Wilma Liebman, a former chief of the National Labor Relations Board for three terms and a member of the board for more than a decade, described what she termed “a stacked deck” against American workers that has been assembled by the current presidential administration in an op-ed column published by The Morning Consult.
The term of the lone Democrat on the NLRB expired in December, and there currently are three Republicans on the board.
“There is no one still inside the board with power to defend the statute that protects the right of American workers to improve working conditions by joining together,” Liebman wrote.
Under President Donald Trump’s administration, Liebman describes a board that has reversed decades of precedent, been ignorant of ethics rules, put aside the advice of experienced staffers and has been hostile to the expansion of workers’ rights in favor of big business.
“If the past predicts the future, then even worse things are coming for workers and their unions,” Liebman wrote.
Read the full column at The Morning Consult.
Author: bnagy
The Railroad Retirement Board (RRB) has announced its schedule of pre-retirement seminars for the spring through the fall of 2020. The RRB hosts these seminars for rail employees and spouses who are within five years of retirement.
Registration is required to ensure accommodations and materials for all attendees, who are encouraged to bring original records (or certified copies) of documents required in order to file a Railroad Retirement application (such as proof of age, marriage or military service), along with an additional copy of each item to leave with field service staff.
While most of the program focuses on various aspects of Railroad Retirement benefits, each seminar closes with a brief presentation on railroad unemployment and sickness benefits to help prepare union officers for sharing reliable information with their members.
To RSVP for one of the seminars, visit the RRB website and select your local seminar from the scheduled list and follow the online registration link. To RSVP on paper, use the PDF registration form posted on the pre-retirement seminar webpage and print it and complete, then mail or fax your completed form to your local field office. Contact information for each office hosting a seminar can be found by clicking here. Online registration will be available approximately 60 days before the date of each seminar. Registration will close for any seminar that reaches capacity.
Unless otherwise noted, seminars begin at 8:30 a.m. and are held over the course of four hours. Doors open 30 minutes prior to start time. Security screening will be required for seminars hosted inside any federal buildings and photo ID will be required. No weapons are permitted in federal buildings. Please let the RRB know if you have signed up for a seminar and are unable to attend.
Dates and seminar locations:
- 8:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. (doors open at 8 a.m.) March 27, Covina, Calif — Courtyard by Marriott, 14635 Baldwin Park Towne Center, Baldwin Park, CA PARKING FEE: $4
- April 24, Plainview, N.Y. — Holiday Inn Plainview – Long Island, 215 Sunnyside Blvd.
- April 24, Ashland, Neb. — Eugene T. Mahoney State Park, 28500 West Park Hwy.
- May 8, Boston, Mass. — 408 Atlantic Avenue, Room 217 and 237
- May 8, Lakewood, Colo. — Holiday Inn Denver – Lakewood, 7390 W. Hampden Ave.
- May 15, Kansas City, Mo. — Richard Bolling Federal Building, 60 I E. 12th Street, Room G-41, (Dogwood Conference Room)
- May 29, Cleveland, Ohio — Sheet Metal Workers Local 33, 12515 Corporate Drive, Cleveland, Ohio
- June 5, Little Rock, Ark. — Comfort Inn & Suites Presidential, 707 Interstate 30
- June 5, Totowa, N.J. — Holiday Inn, 1 US Highway 46 West
- June 12, Fort Worth, Texas — Hampton Inn & Suites, Fort Worth-Fossil Creek, 3850 Sandshell Drive
- June 12, Indianapolis, Ind. — LaQuinta Inn & Suites Indianapolis, S, 5120 Victory Drive
- June 26 — Tinley Park, Ill. — Tinley Park Convention Center, 18451 Convention Center Drive
- September 18 — Albany, N.Y. — site to be announced 60 days prior to seminar
- October 23 — Philadelphia, Pa. — site to be announced 60 days prior to seminar
- October 30 — Pittsburgh, Pa. — site to be announced 60 days prior to seminar
The U.S. Railroad Retirement Board (RRB) is reminding its customers to use caution and common sense to avoid being the victim of a telephone or email scam. Should there be some type of issue with an individual’s account or benefits, the RRB will typically communicate with that person by sending a letter through the U.S. Postal Service. Such written notices contain contact information specific to each notice.
With the dramatic increase in “robocalls” in which automated dialing systems can disguise their source or even impersonate other numbers on caller ID, the opportunities for fraud and identity theft increase. The danger is not limited to the telephone, as scammers also use email as a means of obtaining personal information or money from unsuspecting recipients, often by impersonating a government agency.
