Brother Babiarz joined the union in January 1974 and was a GC from 2015 to 2019.
He is survived by his wife, Judith Kurtz.
Visitation is scheduled 1 to 4 p.m. Oct. 3 at Michaels Funeral Home, 800 S. Roselle Road, in Schaumburg, Ill., with funeral services beginning at 4 p.m.
Visit this link to leave condolences.
Author: bnagy
On Sept. 14, New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy signed into law S-2380, which retroactively protects the state’s essential workers, including SMART Transportation Division bus members, during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Essential employees’ workers compensation claims are routinely rejected by employers because the employees can’t prove they contracted COVID-19 at their place of work. This law shifts the burden of proof to the employer in state workers’ compensation claims for essential workers who interact with the public and contract COVID-19 during the declared state of emergency.
“This is the strongest law in the country for essential workers,” said New Jersey State Legislative Director Ron Sabol, who worked in conjunction with the state AFL-CIO in order to get legislators to pass and Murphy to sign the bill. “The governor and state legislators have taken strong action to protect TD members and all of our essential workers who were and continue to face the risk of being exposed to COVID during the course of doing their jobs.”
Most of the laws that were booked in states involving protecting essential workers nationwide were simply executive orders — limited in scope covering just police, fire and medical workers. The CARES Act passed in the early months of the pandemic only included financial coverage of testing for the virus. The New Jersey law covers all workers who are out of work because of COVID-19 who miss an extended period of time from their job, Sabol said.
“It covers the medical part of everything,” Sabol said. “If you had a person who got sick from COVID and you were out for weeks, it’s now covered by workers’ compensation.”
The bill covers the period from March 9, when Gov. Murphy declared a state emergency because of the coronavirus pandemic.
S-2380/A-3999 was sponsored by Senate President Stephen Sweeney, D-3rd District, Sens. Nick Scutari, D-20th District, Robert Singer, R-30th District, and Linda Greenstein, D-14th District, and by Assemblymen Thomas Giblin, D-34th District, and John Burzichelli, D-3rd District, and Assemblywomen Carol Murphy, D-7th District, and Joann Downey, D-11th District.
A second bill — S-2476 — is being considered that enhances death benefits for workers who passed from COVID-19.
Read the Assembly Committee statement about the bill.
Read S-2380
The union has received notification in recent weeks of the deaths of three former vice presidents of the United Transportation Union.
Five-term UTU Vice President Peter Patsouras passed away on Thursday, Sept. 10. He was 76 years old.
“Pete was a great guy,” said retired SMART Transportation Division National Legislative Director John Risch. “Not only was he a great union leader, he was the person who started the modern environmental movement.”
Patsouras was present to witness a bit of Northeast Ohio and, by extension, U.S. history on June 22, 1969. As a crew member on the Norfolk & Western train that sparked the infamous Cuyahoga River fire in Cleveland, he saw an event that drew national attention and a bit of infamy to the city of Cleveland.
The fire reportedly was caused by a fusee, a long torch resembling an oversized matchstick used by flagmen, that an unidentified crew member had dropped into the river to extinguish. (Media reports described the fire’s cause as a “spark” from a diesel locomotive). Instead of going out, the fusee caught contaminants in the river’s water on fire. The blaze drew national attention from Time Magazine, among others, and was seen as spurring the eventual passage of the 1972 Clean Water Act.
“That was the trigger they needed to clean up the environment. It (the river) was terrible. The oil and all the chemicals that were just thrown in there by a number of businesses, you wouldn’t want to put a finger in for fear of pulling back a stump,” Patsouras said in an interview published in the September 2019 SMART Transportation Division News regarding the fire’s 50th anniversary.
Read Patsouras’ obituary.
Former UTU Vice President John L. Easley of Apple Valley, Calif., passed away Aug. 26 at age 87.
A veteran of the Korean War, Easley joined the union in August 1961 and was a member of Local 811 in San Bernardino, Calif.
Easley was elected a local chairman in the early 1960s, became a general chairperson in the 1970s was elected a UTU vice president in 1983 before his retirement in 1995.
A memorial web page for Brother Easley is available to leave condolences.
Willard Pearl, 86, of Pueblo, Colo., a former vice president of the United Transportation Union, passed away on Aug. 24.
Pearl joined the union in September 1956 and was a switchman on the Denver & Rio Grande Western Railroad from 1957-1971.
He served as a vice president from 1984 to 1995, when he retired.
After retirement, Pearl continued to donate to the union’s political action committee as a platinum level contributor.
Brother Pearl was also a member of the local Masons, Eagles, and Elks Lodge.
He is survived by his wife, Donna; two daughters; two stepchildren; two grandchildren and three step-grandchildren.
His full obituary is available here.
