Author: bnagy

Home>Articles by: bnagy

SMART Transportation Division Local 583 (Fond du Lac, Wis.) suffered a tragic loss prior to the Labor Day weekend when member John A. Thornton was killed Aug. 31 after a suspected drunken driver smashed into his transport vehicle in Matteson, Ill., while en route to work.

Brother Thornton, 48, was a conductor for Canadian National (CN) and a member of our union for nearly two decades, joining in November 2005.

Two other members of the crew, fellow TD Local 583 member Larissa Pondexter, an engineer trainee, as well as engineer Tony Hargrow were hurt in the crash. Both were treated and released from the hospital, said General Chairperson Kenneth Flashberger of GO-987.

Flashberger said the transport vehicle driver also was hurt, treated and released.

“John was a longtime employee and had a big effect on all of us,” said Wisconsin State Legislative Director Andy Hauck, who has known Brother Thornton for nearly 20 years.

Canadian National has made grief counseling to Brother Thornton’s co-workers. SLD Hauck also said they have committed to covering the costs of our fallen member’s funeral.

“The CN Railroad really stepped up and has truly been extremely supportive and helpful,” he said.

Hauck said Thornton was an organ donor and it provides some comfort that he will live on.

“While he was with us, John provided real joy with his humor,” Hauck said. “Now he is living on in a last act of charity so that others may live. Let’s hope that the laughter also comes with his gift.” 

Local 583 Chairperson John Potter is collecting donations for the Thornton family. Checks may be made out to John Thornton’s wife, Janelle Thornton, and sent to Potter at 314 Oak St., Rosendale WI 54974

Brother Thornton is survived by Janelle and two daughters.

“Please keep them in your thoughts and prayers,” GC Flashberger said.

Visitation is scheduled noon to 4 p.m. local time Sept. 7 at Uecker-Witt Funeral Home, 524 N. Park St., Fond du Lac.

CN President and CEO Tracy Robinson also said that the carrier will observe a minute of silence Thursday, Sept. 7 in memory of Brother Thornton.

“Our operations colleagues will stop all yard movements and pause activities where safe to do so. All movements on the main track continue and we will pay respect by ringing the engine bell at 11 a.m. local time,” she said.

The SMART Transportation Division extends its sincere condolences to the family, friends and the union brothers and sisters of Local 583 who will continue to cherish Brother Thornton’s memory.

Samuel “Sam” J. Marino, 77, passed away at his home September 4, 2023, after a long illness.

Samuel “Sam” Marino, a longtime local officer out of Local 1374 in New Castle, Pa., passed away on Labor Day 2023.

He hired out with the B&O Railroad (now CSX) in December 1966 and he applied and was approved for membership in the United Transportation Union predecessor Brotherhood of Railroad Trainmen on July 22, 1967, as a member of Lodge 955.

After the merger of the four predecessor unions in 1969, Marino continued his membership in the UTU and became a member of New Castle, Pa. Local 1374.

Throughout his years of service as a stalwart union member and officer, he worked as a brakeman, flagman and conductor. He served the UTU (now SMART-TD) as a local chairperson for over 30 years and also as secretary and treasurer for over 20 years.

He also served as delegate and represented his local at many conventions. He served the UTU International as a special organizing representative for several years. He also served as a field supervisor for the UTUIA for a short time.

“Sam worked tirelessly to represent the members of Local 1374 and assisted other newly-elected UTU local officers to educate them to represent their members,” said former Local Chairperson Art Rayner (also of Local 1374). “Sam was known for keeping the railroad’s feet to the fire when it came to agreement issues or representing Local 1374 members.”

Upon his retirement in February 2010, Marino joined the Alumni Association and remained an active member. After retiring he continued to work for the UTU/SMART-TD membership by becoming an accident investigator for Designated Legal Counsel Matt Darby.

Marino will be missed by his family, friends and members of Local 1374.

Family will receive friends from 1 to 3 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 10, 2023, at the Ed & Don DeCarbo Funeral Home & Crematory, 941 S. Mill St., New Castle, PA 16101

A memorial service will begin at 3 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 10, at the funeral home. Rev. Richard Nero will officiate.
Burial will be in Madonna Cemetery.

The SMART Transportation Division offers its condolences to Brother Marino’s family, friends and his union brothers and sisters of Local 1374.

Read his complete obituary.

Brothers and sisters,

For many Americans, Labor Day simply signifies the end of summer, beginning of the school year or is viewed as a day off from work. For those of us involved in organized labor, it means more. However, and whenever you are able to celebrate Labor Day, I ask that you take time to educate those around you of how this country’s labor movement impacted the working conditions for EVERYONE in this nation. 

