GLENVIEW, Ill. — Two bodies have been found under a collapsed railroad bridge here following the July 4 derailment of a 138-car Union Pacific coal train. The dead were in a a vehicle buried under the bridge wreckage. Authorities said more bodies of motorists could be found.
Glenview is a suburb of Chicago.
Union Pacific said extreme heat may have caused the rails to expand, leading to the derailment. Thirty-one of the loaded coal cars were derailed.
The Federal Railroad Administration is investigating. The train was enroute from the Powder River Basin in Wyoming to an electric utility in Milwaukee.
The Chicago Tribune quoted a UP spokesperson that the 86-foot-long bridge was not designed to carry the cumulative load of the 31 derailed coal cars that piled onto the bridge at once.
The newspaper also quoted the UP spokesperson that railroad inspectors and monitoring equipment were on the tracks prior to the accident checking for track-gauge abnormalities, which is standard procedure twice a day during extreme heat or cold. A “slow order” was in effect for the train, and UP said a locomotive event recorder indicated the train was obeying the “slow order” prior to the derailment.
UTU members with questions on how the Affordable Care Act will affect them and their families should visit the websites of their health care insurance carriers.
For UTU members covered under the national railroad medical, prescription drug, dental, vision, and life insurance benefits plans, links to your health insurance providers’ websites can be found at http://www.utu.org/ by clicking on the “Health Care” link at the top of the home page.
In addition to accessing the UTU health care web pages for information, also view the Railroad Information Depot, accessible at:
Following is general information on the Affordable Care Act:
* Those with health care insurance will continue to be covered under those plans.
* Those with health care insurance no longer will pay out-of-pocket for certain preventive care services when they are rendered by a network provider. The purpose is to promote wellness and reduce the high cost of treating and managing disease. For a list of preventive service covered, use the following link:
This provision could prove a significant cost saver for UTU members covered by the national railroad health care plan because copays will be eliminated for many preventive health care services.
“When we entered the most recent round of negotiations with the carriers, our strategy was to hold the monthly cost sharing premium under $200 — rather than allow it to escalate to $300 or more — in exchange for somewhat higher copays,” said UTU International President Mike Futhey. “The Affordable Care Act now eliminates many of those copays. Our winning strategy will prove very beneficial to our members, who now will save out-of-pocket for many health care services while still having one of the lowest cost-sharing premiums in the public and private sectors.”
Additionally:
* Employer plans will be required to provide uniform summaries of benefits and coverage to participants.
* The Medicare hospital insurance tax rate of 1.45 percent per paycheck remains unchanged for those earning less than $200,000 annually ($250,000 for married couples filing jointly). The tax rate will be raised only for those with higher incomes.
* The Affordable Care Act ensures your right to appeal health insurance plan decisions — to ask that your plan reconsider its decision to deny payment for a service or treatment.
* It also contains a new Patient’s Bill of Rights, which can be accessed at the following website:
* Insurance companies no longer may deny health care due to pre-existing conditions or cancel coverage for people who become sick.
* No longer are there lifetime dollar limits on health care benefits.
* Retirees covered by Medicare already have saved $3.7 billion on prescription drugs in the Part D “donut hole” since the law was enacted, and will continue to save on prescriptions as the “donut hole” closes over the next eight years.
As more information becomes available on how the Affordable Care Act affects UTU members and their families, it will be reported at http://www.utu.org/ and in the UTU News.
Of importance to UTU-represented Great Lakes Airlines pilots and flight attendants, Congress has scrapped an attempt by conservatives to eliminate the Essential Air Service program.
Great Lakes Airlines is the largest recipient of Essential Air Service grants, which helps keep flights operating to 120 communities in 35 states. Such assistance is seen as crucial to the economies of rural communities.
Congress has changed a provision of the program to require that Essential Air Service routes average at least 10 passengers daily and that no new communities be added to the program.
It’s not all we wanted, but, maybe more important, it’s not as bad as it could have been.