While the RRB may request certain personal information over the phone to verify a person’s identity, RRB employees will never use threats to obtain information or demand payment in exchange for some official action. Similarly, they will not ask for a credit card number or demand payment in the form of cash, money orders or gift cards. Asking for these types of payment is typical of a fraud as these transactions are difficult to trace and often non-refundable.
If anyone pressures you to provide information or money over the phone, assume the call is fraudulent and hang up.
In addition to some of the previously described threats, emails often appear to be legitimate through use of seals or letterhead. And while misspellings or grammatical errors may indicate that an email is from a scammer, people should not assume that the lack of them makes an email legitimate.
There are steps that individuals can take to protect their personal information from fraud. These include the following:
- If you get an inquiry from someone saying they represent a company or a government agency, hang up and call the phone number on your account statement, in the phone book or on the company’s or government agency’s website to verify the authenticity of the request. (You will usually get a written statement in the mail before you get a phone call from a legitimate source, particularly if the caller is asking for a payment.)
- Store your Social Security card in a secure location and avoid carrying it with you.
- Shred documents that list personal information, including Social Security numbers, Medicare numbers, and bank/credit card information.
- Maintain strong passwords for online accounts and use anti-virus software.
- Avoid opening emails, links or attachments from unknown sources.
- Promptly review any bank or investment account statements and notify the account manager of any unauthorized transactions as quickly as possible.
- If you answer the phone and the caller — or a recording — asks you to hit a button to stop getting the calls, you should just hang up. Scammers often use this trick to identify potential targets.
People should be particularly vigilant in the coming months, as scammers often impersonate employees of the Internal Revenue Service or state tax collection agencies during income tax season.
If you receive a suspicious phone call, simply hang up. Likewise, if you receive a questionable email, delete it without clicking on any links or opening attachments. If the caller or sender is impersonating an RRB employee, please report this behavior immediately to the RRB’s Office of Inspector General by phone at 800-772-4258 or email at hotline@oig.rrb.gov.
The secretary & treasurer of SMART-TD Local 464 (Arkansas City, Kan.) rendered medical assistance to a teen who was found bleeding from a head wound on the side of the tracks in mid-February, saving the boy’s life.
Jason Schwartz, a U.S. Marine Corps veteran who served in Operation Iraqi Freedom during the battle of Fallujah in November 2003 and a TD member since 2006, described the situation:
“Today I was faced with a decision that ultimately changed the outcome for a 16-year-old kid.
“I was called out of Oklahoma City and took a train north to Arkansas City. At 1705, a southbound Z-train dialed up the emergency tone for DS-21 and advised they may have seen a kid/body on the right of way of the main line, and he looked to be dead.
“I was stopped in the siding meeting the Z-train, and without hesitation I donned my gear and headed to the location where the body was said to be. I took to foot and walked … to check on what the Z-train was reporting.
“When I got 30 yards away from the body, I called out, ‘Hey boy, hey buddy, I’m here to help!’ I didn’t know if the person was dead or alive, but I still wanted to announce I was there just in case the person was in a mad state of mind. I got about 10 yards away and saw the kid was still breathing and radioed, ‘We need an ambulance asap, he’s still alive,’ I opened my phone to take a video to show he was alive when I arrived in case he died in between the time I found him and when paramedics arrived.
“I gave the kid my Carhartt coat to reduce the risk of shock and hypothermia and help talk to the kid to keep him conscious. The kid had a major blow to the center of his forehead where it appeared he went headfirst into the spike and rail, maybe causing a skull fracture, and mangled his face up pretty bad.
“He lost lots of blood but was conscious to answer a few questions,” Schwartz said. “It was hard to make out what he was saying due to the blood coming from a 1.5-inch gash in his mouth.”
Paramedics arrived and Schwartz helped to bandage the teen’s head wound and to carry him out to where the boy would eventually be airlifted to Oklahoma University Medical Center for treatment. A sheriff’s deputy reported to management
that the actions of Schwartz, who is also his local’s legislative representative and GCA-020 secretary, were considered to be life-saving.
“The sheriff deputy told the road foreman that I went ‘above and beyond,’ but I would have done it for anybody,” Schwartz said later in a phone interview.
A big factor was the mindset he gained from his nine years in the Marines — “seek and save” — didn’t allow him to be passive when the situation presented itself, Schwartz said.
That’s why he walked a mile and a half to the site, focused on stopping the boy’s bleeding and sacrificed his coat to stave off shock for the victim.
“My Marine Corps instinct was there to get up and help,” he said. “If I’m in a position to help, it was just first nature.”