What this holiday is emblematic of is the celebration of the core values of SMART-TD and all Americans who built this country’s blue-collar middle class. The contributions of the labor community keep that dream alive in this country today. Labor Day is a chance to reflect on the achievements of our predecessors whose efforts provided the pathway to lives where the work you are willing to do ideally reflects your quality of life. With that in mind, we ask that you and your family recognize that the fight is never over and intensify your support for those engaged in labor fights.

Today has been made better by the men and women who came before us. It’s a disservice if we take the inroads they made for granted. This holiday weekend, I ask that we commit as union brothers and sisters to do two things. 

First, we should reflect on these men and women who fought before and are fighting now. It strengthens this union and labor as a whole when we take the time to learn about labor history. Perspective is a powerful tool. The collective power of union solidarity is as important to our lives today as it was to workers in the 1800s. The stands we make against the greed of management are the same fights that have gone on for hundreds of years.

Second, this weekend is an opportunity for us engaged in the struggle to take inventory of whether our commitment to our union is proportionate to what those who laid the groundwork before us have done. Child labor laws, minimum wages, the sanctity of healthcare being part of the compensation for our labor WERE NOT GIVEN TO US. Blood was spilled to make these things possible. 

Paying monthly dues provide membership in a union, but getting involved and living as good stewards of this legacy is what ignites and creates a community. These communities are what establish world-changing action.  

 Will you join the fight? Your union and our country need your voice and your talents. We are facing a large-scale resurgence of class warfare that threatens to erase the historic gains and protections the labor movement has earned. 

The world we live in provides many challenges to all of us in the labor movement. We need every one of our proud members to be engaged in order to better the lives of all. Let us keep the trails that were blazed by our predecessors clear, open, and accessible to all.  Be sure that the path to prosperous working-class lives is not enveloped by greed and exploitation.

Please stay safe this holiday weekend!

Solidarity forever,

Jeremy R. Ferguson,
President, Transportation Division

Local 200 chairperson, general chairperson and SLD’s combined efforts get opportunity for cut workers to remain in industry

E. Hunter Harrison has been dead since Dec. 16, 2017. His legacy known as Precision Scheduled Railroading (PSR) is still alive and kicking.  

Some of the railroads have said publicly that they are trying to steer away from PSR. But in an unexpected twist, the specter of Harrison is rearing its ugly head in the lives of all our Union Pacific members with the recent ascension of new CEO Jim Vena.   

Vena is a known student of Harrison. When UP employees, some stockholders and SMART-TD general chairpersons expressed alarm at Vena’s hiring, the carrier put out a well-polished piece of propaganda about how Vena 2.0 was a changed man. 

We were all supposed to be put at ease, that he had learned the hard way that PSR was an unnecessarily disruptive force to the industry, the supply chain and in the personal lives of railroad employees.  

For the record, SMART-TD never bought this idea. The five GCs of our UP General Committees in no uncertain terms informed the carrier that they strongly disagree with Vena’s hiring. In the letter sent to UP’s vice president of labor relations, our GCs said “As COO, Jim Vena enacted policies, practices, and procedures that deliberately destroyed our members’ quality of life for the sake of profit. 

“He orchestrated huge furloughs and cuts to every department in transportation, which resulted in the crew shortages we have yet to recover from,” the GCs wrote. 

This second point came into play almost immediately upon Vena taking over Aug. 14. Less than a week into his reign, Vena proved our GCs to be absolutely correct by announcing UP was going to cut 94 positions across four crafts and 13 terminals.  

These men and women whose jobs were erased through no fault of their own were represented by the IBEW, IAM, NCFO and SMART Mechanical Division. Many of these fellow railroaders worked in remote locations where the UP terminal was the largest employer. As a result, many of them were going to have to uproot their families and pursue new career opportunities. 

SMART-TD Local Chairperson Amanda Snide (Local 200, North Platte, Neb.) didn’t like what she was hearing. She was frustrated and confused why these railroaders, though from different crafts and unions, were being thrown to the wolves while her terminal was desperately looking to find candidates to fill their posted openings for conductor positions.  

Sister Snide took matters into her own hands at that point. She successfully brokered the idea with the local management at the North Platte terminal to offer 11 employees slated to be let go in the mechanical crafts positions as conductors.  

As we approach the Labor Day holiday, there can be no better example of the value of labor movement than what these three accomplished for these fellow railroaders and their families. We thank you for defending our rail labor brothers and sisters against the corporate greed that threatened everything they had worked to build.  

