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Given a second chance to act, New York Governor Kathy Hochul has chosen to side with safety.

In late 2022, a bill requiring two-person crews on freight trains in the state reached her desk — and she vetoed it.

But something changed in 2023. Perhaps it was seeing legislatures and governors in both Ohio and Minnesota take the steps to pass legislation, or the catastrophic derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, that happened last February.

Either way, Hochul made the right decision on December 8, 2023, when she signed S.5775 into law: capping a superlative effort from SMARTTD’s New York State Legislative Board led by State Legislative Director Sam Nasca.

A mere three years ago, a bill establishing a minimum freight crew size did not even make it out of a state Senate committee. Now, New York is the third state in 2023 to pass two-person crew legislation, bringing the total number of states to have implemented legislation or regulations regarding a minimum two-person crew to 12.

“Another state has come to the conclusion that a two-person crew is appropriate and necessary for safe railroad operations,” SMART-TD National Legislative Director Greg Hynes said. “We thank all of the legislators, especially state Senator Timothy Kennedy, who introduced the bill in his chamber, and Assemblyman Bill Magnarelli for their leadership.

“Congratulations to all on the TD New York State Legislative Board for pulling together and achieving another victory.”

The bill was introduced in March and establishes an escalating structure of fines for violations by Class I and II rail carriers that run freight trains without two on the crew in the state. It took effect in January 2024.

On December 8, 2023, United States President Joe Biden and SMART-TD President Jeremy Ferguson announced a $6 billion investment in America’s rail infrastructure and in the value of union jobs through two high-speed rail projects in California and Nevada.

“When I ran for president, I made a commitment to build a high-speed rail worthy of America. I mean it — put our nation on track with the fastest, safest and greenest railways in the world, and high-speed,” President Biden said during an announcement event in Las Vegas, Nevada. “You have no idea how much this pleases me: At long last, we are building the first high-speed rail project in our nation’s history, and it’s starting here.

“It means growth and opportunity for towns and communities between here and the California coast. It’s on track to be completed by the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles. And here’s the best part — it means jobs. Union jobs, jobs, jobs, jobs!”

“The idea of high-speed rail has been discussed in this country for decades, and it is beyond exciting to see it coming together here today,” Ferguson added. “Our members, and our brothers and sisters throughout rail labor, should see this as a day when our nation’s president and the country itself recognized our value and what we bring to the table. The skills our conductors, engineers and yardmasters possess were not an afterthought when the plans for this rail line came together. They are invaluable to this project and woven into the fabric of what will make this high-speed rail project a success.”

Labor representatives at the announcement of two U.S. high-speed rail projects with Federal Railroad Administrator Amit Bose in Las Vegas

This project has been years in the making and is becoming a reality now due to the public-private partnership between the federal government and the Brightline West Railroad. In plans submitted to the administration, Brightline highlighted the efficiency of this high-speed rail project, stating that trains will travel at speeds upwards of 186 mph – making it possible to get from Southern California to Las Vegas in just over two hours, a fraction of the time it takes on the highway. Other benefits include taking traffic off the heavily congested U.S. Interstate 15, as well as positive impacts on environmental emissions. This project will also bolster the economies of some of our nation’s largest cities.

As a stipulation for receiving federal funding, Brightline West committed to using an organized workforce. SMART-TD has been part of the planning for this project since the railroad made that commitment to Biden and Congress. Along with employing thousands of our brothers and sisters in the SMART Rail, Mechanical and Engineering Department, the Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way, Brotherhood of Railroad Signalmen, TCU and all of our rail labor partners, Brightline West also committed to running their trains with SMART-TD crews.

SMART Transportation Division National Legislative Director Gregory Hynes shakes hands with President Joe Biden on Friday, Dec. 8, after Biden’s announcement about funding a pair of high-speed rail projects in California and Las Vegas.

The project will provide hundreds of good, union jobs in the railroad industry, and it serves as an example of what can be accomplished when private industry, the federal government and a strong labor coalition are all pulling in the same direction.

“It’s a proud day for us, and we thank Congresswoman Dina Titus from Nevada’s First Congressional District, Congressman Steven Horsford from Nevada District 4, Congresswoman Susie Lee from Nevada’s Third District, and Nevada’s U.S. Senators Jacky Rosen and Catherine Cortez Masto, along with the Department of Transportation, and of course, President Joe Biden himself for all of their work to make this dream a reality for our men and women,” Ferguson concluded.

LaborPress honored SMART-TD General Chairperson and Alt. Vice President Anthony Simon and other labor leaders with its annual Labor Leadership Awards on November 28. Simon is general chairperson of GO 505, where he represents Long Island Rail Road conductors, track workers, building and bridge workers, track supervisors, car repair workers and other TD members.

