Train and engine employees on Colorado short line San Luis & Rio Grande Railroad have voted to be represented by the UTU.
This is the 30th organizing win in 53 months for the UTU. International Vice President Bonnie Morr led the organizing effort.
The 150-mile San Luis & Rio Grande – one of three rail properties owned by Iowa Pacific Holdings – is headquartered in Alamosa, Colo., and runs west from a connection with Union Pacific at Walsenburg, Colo., over the Sangre de Cristo Mountains in southern Colorado.
The highest point on the railroad, which primarily hauls grain, minerals and specialty rock products, is at La Veta Pass – 9,242 feet above sea level.
In the wake of 10 more arrests of Long Island Rail Road retirees for alleged conspiracy to commit health care fraud in collecting disability payments, the U.S. attorney in charge of the investigation has offered amnesty from prosecution for any retiree who comes forward voluntarily and admits having made false or misleading statements when applying for those disability benefits.
Applications for amnesty will be mailed by the Justice Department to all Long Island Rail Road retirees receiving Railroad Retirement disability payments, according to federal prosecutors. The amnesty program will include two deadlines — July 6 and Aug. 10 — as will be explained in the applications being mailed.
In October 2011, 11 initial arrests were made – seven Long Island Rail Road retirees, two physicians, an office manager for one of the physicians and two described as “facilitators” alleged to have acted as liaisons between the retirees and the physicians. Federal prosecutors allege the physicians fabricated or exaggerated medical assessments used by the retirees to claim disability benefits.
All of those charged have pleaded not guilty. Trials are scheduled to begin in February 2013.
U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara previously said some 1,500 now retired Long Island Rail Road workers are under investigation for conspiracy to commit health care fraud.
Retirees so far arrested allegedly filed disability claims following their retirements – claims alleged by prosecutors to be false. A New York Times investigation, followed by a federal probe, alleged many retirees who had filed disability claims were seen later engaged in strenuous recreational activities, including golf, tennis and bicycle riding.
Federal Prosecutor Danya Perry said those who do not voluntarily come forward face criminal prosecution as the investigation moves forward.
FBI Assistant Director-in-Charge Janice K. Fedarcyk said: “Last October, when we carried out the first round of arrests in this investigation, we encouraged other fraudulent disability pensioners to come forward. We said then that if we didn’t hear from them, they would likely hear from us. That was not an idle threat then, and it is not now. If you are culpable in this fraud, the voluntary disclosure program announced today is certainly a better choice than crossing your fingers and hoping we don’t find you.”
Those seeking more information may contact the U.S. attorney’s office via email:
WEST HOLLYWOOD, Calif. – A Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (LACMTA) bus driver, and member of UTU Local 1563, was murdered aboard his bus here Sunday morning, May 20, by a lone gunman, according to media reports.
Alan Thomas, 51, who began driving part-time for LACMTA in 2007, and became a full-time driver in 2010, was taken to an area hospital following the shooting and later pronounced dead. He reportedly had been shot in the upper torso.
According to the Los Angeles Times, Thomas was leaving a layover area “when the lone passenger allegedly shot him.” The alleged shooter reportedly exited the bus through a rear window and awaited county sheriff’s deputies, who placed him under arrest without a struggle. Two weapons – a shotgun and a handgun — reportedly were recovered at the scene.
The alleged shooter, Anthony Craig Chambers, 41, of Los Angeles, was booked on a “suspicion of murder” charge and is jailed in lieu of $1 million bond, according to the Los Angeles Times. If convicted, he could face the dealth penalty under California law.
A detective told the Los Angeles Times that there was no apparent relationship between the bus driver and the alleged shooter.
Fellow bus operator Victor George, also a member of Local 1563, said, “We always are exposed to mental, verbal and physical abuse by passengers.”
UTU General Chairperson James Williams (LACMTA, GO 875) said, “I’d like to see more security on buses, such as law enforcement officers riding buses and doing spot checks.” Williams stopped short of calling for protective enclosures for drivers, saying “more study and member involvement is necessary.”
Calling the shooting “tragic,” Williams said, “We are all deeply saddened. Our thoughts and prayers are with Brother Thomas and his family.”
