The National Labor College will conduct regional hazardous materials training workshops for railroad workers at various locations throughout the United States in 2013.
The first two workshops are five-day Hazardous Materials Chemical/Emergency Response Training Programs, that will be held in Houston, Texas, April 14-20, and Laurel, Md., May 5-10.
The workshops present Occupational Safety and Health Administration and Department of Transportation required training and also address procedures for different levels of response and worker protection in a hazardous materials emergency or release, as well as weapons of mass destruction awareness.
The training also provides components required to complete the OSHA 10-hour Outreach certification.
The training includes classroom instruction, small-group activities, hands-on drills and a simulated hazmat response in full safety gear.
The Rail Workers Hazardous Materials Training Program is funded to provide this training by a federal grant from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences and is targeted at rail workers at the local level.
Applicant selection will be in the following order: local residents not requiring lodging, followed by those within a 500-mile driving radius. Those requiring air transportation to attend will then be considered.
Interested parties are urged to register as soon as possible. All questions should be directed to Freddie Thomas at (301) 431-5457 or fthomas@nlc.edu.
A stipend of $625 per week is available to all training participants in these programs, except those who are able to secure regular pay through their employer, or are paid union officers.
These programs begin at 8 a.m. and end at 5 p.m. daily, with a one-hour noon lunch break.
The UTU shares with the late Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. the dream that men and women should be judged not by the color of their skin, their nationality or religious beliefs, but by the content of their hearts.
Below is the text of Dr. King’s speech, delivered on Aug. 28, 1963, from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, during the “March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom.” Recall too, that on the day of Dr. King’s assassination, he was in Memphis, Tenn., to support striking sanitation workers. He was truly friend of the labor movement.
I am happy to join with you today in what will go down in history as the greatest demonstration for freedom in the history of our nation.
Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today, signed the Emancipation Proclamation. This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of Negro slaves who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of their captivity.
But one hundred years later, the Negro still is not free. One hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination. One hundred years later, the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. One hundred years later, the Negro is still languished in the corners of American society and finds himself an exile in his own land. And so we’ve come here today to dramatize a shameful condition.
In a sense we’ve come to our nation’s capital to cash a check. When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir.
This note was a promise that all men, yes, black men as well as white men, would be guaranteed the “unalienable Rights” of “Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note, insofar as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check, a check which has come back marked “insufficient funds.”
But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation. And so, we’ve come to cash this check, a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of justice.
We have also come to this hallowed spot to remind America of the fierce urgency of Now. This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism. Now is the time to make real the promises of democracy. Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice. Now is the time to lift our nation from the quicksands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood. Now is the time to make justice a reality for all of God’s children.
It would be fatal for the nation to overlook the urgency of the moment. This sweltering summer of the Negro’s legitimate discontent will not pass until there is an invigorating autumn of freedom and equality.
Nineteen sixty-three is not an end, but a beginning. And those who hope that the Negro needed to blow off steam and will now be content will have a rude awakening if the nation returns to business as usual. And there will be neither rest nor tranquility in America until the Negro is granted his citizenship rights. The whirlwinds of revolt will continue to shake the foundations of our nation until the bright day of justice emerges.
But there is something that I must say to my people, who stand on the warm threshold which leads into the palace of justice: In the process of gaining our rightful place, we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred. We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline.
We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence. Again and again, we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force.
The marvelous new militancy which has engulfed the Negro community must not lead us to a distrust of all white people, for many of our white brothers, as evidenced by their presence here today, have come to realize that their destiny is tied up with our destiny. And they have come to realize that their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom.
We cannot walk alone.
And as we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall always march ahead. We cannot turn back.
There are those who are asking the devotees of civil rights, “When will you be satisfied?” We can never be satisfied as long as the Negro is the victim of the unspeakable horrors of police brutality. We can never be satisfied as long as our bodies, heavy with the fatigue of travel, cannot gain lodging in the motels of the highways and the hotels of the cities.
