U.S. Reps Carolyn B. Maloney, chairwoman of the Committee on Oversight and Reform, Peter A. DeFazio, chair of the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, and Gerald E. Connolly, chair of the Oversight and Reform Subcommittee on Government Operations, sent a letter to Secretary of Transportation Elaine L. Chao opposing President Donald Trump’s removal of former Acting Inspector General Mitch Behm and demanding he be reinstated immediately.
“We oppose President Trump’s removal of long-time public servant Mitch Behm from his position as Acting Inspector General of the Department of Transportation (DOT) and urge that he be immediately reinstated,” the Chairs wrote to Chao. “Mr. Behm’s removal is the latest in a series of politically motivated firings of Inspectors General by President Trump. This assault on the integrity and independence of Inspectors General appears to be an intentional campaign to undermine their ability to expose corruption and protect taxpayer dollars from waste, fraud, and abuse.”
Maloney, DeFazio, and Connolly also sent a letter to Mr. Elliott raising concerns about the conflicts of interest created by his simultaneous roles as PHMSA administrator and acting inspector general.
“This inherent conflict of interest would prohibit you from having the independence necessary to conduct fair and rigorous oversight of the Department and the Secretary,” the chairs wrote to Elliott. “Your dual appointment could severely chill whistleblower disclosures to the Office of Inspector General because whistleblowers might fear that their identities could become known to an official still serving in the Department. It also may chill communication within the Office of Inspector General if auditors or investigators are concerned that you will share information with Secretary Chao before it is appropriate.”
In their letters, the chairs requested information regarding ongoing audits, inspections, investigations, evaluations, reviews, or other engagements, as well as any communications regarding the removal of Mr. Behm and Mr. Elliott’s qualifications for Inspector General by June 1, 2020.
Author: bnagy
FROM MINNESOTA STATE LEGISLATIVE DIRECTOR PHILLIP QUALY:
Please call or email our friends in the Minnesota Republican House and Senate and ask them to vote for the House Capital Bonding Bill, H.F. 2529, with all railroad safety and passenger rail service provisions included. Please make your calls today and until Sunday, May 17th.
You can call and leave a message and/or send email. Your call will only take a few minutes. We need hundreds of railroad labor calls in support of H.F. 2529 to each Legislator below asking to vote for the House Capital Bonding bill.
At a time our state needs to go back to work when interest rates will never be lower and Minnesota has an AAA Bond Rating, this $2.5 billion jobs bill will stimulate our economy. We want to make sure our railroad safety and state corridor passenger rail expansion is included in the Senate bill.
At a time we are losing coal train jobs, state corridor passenger rail service with dual-carrier seniority can bring more railroad jobs in the future. As a reminder, when we have a strong constriction economy, railroad labor is hauling the lumber, cement, asphalt, solvents, steel, etc. With this bill, we are asking you to call for more railroad work.
Make your calls today!
- House Minority Leader Kurt Daudt: (R) Cambridge, 651-296-5364 rep.kurt.daudt@house.mn
- House Capital Bonding Minority Leader Dean Urdahl:(R), Grove City, 651-296-4344 rep.dean.urdahl@house.mn
- Sen. Paul Gazelka, Majority Leader: (R), Brainard, 651-296-4875 Use Mail Form
- Sen. David Senjem, Bonding Chair: (R) Rochester, 651-296-3903 sen.david.senjem@senate.mn
- Sen. Jeremy Miller, Senate President: (R) Winona, 651-296-5649 sen.jeremy.miller@senate.mn
- Sen. Jerry Relph, (R), St. Cloud, 651-296-6455 sen.jerry.relph@senate.mn
- Sen. Jason Rarick, (R) Hinckley, 651-296-1508 sen.jason.rarick@senate.mn
- Sen. Mike Goggin, (R), Red Wing, 651-296-5612 sen.mike.goggin@senate.mn
Directory of state senators
ASK EACH REPRESENTATIVE AND SENATOR TO SUPPORT THIS $2.5 BILLION BONDING BILL WITH ALL PASSENGER RAIL SERVICE PROVISIONS INCLUDED.
PDF of action alert (contains additional details)
PDF of memo on SF-3829
PDF of letter supporting H.F. 259
Phillip Qualy,
Minnesota State Legislative Director
William “Bill” J. DeBaun, a retiree from SMART Transportation Division Local 1532 and a former vice chairperson and legislative representative for the Kansas City, Kan., local, passed away late last month.
Brother DeBaun was 73 years old.