A friend of Thomas told the Los Angeles Times, “He had no enemies. He loved everybody. He associated with everybody.”
LACMTA CEO Art Leahy arranged for grief counseling to Thomas’ “family of fellow bus operators.”
After 53 fruitless mediated bargaining sessions stretching over almost three years between United Transportation Union-represented pilots and Great Lakes Airlines, the union has asked the National Mediation Board to declare an impasse in the talks, release the parties from mediation and make a proffer of binding arbitration.
Great Lakes Airlines pilots are members of United Transportation Union (UTU) Local 40 in Denver.
Great Lakes Airlines is based in Cheyenne, Wyo., and serves 48 of its destinations with assistance from federal subsidies provided by the congressionally created Essential Air Service program. The airline is the nation’s largest provider of Essential Air Service and those federal subsidies assure air service to communities in rural areas that are without easy access to the nation’s transportation network.
In seeking the release from mediation and a proffer of binding arbitration, UTU International President Mike Futhey told the NMB that despite the 53 mediated bargaining sessions in which the UTU has sought to bargain in good faith, “the airline has refused even to discuss an acceptable offer, thus creating an impasse.”
Airlines, as railroads, are governed by the Railway Labor Act (RLA), which puts the National Mediation Board (NMB) in control of negotiations until such time as the NMB determines there is an impasse and releases the parties from mediation. If either side rejects a proffer of binding arbitration, the Railway Labor Act provides for a series of cooling-off periods, during which the White House may appoint a Presidential Emergency Board (PEB) to make non-binding recommendations for a settlement.
If the sides cannot reach a voluntary settlement based on those recommendations, or if a PEB is not appointed – and PEBs are rare in stalled airline negotiations — then either side becomes free to engage in self-help, which could include a work stoppage by pilots.
UTU International Vice President John Previsich, who is assigned to assist in the negotiations, said, “Self-help from either party is not UTU’s desired outcome for this process as it would have a significant negative impact on the Essential Air Service provided by Great Lakes Airlines. The UTU’s desire is that the parties reach a mutually satisfactory agreement and avoid any interruption to the Essential Air Service.”
From the onset of negotiations with Great Lakes Airlines in October 2009, the UTU has presented evidence that the current contract – which the UTU seeks to amend under provisions of the RLA – is substandard in terms of working conditions and wages that daily puts pressure on Great Lakes pilots whose highest priority is to fly passengers safely.
Under the current contract with Great Lakes Airlines, pilots are among the lowest paid of any scheduled passenger airline in the United States.
On Great Lakes Airlines, a first officer can expect to make less than $15,000 in the first year.
The carrier’s latest offer provides that first officers will continue to make less than the flight attendants with whom they are working. In addition, the airline proposed a reduction of 15 percent in the monthly guarantee for all pilots.
These pilots are professionals with extensive training and expertise, and some of them are paid less than entry-level retail and food service jobs.
Difficult negotiations with Great Lakes Airlines are not rare. Great Lakes Airlines flight attendants, now represented by the UTU and also members of UTU Local 40, were in negotiations with the airline for 10 years (initiated prior to the selection of UTU as their bargaining representative in 2009) before a new agreement was reached and ratified.
The UTU-negotiated contract for flight attendants is the only ratified agreement the carrier has received with any labor organization since the first contracts were negotiated in the 1990s.
The pilots fly 30-passenger Embraer and 19-passenger Beechcraft aircraft, serving airports in Arizona, California, Colorado, Iowa, Kansas, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, North Dakota, Michigan, Minnesota, South Dakota, Utah and Wyoming, and with crew bases in Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, North Dakota, Minnesota, South Dakota and Wyoming.
And the result, according to the Federal Railroad Administration, is a significant reduction in rail workplace derailments that too often lead to serious injury and death — plus, as a bonus, better labor/management relationships and improved operational performance.
We’re talking about four pilot projects called Confidential Close Call Reporting System (C3RS), whose core value is that railroaders don’t intentionally make mistakes, and the most effective means of correcting workplace errors that have the potential to cause death, injury and accidents is to investigate the cause in a non-judgmental environment.