Snide’s results giving the workers affected by Vena’s malicious cuts at her home terminal the chance to preserve their income, health benefits and retirement, impressed Nebraska’s SLD Foust. He took what Snide had started and turned his attention to the 83 other casualties of Vena’s short-sighted greed. Foust contacted General Chairperson Luke Edington from GO-953. Brother Edington, who was already on the record with UP about not being on board with UP’s “new vision,” took it from there. 

Edington took Snide’s plan and Foust’s vision of expanding it straight to UP’s Human Resources Department. SMART-TD is very proud to announce that Brother Edington succeeded in reaching an agreement with UP that at all terminals where they are simultaneously attempting to hire conductors and laying off other craft employees will give the same opportunity to transfer to conductor positions that Snide had enacted in North Platte.  

As of Aug. 30, 50% of the affected employees in eligible terminals had applied for transfers to conductor positions — quite a few salvaged railroad careers.  

SMART-TD is very proud of the initiative taken by Sister Snide, SLD Foust and GO-953 GC Luke Edington to make this happen.  

As we approach the Labor Day holiday, there can be no better example of the value of labor movement than what these three accomplished for these fellow railroaders and their families. We thank you for defending our rail labor brothers and sisters against the corporate greed that threatened everything they had worked to build.  

There has always been and will always be Hunter Harrison and Jim Vena types in the rail industry. What is important is that we commit ourselves as a union and as individuals to make sure we can match them with the wits, fight, solidarity and humanity exhibited by members like Amanda Snide and that the union spirit embodies. 

As kids, the term “Hot Wheels” brought to mind good times playing with tricked-out toy cars and letting your imagination take it from there. As railroad professionals, this term goes from warm and fuzzy childhood memories to the gut-churning stuff of nightmares.

Railroaders all know that overheated bearings and wheels are one of the fastest ways to have a bad day or to make the news for the wrong reasons. In railroad training centers for all the major railroads, we are taught about the dangers of hot wheels/journals/bearings, but the silver lining on this issue is that the people managing the railroad have already figured it all out. We were all issued a temperature indicator stick (Tempilstik) and told that this very special crayon, combined with the railroad’s foolproof system of wayside defect detectors, would be adequate for us to make it through our 30-year careers and retire without having to worry about literally running the wheels off our train.

Turns out that this well-crafted illusion of security the railroads gave us on this topic was just as true as most of the other vetted-by-legal-counsel nonsense they fed us.

As most conductors find out the first time they get an alert from a hot box detector and the dispatcher tells them to ignore it, DDs aren’t regulated. They are in place for the convenience of the carrier and as a risk diversion for their bottom line. They are part of the safety equation but not tied to any laws or federal regulations. We all know that when you hit a hot box alert on an empty grain train, you’re going for a walk to investigate, but when you hit the same detector the next day on a container train with UPS, FedEx or Amazon shipments on board, it’s “nothing to be concerned about.”

The same smoke-and-mirrors treatment surrounds the security we have always gotten from our tempilstik. The logic behind this tool has always been that if doesn’t melt, you don’t have an issue, and it’s time to haul freight. Unfortunately, there is one big problem with this premise: It came from the railroad carriers.

When the time comes to walk your train and check for a hot wheel or journal, we all go through the same steps. We do the math, figuring out what car the axle in question is on. We mark our consist paperwork up to reflect where the 20 axles ahead and behind start and end. We grab our vest, red tag, and a marker, and then we dig through our grip to pull out the all-important tempilstik. Then we get off the engine to do our jobs.

Upon getting back to the axle in question, if the wax doesn’t melt, we report our “findings” to the engineer and dispatcher. Then we move on with our day, reassured that there is nothing wrong with our train. Maybe it’s because we are too pissed in that moment thinking about the fact this misdiagnosis from the DD is going to make us late getting home or that the pizza place next to the away-from-home hotel will be closed when the time comes to mark off, but we never take the time to ask ourselves if the tool your company gave you was adequate to test that wheel’s health for starters.

In June at the NTSB’s investigative hearing in East Palestine, Ohio, one of the experts on the panel made a reference to the fact that the integrity of rail bearings begins to break down at the temperature of 170 degrees Fahrenheit. Very soon after that statement was made, the representative on the panel from the Association of American Railroads (AAR) made the statement that this statistic is the reason that all railroad crews are equipped with a tempilstik specifically designed to melt at 169 degrees Fahrenheit.

SMART-TD was represented in that hearing, and there were certified conductors/SMART-TD members in attendance who heard this comment. Within a few minutes, there were cell phone images coming into these members from their coworkers of tempilstiks that were clearly labeled as being calibrated to melt at a temperature of 200 degrees Fahrenheit.