We cannot be satisfied as long as the Negro’s basic mobility is from a smaller ghetto to a larger one. We can never be satisfied as long as our children are stripped of their self-hood and robbed of their dignity by signs stating: “For Whites Only.” We cannot be satisfied as long as a Negro in Mississippi cannot vote and a Negro in New York believes he has nothing for which to vote. No, no, we are not satisfied, and we will not be satisfied until “justice rolls down like waters, and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
I am not unmindful that some of you have come here out of great trials and tribulations. Some of you have come fresh from narrow jail cells. And some of you have come from areas where your quest — quest for freedom left you battered by the storms of persecution and staggered by the winds of police brutality.
You have been the veterans of creative suffering. Continue to work with the faith that unearned suffering is redemptive. Go back to Mississippi, go back to Alabama, go back to South Carolina, go back to Georgia, go back to Louisiana, go back to the slums and ghettos of our northern cities, knowing that somehow this situation can and will be changed.
Let us not wallow in the valley of despair, I say to you today, my friends.
And so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.
I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.”
I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia, the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.
I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.
I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.
I have a dream today!
I have a dream that one day, down in Alabama, with its vicious racists, with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of “interposition” and “nullification” — one day right there in Alabama little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers.
I have a dream today!
I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, and every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight; “and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together.”
This is our hope, and this is the faith that I go back to the South with.
With this faith, we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith, we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith, we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day.
And this will be the day — this will be the day when all of God’s children will be able to sing with new meaning:
My country ’tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing. Land where my fathers died, land of the Pilgrim’s pride, From every mountainside, let freedom ring!
And if America is to be a great nation, this must become true.
And so let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire.
Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York.
Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania.
Let freedom ring from the snow-capped Rockies of Colorado.
Let freedom ring from the curvaceous slopes of California.
But not only that:
Let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia.
Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee.
Let freedom ring from every hill and molehill of Mississippi.
From every mountainside, let freedom ring.
And when this happens, when we allow freedom ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God’s children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual:
Free at last! Free at last!
Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!
Handling the affairs of a deceased family member can be a difficult task. But like estate planning, it’s important to prepare in advance.
Medicare law prevents contractors from disclosing information and updating records for a deceased beneficiary without appropriate documentation, according to Palmetto GBA, the official Railroad Medicare agent.
Authorization documents that are acceptable for persons living (such as a power of attorney) are not valid after the date of death. Any authorization that was on file with Medicare prior to the beneficiary’s death becomes invalid at the time of death.
Palmetto gave examples of documentation that are valid after death including:
Executor/executrix papers, with a court stamp and a judge’s/clerk of court’s signature
Next of kin attested by court documents, with a court stamp and a judge’s/clerk of court’s signature
Letter of testamentary or administration, with a court stamp and judge’s/clerk of court’s signature
Personal representative papers with a court stamp and judge’s/clerk of court’s signature
Medicare does not allow contractors to accept copies of wills or other legal documentation drawn up prior to the beneficiary’s death.
If Palmetto GBA does not have your legal papers on file, you must fax or mail them to Railroad Medicare in order for them to release or update information related to the deceased beneficiary.
When sending your documents to Palmetto GBA, be sure to include the beneficiary’s name, health insurance claim number, the beneficiary’s date of birth and a description of your relationship to the beneficiary.
Those papers can be faxed to (803) 264-9844, or mailed to the following address:
Palmetto GBA – Railroad Medicare P.O. Box 10066 Augusta, GA 30999-0001
If you do not have a legal document that indicates your authority to make a request for information, our Palmetto’s customer service representatives will be limited in what information they can release or discuss.
If you have received a Medicare Summary Notice (MSN), Palmetto can discuss the claims on that notice. If you have not received an MSN, a representative can order an MSN to be sent to the beneficiary’s address. Their representatives can also tell you whether or not we have received or processed a claim for a specific date of service.
Legal documentation is also required to permanently update a deceased beneficiary’s address. If you need to update the beneficiary’s address and don’t have court papers naming you as the estate representative, Railroad Medicare will temporarily update the address for a period of 12 months.
A change of address form is available on Palmetto’s website at www.PalmettoGBA.com/rr/me called “Railroad Medicare Deceased Beneficiary Address Change Form.”