Schwartz visited the teen, who apparently had fallen from a train he had jumped on, in the hospital. Schwartz, familiar with the stretch where he found the teen, said the train could have been going as fast as 50 mph. The teen had a broken nose, fractured cheekbone and went through surgery to have a titanium plate inserted to help stabilize his head injuries with additional surgeries slated for jaw and dental repair, Schwartz said.
The conductor later received a letter from the teen’s adopted mother and biological sister thanking him for his life-saving aid.
“They were very, very thankful, and let me know that he was doing well,” Schwartz said. “This easily could’ve been the worst-case scenario.”
The teen’s position close to the tracks where Schwartz found him put him in jeopardy of getting hit by a passing train, and a video of the scene taken by Schwartz shows that the teen collapsed on the ballast.
“For all the thousands in technology, not one penny of it would have detected that person next to the tracks,” Schwartz said. “He was inches away from the cattle guard on the leading unit. He could have been
struck by the step rungs … PTC is signal-to-signal. There’s nothing there to warn the crew of an object on or near the tracks.”
The U.S. Department of Transportation clarified what is classified as marijuana for testing purposes in a release dated Feb. 18, 2020. Below is the release from DOT.
DOT OFFICE OF DRUG AND ALCOHOL POLICY AND COMPLIANCE NOTICE
The Agricultural Improvement Act of 2018, Pub. L. 115-334, (Farm Bill) removed hemp from the definition of marijuana under the Controlled Substances Act. Under the Farm Bill, hemp-derived products containing a concentration of up to 0.3% tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) are not controlled substances. THC is the primary psychoactive component of marijuana. Any product, including “Cannabidiol” (CBD) products, with a concentration of more than 0.3% THC remains classified as marijuana, a Schedule I drug under the Controlled Substances Act.
We have had inquiries about whether the Department of Transportation-regulated safety-sensitive employees can use CBD products. Safety-sensitive employees who are subject to drug testing specified under 49 CFR part 40 (Part 40) include: pilots, school bus drivers, truck drivers, train engineers, transit vehicle operators, aircraft maintenance personnel, fire-armed transit security personnel, ship captains and pipeline emergency response personnel, among others.
It is important for all employers and safety-sensitive employees to know:
- The Department of Transportation requires testing for marijuana and not CBD.
- The labeling of many CBD products may be misleading because the products could contain higher levels of THC than what the product label states. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) does not currently certify the levels of THC in CBD products, so there is no federal oversight to ensure that the labels are accurate. The FDA has cautioned the public that: “Consumers should beware purchasing and using any [CBD] products.” The FDA has stated: “It is currently illegal to market CBD by adding it to a food or labeling it as a dietary supplement.”* Also, the FDA has issued several warning letters to companies because their products contained more CBD than indicated on the product label. **[i]
- The Department of Transportation’s Drug and Alcohol Testing Regulation, Part 40, does not authorize the use of Schedule I drugs, including marijuana, for any reason. Furthermore, CBD use is not a legitimate medical explanation for a laboratory-confirmed marijuana positive result. Therefore, Medical Review Officers will verify a drug test confirmed at the appropriate cutoffs as positive, even if an employee claims they only used a CBD product.
It remains unacceptable for any safety-sensitive employee subject to the Department of Transportation’s drug testing regulations to use marijuana. Since the use of CBD products could lead to a positive drug test result, Department of Transportation-regulated safety-sensitive employees should exercise caution when considering whether to use CBD products.
The contents of this document do not have the force and effect of law and are not meant to bind the public in any way. This document is intended only to provide clarity to the public regarding existing requirements under the law or agency policies. This policy and compliance notice is not legally binding in its own right and will not be relied upon by the Department as a separate basis for affirmative enforcement action or other administrative penalty. Conformity with this policy and compliance notice is voluntary only and nonconformity will not affect rights and obligations under existing statutes and regulations. Safety-sensitive employees must continue to comply with the underlying regulatory requirements for drug testing, specified at 49 CFR part 40.
___________________________
[i]* What You Need to Know (And What We’re Working to Find Out) About Products Containing Cannabis or Cannabis-derived Compounds, Including CBD: The FDA is working to answer questions about the science, safety, and quality of products containing cannabis and cannabis-derived compounds, particularly CBD.” https://www.fda.gov/consumers/consumer-updates/what-you-need-know-and-what-were-working-find-out-about-products-containing-cannabis-or-cannabis ** https://www.fda.gov/news-events/public-health-focus/warning-letters-and-test-results-cannabidiol-related-products
· ODAPC CBD Notice.pdf
Virginia State Legislative Director Ronnie Hobbs reports that H.B. 440, the two-person freight crew bill that has passed the state House, is scheduled for a hearing Monday, February 17, at the state Capitol.
