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SMART Transportation Division-represented train and engine workers employed by Lake Superior and Ishpeming Railroad Company have ratified a new five-year agreement by an overwhelming 89 percent majority.

The agreement provides for substantial wage increases equal to the 2011 national UTU agreement, including percentage increases to crew consist payments, full back-pay and increases in training pay.

The agreement also provides improved bereavement leave, establishes a Rule-G bypass agreement and establishes a health and welfare benefit package that replicates the National Health and Welfare package, including the Early Retirement Major Medical Benefit Plan.

SMART TD International Vice President Dave Wier, who assisted with the negotiations, congratulates International Organizer W.W. Lain, General Chairperson Dan Beckman and committee members John Hytinen, Tim Thomas and Jake Sinclair for “the effort put forth in bringing the members concerns’ to the bargaining table and negotiating an agreement with substantial improvements in wages and working conditions.”

Lake Superior & Ishpeming’s primary business is the transportation of iron ore over a 16-mile short line from the Empire-Tilden Mine, operated by Cliffs Natural Resources, south of Ishpeming, to Lake Superior for transport.

The Lake Superior and Ishpeming Railway was organized in 1893 as a subsidiary of Cleveland-Cliffs Iron Company (now Cliffs Natural Resources), the iron ore mining company. From its beginning, the railroad’s primary business was the transport of iron ore from the Marquette Iron Range, west of Marquette, to docks on Lake Superior, from which the ore could be shipped to steel mills on the lower Great Lakes.

In a May 29 decision long dreaded by union coal miners, a bankruptcy court in St. Louis agreed that Patriot Coal has the right to void its collective bargaining agreements and cancel its pension and retirement obligations to 20,000 workers and family members.

The United Mine Workers of America (UMWA) argued in court that Patriot should not be let out of its debts, charging that its parent company, Peabody Energy, had designed Patriot to fail as a ploy to get out of $1 billion in retiree obligations. According to a financial analysis by Temple University Professor of Finance Bruce Rader, Patriot Coal was spun off from Peabody Energy with 42 percent of Peabody’s liabilities, but only 11 percent of its assets.

Read the complete story at In These Times.

 

You might remember the TV commercial: A single locomotive pulling doublestacked containers through a pastoral landscape, a logjam of trucks and autos on the adjacent roadway, everything moving uncharacteristically slow, but the message conveyed with undeniable clarity: Trains move goods more efficiently than trucks.

That same scenario is played out every day in countless locations: A mile-and-a-half-long train carrying more than 200 trailers and containers, making 60 mph or better across the wide open spaces, out-performing truckers on the nearby interstate who are moving freight trailers one, two, maybe three at a time. Or a throng of rush-hour motorists, six lanes wide, inching forward at a stop-and-go crawl in suburban Southern California. They can only watch as other commuters whisk by on a train that’s L.A.-bound at close to 90 mph.

Read the complete story at Railway Age.

 

BRIDGEPORT, Conn. — A trust fund should be established to ensure the upkeep and safety of the nation’s rail system, U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal said Wednesday, labeling the recent derailment in Connecticut and other accidents a call to action.

Blumenthal, fellow U.S. Sen. Chris Murphy, U.S. Rep. Jim Himes and Bridgeport Mayor Bill Finch appeared at news conference held in response to the May 17 collision near the city that injured more than 70 people on two commuter trains.

Read the complete story at The Washington Post.

The following editorial by The Washington Post’s editorial board was published by the newspaper May 29, 2013.

In today’s Washington, it’s strange enough to see a burst of bipartisanship. Odder still is that the unexpected cooperation might lead to the first major environmental law enacted since the 1990s.

The Toxic Substances Control Act, which was supposed to give the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) the authority to regulate potentially dangerous chemicals, has been on the books since 1976. Yet it is such a shambles that, in all that time, the agency has used it to ban only five chemicals. The law allowed thousands of chemicals to stay on the market with no review, and it made the process of vetting new ones so difficult that they have been barely regulated at all. The EPA can’t even demand testing without undergoing a grueling rule-making process and demonstrating that a chemical is risky. The agency — somehow — has to provide data to get data. And even with alarming information on a particular chemical, the EPA must clear a very high legal bar to ban or limit its use. In 1991 a court threw out the EPA’s ban on asbestos, a notorious carcinogen.

Read the full editorial at The Washington Post.

The following editorial by The New York Times’s editorial board was published by the newspaper May 29, 2013.

A bill co-sponsored by eight Democrats and eight Republicans was introduced in the Senate last week to revise the Toxic Substances Control Act, which governs the regulation of chemicals used in consumer products and manufacturing processes. Almost everyone agrees that the law, enacted in 1976, is badly flawed because of the complexity, costs and delays it imposes on regulating chemicals.

Previous efforts to improve it have gone nowhere. The new bill, the Chemical Safety Improvement Act of 2013 — introduced by Senators Frank Lautenberg, a Democrat of New Jersey, and David Vitter, a Republican of Louisiana — is designed to break the logjam. It deserves to be passed because it would be a significant advance over the current law.

Read the full editorial at The New York Times.

CSX_logoA huge fire outside Baltimore, triggered by the collision of a freight train carrying chemicals and a trash truck, raged for 10 hours before being brought under control, officials said early Wednesday.

A dark, thick plume of smoke could be seen for miles after two of 15 derailed cars from a CSX-owned train caught fire.

Read the complete story at U.S. News on NBC News.com.