For help, please call Palmetto’s Beneficiary Contact Center at (800) 833-4455 or TTY at (877) 566-3572 for the hearing impaired between 8:30 a.m. and 7 p.m. EST.
Palmetto also encourages you to:
Visit their Facebook page called “My RR Medicare” at www.Facebook.com
Register for e-mail updates at Palmetto’s website at www.PalmettoGBA.com/rr/me and select the “Beneficiary” category
Last year was the safest year in the history of the railroad industry, based on performance measures tracked by the Federal Railroad Administration.
For the fifth fiscal year in a row, the industry has improved on all six of the FRA’s official safety performance measures, including the rate of grade crossing incidents, human factor-caused train accidents, track-caused accidents, equipment-caused accidents, signal and miscellaneous train accidents, and non-accidental rail hazmat releases.
The industry has also met the Department of Transportation’s set safety performance goal for rate of rail related accidents and incidents.
Those performance measures were highlighted in a message to railroad industry and labor leaders from Federal Railroad Administration head Joe Szabo.
“We thank our partners at the railroads, their employees and communities across America for their commitment to achieving these results. Keeping our railroads safe is a team effort,” Szabo said.
These statistics are somewhat welcome news to the UTU and its membership. In 2012, six members of the UTU were killed while on active railroad duty. That is the least number of UTU rail members killed on active duty since 2009.
“While there is a bright side to the data released by the FRA, there are still some clouds in the sky,” said UTU International President Mike Futhey. “Even one death on the railroad is one too many.”
Szabo acknowledges there is more work to be done.
“This year, we will continue to take proactive measures to prevent accidents and incidents by aggressively advancing Risk Reduction and System Safety Programs. We will also stay focused on our collaborative effort with industry and labor to eliminate electronic device distraction. Together, we can make 2013 even safer,” he said.
Alternate International Vice President Larry Barrilleaux, 61, has retired, effective Jan. 15.
A member of Local 1836 at New Orleans, Barrilleaux began his railroad career in 1973 as a switchman on Texas Pacific/Missouri Pacific Railroad in New Orleans, La.
In 1975, he was elected secretary of General Committee GO TMP.
He attended Delgado Community College and received an associate degree in business administration in 1980.
Barrilleaux was elected to various offices in Local 1880 before being appointed vice chairperson in 1993. In 1995, he was elected general chairperson of GO TMP for switchmen at the New Orleans Terminal on Union Pacific Railroad.
Barrilleaux participated in negotiations from 1996 to 1998 to protect union members during the merger of the Union Pacific Railroad with the Southern Pacific Railroad, and the subsequent merging of Local 1880 into Local 1836.
Has served as local legislative representative for his local since 1998.
In 1999, he attended The National Labor College in Silver Springs, Md., for training in union organizing. He worked on a successful organizing campaign in 1999 on the Louisiana & Delta Railroad in south Louisiana.
“I have enjoyed working for the UTU and I sincerely appreciate the support provided to me during my years as part of the organization,” Barrilleaux said. “While I look forward to enjoying my retirement, I will miss being a part of our team and the organization.”
UTU International President Mike Futhey commended Barrilleaux’s service to his fellow workers and to the UTU.
More than 50 UTU members turned out Jan. 15 to participate in an informational picket of Progressive Rail, Inc., outside the company’s Lakeville, Minn., headquarters.
Those members from UTU Locals 64 (Huron, S.D.), 650 (Minneapolis, Minn.), 911 (Minneapolis, Minn.), 1000 (Minneapolis, Minn.) and 1614 (St. Paul, Minn.) were there in a show of solidarity with their fellow members employed by the company.
Photo Credit: Workday Minnesota
UTU Minnesota State Legislative Director Phil Qualy said railroad workers employed by Progressive Rail, Inc., chose to organize and joined the UTU in 2010. The union reached an agreement with PRI in February 2012.
According to Qualy, UTU members employed by PRI were awarded a 15% pay increase over five years, seniority rights, arbitration-process rights, scope rules and recognition under the Railway Labor Act following their first contract.
Since the initial certification by 11 of 12 PRI workers, PRI management has fired or retaliated against eight of those UTU members, Qualy said. PRI replaced them with anti-union employees and has not collected union dues from them, nor has it allowed union communications on the property.
