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Nevada Gov. Steve Sisolak has issued a proclamation praising America’s railroaders, declaring Wednesday, April 28, 2021, as “A Day In Honor of Railroad Workers.”
A portion of the proclamation reads: “The safe and efficient movement of the trains transporting… freight and… passengers through Nevada is due foremost to the dedication and professionalism of those employees who are directly involved in train movements, including Train and Crew Dispatchers, Maintenance of Way personnel, Signal Maintainers, Mechanical personnel, and train crews.”
The SMART Transportation Division Nevada Legislative Board and BLET Nevada State Legislative Board worked jointly to lobby Gov. Sisolak regarding the proclamation. The two boards issued a joint statement, which reads in part:
“Every day, front-line railroad workers report for duty as required and perform the tasks of their jobs in a manner which ensures that the movement of freight and passengers by rail which is needed to keep this nation’s economy functioning is accomplished. In spite of various objectives and circumstances which create hurdles to be crossed in providing this vital service, the work which you do continues to deliver for those counting on it… On this special day, we salute and thank you for the work that you do, while encouraging you to stay focused on safety in the course of your work. We also ask that you join us in remembering those workers who have passed on before us, some in the line of duty, while committing to continue fighting for all still among us with whom we share struggles.”
SMART-TD President Jeremy R. Ferguson and BLET National President Dennis R. Pierce said, “Our unions thank Governor Sisolak for honoring railroaders with this proclamation and for recognizing the important role SMART-TD and BLET members play in keeping our economy strong. We also thank Jason Doering, SMART-TD Nevada State Legislative Director, and Matt Parker, BLET Nevada State Legislative Board Chairman, for their efforts in helping to secure this proclamation and for their dedication to railroad safety.”
A copy of Governor Sisolak’s proclamation can be found here (PDF).

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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 58,000 professional locomotive engineers and trainmen throughout the United States. The BLET is the founding member of the Rail Conference, International Brotherhood of Teamsters.

Amit Bose, who has been serving the Biden administration as acting administrator of the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) since February, was formally nominated to become administrator of that body April 22.

Amit Bose has been nominated to lead the FRA.

Bose has years of experience serving in the public sector. He has served two stints as FRA deputy administrator, and has served as FRA chief counsel, USDOT associate general counsel and USDOT deputy assistant secretary for governmental affairs. While in the Obama administration, Bose worked on High-Speed Intercity Passenger Rail grants for projects on the Northeast Corridor and has a longtime association with the corridor.
In addition to living along the corridor in West Windsor, N.J., and working for New Jersey Transit, Bose helped establish and later served on the Northeast Corridor Commission. He also participated in structuring the commission’s cost allocation policy, helped the U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT) deliver a $2.5 billion Railroad Rehabilitation and Infrastructure Financing (RRIF) loan to Amtrak for its next generation of Acela rail cars, and worked on the environmental review of a number of projects.
Read the announcement from the White House.

WASHINGTON, D.C. — On April 20, union attorney Deirdre Hamilton was nominated by the president to serve on the National Mediation Board (NMB), the government body that facilitates labor-management relations in the aviation and rail industries. The 33-member union Transportation Trades Department, AFL-CIO (TTD), which represents millions of workers across the aviation, rail and broader transportation sectors and of which the SMART Transportation Division is a member, urges the U.S. Senate to quickly confirm her appointment to the board.
“Deirdre Hamilton’s qualifications are impeccable, and it is clear she will bring to the NMB professionalism, integrity, and a deep commitment to the mission of the agency,” said Greg Regan, president of TTD. “We applaud the Biden administration for nominating someone with Ms. Hamilton’s depth of knowledge and experience, and who understands the critical role that the NMB plays for aviation and rail workers. We look forward to her swift confirmation by the Senate.”
If confirmed, Hamilton will bring more than 20 years of valuable expertise and know-how to the NMB. She has significant experience before the federal courts and the NMB on a wide range of legal issues including union elections, mediation, contract enforcement, and major and minor dispute claims, and has amassed an in-depth knowledge of the Railway Labor Act.
Regan further underscored the importance of Hamilton’s appointment to the NMB in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic and the resulting economic crisis.
“Our nation’s rail and aviation industries support good middle-class jobs that are critical to the economy and the mobility of Americans. These sectors and the jobs they create will be even more important as our country seeks to recover from COVID-19 in the coming months and years,” Regan said. “NMB members have an important role to play in protecting the rights of the frontline workers – a goal that we know Hamilton is committed to.”