A recent incident discussed by the Federal Railroad Administration reveals just how important it is for railroad workers to abide by all federal regulations, even those that might not seem especially critical or safety related. As the unfortunate episode reveals, failure to do so can result in termination.

The case occurred in Montana and involved a locomotive engineer who took a photograph while inside the engine of a train that was in motion. The picture reveals that the camerawork did not take place while the train was racing at fast speeds; the photo shows that the speed was only 13 miles per hour.

Read the complete story at The Legal Examiner.

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Joe Szabo

The following message was sent to the UTU National Legislative Office from Federal Railroad Administrator Joe Szabo:

Friends:

We know well the population growth, mobility, and environmental challenges revealing a clear need to invest in passenger rail, and of passenger rail’s skyrocketing ridership – be it intercity, commuter, light, or heavy. But rail is not only integral to Americans rethinking how they travel; it’s at the very center of their desire for more livable communities.

Just last week, the Urban Land Institute released America in 2013, a report revealing how changing demographics are reshaping development patterns by increasing demand for mixed-used communities offering convenient access to public transportation. According to the survey, 62 percent of Americans planning to move in the next five years would prefer to settle in mixed-use communities offering access to transportation alternatives.

And while support for mixed-use communities and public transportation access is strong throughout all generations, the Urban Land Institute’s report notes its strongest supporters are among the group that is both the largest and most likely to impact development patterns: Generation Y, or the Millennial Generation, which includes young adults ages 18 to 34. In the survey, 76 percent of Generation Y respondents place a high value on walkability; 62 percent prefer mixed-use development; 59 percent prefer diversity in housing choices; and 55 percent prefer to live in a community offering public transportation.

All of this underscores the need to continue building more integrated rail systems, with intercity rail operators, transit systems, and the stations they serve working together to offer travelers more choices and answer a rising call for more compact communities. It’s why we continue to work hard overseeing this Administration’s historic investments in passenger rail – which includes investments in upgrading 40 stations – and why we’re proposing a long-term plan in our Fiscal Year 2014 Budget Request to continue investing in stations and intercity passenger rail.

It’s as simple as listening to the people.

ROCKVIEW, Mo. – Seven people were injured early Saturday, May 25, when two freight trains collided, spurring the collapse of a highway overpass.

Dispatcher Clay Slipis of the Scott County Sheriff’s Department said two vehicles were on the Highway M overpass about 2:30 a.m. when a Union Pacific train T-boned a BNSF Railway train.

Read the complete story at St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

bus_frontU.S. Reps. Dan Lipinski (D-Ill.) and Michael Grimm (R-N.Y.) announced May 23 the formation of the Congressional Public Transportation Caucus aimed at addressing issues facing the country’s public transportation systems, including rail, light rail, bus rapid transit, and traditional bus service.

The bipartisan Caucus will provide a forum for members of Congress to engage in constructive dialogue on the challenges and needs of mass transit agencies across the country as increasing demand and decreasing funding are putting unprecedented pressure on America’s public transportation systems.

Both Lipinski and Grimm were endorsed by the SMART Transportation Division prior to the 2012 congressional elections.

“Many SMART Transportation Division members are employed by the country’s public transportation systems, from Los Angeles Metro to the Long Island Rail Road, from Philadelphia’s SEPTA to Charlotte’s CATS system. We fully support Reps. Lipinksi and Grimm in this effort and appreciate their understanding of the importance of public transportation,” SMART Transportation Division President Mike Futhey said.

“Public transportation is vital to people from all walks of life in communities all across northeastern Illinois. Buses, trains, and light rail that run safely and reliably reduce congestion on our roads, improve travel times across all modes, cut down on air pollution, and make our communities more attractive places to live, work, and own businesses,” said Lipinski, who sits on the House Transportation & Infrastructure Committee. “Maintaining and improving our public transportation systems must be a part of the solution to creating jobs at home and ensuring our competitiveness in the global marketplace. I look forward to joining Congressman Grimm in calling attention to these issues as co-chair of the new Congressional Public Transportation Caucus.”

“New York City has the largest public transit system in the nation – transporting millions of commuters each day by bus, rail, and ferry,” Grimm said. “A strong public transport system is crucial to our economy and our livelihood, which is why it must be maintained and updated to meet growing demand and ensure the highest levels of safety. Unfortunately, there is currently a gap between where our public transportation infrastructure needs to be and where it is today, which is why this caucus is so important. As co-chair of the Congressional Public Transportation Caucus, I look forward to working with my colleagues on both sides of the aisle on solutions that will improve our aging public transportation system and bring it well into the 21st century.”

The America Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), in its annual report card on America’s infrastructure, gave the country’s transit infrastructure a “D” grade. Yet the impact from investing in our public transportation infrastructure would be substantial, not just for improving safety and reliability, but for creating jobs.

According to a release from Lipinski’s office, every dollar spent on transit generates an economic return of at least four to one.

For every $1 billion of capital spending on transit, 24,000 jobs are created, according to a report by the Economic Development Research Group. Additionally, transit has been shown to increase nearby property values and relieve the economic costs and pollution caused by traffic congestion.

“Transit is a key component of America’s transportation system, which is the backbone for the country’s economy,” said Joe Costello, Executive Director of the Northeastern Illinois Regional Transportation Authority and founding member of the transit advocacy group Getting America to Work. “We appreciate the leadership of Congressmen Lipinski and Grimm in creating this caucus to focus more national attention on this critical need.”