A yardman out of Argentine Yard in Kansas City, in addition to his service to Local 1532’s membership, Brother DeBaun also worked as a new hire training coordinator, helping those workers just starting out on the Atchison, Topeka Santa Fe Railway/BNSF. Many of those he had trained later asked about how Brother DeBaun and his wife of 34 years, Carol, were doing after his retirement from the railroad in 2005.
His work as vice local chairperson was “invaluable” to the members of LCA 1532, said SMART-TD Vice President Joe M. Lopez.
“Bill spent countless hours researching and processing time claims on behalf of the membership. Much of that work was done on his accord, without the members having to spend a second of their own time writing up the claim(s), while Bill sacrificed countless hours each month of his own time securing monies on their behalf,” Lopez said. “Bill was also an effective legislative representative for Local 1532. Bill’s efforts at taking on the carrier for safety violations were very effective.”
Lopez said that as a local chairperson, he and his predecessor, Doug Schlosser, benefited greatly from DeBaun’s impeccable organizational skills, as did the members who had their claims paid out.
“I believe I can safely speak on Doug’s behalf when I say both of us were extremely lucky to have worked with Bill. During our many years of working together, on the second Wednesday of every month, Bill and I would attend our regularly scheduled claims conference with local management and at the onset of each of those conferences Bill would hand me a large stack of claim dockets neatly organized and with an abundance of supporting documentation, which more often than not, led to a successful conference,” Lopez said. “The quality of Bill’s work as both a vice local chairperson and legislative representative has been unmatched and likely never will be. Bill made me a better local chairperson.”
Brother DeBaun was a veteran of the U.S. Navy. He is survived by his wife, Carol, nephews John & Shawn Strange and a number of other relatives.
SMART Transportation Division offers its sincere condolences to his family, his Local 1532 union brothers and sisters and all who knew Brother DeBaun.
His full obituary is available here.
CLEVELAND, Ohio (April 21, 2020) – Unfortunately, due to the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, including the state of Ohio’s orders regarding distancing and banning meetings, we have had to cancel the 2020 SMART Transportation Division Regional Meeting.
Accordingly, please disregard the registration information printed in the February/March SMART Transportation Division News. That particular edition of the News was published prior to the decision to cancel.
For anyone who has already registered, you will be receiving a refund of the registration fees. Those who had registered electronically will have a full refund automatically returned to the card that was used to make their registration. If you paid for the registration by a method other than credit card, you will also receive a refund in the near future.
As a reminder, please note that members are responsible for the cancellation of their personal travel and hotel reservations.
A message from John Bragg, the Railroad Retirement Board’s labor member, released this week stated that the increased $1,200 in unemployment benefits from the CARES Act will begin to be deposited toward the end of the month.
“We do not have an implementation date as of yet, but barring unforeseen complications, (we) hope to have Phase 2 completed by the end of the month,” Bragg stated. “Our team is working on the necessary programming changes to provide for those payments.”
The payment of the additional $1,200 biweekly per registration period for unemployment claims beginning April 1, 2020, or later will be paid retroactively to April 1 once the necessary adjustments are made to the RRB’s system.
“I assure you that agency employees recognize the lifeline that these benefits represent for the railroad community and all appropriate resources are being directed towards completing this work as soon as possible,” Bragg said.
The first phase of CARES Act unemployment assistance for rail workers required RRB to identify all employees who exhausted their regular UI benefits during the benefit year that began July 1, 2019, establish new extended UI periods and lengthen existing extended UI benefit periods as appropriate and pay any denied days of unemployment already on record.
RRB also sent UI claimants a letter of the payment actions and mailed any needed claim forms to bring claimants current so they can continue to receive the extended benefits. For those who file their claims electronically, the RRB loaded appropriate claim forms to their online accounts so that individuals can file them online through myRRB on the website RRB.gov.
Read an earlier release from RRB about the CARES Act unemployment benefits.
From the RRB’s Public Affairs office:
The Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act, or CARES Act, recently signed into law by President Trump, authorized extended unemployment insurance (UI) benefits for railroad workers sidelined during the COVID-19 pandemic. After making necessary programming changes to agency systems, the U.S. Railroad Retirement Board (RRB) began processing and paying extended benefits on May 11.
The CARES Act authorized payment of extended UI benefits to rail workers who received UI benefits from July 1, 2019, to June 30, 2020. Under the legislation, railroad workers with less than 10 years of service may be eligible for up to 65 days of extended benefits within 7 consecutive 2-week registration periods. Workers with 10 or more years of railroad service, who were previously eligible for up to 65 days in extended benefits, may now receive benefits for up to 130 days within 13 consecutive 2-week registration periods. No extended benefit period under this provision can begin after December 31, 2020.
