WASHINGTON – The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) has established a new policy on renewals of the Transportation Worker Identification Credential (TWIC) – a tamper-resistant biometric worker-access pass — which is required of rail crews entering maritime ports.
Under the new TSA policy, and beginning Aug. 30, U.S. nationals holding TWICs set to expire on or before Dec. 31, 2014, will have the option of avoiding the regular five-year renewable process by obtaining a new three-year card.
The replacement card will expire three years after the expiration of the TWIC card it is replacing, cost $60, and require only one trip to the enrollment center when it is ready to be activated and collected.
TSA said that while the process is simpler and less expensive, the card provides the same access as the traditional five-year card.
Some 6,500 rail employees currently hold a TWIC. Obtaining a TWIC requires submitting to a FBI background check and completion of a security threat assessment.
To read the new policy, as published in the Federal Register, click on the following link:
A slideshow presented to UTU members attending the union’s conductor certification workshop at the Portland, Ore., regional meeting is now available on the UTU website.
The slideshow can be downloaded as a PowerPoint presentation by clicking here or in PDF format here.
The FRA’s final rule on conductor certification follows many of the provisions of locomotive engineer certification, with a number of improvements the UTU was able to obtain.
Funeral arrangements have been announced for the three Union Pacific railroaders – UTU member and conductor Brian Stone and locomotive engineers John Hall and Dan Hall — who were killed June 24 in a head-on crash near Goodwell, Okla.
Services for Brian Stone, 49, will be held at 3:00 p.m. on Friday, June 29, at the First Baptist Church in Dalhart, Texas.
Stone was born Oct. 25, 1962, and graduated in 1982 from Dalhart High School. He was employed by the Union Pacific Railroad for 10 years. He retired from the Dalhart Wolves chain gang, volunteer fire department, with prior employment at Mission Auto, Cargill, Hunters Construction, Caprock Feeders, and substitute teaching. His hobbies included hunting, fishing, coaching little league sports, extended community involvement, and was an avid churchgoer.
Stone is survived by his wife, Cindy Stone of Dalhart, daughter Samantha Meredith of Georgia, daughter Sidonia Alo and husband Daniel of South Carolina, daughter Halee Stone of Amarillo, son Robert Lemley of Amarillo, and daughter Jade Stone of Dalhart, and many others.
Family requests memorials be made to the First Baptist Church of Dalhart, 1000 E. 16th St., Dalhart, TX 79022.
Memorial services for John S. Hall, 49, will be held at 10:30 a.m. on Friday, June 29, at the Channing High School Gym, Channing, Texas.
John Hall was born on March 7, 1963, in Clovis, N.M. He married Beverly Banks in 1982 and in 1991 the couple had a daughter, Breanna. And in 1994, a son, Johnathon.
In 1995 John began working for Burlington Northern Railroad out of Clovis, N.M. Shortly after, he moved his wife and two children to Dalhart to work for Southern Pacific Railroad, which later became Union Pacific Railroad. John worked as a conductor for three years, and in 1988 he became an engineer.
He is survived by his wife Beverly Hall of Channing, Texas, daughter Breanna Hall of Channing and son Johnathon Hall of Channing, and many others.
Graveside services for Dan Hall, 56, are pending with Horizon Funeral Home, Dalhart, Texas. Click here for the funeral home webpage.
Danny Joe Hall was born Sept. 14, 1955, in Dalhart, Texas. He attended public schools in Dalhart and graduated from Dalhart High School in 1975.
In 1980, Dan graduated from Johnson Bible College in Knoxville, Tenn., and later joined the U.S. Marines. He returned to Dalhart and worked as a carpenter before going to work for Union Pacific in 1994.
Dan was an instructor for Operation Lifesaver, a lifetime member of the First Christian Church where he had served on many boards and committees, an avid Harley Davidson motorcycle rider and enjoyed reading and studying the Bible.
