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Greg Regan, president of the AFL-CIO Transportation Trades Department, of which the SMART Transportation Division is a member, testified on behalf of labor before the U.S. House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee at the Nov. 17 hearing regarding “Industry and Labor Perspectives: A Further Look at North American Supply Chain Challenges.” A release from the TTD regarding his testimony is reproduced below.

WASHINGTON, D.C. — As the supply chain crisis continues to pose serious challenges to all Americans, the Nov. 17 hearing, “Industry and Labor Perspectives: A Further Look at North American Supply Chain Challenges,” held by the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, cast an important light on the systemic factors that got us here and on the ill-advised business decisions of several key supply chain actors:

Regan
In his testimony before the committee, Greg Regan, president of the Transportation Trades Department, AFL-CIO (TTD), rejected the notion that hard-working Americans or the policies of President Biden played a role in the supply chain crisis. “What we have today in our economy is the failure of employers to respond to market conditions and provide the incentives – wages, benefits, working conditions, that will attract the workforce needed.” he said.

“It is also appalling that some in this industry are so anxious to deflect attention away from their own culpability, that they are taking aim at workers’ bargaining rights and defending their low-road employment practices like misclassification abuses,” Regan added.

Instead, President Regan highlighted the real culprits – a historic surge in consumer demand coupled with disastrous industry practices that cut service, safety, and jobs while placing ever-increasing strain on workers.

“In the 5 years prior to the pandemic, Class I railroads cut 20% of their workforce, and they cut even deeper over the last 18 months,” Regan said. “Now they want to blame a workforce shortage. The tens of thousands of railroad employees who had their jobs eliminated disagree. By eliminating jobs and mothballing equipment, Class I railroads all but ensured that their operations would not be able to rapidly respond to economic shocks. The drastic spike in demand was unpredictable, but the results were inevitable.”

Regan also cautioned that the finger-pointing by industry and politicians, along with solutions that only focus on the short-term problem will leave us vulnerable to the same bottlenecks in the future unless real steps are taken to correct the practices of industry and improve our freight network. “Even when we are able to unload every ship anchored off our shores, and move every container out of the storage yards, we will not have truly solved this problem unless we have reckoned with the underlying practices that left the system so vulnerable to collapse in the first place,” said Regan.

In his comments before the committee, President Regan acknowledged the serious steps President Biden is taking to help solve this crisis and to avoid similar pitfalls in the future – fighting for, and passing the largest investment in infrastructure in American history, including billions of infrastructure spending that will make a real difference across our supply chain.

Read Regan’s testimony here.

In anticipation of today’s House hearing on the U.S. supply chain, an “exclusive” pro-carrier piece in the Washington Examiner on freight crew size says that keeping two people on freight crews is making the problem worse, neglecting to mention the massive cuts in rail labor and workforce retention issues the carriers have created through Precision Scheduled Railroading that have contributed to the supply chain problem.

Read the article.

In response to an Emergency Temporary Standard (ETS) to protect workers from coronavirus that was issued earlier this month by OSHA, National Labor Relations Board General Counsel Jennifer Abruzzo issued a memo to all field offices concerning COVID vaccine mandates and collectively bargained worker protections. As General Counsel, Abruzzo is responsible for enforcing the National Labor Relations Act’s provisions.

In the memo, General Counsel Abruzzo indicated that while situations on work properties vary on a case-by-case basis, “employers covered under the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) have decisional bargaining obligations regarding aspects of the ETS that affect terms and conditions of employment-to the extent the ETS provides employers with choices regarding implementation.”

OSHA’s ETS, implemented Nov. 5, ordered employers of 100 or more employees to “develop, implement, and enforce a mandatory COVID-19 vaccination policy, with an exception for employers that adopt a policy requiring employees to either get vaccinated or elect to undergo regular COVID-19 testing and wear a face covering at work in lieu of vaccination.”