Simon started his career as a station cleaner, winning election to a variety of positions in his local union before becoming general chairperson in 2007. “I have achieved industry standard wage increases, pension improvements, maintained work rule protections, benefit packages and most importantly kept all of our members working during the COVID-19 pandemic when MTA ridership was decimated,” he told LaborPress.

Congratulations on this well-deserved award, brother! 

Picture of the Pa. Captiol from then-Gov. Tom Wolf from Harrisburg, Pa. Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/deed.en
Picture of the Pa. Capitol from then-Gov. Tom Wolf from Harrisburg, Pa. Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.

Across the country, SMART members are running for elected office — and winning. As leaders in their communities, these members are able to influence the policies that matter to their fellow union workers, and they can ensure union issues are prioritized.

There are a variety of reasons why members run. They want to serve their neighbors and communities. They want to make sure labor has a voice in our decision-making bodies, and that our priorities — such as prevailing wages, project labor agreements (PLAs), registered apprenticeship utilization, health and safety protections and other workforce standards — get the attention they deserve. They want to push back against anti-union and anti-worker rhetoric from inside our governing bodies.

“They want to make sure labor has a voice in our decision-making bodies, and that our priorities — such as prevailing wages, project labor agreements (PLAs), registered apprenticeship utilization, health and safety protections and other workforce standards — get the attention they deserve.”

“The more of our members that hold public office, the better we are as an organization,” said SMART Local 33 (northern Ohio) Business Representative and Toledo City Councilman Matt Cherry. “Our local has had some very big wins because of this position, including countless PLAs and licensing requirements.”

Anyone can run for elected office. Read through the tips below to learn how you can start the process:

Get involved locally:

Get active in your community. For example, SMART members currently in office have served on boards, committees and task forces in order to get to know their communities and other elected leaders before running for elected office.

Consult with your union:

Talking to local union leadership is the first thing every SMART member currently holding office has done.

Attend trainings:

Attend the AFL-CIO’s Path to Power training. This training is designed to teach union members and local activists how to run for public office and build power that will positively influence our communities.

Seek endorsements:

Make sure you get the endorsement of SMART. After talking to your local, contact your AFL-CIO Central Labor Council, state federation and state building trades council. These are bodies that can help you seek out other local union endorsements as well as endorsements from other community stakeholders.

Build a campaign budget:

SMART members currently holding office have raised funds from individuals, unions and/or through the local political party. Having the support of the labor community will be key to helping you raise money to support your campaign.

Aside from elected positions, there are many opportunities to get involved in local politics. All cities and counties have committees, boards and commissions that constituents can join. Serving in this capacity is an important way to help advance SMART’s priorities and build our political power.

“If you’re thinking of running, do it,” said East Haven, Conn. Town Councilwoman and SMART Local 40 member Kimberly Glassman. “By and large, most politicians have no idea the contributions that the unionized construction industry makes. They don’t know why prevailing wage laws are so important. They don’t know what a PLA is. But our opposition is well-funded and motivated to decimate our industry. Just being in the room where conversations about municipal or state projects are had is a huge win. It’s moving the dial for all of us. The more of us that hold elected office, the better.”

SMART members in New Jersey at a Passaic Central Labor Council labor walk.
SMART members in New Jersey at a Passaic Central Labor Council labor walk.

This election cycle, SMART members across sheet metal and the Transportation Division flexed their muscles at the ballot box, helping elect union-friendly candidates across the United States. That includes SMART members who ran for office themselves, pledging to pursue policy that supports working families.

In New Jersey, the SMART New Jersey State Council endorsed a bipartisan group of pro-labor candidates that won big. Johnnie Whittington of Local 27 (southern New Jersey) won his election to the East Windsor Township Council, while Glen Kocsis — also from Local 27 — won re-election to the Neptune City Council: putting the voice of SMART workers in powerful positions to benefit their union brothers and sisters.

“So far this election cycle, 82% of our labor candidates have won their elections,” said Joseph Demark, Jr., president of the New Jersey State Council for Sheet Metal Workers, president and business manager of Local 25 (northern New Jersey) and executive board member of the New Jersey State AFL-CIO. “Together, we made the difference and won!”

In Kentucky, SMART members endorsed and helped re-elect Andy Beshear as governor. His victory is a big win for workers — during his first term, he made Kentucky the battery manufacturing capital of America, and he stood shoulder-to-shoulder with union members from the picket line to the governor’s office. Thanks in no small part to Beshear’s leadership, SMART members are seeing an extraordinary amount of work in the Bluegrass State — and our union is growing as a result.