He is survived by his mother, Lyndell McBrayer Hall of Dalhart; numerous aunts, uncles, and cousins.
By UTU International President Mike Futhey and SMWIA General President Joe Nigro –
We are just months from one of the most important Election Days in our careers.
Not in our lifetimes has organized labor been under attack as we are today from corporate-funded anti-worker conservatives in state legislatures and Congress who are attacking collective bargaining rights, workplace safety laws and regulations and the ability of workers to finance their union activities.
They want to turn Medicare into a voucher system and slash payments, raise the age for benefits under Railroad Retirement, eliminate Amtrak and reduce funding for public transit.
We will not back down in defense of what labor has achieved for working families.
The UTU PAC and the SMWIA PAL are collaborating to support worker-friendly candidates at the state and federal levels.
We also point with pride to the successful roles played by the UTU Collective Bargaining Defense Fund as well as get-out-the-vote efforts by members of the UTU and the SMWIA.
These activist brothers and sisters helped achieve a ballot-box defeat of an Ohio law that would have curtailed collective bargaining rights, and engineered the recall of anti-union senators in Wisconsin, restoring control of the Senate to a labor-friendly Democratic majority. They also succeeded in forcing the Wisconsin governor — the architect of that state’s legislation to scrap collective bargaining rights for public employees — to face a recall election.
While we cannot match the dollars of the corporate elite who are funding anti-worker candidates, we have a more potent weapon – the steadfast eagerness of working families to knock on doors and make phone calls to get out the vote on Election Day.
The men and women in the American labor movement vote in greater numbers than most any other group of voters, and if we are to stop this attack on workers on Election Day, we must energize even more of our friends and family members to register to vote and go to the polls on Election Day in support of worker-friendly candidates.
The UTU website provides a button that, with one click, takes you to a website allowing you to verify your voter registration and to register to vote if you are not registered: https://www.smart-union.org/td/voter-registration-guide/
Your job security, good wages, benefits and workplace safety laws and regulations are directly related to political action by working families. Together, we can defeat the corporate-fueled attack on workers.
Within the UTU and the SMWIA, now is the time for each of us to ensure we are registered to vote, to pledge at least $1 a day to our respective UTU PAC and SMWIA PAL, and commit our time and energy in helping to get out the vote on Election Day.
GUYMON, Okla. – Three Union Pacific crewmembers died in a June 24 head-on collision between two freight trains near here that produced a diesel fuel-fed fire so intense that the thick, black smoke could be seen for 10 miles and caused the closing of a nearby small airport and evacuation of a nearby trailer park. The fire burned for more than 24 hours.
Dead are UTU member Brian L. Stone (Local 923), age 49, of Dalhart, Texas; engineer Dan Hall and engineer John Hall (no relation to Dan Hall). Stone had been a conductor since September 2003.
Conductor Juan Zurita (Local 923) reportedly jumped to safety and was uninjured. Engineer Dan Hall is the cousin of Local 923 delegate Randy N. Johnson.
Guymon is some 130 miles north of Amarillo, Texas, on the former Southern Pacific Golden State route linking El Paso with Kansas City. Union Pacific absorbed Southern Pacific in 1996.
The Oklahoman newspaper quoted NTSB member Mark Rosekind that one of the trains – and he declined to specify which — failed to take a siding and that no signal or brake malfunctions were initially found based on preliminary analysis of event recorders. “One train had the right of way,” Rosekind said. “We’re still getting the data to figure out what was scheduled to happen. There was a side track, and we’re trying to figure out what was supposed to be where, and when.”
Rosekind said no cellphones have been recovered, but that the NTSB intends to review phone records belonging to the four crew members. Federal regulations prohibit the use of electronic devices, including cell phones, while on duty.
Two members of the UTU Transportation Safety Team assisted NTSB investigators at the scene.