In a review of C3RS pilot projects on Amtrak, Canadian Pacific, New Jersey Transit and Union Pacific, the FRA also determined they result in supervisors becoming “more fair and cooperative” and placing a greater value on safety relative to productivity, fewer discipline cases, and workers more willing to raise safety concerns with management.
C3RS is a collaborative effort involving the FRA, carriers, the UTU and the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen.
The pilot projects encourage engineers, conductors, trainmen and yardmasters to report — without fear of discipline or FRA enforcement action, even if rules violations are involved — close calls that may have resulted in accidents or injuries.
All C3RS reports by employees are collected anonymously and kept confidential. With names and locations masked, a C3RS peer review team recommends corrective action, such as improved training, changes in physical plant, changes in existing federal safety laws or regulations, changes in carrier operating rules, and improved training and/or education.
Examples of close calls include varying levels of risk, such as leaving pieces of equipment unsecured, improper blocking, operating trains beyond track authority, or violating operating rules.
UTU International Vice President John Previsich spearheads the UTU involvement in the four C3RS pilot projects – systemwide on Amtrak and New Jersey Transit, and at CP’s Portage, Wis., yard, and UP’s North Platte, Neb., yard.
At UP, which has the most experience with C3RS, the pilot project has led to reformatting track warrants so they are easier to read, and with a UP officer observing that C3RS “is helping UP move from a blame culture to one that bridges communication gaps between employees and management.”
The National Labor College in Silver Spring, Md., has scheduled several hazardous materials train-the-trainer programs to help build a nationwide pool of peer instructors.
Funded by the Department of Transportation, the train-the-trainer courses provide regional peer trainers with the skills and knowledge necessary to deliver this awareness level hazmat training at their job-sites, union meetings and in their communities.
An advanced instructor training course will be held in St. Louis, June 18-22.
Basic courses will be held July 16-21 and July 22-27 at the National Labor College campus in Silver Spring, Md.
These three courses may require participants to have completed other courses.
For more information on the prerequisites, and to register, go to www.hazmatgmc.org and scroll to “2011-12 DOT HMIT Grant Hazardous Materials Instructors Training,” or send questions via email to hjajuga@nlc.edu.
The National Labor College said additional courses may be scheduled between Jun 1 and Sept. 30.
Qualy With the adjournment of the 2012 Minnesota legislative session, the Minnesota AFL-CIO, along with the UTU and other AFL-CIO member organizations, has succeeded in defending against right-to-work (for less) legislation introduced by Tea Party Republicans. “The AFL-CIO lobbying team held every Democratic Farm Labor Party legislator in support of a Working Family Agenda that included defeat of the right-to-work (for less) legislation by convincing a core block of moderate and veteran Republicans to vote against the bill,” said UTU Minnesota State Legislative Director Phil Qualy. Additionally, said Qualy, “despite Republican control of both chambers in the state legislature, for the first time in 38 years, none of our state safety statutes has been harmed during the legislative session now ended.” Qualy commended UTU Locals 911, 1000 and 1067, which hosted Minnesota AFL-CIO training sessions on the law, which would have weakened collective bargaining rights. “Also to be commended are UTU members and retirees who called their legislators and made the difference when the Republican leadership heard loud and clear from main street and good middle class Americans,” Qualy said.
WASHINGTON – The Federal Railroad Administration has granted railroads greater flexibility to determine on which lines positive train control (PTC) must be installed by the federal deadline of Dec. 31, 2015.
PTC initially was mandated for 70,000 track miles, but 10,000 of those miles are expected to be removed from PTC installation under the new FRA rule.
PTC is a crash-avoidance safety overlay system long supported by the National Transportation Safety Board and rail labor organizations. It utilizes the satellite global positioning system (GPS), wireless communications and central control centers to monitor trains and prevent collisions by automatically applying the brakes on trains exceeding authorized speeds, about to run a red light, violate a work zone or run through a switch left in the wrong position.
While the additional flexibility is expected to save railroads “hundreds of millions of dollars,” according to FRA Administrator Joseph Szabo, the FRA’s new rule does not change the Dec. 31, 2015 deadline for PTC installation.
