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PrintSMART Transportation Division’s General Committee of Adjustment  GO 610 representing conductors and trainmen, General Committee of Adjustment GO 340 representing yardmasters and SMART Sheet Metal Mechanical and Engineering Local 396 representing mechanical workers have joined the New Jersey Transit Rail Labor Coalition in asking the National Mediation Board (NMB) to proffer arbitration to its members after reaching an impasse in contract negotiations with New Jersey Transit (NJT).

The 10 unions in the NJTRLC have requested that NMB release them from further mediation.

In the requests to the NMB, the coalition wrote, “… the Coalition’s proposal is consistent with all other commuter railroad settlements this round. The company’s proposal … calls for employee health insurance contributions well above the level at every other commuter railroad, while offering wage adjustments far below those achieved at every other commuter railroad during this round … It is clear an impasse exists.”

On March 23, the NMB forwarded the coalition’s release request to NJT and sought a response by April 6.

If the NMB agrees to release the coalition unions, it will proffer binding arbitration to the unions and NJT. When either side notifies the NMB that it rejects binding arbitration, that will begin a process that could take as long as 270 days if no voluntary agreement is reached, including two Presidential Emergency Boards. The first PEB would be appointed within 30 days of either side’s rejection of the proffer of arbitration. At the end of the 270 days, both sides may resort to self-help.

The coalition elected to seek release after it became clear that NJT would not make a reasonable offer. The coalition has proposed a settlement patterned after the contracts achieved this round on Long Island Rail Road and Metro-North Railroad. NJT insists on concessionary contracts, with employees with families paying more than four times what they currently pay for health benefits.

The coalitions’ goal is to achieve a fair, voluntary agreement. It believes it has a strong case to present to a PEB. In most commuter railroad labor disputes in the past, the PEB’s recommendations led to a voluntary agreement. However, unlike arbitration, a PEB’s recommendations are not binding.

The coalition formed over the last several months after three years of each union bargaining unsuccessfully with NJT. The member unions believe working together maximizes their potential power. The coalition unions represent 88 percent of NJT unionized workers.

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Brooks

Alternate to the Transportation Division’s Executive Board Jeremy Don Brooks has joined the Executive Board following the retirement of former board member Steve Dawson March 1.

Brooks has been employed by Union Pacific Railroad since 2004 and received promotion to engineer in 2007. Since then, he’s been active in the affairs of Local 937 at Mart, Texas. Brooks began his union career by serving as alternate delegate for his local. He rose through the ranks quickly, serving as local chairperson, vice general chairperson for UP General Committee of Adjustment GO 927 and then first vice chairperson for the committee. He currently serves as the chairperson for Local 937. According to the SMART Constitution, Brooks was automatically elevated to the board upon 

To fill the vacancy in the alternate position, the Board of Directors elected Union Pacific GO 887 General
Chairperson Gary W. Crest to the alternate Executive Board seat.

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Crest

Crest began his railroad career in 1993 when he hired out with Copper Basin Railway. In 1997, Crest joined UP in Tucson, Ariz. His union career began in 2003, when he was elected to the position of vice local chairperson of Local 807 at Tucson. He was elected by acclamation in both 2007 and 2011 to the position of local chairperson.

Crest has also served as delegate for the local since 2011. In 2010, he was elected to the position of vice general chairperson of UP GO 887 and was reelected by acclamation in 2011. He was elected general chairperson in January 2015. Crest currently resides in Bakersfield, Calif.

The Board of Directors notified Crest of his election April 17.

It’s a bird – It’s a plane – It’s an insanely fast Japanese bullet train.

A Japan Railway maglev train hit 603 kilometers per hour (374 miles per hour) on an experimental track in Yamanashi Tuesday, setting a decisive new world record.

Read the complete story at CNN.com.

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Kelsey Gibson

As an organization, we are known for digging deep into our pockets and reaching out to those less fortunate and in need when a tragedy strikes.

Michigan State Legislative Director Jerry L. Gibson and his family have been dealing with a tough issue of their own and Assistant State Legislative Director Don Silseth is asking SMART members to consider participating in the first Kelsey Gibson Benefit golf outing, dinner and auction.

Gibson’s daughter, Kelsey, was involved in a horrific car accident in January 2013. She was 21 at the time. Her life hung in the balance for weeks, but she endured.

 Kelsey remains in a wheelchair and receives near daily therapy. She is totally dependent on others, yet Silseth says she is 100 percent cognizant.

There has been encouraging research in treatments that could be of great benefit to Kelsey, however, the estimated $160,000 to $220,000 cost is not covered by insurance.

A group of union brothers and sisters from within this organization and others have formed a committee to assist the Gibson family, Silseth said.