This 31-degree discrepancy means that obviously the AAR — the lobbying arm of the railroad companies — was less than accurate about their own safety apparatus in a federal hearing in which an oath was taken to represent the truth. That is not hard for any of us to believe. However, the larger miscarriage of justice and the larger concern to the safety of our train crews and communities like East Palestine that are dotted by rail lines all over the country is this:

The AAR’s acknowledgment and acceptance of this expert’s fact that 170 degrees Fahrenheit is the absolute threshold of when the mechanics of a rail wheel and its components are at risk of breaking down is utterly damning.

If this 170-degree threshold was a known fact to the railroads, how in good conscience have they been sending workers out to investigate the bearings armed with equipment they knew wasn’t physically capable of identifying the problem unless it was already 30 degrees past the point of no return?

SMART-TD has yet to receive an answer to this question. What is important is that this practice stops. In the two months since these comments were made at the NTSB hearing, it has come to SMART’s attention that Class I carriers have begun issuing new tempilstiks certified to melt at 169 degrees.

Some of the same members who helped us in the heat of the moment during the hearing have followed up by sending us evidence that they have been issued the new tempilstiks, and SMART-TD very much appreciates that.

On its face, this seems like a victory for railroaders and the safety of the communities our trains run through. Obviously, an apparatus designed to melt at 169 degrees is significantly better for all involved than the 200-degree version that we have had at our disposal. But let’s not downplay the fact that these rail carriers have acknowledged the scientific significance of 170 degrees, and that they knew they couldn’t hide behind issuing us safety apparatuses that were higher than the level their representative spoke to on the record in a public forum. The solution they came up with still is very questionable.

By the time a train stops in response to a hot wheel detector, and the conductor goes through all steps already mentioned, then walks back to the axle in question – maybe one mile, maybe two — what are the odds that a wheel that was 170 degrees at the time it passed the detector hasn’t cooled off to being below 169 degrees by the time that tempilstik is applied to it? They aren’t very good. In no way does it make sense that the railroad would invest in equipment that is rated to measure if the wheel is one barely significant degree away from the threshold of causing potential disasters.

If these railroad companies were at all serious about avoiding mainline derailments, they would invest in tempilstiks that can identify a problematic wheel substantially before the point of critical failure. SMART-TD doesn’t have any certified material engineers on staff capable of telling us what that number would be, but we do have a lot of collective years of experience as conductors and engineers and we know that, especially in cold weather, wheels that were at 170 when they passed a detector will be far cooler than 169 by the time we walk back. This is especially true in today’s era with trains over three miles long. It may very well take over an hour before a problematic wheel can be found and tested.

SMART-TD wants all its rail members to know that we aren’t satisfied with these 169-degree tempilstiks as a permanent solution. There are better, more-reliable forms of technology available to do this job in 2023 than a high-tech crayon. But as a jumping-off point, we are happy to see that most of America’s carriers are aware that we are on to the hoax of the 200-degree version, and we will be following this situation where it leads. We as railroad professionals are safer today than we were yesterday, but not as safe as we and our communities need to be tomorrow.

What our union and our Safety Committee need now is to find out if any of our members are still working for carriers operating with the 200-degree version. Science and common sense tell us that this equipment is not sufficient to keep you or your crew out of harm’s way. If you are still operating trains armed with one of these dangerously ineffective tempilstiks, please contact SMART-TD’s Government Affairs Department by emailing dbanks@smart-td.org.

We thank you for your help in this mission to keep our brothers and sisters safe. As always, we as a union need to be vigilant in looking out for one another.

BNSF and UP have made a solid investment in lobbyists in Colorado and they’re getting their money’s worth.

In 2023, SMART-TD Colorado State Legislative Director Carl Smith put forward a solid railroad safety bill to the Legislature that your union wholeheartedly supported. Brother Smith has been SLD for 11 years now and knows how to do his job in the statehouse effectively for our members, getting two-person crew legislation successfully in 2019. His experience told him that the best ally he could have to carry the bill was Senate Majority Leader Dominick Moreno.

Colorado’s Legislature is only in session for 120 days every year. Accordingly, they have a limit on how many bills any state rep or senator can put forward. Smith getting SMART-TD’s Rail Safety Act sponsored by the Senate Majority Leader was a major win for us and for railroad safety as a whole. But then Moreno got less and less enthusiastic about pushing for our bill as the session went on.

Eventually his office told Smith that they thought our legislation was a perfect fit for a bipartisan select committee — the Transportation Legislation Review Committee (TLRC) — focused on transportation bills. Our union was glad to hear that because it is a bipartisan committee with members from both the House of Representatives and the Senate and when bills are selected for support from the committee, they have a history of being unstoppable in the following years legislative session.