Buddy Lee Strieker, an officer of Local 219 (Hannibal, Mo.) for the vast majority of his 24-plus years with our union, died as a result of a switching accident on April 7 in Louisiana, Mo. He was 56 years old.
Brother Strieker was vice local chairperson of LCA-001A and the secretary/treasurer of his local for more than two decades. A trainman/brakeman for BNSF, he also served as an LCA secretary and as a delegate for his local at the Second SMART Transportation Division Convention in 2019.
An investigation has been launched by the National Transportation Safety Board into Brother Strieker’s death with a member of the TD National Safety Team participating.
Brother Strieker was a veteran of the U.S. Army. He is survived by his wife of 34 years, Lisa; his son, Matthew; a granddaughter; two step-grandchildren; three brothers; two sisters and other relatives.
“Away from work, Buddy loved being outside and visiting the family farm,” his family wrote in Brother Strieker’s obituary. “Buddy had a green thumb and enjoyed working in his garden where he grew tomatoes, cucumbers, jalapeños, and banana peppers. A wonderful cook, Buddy made the most delicious cheesecakes, birthday cakes, and soups.”
Tony Wyman, a union brother out of Local 445 (Niota, Ill.) remembered on an online memorial page how he was mentored by Brother Strieker after hiring on as a BNSF conductor.
“Buddy … told me ‘as long as you’re with me you’ll be OK,’ ” Wyman wrote. “I’m heartbroken that he is gone! Buddy had a story or a joke every time he went to work! People of the BNSF family in Quincy lost a legend …and I mean a serious legend!”
The SMART Transportation Division offers its deep condolences to Brother Strieker’s family, friends and to his Local 219 brothers and sisters for the loss of this stalwart and dedicated member of our union.

Members and leaders of the SMART Transportation Division as well as the AFL-CIO Transportation Trades Department, spelled out why U.S. freight railroads’ obsession with Precision Scheduled Railroading (PSR) increases the danger to the public and railroad workers alike.
Journalist Aaron Gordon spoke with TD President Jeremy Ferguson and AFL-CIO TTD President Greg Regan about degradation in the safety culture of freight railroads because of PSR in an in-depth article published on March 22. “It’s going to end up like Boeing,” President Ferguson warned.
Gordon’s article touched upon many topics that our members are unfortunately already well aware of, including: the severe reduction of rail employees which has greatly impacted safe operations, the increase of fatigue associated with the same demanding work but with a reduced work force, the practice of railroads to have inspectors spend less time inspecting cars, the deferral of needed maintenance and potential safety issues being glossed over so that dwell time is not increased. It paints a very realistic and clear picture of how the railroads’ operating ratios and profits have been placed well ahead of safety and all in the name of PSR.
But by questing for those increased returns on Wall Street, the lessons learned from past operational mistakes could conceivably end up costing railroads in the long run, subjects interviewed in the article say.
This article is essential reading, and it can be found on the VICE website.

The confirmation by the U.S. Senate of Boston Mayor Marty Walsh, a member of the Laborers’ Union, to be President Joe Biden’s labor secretary ends a nearly 45-year absence of having a union member serve as the head of the U.S. Department of Labor.
The last unionist to serve as U.S. labor secretary was W.J. Usery Jr., an appointee of President Gerald Ford who was a member of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers. He led Ford’s DOL for about a year starting in 1976.
There had been a time when a nearly five-decade gap of having a union member be the top labor official in a president’s Cabinet would have been unusual.
When the DOL was established in the early 20th century, it was normal practice that an organized labor leader would be tapped to lead the agency overseeing labor relations. The first two U.S. secretaries of labor were union members, and in 1930, one of SMART-Transportation Division’s predecessor unions saw one of its leaders ascend to the top of the DOL during one of the darkest economic times our nation has known. As the third secretary of labor, the Brotherhood of Railroad Trainmen’s William N. Doak helped establish a lasting legacy.