“We’re asking all of our Virginia members and their families to spend the day to get the word out,” Hobbs said. “Now is the time for us to show our state senators the importance of this public safety matter.”
The bill passed the House of Delegates by a 61-37 vote in January and there was a great show of support by SMART members and retirees. Hobbs would like to see that duplicated Monday.
Contact Hobbs at rhobbs1313@gmail.com for more details on how to show your support in the fight to keep two on the crew.
If approved as-is, a federal budget proposal for the 2021 fiscal year released Monday, Feb. 10, by President Donald Trump would reduce funding for Amtrak, the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) and underfund the Railroad Retirement Board (RRB).
Amtrak, the national passenger rail carrier, would see a 50 percent reduction in funding from the 2020 budget, with long-distance routes again in jeopardy of losing federal funding.
“Despite Amtrak’s success and the critical service it offers to so many, President Trump’s budget would slash funding for Amtrak by more than half,” the AFL-CIO Transportation Trades Department (TTD), of which SMART-TD is a member, said on Twitter. “These proposed cuts would apply to the Northeast Corridor, the busiest rail corridor in the country, and Amtrak’s broader national network, which serves low population areas.”
The low-population areas would include Kansas, Montana, Wyoming, and Arizona and, according to the administration, “would be better served by other modes of transportation like — wait for it — intercity buses,” TTD tweeted.
Amtrak has been a frequent target of the administration, with Trump seeking to cut funding for the national rail carrier every year he has been in office. The future of long-distance routes such as the Southwest Chief was jeopardized in 2018, and it took an outcry by legislators in both houses of Congress to preserve the routes through the 2019 fiscal year while the FAST Act, which expires this autumn, preserved it in fiscal year 2020.
The FRA, which has received about $3 billion in the past two Trump-era budgets, is targeted for nearly $1 billion in reductions.
In contrast, funding for the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) would increase by $300 million to $13.2 billion.
Finally, the Railroad Retirement Board (RRB) would be underfunded if Trump’s proposed budget goes through, board sources say.
The RRB requests $141,974,000 for administrative costs and $13,850,000 to help fund its IT upgrade efforts for a total of $155,824,000. The request will support 880 full-time equivalent (FTE) staff.
However, the president’s budget requests $114,500,000 for administrative and $5,725,000 for IT for a total of $120,225,000. The President’s budget would only support 672 FTE, which is 208 less than the agency’s request level and 119 less than the current level of 791 FTE.
The agency’s budget through the Trump administration’s term has remained flat at $113.5 million annually with an additional $10 million provided each year to help RRB’s efforts to modernize its IT infrastructure. Trump proposes to allocate $120.225 million to the agency in the next fiscal year.
“RRB needs a minimum of 880 full-time equivalent (FTE) staff to sustain mission critical operations. Stagnant administrative budgets coupled with cost-of-living salary increases for Federal employees have resulted in severe understaffing,” a message from RRB’s Office of the Labor Member said. “The impact of this understaffing is being felt in the agency’s customer service and its ability to accomplish mission critical goals.”
It stands to note that presidential budget proposals typically serve as a starting point for Congress as its members begin the task of setting the fiscal course for the country in an election year and rarely, if ever, are approved without alterations.
“The good news about the president’s budget would be that it will most assuredly be dead on arrival in the U.S. House,” SMART Transportation Division National Legislative Director Gregory Hynes said.
However, the proposed budget does serve as an indicator of where the administration’s budgetary priorities are.
A federal court in Texas ruled in favor of rail carriers this week, directing the SMART Transportation Division to negotiate over crew-consist without regard to moratoriums barring such negotiation.
U.S. District Court Judge Mark T. Pittman, a January 2019 Trump appointee, issued his ruling on February 10, 2020.
The case was filed Oct. 3, 2019, by BNSF, CSX, Kansas City Southern, Grand Trunk Western, Norfolk Southern, Illinois Central, Union Pacific, and the Belt Railway Company of Chicago asserting that the moratoriums in the various crew-consist agreements did not bar the carriers from reopening crew consist.
The judge, following the carriers’ arguments and ignoring any counter by the union, found that any dispute over whether the moratoriums barred reopening was a minor dispute, then nonsensically concluded that the union would have to negotiate while arbitrating over whether the union even had to negotiate in the first place.