A U.S Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit has since issued a temporary stay on the ETS, asking for further briefing by the parties. The General Counsel’s memo indicates that she favors a nuanced and bargained approach between labor and employers in implementing COVID policies rather than a unilateral approach on the part of employers.

“The employer also has an obligation to bargain over the effects of this policy,” Abruzzo said in the memo.

The memo’s guidance would mainly affect TD members on bus and some transit properties.

Below is a press release from the NLRB General Counsel and a link to the memo that was released.

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November 12, 2021

In a memo issued on November 10th, Acting Associate General Counsel for the National Labor Relations Board Joan Sullivan provided information to all field offices on the recent Department of Labor Emergency Temporary Standard to Protect Workers from Coronavirus (ETS).

The memo explains that although General Counsel Jennifer Abruzzo does not offer advisory opinions and each case stands on its own facts, the General Counsel’s position is that employers covered by the National Labor Relations Act have decisional bargaining obligations regarding aspects of the ETS that affect terms and conditions of employment—to the extent the ETS provides employers with choices regarding implementation.

Although an employer is not obligated to bargain where a specific change in terms and conditions of employment is statutorily mandated, the employer may not act unilaterally when it has some discretion in implementing those requirements. To the extent elements of the ETS do not give covered employers discretion, leaving aside decisional bargaining obligations, the employer is nonetheless obligated to bargain about the effects of the decision.

“The ETS clearly affects terms and conditions of employment—including the potential to affect the continued employment of workers who become subject to it—and gives covered employers discretion in implementing certain of its requirements. In those circumstances, a decisional bargaining obligation is required. The employer also has an obligation to bargain over the effects of this policy,” said General Counsel Jennifer Abruzzo. “While our country recovers from COVID-19, workers should know they have the right to a safe workplace and to have their voices heard.”

This year, as every year, I wanted to take a moment to give my thanks and to show appreciation to our SMART Transportation Division members who are also veterans of the United State military.
Our veterans are a source of patriotism and pride for what they have done and what they contribute to our organization. As a U.S. Army veteran, I hold a great affinity and an even greater respect for the commitment our veterans made to a higher cause while in the military and to the experiences they have had in their careers after serving (or continue to have if still serving).
One of the key goals of my administration remains to give those members who are military veterans the recognition that they deserve for having answered the high call of defending the freedoms that we enjoy.
We urge all of our SMART-TD military veterans to let us know the details of their military careers via the TD Member Info Update form so that we can continue to enhance our work to recognize and amplify the importance of veterans to our union. We also continue to periodically update our Veteran Services page with resources that may be beneficial to our American heroes.
Each and every veteran deserves to feel a sense of appreciation on Veterans Day. On behalf of SMART Transportation Division, to all U.S. military veterans, we thank you once again for your service.

Fraternally,

Jeremy Ferguson
President — Transportation Division
U.S. Army, 1988-1991

Services, discounts and events

As an annual tradition, many businesses provide free services or discounts to veterans and there are a number of events nationwide honoring veterans. Please see the links below to some of those that are available this year.

  • https://militarybenefits.info/veterans-day-discounts-sales-deals-free-meals/
  • https://blogs.va.gov/VAntage/96530/veterans-day-2021-discounts/
  • https://blogs.va.gov/VAntage/96672/organizations-offer-national-level-2021-veterans-day-virtual-events/
  • https://militarybenefits.info/veterans-day/

Tommy Manuzewski, a probationary member of our union’s Local 1566 (Buffalo, N.Y.), was severely injured in an accident late last month after being struck by a train in a Norfolk Southern yard.
Brother Manuzewski’s arm was amputated and his collarbone and multiple vertebrae were broken as well. He underwent successful emergency surgery after being placed in a medically induced coma after the accident, and his recovery likely will take years, doctors have said.
Because of his probationary status, his coverage through the railroad benefit system had not begun. In the latest update on Brother Manuszewski’s status published Nov. 6, Local 1566 Legislative Representative Joseph Kaier said that treatment is ongoing, focusing on pain management and in-patient rehabilitation.
An online fundraiser has been established by his local to help support Brother Manuzewski on GoFundMe.
“Tommy and his family have been devastated by these events,” Kaier wrote. “Tommy’s career as freight conductor is over, and soon his family’s bills will be racking up.”
Manuzewski helps care for his elderly parents and was to be married to his fiancee, Tammi Jo Smith, next summer.
Please contribute if you are able.