Given the polarization of this Congress, the Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century – MAP-21 – is as good a new transportation authorization bill as we could have hoped for. Passed by bipartisan majorities in the House and Senate June 29, President Obama is expected to sign the bill into law.
This is what MAP-21 does as it applies to bus, commuter rail, intercity passenger rail and freight rail:
* It increases federal expenditures for federal transit programs – bus and commuter rail – beginning in October and continuing through September 2014. Within those numbers, however, is a reduction in bus and bus facilities spending, which is a victory of sorts since an earlier version sought to zero out such spending.
* It allows transit systems operating fewer than 100 buses in peak service to use a portion of their capital grants for operating expenses. This will allow money for smaller, cash-strapped systems to keep buses on the road and return furloughed drivers to work. But, sadly, larger bus system do not gain such flexibility — even during periods of high unemployment.
* It extends a $17 billion federal loan program for transit and freight rail operators, making, for example, up to $350 million available to the Los Angeles Metropolitan Transportation Authority (LACMTA) for transit improvements.
* It grants authority to the Department of Transportation to create a national safety plan for all modes of public transportation, which will result in minimum standard safety performance standards for systems not currently regulated by the federal government. These safety performance standards will include establishment of a national safety certification training program for employees of federal- and state-owned transit system.
* It requires the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration to establish a national registry of medical examiners within one year, and requires employers periodically to verify the commercial driver license status of employees.
* It provides 80 percent in federal match dollars for transit systems to develop and carry out state safety oversight programs. State oversight will include review, approval and enforcement of transit agency safety plans, including audits by the Federal Transit Administration.
* It scraps at attempt to eliminate overtime and minimum wage provisions for van drivers whose routes cross state lines.
* It strengthens Buy America requirements for all new bus and passenger-rail rolling stock and other capital expenditures, which means more American jobs.
* It leaves in place a requirement that positive train control be implemented on all track carrying passenger rail — commuter and Amtrak — by Dec. 31, 2015. It does, however, reduce the PTC installation requirement for freight railroads, providing that PTC to be installed on fewer than 40 percent of main line trackage by Dec. 31, 2015, with 60 percent (freight only trackage) continuing to use existing train control systems.
* Importantly, it does not include a provision sought by conservatives that would have blocked federal funds for operation of Amtrak’s long-distance trains in 27 states, nor does it include a provision that would have had the same effect by denying federal funds for subsidizing food and beverage service on long-distance trains.
* Also, on the positive side for Amtrak, it provides a new federal grant program to improve or preserve Amtrak routes exceeding 750 miles, and it makes Amtrak eligible for other federal grants on corridor routes and funds intended to help ease highway congestion. Other Amtrak operating and capital grants are provided in separate legislation.
* A provision that originated in the Senate to eliminate almost 75 percent of Alaska Railroad federal funding and the $6 million in congestion and air quality mitigation funding for Amtrak’s Downeaster train in New England was amended. The Alaska Railroad funding now will be cut by 13 percent in each of the next two years by applying a new funding formula, and the air quality mitigation funding will continue for the Downeaster.
* It does not increase weight and length limits for trucks on federal aid highways – which would adversely impact rail traffic and rail jobs – but does allow an extension for current higher weights on some highway corridors while another study on the impact of liberalizing truck weight and length limits is conducted.
“Even though it has shortcomings from what we would have preferred, our members are better off with the compromise. Had there been no bill, we may have faced the undermining of public transportation by conservatives who want to push public transportation’s expense to the fare box and those who can least afford it,” said UTU National Legislative Director James Stem.
The Federal Transit Administration has created a website to provide more information on MAP-21. Click below to view the website:
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.
UTU members with questions on how the Affordable Care Act will affect them and their families should visit the websites of their health care insurance carriers.
Of importance to UTU-represented Great Lakes Airlines pilots and flight attendants, Congress has scrapped an attempt by conservatives to eliminate the Essential Air Service program.
It’s not all we wanted, but, maybe more important, it’s not as bad as it could have been.
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.