It all sounded promising. But shortly after diverting the bill to this group, Sen. Moreno abruptly resigned and accepted a high-ranking position on the staff of Denver’s new mayor.

Last month, Smith and his legislative board were given their opportunity to present their argument as to why their Rail Safety Act was worthy of the TLRC’s support. At this meeting, they found out that they had about a 33 percent chance of successfully making it through a gauntlet while competing against 13 others bills to become one of five bills endorsed by the committee.

It turns out the mastermind who put our rail safety bill into this competition wasn’t Moreno. It was the BNSF lobbyist who gets $80,000/month from the railroad to pull slick maneuvers like this one and kill railroad safety projects. This discovery was the part in this “Scooby Doo”-style caper where Brother Smith pulled the mask of the bad guys, and it turned out to be the Railroads and their lobbyists.  

The bills that SMART is now competing against include easy-to-get-behind items like child-seat safety, free public-transit passes for students and even state highway repairs. What BNSF, UP and their high-paid lobbyists have created a scenario where they don’t have to actively campaign against the value of a rail safety bill. That would create bad press for them and an obvious pressure point for SMART-TD and the rest of rail labor to call them out. Rather than lobbying against our bill, all they need to do is campaign FOR all the other bills. It is almost impossible to create bad press for themselves for supporting improvements to safety in children’s car seats! They just have to prop up five of the other 13 bills and never have to do the work of opposing SMART’s message on long trains, blocked crossings and the rest of the commons-sense protections we’ve been advancing.

On the positive side, Brother Smith has informed the international office that Colorado’s RSA has made it through the first hurdle of this competition. Fourteen bills that were presented in June were narrowed down to 10 finalists on Aug. 21st. Colorado’s rail safety bill is still standing.

The remaining 10 finalists will be cut to five winners and five losers October 3. We are asking for the support of all our members in the State of Colorado to reach out to the 20 members of the TLRC. Let them know that you are a Colorado voter and taxpayer who stands on the side of railroad safety.

Please follow the link provided to our Legislative Action Center to submit a prewritten comment to your legislators. They need to know that we are aware of what is going on and that we are keeping track of who supports our mission of rail safety and who does not.

In Colorado’s House District 47 alone, there are over 300 SMART-TD members. The representative in that district, Ty Winter, is on the TLRC. Representative Winter, when asked by SMART-TD for his support for the legislation responded in writing by saying that, “A major concern MY STAKEHOLDERS’ have with this bill is that it significantly cuts the train length; reducing the train length will substantially cut profits, burdening these companies.”   

Colorado members, we absolutely need to remind Rep Winter who his “STAKEHOLDERS” are. We work, live and pay taxes in this state and in his district. WE are his stakeholders — not the carriers, not the railroad bosses like Katie Farmer and Jim Vena of the bloated owning class, and not the lobbyists who make more in a month than our new hires make in a year!

On August 28, the Norfolk Southern rail network’s technological infrastructure failed.

Crews couldn’t print off their pre-departure paperwork at the terminals. No one was able to report their hours of service. Many were unable to verify the consists of their trains. Emails weren’t able to be sent within the organization to organize a crisis/recovery plan, and even the crew callers were rendered useless, (insert your joke here).

However, the most dangerous side of this situation came into play when these computer issues left the crew rooms, call centers and corporate offices and made their way to the rails themselves. Dispatchers lost all control of their systems, as switches and signals were not aligning with each other or the controls of the dispatchers. Even Positive Train Control (PTC) was rendered inoperable.

It is too early to know with any degree of certainty what the cause of this systematic failure was. Unverifiable rumors have emerged on the internet, and it would be irresponsible of us to delve into them.

What we do know is that this event goes a long way to highlight the absolute necessity of the human element in railroading. As we all know, the carriers are more than happy to point out the alleged advantages of all the technology “improvements” they are bringing to the industry. If they are to be believed, their investments in computer systems have rendered our skills as railroad professionals to be nothing but a backup safety redundancy. And let’s all keep in mind they are doing everything in their power to reduce and eliminate the need for even that function, fighting tooth-and-nail against the establishment of a two-person minimum crew size in the Railway Safety Act of 2023.

Monday’s events point out that the railroads’ position couldn’t be further from reality. When the excrement hit the proverbial fan, it was the skills and professionalism of our SMART-TD conductors and engineers that prevented what had the potential to be the most widespread industrial calamity in the history of the nation. Yesterday, all the technology meant to eliminate the need for railroad professionals failed — simultaneously. As far as SMART-TD knows as of Tuesday morning, this incident was handled by our men and women without a single injury, derailment, grade-crossing collision or red signal violation.