The committee is seeking golf participants as well as sponsors, and donations are appreciated. For complete details, visit www.FBOKelseyGibson.com. There are participant registration forms and sponsorship information.

The Kelsey Gibson Benefit will be held Saturday, June 20, at The Pines Gold Course in Wyoming, Mich.

“It is my hope that we can line the fairways with SMART union signs from across the United States and Canada. With strong fraternal support, we can begin to move this treatment from hopes and dreams to reality,” Silseth said.

“I am proud and fortunate to have Jerry Gibson as a fellow member of SMART Transportation Division Local 313 (Grand Rapids, Mich.). He is all union, all the time, and he never gives up on our issues. If you ever asked Jerry for help, I’m sure you received it. He won’t ask this of you, but I will. Please help if you can.”

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Previsich

Continuing a cooperative effort to promote safety in the railroad industry, the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen (BLET) and the Transportation Division of the International Association of Sheet Metal, Air, Rail and Transportation Workers International Association (SMART) have jointly announced that legislation requiring at least two crew members on all freight trains in the U.S. has been introduced in the 114th Congress.

The Safe Freight Act (H.R. 1763), introduced by U.S. Rep. Don Young (R-Alaska) April 13, would require two crew members — one certified locomotive engineer and one certified conductor — on all freight trains. The newly-introduced legislation mirrors H.R. 3040, which had more than 80 co-sponsors last year prior to conclusion of the 113th Congress. H.R. 1763 has been referred to the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure. 

H.R. 1763 would require that “no freight train or light engine used in connection with the movement of freight may be operated unless it has a crew consisting of at least 2 individuals, one of whom is certified under regulations promulgated by the Federal Railroad Administration as a locomotive engineer pursuant to section 20135, and the other of whom is certified under regulations promulgated by the Federal Railroad Administration as a conductor pursuant to section 20163.”

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Pierce

The joint effort reflects heightened concerns over crew size arising from the July 6, 2013, derailment of a Montreal, Maine & Atlantic (MM&A) oil train in Lac-Megantic, Quebec, which killed 47 people and destroyed the center of the town. The MM&A train was crewed by a single person. Since that time, there has also been movement by major freight railroads to seek collective bargaining agreements to allow for widespread use of one-person train operations.

“The BLET continues to oppose and condemn single-person freight operations as adverse to worker and public safety,” BLET National President Dennis R. Pierce said. “All parties involved must understand that as things stand today, there are only two ways to end one-person train operations: federal laws or regulations that outlaw this dangerous practice, or collectively bargained contract language that requires two crew members on every train. We will continue to work to protect contractual language to defend two-person crews, and it also is our goal to protect the safety of railroad workers and the general public by advocating for passage of H.R. 1763.”

SMART Transportation Division President John Previsich said, “The SMART Transportation Division has always espoused that the safest rail operation is a two-person crew operation. With several major train derailments having occurred in the last few months, most notably the oil train derailment and explosion near Charleston, W. Va., in February, our lawmakers and the general public must understand that multi-person crews are essential to ensuring the safest rail operations possible in their communities. I would like to thank Cong. Don Young (R-Alaska) for his leadership on this critical rail safety issue. No one would permit an airliner to fly with just one pilot, even though it can fly itself. Trains, which cannot operate themselves, should be no different.”

Young is serving his 22nd term as Alaska’s only representative in the House and is a former Chairman of both the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee (2001-2007) and the House Natural Resources Committee (1995-2001).

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WASHINGTON — The U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) today announced with its agencies, the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) and Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA), a package of targeted actions that will address some of the issues identified in recent train accidents involving crude oil and ethanol shipped by rail. The volume of crude oil being shipped by rail has increased exponentially in recent years, and the number of significant accidents involving trains carrying ethanol or crude oil is unprecedented.

“The boom in crude oil production, and transportation of that crude, poses a serious threat to public safety,” stated U.S. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx. “The measures we are announcing today are a result of lessons learned from recent accidents and are steps we are able to take today to improve safety. Our efforts in partnership with agencies throughout this Administration show that this is more than a transportation issue, and we are not done yet.”

These actions represent the latest in a series of more than two dozen that DOT has initiated over the last nineteen months to address the significant threat to public safety that accidents involving trains carrying highly flammable liquids can represent. Today’s announcement includes one Emergency Order, two Safety Advisories, and notices to industry intended to further enhance the safe shipment of Class 3 flammable liquids. 