W.H. Doak

Doak was born Dec. 12, 1882, in Wythe County, Va., and began a railroad career as a switchman with Norfolk and Western near the turn of the century. According to a biography published on the Library of Virginia’s website, he joined BRT in 1904 and was elected a general chairperson in 1908.
In 1916, Doak was elected BRT vice president and became the organization’s national legislative representative in Washington, D.C. He continued to work on railroad labor relations matters including serving on adjustment boards, arguing before congressional committees and adjusting how rail negotiations were handled on a regional level. The National Mediation Board (NMB) was established in the 1920s while Doak had an active presence on Capitol Hill for the BRT, and he no doubt had a hand in establishing how the NMB operated.
In 1922, he was elected first vice president and was elected assistant to BRT President William Granville Lee in 1927. Doak served as acting BRT president for a time while Lee traveled abroad and also unsuccessfully ran for political office on three occasions, including for Virginia State Senate, the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate.
In 1928, Doak was elected to a combined post of national legislative representative and editor of the Brotherhood of Trainmen’s publication, The Railroad Trainman. A personal friend of Herbert Hoover, Doak worked on Hoover’s successful presidential campaign and served as a labor committee advisor for the Republican National Committee. Upon taking office in 1929, President Hoover eyed Doak as a possible labor secretary nominee, but opposition rose from the American Federation of Labor that scuttled that nomination.
However, after the Great Depression struck, Hoover changed course and nominated Doak to lead the DOL in 1930. In collaboration with his immediate predecessor, James J. Davis, who became a U.S. senator representing Pennsylvania after leaving as labor secretary, Doak’s crowning achievement was helping the Davis-Bacon Act — legislation that established prevailing wage laws that benefit our Sheet Metal brothers and sisters and other union laborers — to become federal law in 1931. That law remains in effect 90 years later.
“Doak was sensitive to unemployment matters and supported studies of public works programs and unemployment insurance to offset the effects of the Great Depression,” historian Jonathan Grossman wrote in an article marking the 75th anniversary of the Department of Labor that was published in the February 1988 issue of the Monthly Labor Review. “But economic conditions worsened during his relatively brief tenure, and he was overwhelmed by the worldwide economic disaster.”
After serving as DOL head for the majority of Hoover’s Depression-ravaged term, Doak left the post in March 1933 after Franklin Delano Roosevelt took office and returned from a leave he had taken from his BRT leadership position as national legislative representative.
Just months later, on Oct. 23, 1933, Doak passed away at age 50 from cardiovascular disease. However, the work that he did as a labor leader continues to reverberate through our organization to this day.

SMART Transportation Division Local 934 member Curtis A. Deines, 52, a member of our union for more than 20 years, died before dawn on the morning of March 19 after the SUV he was being transported in was involved in a head-on collision with another vehicle on U.S. Highway 2 near Ravenna, Neb.
The driver and three other rail workers in the SUV that Deines was riding in were transported for treatment, as was the driver of the other vehicle involved in the accident, according to the Star-Herald of Scottsbluff, Neb. Deines passed away at the scene of the accident, the Buffalo County Sheriff’s Department stated in an accident report.

Deines

“He will be greatly missed here in Alliance,” said Local Chairperson Wendie Henderson of the Nebraska local.
Born in Torrington, Wyo., Brother Deines was a hall-of-fame athlete from his time as a center on the Chadron State College football team. He graduated college in 1996 with a degree in education.
He then entered into service with the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railroad in the maintenance of way department and then transferred into train service as a conductor.
Great sources of pride and joy for him were watching his son, Colin, and daughter, KayLeah, succeed in life and becoming a grandpa, his family wrote in his obituary.
“Curt was loved by all and will be greatly missed for his big heart and infectious laugh,” his family wrote. “The role Curt played in each of our lives will never be forgotten.”
Brother Deines is survived by his wife, Sonya; his son, Colin Deines, and Colin’s girlfriend, Catie Williams; daughter, KayLeah King, and her husband, Robert; two grandchildren; his parents; his sister, Staci John, and her husband; two nieces; and a number of in-laws and other relatives.
A private memorial service is scheduled for March 27.
Click here to view Brother Deines’ full obituary and to leave condolences for the family.
The funeral home is accepting memorial donations in lieu of flowers. Checks can be made out to Sonya Deines and mailed to Chamberlain Chapel, 1700 Hwy. 20, Chadron, NE 69337. Online donations are also being accepted through a Go-fund-me page that has been set up to help out the family financially. 
SMART Transportation Division joins in mourning Brother Deines and offers its sincere condolences to his family and friends, his union brothers and sisters in Local 934, and to all who knew him.