Up and down the ballot, in races across the country, SMART members fueled a score of impressive victories. Warren Faust, SMART International representative and former business manager of Local 44 (northeastern Pennsylvania), won re-election to the Wilkes-Barre School Board. And in Virginia, workers marched to the ballot box to help pro-union candidates take the state House and Senate, putting advocates for working families in control of policymaking.

Ultimately, 2023 reiterated the importance of the union vote. Election Day reminds all legislators: When you stand with union members, union members stand with you.

“From door-knocking, to phone-banking, to peer-to-peer text messaging, we showed the power of our vote,” said SMART-TD Virginia State Legislative Director Ronnie Hobbs. “When we stand together as one, there is NOTHING that can stop us in our tracks.”

For father-daughter sheet metal workers Anthony Smith and Amber Jones, joining SMART Local 4 (Memphis, Tennessee) and working for signatory contractor Ventcon has demonstrated the difference between a nonunion gig and a union career.

“Before I joined the union, I didn’t think I’d ever really be able to retire — I’ve always bartended, served, didn’t have anything going into retirement,” said Jones, a first-year apprentice. “Here with the local, I’m able to retire one day. I’m actually able to pay my bills, financially afford to feed my kids and, you know, moving up in life.”

“I’ve been in the trade off and on for about 30 years,” added Smith, a Marine Corps veteran and a member of Local 4 since August 2023. “I was always told that being unionized was something I would not want to consider, but everything that I’d heard about Local 4 — and of course, experiencing it now — I wish I would’ve [joined] a long time ago. … With the way the local treats you, the way everybody here treats you, it just gives you a better opportunity to move forward.”

Both Smith and Jones are currently at work fabricating metal for Ford’s massive Blue Oval City electric vehicle plant in Stanton, Tennessee. For the country at-large, their jobs are helping to build our sustainable economic and clean energy future. For the two Local 4 sheet metal workers, it’s an extraordinary amount of fabrication work.

“It’s great work. It’s not easy work, but it’s good, honest work — you make good pay,” Smith said.

“[Ford Blue Oval City] is needing a ton of metal, which we are constantly pushing out — truck loads a day,” Jones explained. “I love the people that I work with; I enjoy coming to work every day.”

The work is one thing, but the benefits of union membership go beyond just material gains. For Jones, the union apprenticeship program has helped nurture a love of learning in a trade that has endless possibilities.

“I like to stay busy; I like to learn new things, being able to understand how things work,” she said. “I go to school every Monday and Tuesday night. It’s very welcoming; they’ve been there for me, helped guide me, they’re teaching me everything that I need to know.”

Smith, meanwhile, said the sense of camaraderie parallels what he had in the Marines.

“Everybody helps each other, you know. We don’t just finish a job that we’re on and stand around, and watch everybody else maybe struggle,” he said. “Everybody pulls together to get the job done. It’s a great team that works out here, and it’s probably the best atmosphere I’ve been in in a very, very long time.”

The SMART Transportation Division Colorado State Legislative Board announced that a railroad safety bill it supports received a key committee endorsement on October 3 and looks likely to be considered in the state Legislature’s 2024 session.

By a 14–6 vote, the state’s Joint Transportation Legislation Review Committee approved of the measure, which limits train lengths to 8,500 feet and sets placement of trackside detectors to mirror what is proposed in the Railway Safety Act introduced after the East Palestine, Ohio, disaster in February 2023. The legislation also would prohibit carriers from blocking rail crossings for longer than 10 minutes.

According to Colorado State Legislative Director Carl Smith, the Ohio derailment was the impetus for some of the legislators to take a hard look at rail safety — and a couple of other incidents closer to home have kept the attention on the railroad.

“A military train from Fort Carson derailed right across from the El Paso County Jail, in Colorado Springs,” Smith said. “So that drew a lot of media attention, a lot of media spotlight.”

Incidents such as the Colorado Springs derailment and a second, more recent incident in Pueblo, Colorado, combined with members’ active outreach, made the commonsense efforts advocated by SMART-TD hard to ignore — even for people who had previously aligned with the carriers.

Smith said that state Rep. Ty Winter had adamantly refused to support rail safety legislation in the 2023 session and was a “no” for several months leading up to the vote in early October, but changed his mind in a statement to the review committee.

“I firmly believe the pressure that Rep. Winter received from the railroad workers that live and work in the 47th House District caused a significant change to his previous stance,” Smith said. “We will thank Rep. Winter for his support and continue to ensure that he supports rail safety legislation. The lobbyists of both railroads were visibly shocked by Winter’s statement and vote.”