The SMART Transportation Division offers its heart-felt condolences to the families, friends and the local brothers and sisters of these three officers who faithfully served the union for many decades.
The SMART Transportation Division is primed to assist members in their time of need when disaster strikes.
Hurricane Laura hit Louisiana, Texas and Arkansas in late August. According to reports from the ground, the storm has inflicted extensive damage to many homes — particularly in the Lake Charles, Louisiana area — and some residents in Louisiana may have to wait weeks or months in order to have power again.
Our members in the impacted area, both active and retired, are faced with a long recovery and the painful task of rebuilding their homes and lives.
Furthermore, not only are they coping with the aftermath of hurricane, they are doing so against the backdrop of an unprecedented global pandemic.
We are asking the SMART-TD family to heed the call and give what you can so that the difficult task of starting over and rebuilding can begin for any members who have been affected by the fury of the storm.
In addition, based on information from affected members, a list of needed supplies has been compiled on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SMARTDisasterRelief
This list will be updated as needs evolve.
Any donations will help lessen the struggle and bring real hope and relief to SMART-TD members who are suffering after this great loss. SMART-TD will administer donations sent to the SMART TD Disaster Relief Fund.
Contributions may be sent and made payable to:
SMART TD Disaster Relief Fund
24950 Country Club Blvd.
Suite 340
North Olmsted, OH 44070-5333
Union Plus grant program
Union Plus also has disaster relief grants of $500 available to help participants in the Union Plus credit card, insurance or mortgage programs who are facing financial hardship due to severe weather. The money does not have to be repaid.
Union Plus mortgage holders may also be eligible to receive payment extensions or other special help.
To qualify for a Union Plus disaster relief grant, the union member must:
- Have been a victim of severe weather in counties designated by FEMA as qualifying for individual assistance.
- Have experienced a significant loss of income or property due to the disaster.
- Have had a Union Plus credit card, Union Plus insurance policy or Union Plus mortgage for at least 12 months, with the account or policy up to date in payments.
- Describe his or her circumstances and document the income or property loss.
To apply for a disaster relief grant, eligible union members should call:
Union Plus credit card: (877) 761-5028
Union Plus mortgage: (800) 472-2005
Union Plus insurance: (800) 472-2005
Go to https://www.unionplus.org/hardship-help/disaster-relief-grants
Telehealth is a Medicare-approved healthcare service between a provider and a patient via a telecommunication system (such as by phone or video chat). It’s been a covered service for more than a decade, focusing on rural areas where appropriate care may be hard to come by. Patients would be “seen” via a communications medium at a Medicare-approved location (not their homes), and the provider and the facility they were “seen” at would receive payment for the service.
Let’s fast forward to today. The model has changed. As of March 6, 2020, providers can perform “office” visits and other expanded services via telecommunications to a beneficiary at their home. Regulations require that the provider (your doctor, a physician assistant, nurse practitioner, etc.) have an interactive audio and video communications system for use in this service. An “office visit” is another term for a “doctor’s visit;” however, visits completed through telehealth can also include emergency department visits, initial hospital and nursing facility visits and hospice visits. Telehealth services also include psychotherapy, services for substance use disorders, certain physical, occupational and speech-language pathology services and many others.
The expansion to allow for telehealth services in a patient’s home are part of Medicare’s response to the COVID-19 Public Health Emergency (PHE) starting on March 6, 2020. Many Medicare patients are more vulnerable to this disease, based on their medical conditions and age. As such, the expansion of telehealth services makes sense for both the provider and the patient. This has been especially important as many provider offices were closed or were not accepting in-person visits with beneficiaries. Providers are still required to perform the service in a Medicare-approved location, such as a physician’s office, skilled nursing facility or hospital.
Seema Verma, administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) and a member of the White House Coronavirus Task Force, said that this expansion of services “represents a seismic shift, initiating a new era of healthcare delivery in America,” per CMS. (To learn more about Administrator Verma’s comments, please visit the CMS website at www.CMS.gov/Newsroom).
If you have a telehealth service, Part B coinsurance and deductible apply. You pay 20% of the Medicare allowed amount after your Part B deductible has been met. These costs are the same as if you had an in-person visit. If you have a preventive or screening service, for which the Part B coinsurance and deductible do not apply, you will pay nothing.
Be sure to watch your quarterly Medicare Summary Notice (MSN) to be sure the charges are correct as many providers are learning how to bill for these services in real-time. If you notice any discrepancies, or you are asked to pay more than you would for an in-person visit, be sure to call Palmetto GBA’s Beneficiary Contact Center at 800-833-4455, Monday through Friday, from 8:30 a.m. to 7 p.m. ET when customer service representatives are available or visit Palmetto GBA’s website at www.PalmettoGBA.com/RR/Me.