Qualy also said that since the ratification of the 2012 agreement, PRI managers have created a sham union with former Dakota, Minnesota & Eastern anti-union scab workers and a quasi-carrier officer and that the National Mediation Board has approved a representation election between the UTU and the PRI management organization on Jan. 29, 2013.
“As the UTU’s Minnesota state legislative director, I want to extend my highest compliments to our local UTU officers,” Qualy said. “With their assistance, we had numerous UTU/SMART members who had never stood in solidarity on a picket line before experience the strength of fraternalism and activism.”
Qualy also thanked UTU International Executive Board member Phil Craig and UTU International Organizer W.W. Lain for their participation and counsel throughout this effort.
“We show up and support our guys,” Qualy said. “It doesn’t matter if it’s 1,000 members or it’s one member, we’re going to stand as the UTU for our brothers and sisters.”
PRI is a shortline subsidiary of the Canadian Pacific Railway.
Corey Plath, president of UTU Local 911, representing workers at Progressive Rail, talks to workers on the informational picket line. Photo Credit: Union Advocate.
Stewart Howe (left) and Mike Bargmann are appealing Progressive Rail’s grounds for firing them last year. Photo Credit: Union Advocate.
The UTU joined other affiliates of the Transportation Trades Department of the AFL-CIO on Jan. 14 in submitting comments on the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s (FMCSA) Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) on Patterns of Safety Violations by Motor Carrier Management.
Bus operators that blatantly and repeatedly disregard federal safety laws should have their operating authority revoked or suspended, the TTD said in its comments.
“With the rise of unsafe bus carriers that under previous Administrations managed to evade federal safety regulators, we have made it a priority to remove bad actors in the bus industry from our roads,” the TTD said. “This crack down will lead to safer bus transportation for the American people.”
The proposed rule sets procedures to suspend or revoke the operating authority of bus carriers that demonstrate a pattern of willful disregard for safety regulations, and establishes stiffer penalties for noncompliance. The rule also goes after those ordered out-of-service by the DOT from simply re-applying for operating authority under a new name, a common practice according to FMCSA Administrator Anne Ferro.
The TTD and its affiliates have long argued for increasing enforcement of federal safety regulations and cracking down on motor carriers that try to evade compliance.
In May 2012, the FMCSA ordered 26 curbside bus operators (those that pick up and drop off on city streets, not from an established bus terminal) to discontinue service because of their threat to public safety. FMCSA found that each carrier had committed several offenses.
Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood and Administrator Ferro have demonstrated that improving transportation safety has been the top priority on their watch, particularly by proposing rules that will strengthen operating and enforcement standards and ensure that unsafe bus operators are taken off the road.
Besides the UTU, the TTD represents 30 other affiliated unions, including several that represent workers who operate over-the-road buses and other commercial motor vehicles.
WASHINGTON — The U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration has signed an accord with BNSF Railway Co. announcing BNSF’s voluntary revision of several personnel policies that OSHA alleged violated the whistleblower provisions of the Federal Railroad Safety Act and dissuaded workers from reporting on-the-job injuries.
FRSA’s Section 20109 protects railroad workers from retaliation for, among other acts, reporting suspected violations of federal laws and regulations related to railroad safety and security, hazardous safety or security conditions, and on-the-job injuries.
“This is a tremendous victory for UTU members and all railroad workers employed by BNSF,” said UTU International President Mike Futhey. “The Obama administration’s efforts to stop the harassment and intimidation of employees concerned about safety in the workplace is a win for all workers. It is just one of the reasons why this union supported President Obama’s reelection.”
The major terms of the accord include:
•Changing BNSF’s disciplinary policy so that injuries no longer play a role in determining the length of an employee’s probation following a record suspension for a serious rule violation. As of Aug. 31, 2012, BNSF has reduced the probations of 36 employees who were serving longer probations because they had been injured on-the-job.
•Eliminating a policy that assigned points to employees who sustained on-the-job injuries.