“Unfortunately, this decision comes as no surprise. The court ignored the provisions of the RLA,” SMART-TD President Jeremy Ferguson said. “The judge sided with the carriers on every issue, not even recognizing our arguments or providing any real analysis. It is simply infuriating.”
Carriers are attempting to replace one of the crew members in the cab of the train with technology and to establish one-person operations. The crew-consist agreements that have been negotiated by the SMART-TD and its predecessor unions over many years stand in the way but are being undermined by this and other actions.
“As a group we are going to work together to correct the course that this ruling has put us on,” Ferguson said.
SMART-TD filed an appeal with the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans, La., on February 12, the day after the judge’s ruling was released.
In a related matter, the National Railway Labor Conference (NRLC), which represents the carriers, has requested that the National Mediation Board (NMB) appoint an arbitration board member to force a single arbitration over the more than two dozen crew-consist agreements that have been negotiated locally by various General Committees.
SMART-TD, and nearly two dozen of its GCs, have sued the NMB challenging the Republican members’ 2-1 decision granting the carriers’ request to appoint an arbitrator.
Judge Pittman’s ruling is available for review here.
The incident earlier this month in which a two-person crew helped to save a 5-year-old girl in his state reminded SMART Transportation Division Minnesota State Legislative Director Phillip Qualy of a letter his state’s legislative board submitted in 2018 in response to a federal Department of Transportation request for comment about autonomous rail operations.
“This was a good letter that our members should read and be aware of,” Qualy said. “This spells out the essential argument of why having two people on the crew is important.”
In the letter, Qualy reminds Batory that technology does not always reduce the tasks involved in operating a train, citing crew duties such as:
- Throwing manual switches and dual control switches, coupling cars, coupling air-hoses, setting hand brakes, pulling pin lifters to switch cars, replacing failed hoses, gaskets, replacing couplers, mechanical and air-brake inspections remain constant work tasks of any operation. Any ATT, PTC, and/or aerial drone cannot do these train tasks.
- When ATT and PTC programs fail en route, standing or delayed trains must not be permitted to block public roadways as a practice. The uncoupling of a standing train to open a grade crossing to allow vehicles to pass requires two persons.
- After grade crossing collisions with the public, immediate Samaritan response to help the injured is an essential and moral responsibility within the fabric of our society. Two persons on all trains are necessary to assist the public after grade-crossing and other accidents.
“The railroad carriers and their associations claim two persons will not be necessary on trains with ATT and/ or PTC,” Qualy wrote. “These technological control features have nothing to do with the necessary and essential tasks of the train-machine behind or ahead of the locomotives.”
The Feb. 1 incident in East St. Paul, Minn., in which a missing girl was found by a two-person train crew after they alertly stopped and provided aid is a perfect example of why two sets of eyes are needed in the cab.
“Railroad carriers have a moral responsibility to provide for the right of Samaritan response,” Qualy wrote in his letter.
The questions need to be asked. Would the girl have been seen if it were a one-person operation that night? Would the sensors of an autonomous train have detected her, stopped the train and invited her into the cab of the locomotive for warmth and protection and then contacted authorities so she could be reunited with her worried family?
Here’s a little reminder that some on the railroad believe in moral responsibility over innovation.
Read SLD Qualy’s letter.
A shooting aboard a Greyhound bus traveling between Los Angeles and San Francisco shows how passenger and operator security for ground transportation is more vulnerable when compared to air travel, The Associated Press reported.
One passenger lost her life and five other people were wounded, two critically, in the shooting that happened as the bus was moving on Interstate 5 near the small mountain community of Lebec, Calif., early Monday, Feb. 3. The suspect, a Maryland man, was restrained by passengers and arrested by authorities.
“Anyone determined to carry out an attack on ground transportation faces few, if any, security checks,” the AP report stated.
The report mentions that more than 30 million people in the U.S. use ground transportation daily while 3 million fly. But spending on security for ground transportation such as passenger trains, subways, light rail and buses is dwarfed by spending on air transportation security. An estimate from a former U.S. representative mentioned that after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks that security for buses, trains, subways and ferries combined was outspent by air security by more than $20 billion.
Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transit Agency in conjunction with the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) is enacting security devices that scan for weapons and explosives, the first in the nation to do so, AP reported.
But duplicating the level of security that exists at the nation’s airports would be a difficult task for ground transportation providers nationwide, AP stated.
“As it is now, drivers and passengers are the de facto, frontline security when violence breaks out on buses,” the report stated.
Read the entire article from The Associated Press.