Legislation championed by SMART Transportation Division New Jersey State Legislative Director Ron Sabol to protect transportation workers passed unanimously through a state Senate committee Nov. 8.
The bill (S-4071) or the Motorbus and Passenger Rail Service Employee Violence Prevention Act, was introduced by state Sen. Patrick J. Diegnan Jr. (D-Middlesex) in response to recent incidents in which two NJ Transit (NJT) employees were assaulted for trying to enforce a federal coronavirus mask mandate.
In testimony before the committee, Sabol made it clear to senators that it was past time to toughen enforcement after a pair of violent events aboard NJT trains.
The legislation “is critical to all transit workers, as well as the public,” Sabol said. “I’m sure all of you have seen in the news assaults of public transportation workers are on the rise at an alarming rate. This is out of control at this point. I think we really need to look at addressing it in some way here in New Jersey.”
In October, an NJT rail passenger pulled a knife on a conductor who asked him to wear a mask in Bergen County, according to NJ.com. The passenger was arrested and charged with assault.
Two months earlier, a rail passenger was jailed after he launched into a racist tirade then got into a physical confrontation with an NJT conductor aboard a Hoboken-bound train, NJ.com reported.
S-4071 upgrades the penalty for all assaults on a motorbus or autobus operator, the operator’s supervisor, and a rail passenger employee. It also empowers NJT, motorbus companies and all rail passenger service providers to ban riders from their transportation services for up to one year if the person commits assault on a motorbus operator, the operator’s supervisor, or a rail passenger employee.
If a deadly weapon was used during the assault, the rider may be banned for life.
The legislation also requires NJT and motorbus companies to:

  • Equip each bus and rail and light rail vehicle with a communication system that allows the operator to alert the company or NJ TRANSIT and appropriate law enforcement agencies when the operator is in distress.
  • Coordinate with law enforcement and transit police to help protect bus operators and rail employees on potentially problematic routes.
  • Establish an employee assistance program for bus operators and rail employees that have been assaulted.
  • Provide periodic violence and mental health training to bus operators and rail employees.

The measures are designed to reduce acts of violence against transit employees and to provide transit workers with techniques for deescalating potentially violent situations.
Diegnan, chair of the N.J. Senate Transportation Committee, said the bill was crafted with labor and carrier’s safety concerns in mind.
“We all have the same purpose,” Diegnan said during the committee meeting. “We want to protect these folks and at the same time not unintentionally harm the carriers.”
The bill moves on to the full state Senate for consideration.

The U.S. House of Representatives in the waning hours of Nov. 5 passed H.R. 3684, the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA), also known as the bipartisan infrastructure framework, by a 228-206 vote.
The bill provides $1.2 trillion in funding for infrastructure, with a large proportion of the funding going directly to Amtrak as well as public transportation — ensuring transformative investment in jobs and improvements and expansions of service well into the future.
“Bottom line, this is a big deal for us,” SMART Transportation Division National Legislative Director Greg Hynes said in an email to TD members soon after the Act’s passage in the House.
Amtrak, the national passenger rail carrier, stands to benefit enormously. It will see its annual budget appropriations nearly double — “the most-significant investment in rail since the creation of Amtrak 50 years ago,” President Joe Biden said Oct. 25 at an appearance in Kearny, N.J.
The IIJA specifically provides:

  • $6B for Northeast Corridor grants
  • $16B for the national network
  • $36B for fed-state partnership for intercity passenger rail
  • $5B for Consolidated Rail Infrastructure and Safety Improvements (CRISI)
  • $3B for railroad crossing elimination program
  • $50M for restoration and enhancement