Actions 

  • Preliminary investigation of one recent derailment indicates that a mechanical defect involving a broken tank car wheel may have caused or contributed to the incident. The Federal Railroad Administration is therefore recommending that only the highest skilled inspectors conduct brake and mechanical inspections of trains transporting large quantities of flammable liquids, and that industry decrease the threshold for wayside detectors that measure wheel impacts, to ensure the wheel integrity of tank cars in those trains.
  • Recent accidents revealed that certain critical information about the train and its cargo needs to be immediately available for use by emergency responders or federal investigators who arrive on scene shortly after an incident. To address the information gap, DOT is taking several actions to remind both the oil industry and the rail industry of their obligation to provide these critical details
    • PHMSA is issuing a safety advisory reminding carriers and shippers of the specific types of information (*listed below) that they must make immediately available to emergency responders;
    • FRA and PHMSA are issuing a joint safety advisory requesting that specific information (*listed below) also be made readily available to investigators;
    • FRA is sending a request to the Association of American Railroads asking the industry to develop a formal process by which this specific information (*listed below) becomes available to both emergency responders and investigators within 90 minutes of initial contact with an investigator, and;
    • FRA submitted to the Federal Register a notice proposing to expand the information collected on certain required accident reports, so that information specific to accidents involving trains transporting crude oil is reported.
  • DOT has determined that public safety compels issuance of an Emergency Order to require that trains transporting large amounts of Class 3 flammable liquid through certain highly populated areas adhere to a maximum authorized operating speed limit of 40 miles per hour in High Threat Urban Areas. Under the EO, an affected train is one that contains: 1) 20 or more loaded tank cars in a continuous block, or 35 or more loaded tank cars, of Class 3 flammable liquid; and, 2) at least one DOT Specification 111 (DOT-111) tank car (including those built in accordance with Association of American Railroads (AAR) Casualty Prevention Circular 1232 (CPC-1232)) loaded with a Class 3 flammable liquid.

“These are important, common-sense steps that will protect railroad employees and residents of communities along rail lines. Taking the opportunity to review safety steps and to refresh information before moving forward is a standard safety practice in many industries and we expect the shipping and carrier industries to do the same,” said Acting FRA Administrator Sarah Feinberg.

“Our first priority is to prevent these accidents from ever happening,” stated Acting PHMSA Administrator Tim Butters. “But when accidents do occur, first responders need to have the right information quickly, so we are reminding carriers and shippers of their responsibility to have the required information readily available and up to date.”

The actions taken today coincide with actions being taken by other government agencies including the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and the Department of Energy (DOE).

*Information required by PHMSA Safety Advisory:

  • Basic description and technical name of the hazardous material the immediate hazard to health;
  • Risks of fire or explosion;
  • Immediate precautions to be taken in the event of an accident;
  • Immediate methods for handling fires;
  • Initial methods for handling spills or leaks in the absence of fire;
  • Preliminary first aid measures; and
  • 24-hour telephone number for immediate access to product information.

*Information sought by U.S. DOT in the event of a crude-by-rail accident: 

  • Information on the train consist, including the train number, locomotive(s), locomotives as distributed power, end-of-train device information, number and position of tank cars in the train, tank car reporting marks, and the tank car specifications and relevant attributes of the tank cars in the train.
  • Waybill (origin and destination) information
  • The Safety Data Sheet(s) or any other documents used to provide comprehensive emergency response and incident mitigation information for Class 3 flammable liquids
  • Results of any product testing undertaken prior to transportation that was used to properly characterize the Class 3 flammable liquids for transportation (initial testing)
  • Results from any analysis of product sample(s) (taken prior to being offered into transportation) from tank car(s) involved in the derailment
  • Date of acceptance as required to be noted on shipping papers under 49 CFR § 174.24.
  • If a refined flammable liquid is involved, the type of liquid and the name and location of the company extracting the material
  • The identification of the company having initial testing performed (sampling and analysis of material) and information on the lab (if external) conducting the analysis.
  • Name and location of the company transporting the material from well head to loading facility or terminal.
  • Name and location of the company that owns and that operates the terminal or loading facility that loaded the product for rail transportation.
  • Name of the Railroad(s) handling the tank car(s) at any time from point of origin to destination and a timeline of handling changes between railroads.

Since 2013 there have been 23 crude-related train accidents in the United States with the majority of incidents occurring without the release of any crude oil product.

CINCINNATI – Only two weeks remain to enter the Cintas & Carhartt Tough Crew Contest, which recognizes hardworking crews throughout North America.

Contestants are encouraged to share how their teams “Outwork Them All®” and explain why they rely on Carhartt, a brand designed for hardworking people, to help them get the job done.

Eight Tough Crew finalists have been announced so far, and four more will be selected immediately after the entry period closes on Apr. 30. All 12 finalists will then compete for public votes at the contest website, and the grand prize winner will receive $2,500 in credit to outfit their team in Carhartt workwear.*

For the past four years, Cintas and Carhartt have partnered to recognize individuals who withstand tough working conditions.

