Members of Local 887, Harvey, N.D., have established a fund to benefit the family of conductor Robert J. Glasgow, 38, who died May 28 while setting out cars as part of a two-person crew at a CP yard.
Glasgow began railroading on CP in 2005 as a track worker; transferring to train service in 2011. Glasgow had mounted the lead car of 28 cars being switched conventionally when it sideswiped other cars. He was pronounced dead at a local hospital.
He is survived by wife Jenny Ann and children Jacob, Carter, Cole, Ethan and Kaylee.
Donations should be sent to the Robert Glasgow Family, 709 Ninth St. N.E., Minot, ND 58703.
Author: paul
The following was received June 11, 2012, from Medco/Express Scripts:
On June 5 Sandoz announced it is conducting a voluntary recall of 10 lots of its generic oral contraceptive Introvale in the U.S., following a recent report of a packaging flaw.
Introvale is an extended-cycle oral contraceptive. Sandoz is not aware of any reports of related adverse events.
The recall was decided after a consumer reported the white placebo tablets were mistakenly in the ninth row (labeled “Week 9”) of the 13-row blister card, rather than in the correct position in the 13th and final row (labeled “Week 13”).
Each three-month blister card contains 84 peach-colored active tablets and seven white placebo tablets in 13 rows. Details on the recall are below:
Product and strengths: Introvale (levonorgestrel and ethinyl estradiol tablets, USP) 0.15 mg/0.03 mg
Indication: prevent pregnancy
Manufacturer: Sandoz
Date of recall: June 5, 2012
Type of recall: voluntary, patient-level
Reason for recall: packaging error
NDCs of recalled products: NDC 00781 5584 36
Affected lot numbers: The lot numbers involved in the recall are: LF00478C, LF00479C, LF00551C, LF00552C, LF00687C, LF00688C, LF00763C, LF00764C, LF00765C and LF01261C. These lots were distributed only in the U.S. between January 2011 and May 2012
Express Scripts patients impacted: approximately 240
Return/Replacement information: not yet available from Sandoz
Implications to Express Scripts and clients
Express Scripts is taking the following action in response to this recall:
· Calling impacted patients informing them about the recall and advising how to detect if they have impacted product. If the patient has affected product, Express Scripts will advise them to begin using a non hormonal form of contraception.
· Advising patients to contact their doctor to discuss other concerns they may have and to obtain a new prescription for an alternative hormonal therapy because due to this recall, Introvale is currently not available.
· Advising patients they may contact the Sandoz Drug Information Direct Line at 800-525-2492, 24 hours/day, seven days a week, or via email at qa.druginfo@sandoz.com. Specifics about return and reimbursement have not been released from the manufacturer.
Developing/distributing a frequently asked questions document for pharmacists and customer service representatives.
Posting web messaging on www.medco.com.
Retail impact:
Retail patients will be managed by retail pharmacies according to their professional practices.
Some 600 mourners – including more than 300 coworkers and UTU officials — attended the funeral June 9 of slain Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (LACMTA) bus operator Alan Thomas, who was murdered May 20 by a lone passenger.
Also in attendance were law enforcement officials, transit executives and political leaders and representatives of other labor organizations. Thomas was remembered by his children, spouse, parents and other relatives for his strong family ties, and mourned as a public servant “doing a job for a community” when he was gunned down in a still inexplicable homicide.
Thomas was a member of UTU Local 1563.
To read the article on his slaying, click on the following link:
https://www.smart-union.org/news/utu-member-bus-driver-murdered-in-los-angeles/
By Joe Szabo –
Federal Railroad Administrator
It seems like just yesterday, as UTU Illinois state legislative director and mayor of Riverdale, Ill., that I joined other mayors to successfully advocate for more frequent rail service from Chicago to downstate Illinois communities.
At the time, even that modest goal seemed daunting, as conventional wisdom said Americans would no longer ride trains.
Fast forward to 2012, where 30 million people are riding Amtrak each year — more than ever before.
The future looks even brighter.
How did it happen? My brothers and sisters at the UTU worked with mayors, business owners, university presidents and environmental groups across the nation to show elected officials at all levels of government how better train service would transform local economies, provide Americans with more transportation options and create new jobs.
Decades of advocacy are finally paying dividends, as we finally have a president in Barack Obama who understands that our economy is dependent on the quality of our transportation system. President Obama invested more than $10 billion in regional rail networks that will provide a much needed alternative to congested highways and airports as our nation grows by 100 million people over the next 40 years.
As FRA administrator, I have visited communities across the country as they begin construction projects. Some include:
* New England, where service will reach new communities in Maine this year.
* The Pacific Northwest, where new construction will lead to more frequent service between Seattle and Portland.
* The Midwest, where trips from Chicago to Detroit and St. Louis will be more than an hour shorter by 2014, and feature next-generation American-made trains.
* The Southeast, where new construction will lead to more frequent and reliable service between Charlotte and Raleigh.
* California, where construction is underway to add capacity to existing corridors, while the state breaks ground on its high-speed train system later this year.