Installation of PTC – on all Class I track carrying at least five million gross tons of freight annually, as well as on lines where intercity passenger trains and commuter trains operate — was required by the Rail Safety Improvement Act of 2008.
The 10,000 miles represents track over which freight railroads say neither passengers nor dangerous hazmat will be transported by the PTC implementation date. Under the new rule, the total amount of main line track required to have PTC will be less than 40 percent of the total main line miles in the county.
The Association of American Railroads had previously filed a federal lawsuit seeking the 10,000-mile scale back of the PTC mandate.
Railroads contended that the original mandate for PTC installation was based on outdated hazmat traffic data, and that railroads will not be transporting those hazmat cargos over the 10,000 miles of track covered by the latest FRA rule.
The FRA said that under the new rule, “railroads will have an easier time using safety measures other than PTC where appropriate, such as on track that won’t carry passenger trains or certain types of hazardous materials.”
More than 170 bus operators, mechanics, service employees and store keepers employed by the Los Angeles area Montebello (Calif.) Bus Lines are now UTU members after overwhelmingly voting, “UTU, yes.”
In the Los Angeles area, the UTU also represents employees of Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (LACMTA) and Santa Monica Municipal (Big Blue) Bus Lines.
Montebello Bus Lines transports some eight million passengers annually in the communities of Alhambra, Bell Gardens, Boyle Heights, Commerce, downtown Los Angeles, East Los Angeles, La Mirada, Montebello, Monterey Park, Pico Rivera, Rosemead, South Gate and Whittier.
UTU Alternate Vice President John England said, “Since International President Mike Futhey took office in January 2008, the UTU has set a record in organizing, with 29 new air, bus and rail properties organized and two raids on UTU properties turned back.”
England was joined in the organizing drive by Bus Department Vice President Bonnie Morr and Bus Department Alternate Vice President Brian Donald, along with Sheet Metal Workers International Association (SMWIA) organizers Manuel Gonzalez and Ernesto Tolentino. The UTU and SMWIA are now merged as the International Association of Sheet Metal, Air, Rail and Transportation (SMART) Workers.
Praised for their efforts in organizing fellow Montebello Bus Lines employees were bus operators Rachel Burciaga and Frank Garcia. “Rachel and Frank were an integral part of making this organizing campaign a success and it would not have been possible without their assistance,” England said.
UTU-represented trainmen and engineers on Dallas, Garland & Northeastern Railroad have overwhelmingly ratified a new five-year agreement.
The contract provides for wage increases with full back pay, an incentive compensation plan with an opt-out provision allowing for additional wage increases, improved working conditions, special allowances, overtime, holiday rules and a seniority maintenance provision.
UTU International Vice President Dave Wier, who assisted with the negotiations, congratulated General Chairperson Joe Newsom, Local 965 Vice Local Chairperson Bobby Taylor and Local 965 Vice Local Chairperson Robert D. Mahan for “the outstanding effort put forth in negotiating an agreement with substantial improvements in wages and working conditions. The wage increases coupled with the quarterly incentive payments provide the membership with outstanding pay increases.”
Dallas, Garland & Northeastern Railroad, a RailAmerica property headquartered in Richardson, Texas, is a complex switching terminal railroad made up of a conglomeration of spurs and industrial leads in the Dallas and North Dallas area. It operates 337 miles of rail line in the Dallas and North Dallas area, using a combination of owned and leased lines and trackage rights, and connects with BNSF, Kansas City Southern and Union Pacific.
Alan Thomas, 51, who began driving part-time for LACMTA in 2007, and became a full-time driver in 2010, was taken to an area hospital following the shooting and later pronounced dead. He reportedly had been shot in the upper torso.
After 53 fruitless mediated bargaining sessions stretching over almost three years between United Transportation Union-represented pilots and Great Lakes Airlines, the union has asked the National Mediation Board to declare an impasse in the talks, release the parties from mediation and make a proffer of binding arbitration.
It’s confidential and no-fault.
The National Labor College in Silver Spring, Md., has scheduled several hazardous materials train-the-trainer programs to help build a nationwide pool of peer instructors.