“We’re excited to be doing something different this year by recognizing crews of workers,” says John Rudy, senior marketing and strategy manager for Cintas Corporation, North America’s largest uniform supplier. “We’ve heard great stories about North America’s workforce through our previous contests with Carhartt, and we look forward to opening it up to groups that work in tough conditions year round and in all types of climates.”

Last year’s Cintas & Carhartt Cold Crew Contest, which focused on winter workers, spurred more than 15,000 entries from throughout the U.S. and Canada. Property maintenance employee Conner Schmidt from Rocky River, Ohio was voted the winner, and he enjoyed a free trip for two to the CMA Music Festival in Nashville in June.

 “We really enjoy hearing stories from our consumers about how Carhartt helps them get the job done,” said Tony Ambroza, senior vice president of marketing at Carhartt. “This new contest will allow us to recognize entire crews of the country’s hardest workers and reward those who united, Outwork Them All®.”

*Please refer to the Cintas & Carhartt Tough Crew Rules & Regulations here.  

metra_logoRepresentatives of Metra management and transportation unions joined officials from the Federal Railroad Administration April 16 to announce the creation of a “Confidential Close Call Reporting System,” which is designed to proactively address safety issues and create a more positive safety culture.

At a ceremony at Metra headquarters, labor, management and FRA officials signed a memorandum of understanding committing to implementing the voluntary system. Signees included Don Orseno, Metra executive director/CEO; Pete Zwolfer, Metra deputy executive director for operations; Marty Ryan, Metra chief transportation officer; Hilary Konczal, Metra director of Safety; Robert Lauby, FRA associate administrator for railroad safety/chief safety officer; Ron Wesolowski, general chairman of the American Train Dispatchers Association; Anthony Siriano, national representative of the Transportation Communications Union; Pete Semenek, Clay Craddock and J.J. Balonek, general chairmen of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen; John England, vice president of the Sheet Metal, Air, Rail and Transportation Workers (SMART); and Barry Abbott, general chairperson of SMART.

“Safety is Metra’s highest priority, and this new program is a major and exciting new enhancement to our safety efforts,” said Orseno, “We are particularly pleased with the enthusiastic cooperation of our labor unions, who have demonstrated their commitment to making Metra the safest possible railroad.”

According to the FRA, which has promoted the adoption of the system by a handful of railroads so far, the system complements existing safety programs, builds a positive safety culture, creates an early warning system, focuses on problems instead of people, provides an incentive for learning from errors and targets the root cause of an issue, not the symptom.

Under the new system, employees will be able to confidentially report “close calls” – such as safety concerns or violations of operating rules – without facing sanctions from Metra or the FRA. The goal is to collect data about close calls that otherwise would have gone unreported or underreported, and to use that data to identify safety hazards and take steps to correct them before an accident occurs. Those corrective steps could include new or better training, physical changes, changes to safety rules or changes to operating rules.

To maintain confidentiality, the close calls will be reported to a third party, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, which would remove any information about the incidents that could lead to the identification of the employee. NASA will compile the data and then forward it for analysis by a peer review team of labor, Metra management and FRA representatives, which will recommend corrective action. NASA also will monitor trends across railroads and share results.

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.” Examples of close calls would be trains traveling at excessive speed, workers nearly struck by trains, trains running through a switch or a passenger door opened on the wrong side of the train. Personal injuries, serious train accidents and alcohol or drug use would not be considered a close call.

Results from railroads that have adopted such systems are encouraging. According to the FRA, a confidential close call reporting system resulted in a 31 percent increase in the number of cars moved between minor derailments and a 90 percent drop in disciplinary cases at one railroad. That railroad, which was not identified, also reported significant improvements in safety culture and labor-management cooperation.

The adoption of the Confidential Close Call Reporting System will bolster Metra’s numerous existing safety programs and reinforce safety as Metra’s highest priority. Those programs include our annual Safety Poster and Essay Contest, nearly a thousand annual Operation Lifesaver safety presentations and frequent safety blitzes conducted at Metra stations throughout the six-county Chicago region.

lipinskiAs the most senior member from Illinois on the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee and the representative of a district that is home to more miles of train tracks than any other – in addition to the fact that I live less than a mile from a line that carries about 150 trains a day (some carrying Bakken oil) – I am concerned by the recent number of railroad accidents.

This has spurred me to take an even greater role in finding solutions that will keep our communities safe.

Read the complete story at www.mysuburbanlife.com.

oil-train-railA second group of federal lawmakers has introduced legislation to regulate the transport of crude oil by rail.

U.S. Rep. Mike Thompson (D-Calif.) April 15 introduced the Crude-By-Rail Safety Act (H.R. 1804), which the congressman said would set new safety and security standards to address growing concerns that current standards fail to address the threat posed by transporting crude oil by rail.

Read the complete story at Progressive Railroading.