us develop ways to improve competition and service in the railroad industry while ensuring that the railroads are able to adequately invest in their infrastructure to meet growing demand.”

Without being specific, LaHood said that if he is confirmed as DOT secretary, safety would remain the “central focus” of DOT.

LaHood, 63, was chief of staff for former House Minority Leader Robert Michel (R-Ill.) for 10 years before Michel retired and LaHood replaced him in Congress. LaHood took office in 1995 as Republicans gained control of the House for the first time in 40 years, and relations between the GOP and congressional Democrats were at a low ebb.

At his confirmation hearing, LaHood was praised by his Illinois colleague, Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin, who introduced him at the hearing, for efforts to improve relations between Democrats and Republicans.

Earlier this week, the Senate confirmed former Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano as homeland security secretary.

The nomination of former Rep. Hilda Solis (D-Calif.), to be labor secretary, remains stalled in the Senate owing to Republican opposition to her congressional support for the Employee Free Choice Act.

The AFL-CIO called Solis a longtime friend of the labor movement. It observed that while in Congress, she not only voted for the Employee Free Choice Act, but also voted to raise the minimum wage, protect the wages of construction workers, strengthen fair and equal pay laws for women, and to impose tough workplace safety standards.

Previous transportation secretaries:

Alan Boyd, January 1967 – January 1969

John Volpe, January 1969 – February 1973

Claude Brinegar, February 1973 – February 1975

William Coleman, March 1975 – January 1977

Brock Adams, January 1977 – July 1979

Neil Goldschmidt, August 1979 – January 1981

Drew Lewis, January 1981- February 1983

Elizabeth Dole, February 1983 – September 1987

Jim Burnley, December 1987 – January 1989

Sam Skinner, February 1989 – December 1991

Andrew Card, February 1992 -January 1993

Federico Pena, January 1993 – February 1997

Rodney Slater, February 1997 – January 2001

Norman Mineta, January 2001- July 2006

Mary Peters, October 2006 – January 2009