The ramifications of this incident are terrifying, but the results are to be celebrated. It shows the world that technology is not always the end-all, be-all answer in transportation or any heavy industry. Technology failed catastrophically, putting the lives and well beings of all our NS brothers and sisters in jeopardy, and at the same time presented a massive potential threat to each and every community east of the Mississippi River with a NS track running through it.

On the flip side of that same coin, the people came through. Our members and everyone aboard an NS train proved without a doubt to be an amazing asset to these communities. The potential for disaster these crews defused is an outstanding testament to their value and the quality of work they show in their craft.

SMART-TD sees what you do every day, and you are always appreciated, but in the face of adversity yesterday you were a credit to yourselves, to our craft and to all working people. We applaud your focus, attention to safety and your well-honed railroading instincts. You should know that we will not allow NS or any other railroad to forget the lessons learned Aug. 28, 2023. Avoiding what could have been a major catastrophe will go a long way toward proving the value of conductors and engineers in every dispute we have with the corporations or government regulators for quite some time.

SMART-TD thanks you and will be updating you with any new info on the cause of yesterday’s events.  

If any SMART members who work for NS have information on yesterday’s events or have details of their personal experience that might help SMART better represent our members, please reach out to our Government Affairs Department by emailing dbanks@smart-union.org.

Upwards of 70% of UPS employees are represented by the Teamsters Union. In one of the most prominent news stories of the summer, the Teamsters and UPS workers fought the good fight against the corporation and made large gains in their levels of pay and company-provided fringe benefit packages.

SMART-TD would like to echo many of the media’s responses and congratulate the Teamsters and especially our union brothers and sisters who do tireless work on the frontlines of UPS. However, it is worth pointing out that the wage and benefit increases gained in the wake of a 2022 Biden-appointed Presidential Emergency Board (PEB #250) are in many ways equal to, or better than, the commendable achievements of the Teamsters and UPS drivers, although our achievements received far less positive fanfare and attention from the media.

As many of us have seen in the news, UPS CEO Carol Tome made the eye-opening statement that drivers at UPS will now be making $170,000 annually. That got the attention of many of us in the rail industry, and at SMART-TD. When we looked closer at that statement, we identified some important nuances that this executive did not make apparent to the general public.

More specifically, the figure of $170,000 appears to be CEO Tome’s claim for the amount of total compensation, including fringe benefits, that Teamster-represented UPS drivers are estimated to receive at the conclusion of the five-year contract. As many SMART-TD members know, this is the same rhetoric that rail carriers and their analysts used during PEB #250, in their unsuccessful attempts to convince the PEB members and the general public that railroad employees were already generously compensated for the work that we do. We rejected those tactics then, and we reject them now from CEO Tome.

In researching this issue, we noted that CBS News recently reported that at the conclusion of five years’ worth of stepped raises, full-time Teamster-represented UPS drivers will be earning approximately $49/hr. Assuming a 40-hour work week, this adds up to a base annual salary of $101,920, pretax. CBS News also reported that the fringe benefit package for Teamster-represented UPS drivers adds up to approximately $50,000, for a total combined compensation of approximately $151,920.

Based on the above, it appears that in some rare circumstances, CEO Tome’s claims could be technically correct, provided that the UPS employee works a considerable amount of overtime. However, we do not believe that CEO Tome’s claims are representative of most UPS employees, and we object to her making statements that are undoubtedly intended to mislead people into believing that UPS drivers commonly receive a salary of $170,000.

As you can probably imagine, comparing a UPS driver’s total compensation package to a SMART-TD rail member’s compensation package is not a simple task. There are many factors that weigh into our salaries and compensation packages; seniority, assignment preferences, rail traffic/volume and work location, to name a few. When working on an extra board, sometimes our compensation depends on downright luck. The provisions of on-property agreements in effect at our specific work location negotiated by our General Committees of Adjustment and subject to ratification by the members on that specific property are another factor.

Over the last several decades, our organization has published an annual fringe benefits sheet intended to illustrate the monetary value of our hard-earned and well-deserved national benefits package.

In doing so, some assumptions must be made. These examples are illustrative of an experienced railroader with enough seniority to qualify for full vacation, with earnings that exceed the Railroad Retirement Tier II tax limit and meet the Railroad Retirement Tier I tax limit. This is done not to mislead, but to illustrate the maximum potential value of our fringe benefits.

With the above in mind, in our 2023 publication, our members’ annual fringe benefits are valued at nearly $75,000, which brings the members’ total compensation package to nearly $235,000.