Stone is the fourth UTU member killed on duty in 2012. Local 887 (Harvey, N.D.) member Robert J. Glasgow, 38, was killed May 28 in a switching accident near Kenmare, N.D.; and Local 1383 (Gary, Ind.) member Michal M. Shoemaker, 55, was killed in a switching accident Jan. 30 in Gary, Ind. Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority driver and Local 1563 member Alan Thomas, 51, was murdered aboard his bus May 20.
Ten UTU rail members were killed on duty in calendar year 2011, eight in 2010 and eight in 2009.
PORTLAND, Ore. — Reflecting on violence against air, bus and rail members, UTU International Assistant President Arty Martin told attendees at the union’s regional meeting here June 20 that protecting the working conditions and safety of members is among the highest of UTU objectives.
“Our jobs are notoriously dangerous and we are going to insist that local, state and federal legislators and regulators help the UTU lead the way in imposing adequate protections for transportation workers,” Martin said. “We have long spoken to carriers about improving on-duty safety and training for their front-line employees, but they ignore us. So, now we will work legislatively to gain the protections our members deserve while serving the public.”
Just recently, a UTU member — Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority bus operator Alan Thomas — was murdered aboard his bus by a passenger, and there have been instances of armed thugs robbing freight train crews while trains were awaiting clearance onto or off main lines. And daily, UTU-member flight attendants, bus operators and passenger-rail conductors are subject to threats and abuse by passengers. On June 19 in Minneapolis, a passenger threatened with a knife a Northstar commuter rail conductor.
The UTU has already achieved two notable worker-safety mandates:
* The Federal Railroad Administration earlier this year published a final rule requiring that all new and remanufactured locomotives in road and yard service be equipped with a secure cab lock, and that climate control assure tolerable temperatures inside the cab when it is secure.
* The Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has imposed significant monetary sanctions against numerous railroads for retaliating against employees who report on-duty injuries and seek medical treatment.
Additionally, the UTU is completing – with help from a federal grant — development of a training manual for front-line Amtrak employees that helps them recognize and react to potential terrorism threats and passenger abuses. Martin said new applications for federal grants to expand the program to airlines, bus lines, commuter and freight railroads is in progress.
Also, the UTU National Legislative Office is working with the UTU Bus Department to gain new mandates on minimum training and operator safety from Congress, state legislatures and localities.
“We will be ramping up these efforts, developing an accelerated legislative strategy to advance member safety and minimum training politically,” Martin said. “Our objective is the best trained and safest work force in America.”
Martin spoke on other issues important to the UTU membership:
* The UTU has sought from the National Mediation Board a release from mediation for UTU Local 40 pilots employed by Great Lakes Airlines who have been in fruitless wage, benefits and working-conditions negotiations with the carrier for almost 55 months.
* UTU finances are solid, Martin said. “Rather than rumors five years ago that we were on the verge of closing our doors within 20 days, this administration has used constant monitoring of expenditures to put the UTU on a stable financial footing.”
* The UTU Insurance Association continues to grow its policy holders and remains strong financially. “When you purchase policies from your UTU Insurance Association you are not supporting insurance companies that go to state houses and Capitol Hill to lobby against collective bargaining and your job security,” Martin said.
* The UTU’s Discipline Income Protection Plan, which had been on the verge of bankruptcy when the Futhey administration took office in January 2008, “has a bottom line more solid than at any time in the past decade,” Martin said. “Our DIPP looks for ways to pay claims and not ways to keep you from collecting claims as other plans do.”
* The national rail contract negotiated by the UTU is in stark contrast to the previous round of bargaining, under a different administration, where the UTU did not take the lead. “During the previous round, we weren’t leaders and we saw health care insurance premiums rise from $100 monthly to $200,” Martin said. “The Futhey administration took the lead in negotiations this round and won a cap at the same $200 rate through June 20, 2016,” even though health care costs have been soaring and most others in government and the private sector pay upwards of $400 monthly for less comprehensive coverage.