The Obama administration also invested more than $3 billion to improve reliability and order new locomotives for the Northeast Corridor, while Northeast states begin planning for the next generation of the service.
In communities I visit, I meet leaders of both political parties who are excited to explain how their town will benefit from a project. As a former mayor, I relate. At the local level, transportation investments are not about politics – they are about creating new jobs, attracting new investment, and making the lives of our friends and neighbors better.
Now is the time for Congress to make the investments we need in passenger rail to create jobs today and provide America with the world-class transportation network we need in the 21st century.
(Prior to his April 2009 Senate confirmation as FRA administrator, Joe Szabo was UTU Illinois state legislative director. He is a fifth generation railroader.)
Each year, the U.S. Railroad Retirement Board (RRB) prepares a “Certificate of Service Months and Compensation” (Form BA-6) for every railroad employee who received creditable railroad compensation in the previous calendar year.
The forms will be mailed to employees by the RRB during the first half of June.
Anyone with compensation reported in 2011 who has not received Form BA-6 by July 1, or needs a replacement, should contact the nearest RRB field office by calling the agency’s toll-free number, (877) 772-5772.
Form BA-6 provides employees with a record of their Railroad Retirement service and compensation. The information shown is used to determine whether an employee qualifies for benefits and the amount of those benefits.
Employees can also request that printouts of their individual Railroad Retirement records of service months and compensation be mailed to them. A PIN/Password is not required to use this service. It can be accessed by visiting www.rrb.gov, moving the cursor over the “Beneficiaries & RR Employees” category and then clicking on “Request Service & Compensation History.”
Any discrepancies in Form BA-6 should be reported promptly in writing to: Protest Unit-CESC, U.S. Railroad Retirement Board, 844 North Rush St., Chicago, IL 60611-2092. The employee must include his or her Social Security number in the letter.
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) is running a competition to help educate the public about workplace safety.
Applicants should use publicly available government information (i.e., DOL/OSHA data, NIOSH data, and other online government resources) to create an application or presentation that will educate young workers on the safety and health risks in real work scenarios.
Submissions should provide tools that demonstrate the importance of knowing about workplace safety and health hazards, and provide tools to understand their rights in the workplace.
Successful apps could take many different forms, such as: interactive and informative games, social or professional networks, or data visualization.
Submissions may be designed for internet browsers, smartphones, feature phones, social media platforms, or as native Windows or Macintosh applications.
A total of four prizes totaling no more than $30,000 will be awarded, including one grand prize, two category prizes, and one people’s choice award prize. A single entry is eligible for winning more than one prize.
Click here to be directed to the OSHA contest website.
A Transportation Security Administration effort to help protect ports against terrorism was creation of a tamper-resistant biometric worker-access pass known as the Transportation Worker Identification Credential (TWIC) that is issued, in addition to maritime workers, to rail crews entering port facilities.
Obtaining a TWIC requires submitting to a FBI background check and completion of a security threat assessment. Some 6,500 rail employees currently hold a TWIC.
The program, initiated in 2009, has had problems, however, and the UTU National Legislative Office, in conjunction with the AFL-CIO Transportation Trades Department, has been working with congressional lawmakers on various improvements.
One problem nearing solution is a logistical and financial burden for workers in renewing their TWIC credential.
The House Homeland Security Committee has taken the first step toward solution by approving legislation (H.R. 4251) – which still must be approved by the entire House and the Senate – to postpone requiring workers to renew their TWIC credential until June 30, 2014, and mandating reforms relating to enrollment, activation, issuance and renewal.
“Despite concerns about the program from the outset, workers across the country fulfilled their legal obligations by applying for the TWIC biometric cards, which, without the proper hardware in place at ports, turns TWIC cards into expensive flash passes,” the Transportation Trades Department told lawmakers. “The first wave of applicants, beginning in October, must pay $132.50 to renew their cards if this legislation is not enacted.”
This bill also would ensure workers are required to make only one in-person visit to an enrollment center, lifting a logistical burden from workers who may be hundreds of miles away while on the job.
Voters in Wisconsin appear to have returned control of the state senate to a labor-friendly majority, even though anti-union Gov. Scott Walker, anti-union Lt. Gov. Rebecca Kleefisch and three political extremist state senate candidates gained a victory in a recall election.
The change in the balance of power in the state senate — the result of a fourth senate seat in this recall election being returned to labor-friendly Democrats — sends a strong message in Wisconsin and elsewhere that organized labor can overcome the political spending advantage of corporations and wealthy conservatives by turning out the numbers at the ballot box. It was the state senate last year that gave final passage to a Walker-Kleefisch backed bill curtailing collective bargaining rights for public employees and otherwise attempting to weaken organized labor.
With Democrats back in control of the Wisconsin senate, they now can block further attempts at anti-labor legislation advanced by Walker should he call a special session of the legislature. Republicans still control the state assembly, but Democrats now have the senate advantage for the first time since Walker took office in January 2011, when he began his crusade against labor unions.
The retaking of the Wisconsin senate (by a very close margin after news reports as late as 3 a.m. reported that political conservatives had held the state senate) is only one of the positives to emerge from Wisconsin.