•Revising a program that required increased safety counseling and prescribed operations testing so that work-related injuries will no longer be the basis for enrolling employees in the program. As part of the negotiations leading up to the accord, BNSF removed from the program approximately 400 workers.
•Instituting a higher level review by BNSF’s upper management and legal department for cases in which an employee who reports an on-duty personal injury is also assessed discipline related to the incident giving rise to the injury.
•Implementing a training program for BNSF’s managers and labor relations and human resources professionals to educate them about their responsibilities under the FRSA. The training will be incorporated into BNSF’s annual supervisor certification program.
•Making settlement offers in 36 cases to employees who filed whistleblower complaints with OSHA alleging they were harmed by one or more of the company’s previous policies.
“Protecting America’s railroad workers who report on-the-job injuries from retaliation is an essential element in OSHA’s mission. This accord makes significant progress toward ensuring that BNSF employees who report injuries do not suffer any adverse consequences for doing so,” said Assistant Secretary of Labor for Occupational Safety and Health Dr. David Michaels.
“It also sets the tone for other railroad employers throughout the U.S. to take steps to ensure that their workers are not harassed, intimidated or terminated, in whole or part, for reporting workplace injuries.”
“Ensuring that employees can report injuries or illnesses without fear of retaliation is crucial to protecting worker safety and health,” said Michaels. “If employees do not feel free to report injuries or illnesses, the employer’s entire workforce is put at risk because employers do not learn of and correct dangerous conditions that have resulted in injuries.”
To review the accord between OSHA and BNSF, click here.
Members covered by Aetna, Highmark Blue Cross Blue Shield or UnitedHealthcare seeking information about treatment options, chronic conditions or answers to other health-related questions can call a “nurse line” for answers 24 hours a day, every day.
This free service can help you with losing weight, managing stress, quitting tobacco and much more. More importantly, the nurse line offers you information, motivation, encouragement, and the one-on-one support that can make a real difference in your health: to stay well, get well or manage a health condition.
You or one of your dependents can call your plan’s nurse line for:
1. Learn about any health topic that concerns you;
2. Change a behavior, like smoking or overeating, that affects your overall health;
3. Gather information about a recent diagnosis;
4. Learn about symptoms for certain illnesses and diseases;
5. Find out about your medications;
6. Understand an upcoming test or procedure;
7. Make an informed medical or surgical health care decision;
8. Follow through with a treatment plan;
9. Manage a chronic condition, like asthma or diabetes, more effectively;
10. Understand treatment options;
11. Learn how to handle symptoms to avoid emergency room visits;
12. Find ways to reduce risks associated with the condition.
To take advantage of this valuable resource, simply call the number on the back of your medical identification card anytime, or refer to the numbers below:Aetna: (800) 556-1555
The White House has confirmed today that Labor Secretary Hilda Solis will not return for President Barack Obama’s second term.
Prior to her confirmation as Secretary of Labor, Solis served as a member of Congress, representing the 32nd Congressional District in California from 2001 to 2009.
During her time in Congress, Solis’ priorities included expanding access to affordable health care, protecting the environment and improving the lives of working families.
In a statement, Obama called Solis “a tireless champion for working families.”
“Over the last four years, Secretary Solis has been a critical member of my economic team as we have worked to recover from the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression and strengthen the economy for the middle class,” he said.
“Her efforts have helped train workers for the jobs of the future, protect workers’ health and safety and put millions of Americans back to work.”
The National Labor College will conduct regional hazardous materials training workshops for railroad workers at various locations throughout the United States in 2013.
Handling the affairs of a deceased family member can be a difficult task. But like estate planning, it’s important to prepare in advance.
Last year was the safest year in the history of the railroad industry, based on performance measures tracked by the Federal Railroad Administration.
The UTU joined other affiliates of the Transportation Trades Department of the AFL-CIO on Jan. 14 in submitting comments on the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s (FMCSA) Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) on Patterns of Safety Violations by Motor Carrier Management. 
WASHINGTON — The U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration has signed an accord with BNSF Railway Co. announcing BNSF’s voluntary revision of several personnel policies that OSHA alleged violated the whistleblower provisions of the Federal Railroad Safety Act and dissuaded workers from reporting on-the-job injuries.