Martin urged attendees to “take the lessons and experiences you gained in regional meeting workshops back to your members. Tell them what this union is all about, how it is the backbone of America’s middle class, how strong we are and how the UTU has led the way and will continue to lead the way,” Martin said.
It is reasonable to wonder just how many millions of dollars in sanctions must be assessed against railroads by the federal government before they learn the lesson that employees are not the equivalent of number 2 pencils to be chewed on at will and discarded when convenient.
In the most recent comeuppance applied to Norfolk Southern by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration, sanctions totaling more than $802,000 were imposed as punishment for violating the whistleblower protection provisions of the new section 20109 added by Congress in 2007 to the Railroad Safety Act. NS was found to have harassed, intimidated and ultimately fired three employees who reported and sought medical attention for on-duty injuries.
NS also was ordered by OSHA to expunge the disciplinary records of the three whistleblowers, post workplace notices regarding railroad employees’ whistleblower protection rights and provide training to its employees about these rights.
The latest OSHA fines — and there have been several in the past– against NS followed OSHA investigations in Greenville, S.C.; Louisville, Ky., and Harrisburg, Pa., each showing, according to OSHA, “reasonable cause to believe that the employees’ reporting of their workplace injuries led to internal investigations and, ultimately, to dismissals from the company.”
OSHA does not release the names of whistleblowers. The Harrisburg employee was reportedly a conductor; the Louisville whistleblower an engineer and the Greenville whistleblower a maintenance-of-way employee.
“Firing workers for reporting an injury is not only illegal, it also endangers all workers. When workers are discouraged from reporting injuries, no investigation into the cause of an injury can occur,” said Assistant Secretary of Labor for Occupational Safety and Health Dr. David Michaels. “To prevent more injuries, railroad workers must be able to report an injury without fear of retaliation.”
In 2011, OSHA, in hitting NS with sanctions of more than $122,000, said NS’ culture of employee harassment and intimidation permitted the railroad to “maintain the appearance of an exemplary safety record and continue its 22-consecutive-year record as recipient of the E.H.Harriman Gold Medal Rail Safety Award.”
In the latest assessment of sanctions against NS, OSHA reported:
* A maintenance-of-way employee was charged with improper performance of duties after reporting an injury as a result of being hit by a NS highway vehicle. OSHA found he had been singled out and treated with bias because of reporting the injury.
* An engineer was charged with falsifying an injury and terminated after reporting he tripped and fell in a locomotive restroom. OSHA found the investigative hearing was flawed and orchestrated to intentionally support the decision to terminate the employee.
* A conductor was charged with making false and conflicting statements and terminated after reporting a head injury sustained when he blacked out and fell down steps while returning from the locomotive lavatory. OSHA said that the day before the injury, the employee had been lauded for excellent performance, highlighted by no lost work time due to injuries in his 35-year career. OSHA again found that the investigative hearing was flawed, and there was no evidence the employee intended to misrepresent his injury.
The Federal Railroad Safety Act of 1970 extended whistleblower protection to employees who are retaliated against for reporting an injury or illness requiring medical attention. The Rail Safety Improvement Act of 2008 added additional requirements ensuring injured workers receive prompt medical attention. Prohibitions were imposed by Congress on carrier intimidation and harassment of injured workers in an effort to end a culture that placed the winning of carrier safety awards and year-end managerial bonuses as a higher priority than treatment and prevention of injuries.
The laws were passed by Congress after the UTU documented a railroad culture of harassment and intimidation against injured and ill workers. Their purpose is to protect rail workers from retaliation and threats of retaliation when they report injuries or illness, report that a carrier violated safety laws or regulations, or if the employee refuses to work under certain unsafe conditions or refuses to authorize the use of safety related equipment.
An employer is outright prohibited from disciplining an employee for requesting medical or first-aid treatment, or for following a physician’s orders, a physician’s treatment plan, or medical advice.