In the case of a railroad member who earns $118,800 in compensation (Railroad Retirement Tier II tax limit) and qualifies for three weeks of vacation, their annual fringe benefits are valued at an estimated $63,000, for a total compensation package of close to $182,000. We believe that this estimation is representative of a much larger percentage of our members and is a fairer and more direct comparison to most UPS drivers.

When making this comparison, it is worth reiterating that the above estimates for railroad employees are based on 2023 data. UPS CEO Tome’s claims are based on estimates of what an experienced UPS driver will earn five years from now, nearing the expiration of the current contract.

We hope that this article sheds some additional light on the issue and helps our members, as well as the general public, better informed on these issues.

SMART-TD will continue our fight for exemplary wages and benefits that align with the essential work you do and the sacrifices you make. Together, we will continue to lead the way as the nation’s largest rail employee union, setting the standard for collective bargaining within our industry and beyond it.

Please take the time to follow this link to read a breakdown of Your Fringe Benefits prepared by the staff at SMART-TD’s International headquarters. Prior fringe benefit documents are available behind the SMART Member Portal.

The initial schedule and information about the upcoming SMART Transportation Division Regional Training Seminar (RTS) set for Oct. 3 through 6, 2023, at the Hilton Garden Inn in Toledo, Ohio, has been released and is available through the SMART app or via PDF.

2023_Toledo_RTS_short_agendaDownload

Learning sessions at the Regional Training Seminar (RTS) are all-inclusive for SMART-TD local leaders. From a president to a trustee, all bus and rail members can get valuable information, strategies and tools from union experts who have years of experience on the issues that they face as labor leaders at the meeting.

Attendee check-in for the meeting begins the morning of Oct 3, and those attending should plan to arrive then. The meeting’s opening session takes place at 1 p.m. Oct. 3, with the classes and workshops kicking off the morning of Oct. 4.

The cost for TD members to register to attend the seminar is $50.

The RTS includes classes for local governance, roles of a local president, secretary & treasurer, legislative representatives and local chairpersons in protecting members and on the SMART Constitution, among others. Sessions are taught by national officers and other subject-matter experts associated with SMART-TD. It’s an exciting opportunity for local leadership and members to engage one on one with union experts to help fulfill the need for live, in-person training from local leaders closer to home.

TD President Jeremy Ferguson and other union leaders are scheduled to appear to answer membership questions throughout the event. To register for the seminar, visit https://register.smart-union.org/. The deadline to register for the Toledo meeting is Saturday, Sept. 30.

Please note: Attendees are responsible for making their own hotel reservations.

A room block has been reserved at the site of the meeting, the Hilton Garden Inn, 101 N. Summit St., in Toledo. The SMART TD event rate is $129 per night with the deadline for discounted hotel reservations being Friday, September 15, 2023.

Follow this link to book online.

For more information, contact Ohio State Legislative Director Clyde Whitaker at 419-565-2629 or by email at smartunionoslb@gmail.com.

“I’ve got two conductor trainees, both in the same state working for the same carrier whose lives have been cut short. The current condition of all railroad training programs is clearly in need of scrutiny. SMART-TD is not prepared to lose more of our men and women while we sit around and wait for a palatable solution. Our trainees are dying. I appreciate the FRA putting out a list of recommended fixes to this problem in their Safety Bulletin, but suggestions aren’t going to keep my people alive. It is time for actions and time for enforcement against these unsafe practices.”

SMART-TD President Jeremy R. Ferguson

Phone: (216) 228-9400 x3300

Department Email: news_td@smart-union.org

August 23, 2023

On August 6th, in CSX’s Cumberland Yard, SMART-TD lost one of our newest brothers in a temporary close clearance-related accident. This accident is made all the more tragic by the fact that it was 100% preventable.

On Wednesday, August 16th, the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) put out a notice entitled, “Safety Bulletin 2023-05 in regard to the accident with the subject line of “Shoving Movement Close Clearance Fatality.” Though this is a decent summary of the raw facts of what happened, it doesn’t even begin to tell the whole story of the untimely death of SMART-TD Local 600’s Travis Bradley, the newly hired conductor trainee out of CSX’s Cumberland, Maryland, crew base, which followed the death of another CSX trainee out of Maryland, Derek Scott “D.S.” Little, on July 1.

FRA’s Safety Bulletin 2023-05 emphasizes three central points. First, is that railroad companies have got to do a better job of identifying pinch points in their tracks where conductors are at risk of coming into contact with buildings, equipment, or rail cars/locomotives in adjacent tracks. Secondly, there is an obvious need for railroads to provide adequate training to the front-line employees as to how to properly and safely train newly hired employees. Finally, Safety Notice 2023-05 points out the need to establish a guideline for the level of work experience needed for a conductor to qualify as a proper instructor of trainees. In this case, the conductor working with the now-deceased trainee had less than one year experience on the railroad when he was trusted with the safety of a student conductor.