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Longtime Amtrak conductor Carol Jones, a local chairperson with SMART-TD Local 1361 out of New Haven, Conn., and a member of our union for 23 years, was featured in a “Sister Stories” video during SMART Women’s Week in early March. See the embedded video above to watch her story of coming up in the transportation industry and working as a pioneering woman in the passenger rail sector.

SMART Transportation Division Local 759 President Rafael Becerra and about seven of his local brothers and sisters departed their Coach USA garage in Paramus, N.J., on Jan. 10, and traveled to Joint Base Andrews in Prince George’s County, Md., to transport our nation’s troops and national guardsmen to protect Washington, D.C., for the Jan. 20 inauguration ceremony.
Becerra stayed in the nation’s capital for two weeks, returning home Jan. 24, while others from his garage stayed an extra week before returning Jan. 31.
Dillon’s Bus Service of Hanover, Md., – an affiliate of Coach USA – was in charge of coordinating with different bus companies that sent their buses and operators to help transport the 26,000 troops (according to militarytimes.com) deployed to D.C.
Employees of Rockland Coaches of Bergenfield, N.J., represented by TD Local 1558, also were called upon to transport troops. Coach bus companies from as far away as Pittsburgh also arrived to help.

National Guard soldiers disembark from a bus in January in this photo courtesy of Local 759 President Rafael Becerra and New Jersey State Legislative Director Ron Sabol.

According to Becerra, he picked up troops at Andrews and then brought them over to the armory. He then moved them to different hotels and assignments in the D.C. area.
“I also picked up troops from the Reagan airport. The ones I picked up came in from Alaska. I picked up around 29 people,” Becerra said. “I also picked up people from the Florida National Guard from their hotel, and I dropped them off where they were stationed at the African American Museum (National Museum of African American History and Culture).”
Becerra said the first week there was the roughest because he was required to keep making runs from place-to-place and was on call a lot of the time. The troops were constantly coming in during the first week for their assignments, but then there wasn’t a lot of transporting that needed to be done during his second week.
“We waited around a lot at the Andrews base parking lot, waiting to be called upon,” Becerra said.
New Jersey State Legislative Director Ron Sabol had nothing but praise for the members who stepped up to assist.
“Brother Becerra and his fellow members took time away from their families during a pandemic to serve a greater cause than themselves — the protection and safe transition required by our nation’s democratic process,” Sabol said. “This assignment had health and safety risks involved — just days before our bus operators arrived, armed insurrectionists had threatened members of Congress in the U.S. Capitol itself. Our members had no guarantee that they wouldn’t be attacked by domestic terrorists or be exposed to COVID while assisting those troops at our nation’s capital — yet they did it without complaint.
“I thank them for their exemplary display of duty.”
Although he was in the city during the inauguration, Becerra said he did not get to see the ceremony up close.
“I was watching it on my phone, sitting in the parking lot. I was kinda afraid to take pictures,” he said. “You don’t just go wandering around. You go from check point to check point to check point.”
When asked if he had any concerns about contracting COVID-19 while there, Becerra said that he thought things were pretty safe with almost everyone wearing a mask, but he was still a little concerned.
“I would say that 99% of the guys, the troops, they all had masks on. I was tested before I went there, and I was tested when I came back. Thank God I came back in one piece. But it’s all part of the job,” he said.
Becerra said that by the time that he left, a lot of troops were already clearing out.
When asked what the most memorable thing about the trip was, Becerra replied, “I was amazed that I had never seen D.C. so empty. There was nothing. There was no traffic, there were no people walking. You could walk on the other side of the fence, but that was the closest you got. They kept closing down areas, so you didn’t know what was going to be closed.”
SMART-TD thanks Brother Becerra and the other troop transporters for their dedication and congratulates them on a job well done.