Retaliation, including threats of retaliation, is defined as firing or laying off, blacklisting, demoting, denying overtime or promotion, disciplining, denying benefits, failing to rehire, intimidation, reassignment affecting promotion prospects, or reducing pay or hours.
UTU designated legal counsel have pledged to investigate and assist UTU members in bringing complaints under these laws.
A rail employee may file a whistle-blower complaint directly with OSHA, or may contact a UTU designated legal counsel, general chairperson or state legislative director for assistance.
A listing of UTU designated legal counsel is available at:
Among the numerous political challenges facing working families is preservation of Railroad Retirement and Social Security, which are both under attack by political conservatives.
As the UTU’s Portland, Ore., regional meeting commenced June 18, the labor member of the Railroad Retirement Board, Walt Barrows (pictured at left) told attendees, “You can be very proud of your leadership and your legislative staff. You have the best legislative team of any union, bar none. [The UTU is] in the forefront of defending our retirement system against those who try to weaken it.”
Echoing those sentiments was Joe Nigro, general president of the Sheet Metal Workers International Association (SMWIA), who said the UTU has “the best political machine” among labor organizations, which is essential in the fight to preserve Railroad Retirement and Social Security.
Nigro said the SMWIA and the UTU – now combined as SMART – “share the goal of achieving power and success to make legislators, other unions and employers look to us for leadership and training.” SMART, he said, is creating “a bigger, better, stronger and members’ oriented union that represents its members aggressively.”
Barrows, a senior officer of the Brotherhood of Railroad Signalman before being nominated by President Obama and confirmed by the Senate to the three-member Railroad Retirement Board to represent the interests of labor, warned that “the trend of attacking and eliminating defined benefit pension plans across the country will continue.
“In the last 30 years, defined benefit plans have been stripped away from most workers,” Barrows said. “We have seen defined benefit plans replaced by tax deferred savings accounts, like 401(k) plans and other less desirable substitutes [and] with the decline of defined benefit plans, far too many Americans cannot retire with any sense of dignity or security.
“Wondering if you will be able to receive a steady income during your retirement years is important to you and your family when you consider retirement,” Barrows said. “Railroad Retirement gives you that assurance. You can rest assured that when you are ready to retire, the Railroad Retirement Board and the Railroad Retirement system will be there for you.
“You would think that the strength and solvency of our system would exempt us from attacks, but our retirement system is never totally safe from attack. A recent House budget resolution [introduced by Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.)] proposed massive changes to our retirement system. While this proposal will not go anywhere this year, it again demonstrates that rail workers must remain vigilant if we expect our retirement system is there for us and for future generations of rail workers.
“Since the establishment of the Railroad Retirement system 76 years ago, labor has fought to protect and preserve these benefits,” Barrows said. “The longevity and stability of our Railroad Retirement is a testament to strength of rail workers standing together. But we all must be vigilant to make sure that our retirement system is there for us and for future generations of rail workers and their families.
“It is now up to us to ensure that our retirement system is there to provide protection and retirement security for future generations,” Barrows said. “So when we hear retirement benefits attacked, and when we hear them referred to as entitlements, remind people that railroad workers are entitled.
“We are entitled,” Barrows said, “because we worked for it. We are entitled because we sacrificed for it. We are entitled because we contributed to it. And we are entitled because the profits enjoyed by the railroad industry came from our blood and sweat. Nobody gave us anything. We earned it.
“And as your member on the Railroad Retirement Board, it is an honor for me to stand here today to tell you that I will fight to protect our retirement system,” Barrows said.
Suicide by rail is no stranger to operators of steel-wheel trollies on Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority’s Victory Division in suburban Philadelphia.
UTU-represented members of this SEPTA property recall having to plead with management to replace the front facing of a trolley displaying a macabre embedded facial image of a man who chose to end his life in front of a moving trolley.