A great deal of work on the legislation has been done, but there’s more ahead.

“We still have many steps to go before it gets to the governor’s desk for signature,” Smith noted.

But the committee endorsement with bipartisan support and 14 cosponsors — even before introduction before the full Legislature in 2024 — give it a leg up over legislation starting from scratch.

Smith also said that the legislation remains subject to amendment, especially at the encouragement of the railroad carriers, to soften the protections the bill advocates.

“I anticipate that happening,” he cautioned.

Smith and the Colorado State Legislative Board have already created a coalition of other unions, public safety and environmental groups to help raise awareness in the Legislature for a successful outcome that mirrors the winning two-person crew effort in the state in 2019.

“We will continue to educate legislators on railroad safety and lobby them to support the bill for the 2024 session,” Smith concluded.

SMART Assistant to the General President Donna Silverman left her post at SMART effective December 31, 2023. During her tenure, Silverman worked indefatigably to advance the interests of SMART members, particularly those in underrepresented communities — helping position our union for generations to come.

Silverman began her time at SMART in 2017 as house counsel, transitioning to her role as assistant to the general president in 2020. Prior to joining SMART, she worked as an in-house assistant legal counsel for the International Association of Fire Fighters and worked for a Washington, DC, law firm, where she represented union members and employees and worked on cases related to employment discrimination, duty of fair representation, wage and hour, and arbitrations.

Silverman pioneered a variety of initiatives during her time at SMART that helped our union make enormous strides in recruitment, retention, inclusion and beyond, setting the groundwork for SMART to grow and meet this moment of opportunity. She helped lead the implementation of the I Got Your Back Campaign, the Belonging and Excellence for All (BE4ALL) initiative and the formation of the SMART International Women’s Committee, and she drafted amendments to the SMART Constitution that helped make our union more welcoming to all members.

SMART General President Michael Coleman paid tribute to Silverman during the 2023 Tradeswomen Build Nations conference, saying she has “moved mountains” at SMART.

“Donna, you’re one of my best friends, and I can’t tell you how much I appreciate you — thank you for being you.”

In December, SMART-TD announced the members who will serve on the Bus and Transit Assault Prevention and Safety (BTAPS) Committee. This committee, which was voted on at the 2023 SMART Leadership Conference in Washington, DC, is being chaired by Christine Ivey, a member of SMART-TD Local 1785 who works as a bus operator for the Santa Monica Municipal Bus Lines.

In addition to Sister Ivey, the members of the BTAPS Committee will be the following:

Bus members

  • Russ Gaillard, Local 1582, Adirondack Transit Lines, Albany, New York
  • Sandra Pineda, Local 1563, LACMTA, El Monte, California
  • Bruce Cheatham, Local 1594, SEPTA, Upper Darby, Pennsylvania
  • Pedro (Pete) Lara, Jr., Local 1563, LACMTA, El Monte, California

Transit/commuter members

  • Cole Czub, Local 898, KEOLIS, Boston, Massachusetts
  • Ernest Higgerson, Local 1525, Amtrak, Carbondale, Illinois
  • Joseph Williams, Local 800, New Jersey Transit, Newark, New Jersey

This committee will be focusing its efforts on lobbying at the state level and in Washington, DC, to promote bills that ensure the best demonstrated practices for transit worker safety and bring down the alarming rate of assaults on our brothers and sisters. BTAPS members will also be working with carriers, the Federal Transit Administration and other federal agencies to promote best practices to make our members safer on the job.

“I want to thank all our bus and transit members who volunteered to serve on this important committee. After careful consideration, we have chosen eight members that represent a geographically diverse cross section of our bus, transit and commuter service workforce,” SMART-TD President Jeremy Ferguson said. “We are lucky to have many talented people in our union, and we look forward to the progress this BTAPS Committee will make. Under Christine Ivey’s leadership, I am sure they will make an immediate impact on the safety of our bus and transit rail members.”

The National Energy Management Institute (NEMI) announced the appointment of Cassandra Kline as the director of certification for the International Certification Board (ICB), effective October 16, 2023. Kline brings a wealth of knowledge and commitment to this role, having served as NEMI director of construction technology. She also assisted with ANAB/ANSI (ANSI National Accreditation Board/American National Standards Institute) duties.

“We trust her dedication to excellence, leadership skills, and deep understanding of our organization make her the perfect candidate to lead our certification program into the future,” said NEMI Administrator Lisa Davis. “We are excited to see her bring the same level of dedication to her new role.”