The RRB will identify any employees who exhausted their regular UI benefits during the benefit year that began July 1, 2019, and send them a letter and claim forms to receive the extended benefits. The agency will also load appropriate claim forms to online accounts so that individuals can file them online through myRRB on the agency website, RRB.gov.
Since RRB offices are currently closed to the public due to the pandemic, railroad employees are encouraged to file for UI benefits by setting up an online myRRB account if they have not already done so.
The extended benefits are being paid from a previous appropriation under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, of which $140 million remains. As a result, these benefits will not be charged to rail employers in calculating their contribution rates to fund the railroad unemployment system. Extended benefits will be payable until a claimant’s eligibility is exhausted or the appropriation is depleted, whichever comes first.
While the extended benefits will not be subject to reduction due to budget sequestration, the RRB does remind recipients that the payments are subject to income taxation and garnishment for tax or other legally established debts.
The team responsible for programming adjustments continues to work diligently to update systems to allow for the payment of the additional CARES Act benefits. When that processing is completed, payment will be made to cover retroactive periods. Meanwhile, employees who met eligibility requirements for UI at the beginning of the benefit year but had exhausted those benefits will now be able to file for and again receive UI benefits.
BNSF announced on Wednesday in a letter to employees that three maintenance shops will be closed in Montana and Wyoming, while additional mechanical department job cuts will occur in Alliance and Lincoln, Neb.; Mandan and Minot, N.D.; Topeka, Kan.; and Superior, Wis.
“In total, approximately 19 salaried and 344 craft positions will be impacted,” the carrier stated. “These adjustments come as the result of long-term structural market changes, most notably in the coal and energy sector, and reduced demand for freight transportation services at the impacted locations.”
The Donkey Creek, Wyo., shop is scheduled to close June 5 while the facilities in Glendive, Mont., and Guernsey, Wyo., are scheduled to close July 7.
The Wyoming facility closures will result in 122 jobs lost. In Topeka, 28 jobs will be cut.
“Closing our facilities and reducing jobs in communities where we’ve had a long-lasting presence is a difficult but necessary decision,” the carrier said.
Follow this link for more details about the layoffs.
Canadian Pacific’s acquisition of the Central Maine & Quebec Railway (CM&Q) was approved by the federal Surface Transportation Board (STB) on May 1, and will take effect June 18, 2020.
The purchase from Fortress Transportation and Infrastructure Investors LLC, officially by the wholly owned Soo Line subsidiary of CP, was originally announced Nov. 20, 2019, and with approval now gives the Class I carrier trackage and facilities running from St. Jean, Quebec, Canada, to Searsport, Maine.
In a filing with the STB, CP said it plans to upgrade CM&Q’s system to Class III standards with an investment of up to $75 million. STB members had no objections to the acquisition and dismissed comments and conditional requests by Springfield Terminal Railway Company, among others.
CM&Q owns approximately 244 miles of rail lines in Vermont and Maine and has operating rights across another 57 miles, according to the STB. The Canadian portion of CM&Q has about 237 miles of track which also will be transferred in the sale.
SMART Transportation Division represents 52 members on the CM&Q in the Transportation, Mechanical and Engineering Departments who belong to GO-049, which is represented by General Chairman Rick Lee.
Read the STB’s decision.
SMART Transportation Division Local 61 (Philadelphia, Pa.) has experienced the loss of a second member from the novel coronavirus.
“I saw him at every union meeting we had – and sometimes he was the only person there,” said Bernard Norwood, general chairperson of GO-STA. “Stephen was very committed to the union. He was a really nice guy.”
Using money out of his own pocket, Brother McFadden donated to the local’s annual holiday party without fail, Norwood said.
McFadden was a very passionate Phillies fan – sometimes catching part of the game during the down time he had during a shift and filling in his union brothers and sisters on what was going on – and making sure the game was on the TV in the crew room. He also was a very particular lottery player, schooling people to scratch from the bottom up and letting them know the range of numbers they should snag when considering a scratch-off ticket purchase.
Another tradition he was known for was on pay weeks – when the system processed the payroll and employees knew they were going to get their deposits, he’d greet his brothers and sisters with a cheery “Happy Wednesday!”
“That’s going to be missed a lot, especially today,” Norwood said. (He was interviewed on May 6 — a Wednesday morning.)