In addition to the billions in financial support provided to Amtrak, passenger rail and public transportation, safety provisions important to SMART-TD bus and transit members were made into law. The bill instructs public transportation agencies to enhance practices related to the development of transit agency safety plans, improve safety training, reduce assaults on vehicle operators, and institute measures to reduce vehicular and pedestrian accidents involving buses. School bus safety also is a particularly important focus, with the DOT secretary directed to examine improvements in that area.
Also included are groundbreaking rail-safety policy provisions, including:

  • Requiring a National Academies study on the safety of trains longer than 7,500 feet.
  • Requiring FRA accident reports to include information on train length and number of cars, as well as the size of the crew on board.
  • Increasing transparency for regulatory waiver requests, including requested suspensions of rules.
  • Requiring the federal Department of Transportation (DOT) to create a process to better involve stakeholders, including rail labor representatives, in investigations.
  • Requiring a quarterly report on failures and functions of Positive Train Control technology. This includes cutouts, malfunctions, and enforcements where an accident was actually prevented.

President Biden announced that he plans to sign the bill into law sometime next week once members of the U.S. House return to Washington, D.C.

U.S. Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-OR), the chairman of the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, introduced the Stop Sexual Assault and Harassment in Transportation Act (H.R. 5706) Oct. 25, legislation to help protect passengers and personnel from sexual assault and harassment in different modes of transportation that includes the creation of new civil penalties that would apply to physical assaults or threats against Amtrak employees and other covered transportation workers.
“When it comes to the transportation of people, safety must always come first, and that includes protecting people from sexual harassment and assault,” Chair DeFazio said. “With this legislation, we can make important strides toward adequately training personnel, establishing formal policies against sexual assault and harassment, and facilitating the reporting of these incidents. In addition, my bill would help the public understand the scope of this problem by establishing the first-ever federal clearinghouse for transportation-related sexual assault and harassment data. I look forward to working with my colleagues to get this legislation signed into law so we can help stop sexual violence and abuse on our roads, on our waters, on our trains, and in our skies.”
This legislation will help prevent sexual assaults and sexual harassment on airplanes, buses, passenger vessels, commuter and intercity passenger railroads, taxis and ride-sharing vehicles. Specifically, it would require covered companies to establish formal policies against sexual assault and harassment, facilitate the reporting of sexual assault and harassment incidents, establish civil penalties for individuals who physically or sexually assault—or threaten to assault—transportation personnel, and require the Department of Transportation to collect and publicly share data on the number of sexual assault or harassment incidents reported by transportation companies covered under the bill. The AFL-CIO Transportation Trades Department (AFL-CIO TTD), of which the SMART Transportation Division is a member, is among the entities that have issued endorsements of the bill.
Last Congress, Chair DeFazio introduced similar legislation that unanimously passed the House of Representatives.
Original co-sponsors of H.R. 5706 include:

  • Julia Brownley (D-CA)
  • Salud Carbajal (D-CA)
  • Andre Carson (D-IN)
  • Adriano Espaillat (D-NY)
  • Jared Huffman (D-CA)
  • Eddie Bernice Johnson (D-TX)
  • Rick Larsen (D-WA)
  • Alan Lowenthal (D-CA)
  • Stephen Lynch (D-MA)
  • Sean Patrick Maloney (D-NY)
  • Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC)
  • Donald Payne, Jr. (D-NJ)
  • Albio Sires (D-NJ)
  • Dina Titus (D-NV)

Read the bill’s text.
A fact sheet about the legislation.