Medicare pays for an Annual Wellness Visit (AWV). It’s an awesome free preventive service that so many Medicare patients have not been taking advantage of. Since the onset of COVID-19, the number of AWVs being performed has fallen drastically, as many people have chosen to put off elective services. However, it’s important for you to do what is best for your health. That also means it may be best to take the time to have this service. If you talk to your healthcare provider and they say that it’s safe for you to have an AWV, then it makes sense to consider doing so.
First off, what is an AWV?
An Annual Wellness Visit is a visit to develop or update a preventive services plan that is personalized to your needs and to perform a Health Risk Assessment (HRA). An AWV comes in two sizes: your initial AWV and your follow-up AWV. Your initial AWV sets the baseline for future visits. Before or during this visit, you will complete a Health Risk Assessment (HRA) questionnaire, which will collect at a minimum:

  1. Your demographic data and a health status self-assessment
  2. Your assessment of depression/life satisfaction, stress, anger, pain, fatigue, isolation or loneliness
  3. Information on behavioral risks, including, but not limited to, if you smoke or use tobacco products, drink alcohol or use drugs, your physical activity and your nutrition
  4. Information on your ability to do general activities of daily living, such as washing clothes, bathing, walking, ability to stand for periods of time, etc.

During an initial AWV, your provider will create a baseline of your medical and family history, capture information about your current list of doctors and medications that you take, and gather measurements of your height, weight, blood pressure and other routine measurements as they apply based on your medical and family history. Your provider may also perform a cognitive impairment assessment to check for Alzheimer’s disease or dementia, and for depression and other mood disorders.
Your healthcare provider will review all of the information you provided to them, along with what they have observed focusing on your ability to do general activities of daily living, your risk of falling, plus any hearing impairments or potential home safety issues that may come up during the visit.
From all of this, your provider will create a written schedule/checklist, for the next five to 10 years for future screening visits and preventive services. Your provider will also give you personalized referrals for health education, preventive programs or counseling services based on what the AWV data has shown them.
These recommended services or programs can help you reduce risk factors or promote wellness, such as increasing weight loss and physical activity, as well as preventing falls and improving your nutrition. Referrals can be made for programs to help you quit smoking. You can also work with your provider to produce Advanced Care Planning documents such as living wills, advanced directives and other documents that instruct others about your healthcare wishes in the event you are unable to do so due to injury or illness.
That’s the first AWV. The second type of AWV is considered a follow-up AWV, or just a plain AWV.
At this AWV visit, you will review and update your HRA and your provider will update your medical/family history, the list of your current providers and medications and your measurements – including weight and blood pressure. Your provider will then make any needed changes to your screening schedule and your personalized health plan, and make new referrals, if necessary, to keep current with your needs. It is important to have this service every year. Your body is constantly changing – every day, every week, every month, every year. You take care of your plants, your car, your family, and you need to remember to take care of yourself as well.
How often can you get an AWV?
You can receive an AWV if:

  • It has been more than 12 months since the effective date of your first Medicare Part B coverage period, and
  • You have not received an Initial Preventive Physical Examination (IPPE, or “Welcome to Medicare” exam ) or an AWV within the past 12 months.

Where can I get an AWV?
Many healthcare providers are authorized to perform AWV services. They include:

  • Doctors of Medicine (MD) or Osteopathy (MO)
  • Physician’s assistant (PA), nurse practitioner (NP), or clinical nurse specialist (CNS)
  • A medical professional (including a health educator, registered dietitian, nutrition professional or other licensed practitioners) or a team of medical professionals working under the direct supervision of a physician.
  • Teaching physicians in graduate medical education programs can perform these services in certain specific circumstances.

If you have a question about the AWV, please call Palmetto GBA’s toll-free Beneficiary Contact Center at 800-833-4455, from 8:30 a.m. until 7 p.m. ET Monday through Friday. They offer a TTY/TDD line at 877-566-3572. This line is for the hearing impaired with the appropriate dial-up service and is available during the same hours as customer service representatives are available. Palmetto’s website is www.PalmettoGBA.com/RR/Me, and offers access to a free self-service internet portal, MyRRMed. MyRRMed offers you access to your healthcare data.
At this time, you can use the portal to access:

  • Status and details of your Railroad Medicare Part B claims;
  • Historical Medicare Summary Notices (MSNs) for your Railroad Medicare Part B claims;
  • A listing of individuals you have authorized to have access to your private health information; and
  • You can also submit a request to add an authorized representative or to edit or remove an existing authorized representative.

To sign up for MyRRMed, visit www.PalmettoGBA.com/MyRRMed.