On April 14, McFadden’s Local 61 brother Michael A. Hill, 58, of Glassboro, N.J., died of COVID-19. Norwood says he’s received reports of 35 positive coronavirus cases and 135 SEPTA workers have been in quarantine. Seventy-two are back on the job.
Norwood said it’s been an uphill fight to get the carrier to mirror some of the sanitizing practices being adopted in New York and in New Jersey, to provide personal protective equipment and to adhere to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention measures.
“We’re still fighting for temperature checks and to get marks on the floors for social distancing,” Norwood said, although he said he’s seeing some progress.
To date, SMART-TD nationally has lost at least eight members and retirees to the pandemic, according to reports submitted to the union.
Net Earnings: Decreased 5% to $1.19 billion.
Revenue: Decreased 6% to $5.4 billion.
Operating Income: Increased 2% to $1.8 billion.
Operating Expenses:Decreased 6.7% to $3.6 billion.
Operating Ratio: Improved by 4 points to 65.2%.
Link to read BNSF’s full earnings report.
Net Earnings: Increased to C$1.01 billion from C$786 million.
Earnings Per Share: Diluted earnings per share increased 31% to C$1.42 from C$1.08 and adjusted diluted EPS increased by 4% to C$1.22.
Revenue: Remained flat at C$3.5 billion.
Operating Income: Increased to C$1.215 million from C$1.08 billion.
Operating Expenses: Decreased 5% to C$2.33 billion from C$2.46 billion.
Operating Ratio: Improved by 3.8 points to 65.7%; Adjusted operating ratio improved 1.5 points to 65.7% from 67.2%.
Link to read CN’s full earnings report.
Net Earnings: Decreased to C$409 million from C$434 million.
Earnings Per Share: Diluted earnings per share decreased 4% to $2.98; adjusted diluted earnings per share increased 58% to $4.42.
Revenue: Increased 16% to C$2.04 billion from C$1.77 billion.
Operating Income: Increased 54% to C$834 million from C$534 million.
Operating Expenses: Decreased to C$1.209 billion from C$1.224 billion.
Operating Ratio: Improved 1,010 basis points to 59.2%.
Link to read CP’s full earnings report.
Net Earnings: Decreased 8% to $770 million from $834 million.
Earnings Per Share: Decreased 2% to $1.00.
Revenue: Decreased 5% to $2.85 billion from $3.01 billion.
Operating Income: Decreased 3% to $1.17 billion from $1.22 billion.
Operating Expenses: Decreased 7% to $1.68 billion.
Operating Ratio: Improved to a first quarter record of 58.7% from 59.5%
Link to read CSX’s full earnings report.
Net Earnings: Increased to $151.7 million from $102.7 million.
Earnings Per Share: Increased to $1.58 per diluted share from $1.02.
Revenue: Increased 8% to a record $731.7 million from $674.8 million
Operating Income: Increased to $288.8 million from $160.3 million.
Operating Expenses: Decreased to $442.9 million from $514.5 million
Operating Ratio: Improved 15.7 points to 60.5% from 76.2%; adjusted operating ratio improved 6.5 points to 59.7% from 66.2%
Link to read KCS’s full earnings report.
Net Earnings: Decreased 44% to $381 million from $677 million.
Earnings Per Share: Diluted earnings per share decreased to $1.47 from $2.51.
Revenue: Decreased to $2.63 billion from $2.8 billion.
Operating Income: Decreased to $568 million from $966 million.
Operating Expenses: Increased to $2.06 billion from $1.87 billion.
Operating Ratio: Declined to 78.4% from 66.0%.
Link to read NS’s full earnings report.
Net Earnings: Increased to $1.5 billion from $1.4 billion.
Earnings Per Share: Increased to $2.15 per diluted share from $1.93 per diluted share
Revenue: Decreased 3% to $5.2 billion from $5.4 billion
Operating Income: Increased 9% to $2.14 billion from $1.96 billion
Operating Expenses: Decreased 10% to $3.09 billion from $3.4 billion
Operating Ratio: Improved 4.6 points to 59.0% from 63.6%
Link to read UP’s full earnings report.
Notes:
- Operating ratio is a railroad’s operating expenses expressed as a percentage of operating revenue, and is considered by economists to be the basic measure of carrier profitability. The lower the operating ratio, the more efficient the railroad.
- All comparisons are made to 2019’s first-quarter results for each railroad.
- All figures for CN & CP are in Canadian currency, except for earnings per share for CP