CLEVELAND, Ohio, (Oct. 29, 2021) — The Transportation Division of the International Association of Sheet Metal, Air, Rail, and Transportation Workers (SMART-TD) and the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen (BLET) have responded to the suit Norfolk Southern Railway (NS) filed against them on Oct. 21, 2021, in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, Chicago Division. The two Organizations not only answered NS’ allegations, they also filed counterclaims challenging NS actions in implementing their vaccine policy without the bargaining mandated by the Railway Labor Act.
The railroad has taken the position that it has the right to implement and enforce a COVID vaccination mandate among its employees, and requests the court to issue a declaratory judgment holding that the dispute between the railroad and the unions is a “minor” dispute, which must be arbitrated if the parties cannot come to a satisfactory settlement.
The unions have countered that NS has no such authority, and their actions in failing to negotiate terms of implementation violate the status quo requirement of the Railway Labor Act, thus engendering a major dispute.
SMART-TD President Jeremy Ferguson and BLET National President Dennis Pierce issued the following joint statement regarding their action:
“NS has ordered all employees to report that they are fully vaccinated by December 8th, or they will be unable to continue working. And, instead of negotiating with us as the law requires, the Carrier is directly dealing with its employees by offering a payment for compliance with its unilateral mandate.
“We generally support our members getting the vaccine. However, we have several objections to NS’s unilateral implementation of their policies mandating them and illegally dealing directly with its represented employees. The members of our Unions — including members who already are vaccinated — are irate over NS’s outrageous conduct.
“We have been in contract negotiations with NS since November of 2019, and federal law absolutely bars railroads from changing rates of pay, rules and working conditions while negotiations are ongoing. Not only is NS in violation of the law, it has explicitly spurned our demands that these matters be bargained. We will continue to fight on behalf of all BLET and SMART–TD members in an effort to stop NS’s lawlessness in its tracks.”

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The SMART Transportation Division is comprised of approximately 125,000 active and retired members of the former United Transportation Union, who work in a variety of crafts in the transportation industry.
The Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen represents nearly 57,000 professional locomotive engineers and trainmen throughout the United States. The BLET is the founding member of the Rail Conference, International Brotherhood of Teamsters.

CLEVELAND, Ohio (Oct. 28, 2021) — The SMART Transportation Division (SMART–TD) and Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen (BLET) escalated their fight against Norfolk Southern Railway (NS) to stop the railroad from forcing locomotive engineers to work as conductors, and for disciplining those who don’t. The two unions each filed motions for preliminary injunctions yesterday against NS in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Ohio, Eastern Division.
SMART–TD seeks an injunction ordering NS to return to the status quo that existed prior to the dispute, which would require that the railroad use only SMART–TD-represented train service employees to fill jobs in those crafts and classes.
The BLET seeks an immediate injunction forbidding NS from forcing engineers to work as conductors, including disciplining members for failing or refusing to comply with directives to work as conductors, and requiring that NS immediately reinstate BLET members who were disciplined as a result of the dispute, expunging all discipline records, and making each engineer whole.
Following a hearing on the motions, the court will issue its decision. If the court grants the motions and issues the requested orders, any continued misconduct by the carrier could trigger a strike.
“This situation is identical to the September 2013 dispute that led to a BLET strike on the Wheeling and Lake Erie,” said SMART–TD President Jeremy R. Ferguson and BLET National President Dennis R. Pierce. “The Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals, which also has jurisdiction here, held that the 2013 dispute was, indeed, a major dispute. Multiple ground employees on NS have sustained injuries in switching operations in recent weeks. We have made it clear to NS that forcing engineers to work ground assignments that they are not currently qualified on or familiar with is an invitation for more incidents. While NS’s current business model may accept responsibility for that risk to its employees, our Unions do not. We will do everything in our power to prevent that risk to our collective memberships. The General Chairmen, the assigned Vice Presidents and we thank our NS memberships for their continued strong support in this struggle.”

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The SMART Transportation Division is comprised of approximately 125,000 active and retired members of the former United Transportation Union, who work in a variety of crafts in the transportation industry.
The Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen represents nearly 57,000 professional locomotive engineers and trainmen throughout the United States. The BLET is the founding member of the Rail Conference, International Brotherhood of Teamsters.