* Union brothers and sisters across Wisconsin forced the recall election by obtaining almost one million registered voter signatures – a showing of widespread solidarity and a nationally recognized demonstration of the ability of organized labor to deliver large numbers of energized voters who oppose legislative attacks on labor unions. UTU National Legislative Director James Stem called the Wisconsin efforts a “dress rehearsal for congressional and state elections in November, identifying strengths we will build on to increase the labor-friendly majority in the Wisconsin legislature and install more labor-friendly lawmakers in Congress and other state legislatures.”
* Tuesday’s retaking of the senate in Wisconsin follows last August’s successful unseating of two anti-union state senators in an earlier recall election, where a third conservantive senator resigned rather than face a recall election.
* Wisconsin voters will have another opportunity to send a strong political message in November, when half of the Wisconsin state senate seats and all state assembly seats are up for election.
* A state court in March invalidated portions of the Wisconsin law — one provision requiring annual recertification of a union, and another denying workers the right to have union dues withheld from their paychecks. Both were found in violation of constitutional free speech rights.
* In Ohio last year, after organized labor-led efforts obtained 1.3 million signatures to force a referendum on a state law curtailing collective bargaining rights, voters struck down that law by nearly a two-to-one margin — a significant blow to Ohio’s conservative legislative majority.
* The UTU Collective Bargaining Defense Fund was instrumental in so many ways — helping to obtain the nearly one million petition signatures in Wisconsin to force the recall election, assisting in delivering the votes that changed the balance of power in the state senate Tuesday, in successfully unseating the three Wisconsin political extremists last August, and in helping to obtain the 1.3 million petition signatures in Ohio that put that state’s anti-collective bargaining law on the ballot, where it was defeated.
* The UTU Collective Bargaining Defense Fund also helped organize large rallies in numerous states drawing attention to the attack on working families by political extremists in Wisconsin, Ohio and elsewhere.
UTU International President Mike Futhey praised the efforts of UTU and Sheet Metal Workers International Association (SMWIA) members who, on their own time, attended rallies, helped obtain signatures for the recall petition in Wisconsin and the referendum petition in Ohio, and who went door-to-door in both states explaining the issues to voters and urging union-friendly votes.
Futhey recognized the leadership efforts in Wisconsin of Stem, Alternate National Legislative Director John Risch, UTU political consultant Dean Mitchell, now retired Wisconsin State Legislative Director Tim Deneen and his successor, Craig Peachy, as well as Assistant Wisconsin State Legislative Director Jeff Thompson and Chris Tassone, secretary of the Wisconsin State Legislative Board.
Futhey also praised the work of UTU local officers in Wisconsin who reached out to members encouraging that they and their family members register to vote and vote in the recall election.
Stem said, “All of organized labor has benefited from this experience – especially the new levels of communication that have been developed. The struggle of workers for improved wages, benefits, job security and working conditions continues.”
As to “new levels of communication,” Stem noted:
* In recent months, more than 22,000 Wisconsin UTU members and retirees received a minimum of 15 unique contacts via direct mail, recorded phone calls and letters. The recorded phone calls were made by Futhey, Stem, Deneen, Peachy and Thompson, reaching almost 1,200 UTU households. The SMWIA also reached out to its members across Wisconsin.
* 37 percent of the UTU membership in Wisconsin signed the petition seeking the recall election.
* UTU Minnesota State Legislative Director Phil Qualy and UTU Illinois State Legislative Director Bob Guy reached out to members of Minnesota and Illinois locals who live and vote in Wisconsin.
“We will redouble our efforts in November in support of labor-friendly candidates seeking state legislative and congressional seats,” Futhey said. “The UTU Collective Bargaining Defense Fund, the UTU PAC and the SMWIA political action fund will play key roles in those efforts, as will our brothers and sisters throughout the labor movement.”
- Turner
UTU-represented maintenance-of-way employees on Missouri & North Arkansas Railroad, who chose the UTU as their bargaining representative in January, have ratified their first collective bargaining agreement.
UTU Alternate Vice President Doyle Turner, who assisted with the negotiations, said these members now will join with other UTU-represented shortline employees in achieving “parity in wages, benefits and work rules in addition to the many other protections offered by union membership.” Turner also heads the UTU’s shortline railroad initiative.
Missouri & North Arkansas Railroad, a RailAmerica property, operates some 530 miles of line in Arkansas, Kansas and Missouri, with trackage rights over Union Pacific and connections with BNSF and Kansas City Southern. Its primary commodities include coal, grain, frozen foods, minerals, steel, chemicals and asphalt.
Funeral services have been set for Alan Thomas, 51, a bus driver for the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority and member of Local 1563, who was murdered aboard his bus May 20 by a lone gunman.
Services will be held Saturday, June 9, at 10 a.m. at the Second Baptist Church, 2412 Griffith Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90011.
The phone number of the church is (213) 748-0318.
To read the article on Thomas’ slaying, click on the following link:
https://www.smart-union.org/news/utu-member-bus-driver-murdered-in-los-angeles/