For trolley operator Waverly Harris, the horror of an attempted suicide Feb. 11 changed his own life forever. Harris, 42, with 19 years’ service, is the property’s general chairperson and chairperson of the UTU’s Association of General Chairpersons, District 3.
The time of the incident was 3:40 a.m., and for months following, Harris habitually awakened minutes before that position on the clock, staring until “3:40” appeared.
It was at just prior to 3:40 a.m., Feb. 11, as snow and sleet fell, that Harris was operating an empty trolley whose purpose was to keep the catenary free of accumulated ice. Abruptly, unexpectedly and frighteningly, the trolley headlight captured an individual standing – then racing – down an embankment toward the tracks.
“I laid on the horn,” Harris said. “I didn’t know if he was being chased. He kept running toward the tracks. I braked. He looked me in the face as I put the trolley into emergency and he faded from view, underneath my trolley.” The man, trapped beneath the trolley, was still alive.
“He asked, ‘What time is it?’ It was 3:40 a.m. I came to learn from my grief counselor [provided by SEPTA] that the two most common comments made [by those grievously injured in such incidents] are, ‘What time is it?’ and ‘Where am I?’
It took 90 minutes for emergency crews to free the man, who survived. The steel wheels had not run over him.
For Harris, the ordeal was far from over. For several months, he met regularly with a grief counselor to talk through the incident and overcome mental anguish, even though there was nothing Harris could have done to prevent it.
Harris returned to work in May, thankful for the counseling and support of his wife and three children. “I still awaken, occasionally, just before 3:40 a.m.,” he said.
If anything positive emerged, it is Harris’ ability now to counsel other SEPTA trolley and bus operators who, unfortunately, will experience similar incidents – and they occur several times annually.
“I now know the mental stress, and I will tell them to stick with the counseling provided by SEPTA, not to be judgmental, and accept the support of their UTU brothers and sisters, their family and friends,” Harris said.
ALLIANCE, Neb. — A 62-year-old BNSF Railway conductor, a member of the UTU for 42 years, was found dead in his house June 12, and his 27-year-old son was later shot to death in a standoff with police that left two police officers and a hostage wounded.
Dead are BNSF conductor Larry J. “Speedy” Gonzalez, a member of Local 934, Alliance, Neb., and his son, Andres “Andy” Gonzalez. The cause of Larry Gonzalez’ slaying has not been reported by police pending an autopsy.
According to the Omaha World-Herald, four members of a police special weapons and tactics (SWAT) team “stormed a building” housing a pharmacy here where the son had taken a hostage. Up to 40 shots were exchanged, some of which struck a building opposite where the gun fight occurred. Andres Gonzalez, who was shot dead by police following the 14-hour standoff, reportedly was armed with an assault rifle and a handgun. His father’s body was discovered following the gunfight.
Wounded, but expected to survive, were an Alliance police officer, a state policeman and a pharmacist who reportedly was held hostage by Andres Gonzalez.
The World-Herald said the son “had a reputation for abusing drugs” and “reportedly demanded drugs when he stormed into the pharmacy.”
The World-Herald also reported that during hostage negotiations – prior to the gunfight – Andres Gonzales “admitted” to killing a 38-year-old man who had gone missing in December. Andres’ 19-year-old girlfriend, who also shared the home of conductor Larry Gonzalez, reportedly was arrested on a charge of being an accessory to a felony, and reportedly is being questioned as part of another murder investigation in Nebraska.
UTU International President Mike Futhey 
PORTLAND, Ore. — Reflecting on violence against air, bus and rail members, UTU International Assistant President Arty Martin told attendees at the union’s regional meeting here June 20 that protecting the working conditions and safety of members is among the highest of UTU objectives.
Among the numerous political challenges facing working families is preservation of Railroad Retirement and Social Security, which are both under attack by political conservatives.
Suicide by rail is no stranger to operators of steel-wheel trollies on Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority’s Victory Division in suburban Philadelphia.