Close clearances in railroading are quite simply that. They are pinch points where the rail cars can fit without a problem but that a conductor or trainman riding the side of the car may not. In some rail customer industries, these close clearance points are clearly marked with signs that say “Close Clearance, Stop and Dismount.” Occasionally you can find one of these signs in a yard owned by the railroad itself, but for the most part, the railroads leave decisions on whether or not a close clearance is too close up to the muscle memory of the employee conducting the move.

What the FRA is saying in this bulletin, and that SMART-TD fully agrees with, is that time and effort needs to be put in on the part of these billion-dollar corporations to do studies of their rail yards to establish where these pinch points occur and make them known to employees. The railroads must properly identify and label these close clearances for the safety of all their employees, especially their newly hired conductors who are still learning the territory.

The second point made by FRA in Safety Bulletin 2023-05 is equally valid. Railroads are hiring new conductors as fast as they can get them screened and into hiring sessions. As new conductors are entering their workforce by the thousands, they do not have an infrastructure in place to teach their existing workforce how to safely and effectively act as On the Job Training (OJT) instructors for these new recruits. In a work environment as dangerous as our country’s railroads have proven to be historically, it is unthinkable that there is not a program in place to train the trainers. It is in most scenarios still the luck of the draw. If you are the trainee due to get called to work next, you are paired with the crew that is lined up to work that train. Not all railroad professionals have the natural ability or interest in teaching trainees. Many of these conductors and engineers show up to work and find out they have a trainee for the first time while they are walking to the locomotive having never been trained how to conduct themselves in this role with any semblance of keeping themselves or their trainee safe over the course of their work duties.

Finally, FRA also pointed out that there is no threshold for how much experience is required for a conductor to qualify as a trainer. With no exaggeration, there are many cases when on a conductor’s first call to work as a marked-up and qualified conductor on their own, they have a trainee assigned to them. This is neither productive nor safe for either conductor involved. The trainer has very little idea of how to keep him/herself safe and complete the tasks at hand, let alone do the same for the trainee. It is also problematic that this very green conductor has their reaction time slowed by the distraction of having a trainee shadowing them and asking questions.

SMART is calling for a threshold to be established by FRA to determine the amount of experience and level of instruction a conductor or trainmen must have before being tasked with training a new hire trainee.

SMART-TD has issued the following internal Safety Advisory to its members to begin a healthy dialogue between conductor trainees and their mentor conductors on these critical issues.

2023.08.23_SMART-TD_Safety_Alert-Training-Trainees-Close-ClearanceDownload

###

If you’re interested in speaking more about rail worker safety, and the changes SMART-TD is calling for, we’d be happy to connect you with:

SMART Transportation Division President Jeremy Ferguson

President Jeremy Ferguson, a member of Local 313 in Grand Rapids, Mich., was elected president of SMART’s Transportation Division in 2019.

President Ferguson, an Army veteran, started railroading in 1994 as a conductor on CSX at Grand Rapids, Mich., and was promoted to engineer in 1995. Fergusson headed the recent national rail negotiations for the union with the nation’s rail carriers.

SMART Transportation Division National Legislative Director Gregory Hynes

Greg Hynes is a fifth-generation railroader and was elected national legislative director in 2019.

Hynes served on the SMART Transportation Division National Safety Team that assists the National Transportation Safety Board with accident investigations, from 2007 – 2014.

In 2014, he was appointed to the Federal Railroad Administration’s Railroad Safety Advisory Committee (RSAC), which develops new railroad regulatory standards.

Hynes was appointed the first chairperson of the UTU Rail Safety Task Force in 2009 and served in that capacity until being elected SMART Transportation Division alternate national legislative director at the Transportation Division’s 2014 convention.

SMART Transportation Division Alternate National Legislative Director Jared Cassity

Jared Cassity, a member of Local 1377 (Russell, Ky.), was elected to the office of alternate national legislative director at the Second SMART Transportation Division Convention in August 2019 and became director of the TD National Safety Team in June 2021.

Cassity started his railroad career with CSX in September 2005 and was promoted to engineer in 2008.

In addition to his elected roles, he has been a member of the National Safety Team since 2014, where he was subsequently elected to the position of Alternate Director (East) for the NST in 2016. Likewise, he was elected by his fellow peers of state directors to serve as the directors’ representative on the CSX Safety Model Executive Board in 2013.