GARY, Ind. – Michael M. Shoemaker, 55, a conductor and member of UTU Local 1383, was killed Jan. 30 in a switching accident on at U.S. Steel’s Gary Works here. Reports are that he was wedged between two freight cars.
Shoemaker, of Hobart, Ind., was an 10-year employee, of Gary Railway, which is owned by U.S. Steel.
Reports indicate he was working as a foreman in a three-person conventional switching operation when the car he was riding “impacted the side of the standing equipment that the crew had placed” on an adjacent track, pinning him.
The accident is being investigated by the Indiana Occupational Safety and Health Administration.
Shoemaker is the first UTU member to be killed in a rail accident in 2012. In 2011, there were 10 rail fatalities among UTU members; and 12 in 2010.
Author: paul
UTU General Counsel Clint Miller will retire Nov. 1 at age 65. Until then, he will relinquish his daily office duties and serve as a consultant, on an as-needed basis, to International President Mike Futhey and the law department staff.
Miller has been a fixture in the UTU law department for 27 years – 21 of them as UTU general counsel.
“I have enjoyed my 27-year tenure with the UTU, and my work on behalf of rail labor over the past 32 years, because the job has permitted me to have a role in making the lives of working people better,” Miller said. “I have been fortunate in working for the UTU and have served with the finest officer corps at every level, and the finest employees in all of transportation labor.”
UTU International President Mike Futhey said: “In Clint Miller, the UTU has had a lawyer with the best interests of the membership at heart, and we look forward to the continued availability of his consulting services until his Nov. 1 retirement.”
WASHINGTON – UTU members can make a difference in Congress, and your emails and phone calls — as requested by the UTU International — helped derail an attempt by House Transportation & Infrastructure Committee Chairman John Mica (R-Fla.) to permit longer and heavier killer trucks on more of the nation’s highways.
The enabling provision – to permit extended use of triple trailers and trucks weighing almost 100,000 pounds — was pulled from a proposed highway funding bill by committee members following significant public opposition made known to members of Congress.
Instead, the committee voted to delay consideration of the provision for three years so as to properly study the impact of longer and heavier trucks, which includes the shifting of freight from rails to the highway.
The Association of American Railroads, citing a study out of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, estimated that extending, nationwide, current limited use of longer and heavier trucks would reduce rail traffic by 19 percent and put almost eight million more trucks on the road.
“Before we put the public safety at risk, we should do the study and make an informed decision,” said Rep. Jerry Costello (D-Ill.).
The Senate previously voted for a study on the issue.
A short video explaining the benefits of UTU membership, which was presented at the 2011 UTU regional meetings and the 2011 quadrennial convention, is now available online at www.utu.org.
The video notes the history of labor unions in the United States, which originated in the railroad industry, and the positive role the UTU plays in the transportation industry and in government.
“UTU: Stronger Than Ever” also examines the UTU’s role in public policy and its efforts to protect collective bargaining rights through the union’s Collective Bargaining Defense Fund. The Collective Bargaining Defense Fund was instrumental in working against political extremists in Wisconsin and Ohio, where politicians were recalled and anti-worker legislation was overturned.
The video is available through the UTU’s homepage at www.utu.org by selecting “About UTU” at the top of the page, then choosing the “UTU Publications and Videos” link.
To view the video, click here.
INDIANAPOLIS – Gov. Mitch Daniels has signed into law right-to-work (for less) legislation in Indiana that prohibits union-shop agreements and prohibits union contracts that require those who decline to join a union from paying any fees for representation – essentially encouraging free riders and severely damaging the financial ability of unions to serve members.
Contracts covered by the Railway Labor Act are not affected; but union contracts covering bus and local transit workers are.
Indiana becomes the first manufacturing state in the Midwest to have such a law, which is more common in the South. Twenty-three states have right-to-work (for less) legislation.
The Indiana AFL-CIO said, in a statement, that the Republican majority in Indiana has “set our state upon a path that will lead to lower wages for all working Hoosiers, less safety at work, and less dignity and security in old age or ill health. Sadly, the passage of this bill not only means that workers’ rights and ability to collectively bargain will be significantly weakened, it means that strong arm tactics, misinformation and big money have won at the Indiana Statehouse.”
Anti-union legislation signed into law by Ohio Republican Gov. John Kasich last year was repealed in a voter referendum supported by the UTU Collective Bargaining Defense Fund and union members throughout Ohio. That law sought to restrict collective bargaining rights.
In Wisconsin, there was a successful recall of two senators who supported legislation to curtail collective bargaining rights, and a recall of Gov. Scott Walker, an architect of the legislation, is underway.
It is expected that a voter referendum will be launched in Indiana to repeal the right-to-work (for less) law, and the UTU Collective Bargaining Defense Fund will participate in that effort.
To learn more about the UTU Collective Bargaining Defense Fund, click on the following link:
https://www.smart-union.org/collective-bargaining-defense-fund/
The Union Plus Scholarship online application system was unable to handle the high volume of applicants prior to the Jan. 31 deadline, the Union Plus program reports.
Union Plus is currently working to identify all applicants who experienced problems accessing or submitting their application and will give them an opportunity to complete their application.
Union Plus issued the following release on Feb. 1:
“Please accept our apologies for the problems you may have experienced submitting your online application. Our partner’s online application system had trouble handling the recent high volume of activity, but we’ve worked with them to resolve the issues.
“We have a record of all applicants who logged in or attempted to login to our system during the last three days and we are sending an email out to all of those applicants. The email will note that their application has been re-opened and that they will have 2 more days to login to complete and submit their application.
“The email will go to the email address used to set up scholarship login IDs. Also, on Feb. 1, an email was sent to all applicants who have successfully submitted applications verifying that their completed application was received.
“If you do not receive an email from the scholarship website, please send a request to open your application to info@unionplus.org and make sure to include your login ID.”
The scholarship, sponsored by the AFL-CIO’s Union Plus program, is available to UTU members and their children to assist with the costs of a college education.
In 2011, the children of two UTU members were awarded $500 scholarships through the program.
- Tibbit
UTU-represented members employed by Intermodal Services of America (ISA), which does contract switching for Union Pacific at Joliet, Ill., and Chicago, have ratified their first collective bargaining agreement (CBA).
ISA voluntarily recognized the UTU as its transportation workers’ bargaining representative in 2011.
The five-year contract provides for retroactive pay, a steep jump in hourly wages, a 401(k) plan, a health insurance plan, sick pay, paid vacation, and a discipline program requiring all investigations include the presence of a UTU representative.
Rich Ross, the UTU’s director of organizing, and International Vice President Paul Tibbit negotiated the agreement. “Paul met with ISA workers on all three shifts to learn their concerns, and brought these concerns to the bargaining table to produce an outstanding first agreement with ISA,” Ross said.
WASHINGTON — The UTU and 17 other transportation labor organizations urged Congress Jan. 30 to pass a Federal Aviation Administration reauthorization without making what they called “drastic and unnecessary changes to the Railway Labor Act.”
Historically, any changes to the Railway Labor Act have been jointly agreed to by labor and management – a primary reason the law has been so effective in ensuring uninterrupted commerce and keeping paychecks flowing in the airline and railroad industries.
In fact, when the Railway Labor Act was passed by Congress in 1926, it was the product of joint agreement by labor and management – and that collaboration has continued since.
In this instance, the House Republican leadership is seeking to use FAA reauthorization as a vehicle to overturn a National Mediation Board (NMB) ruling that made union-representation elections in the airline and railroad industry conform to the rules of virtually every other election tally in America.
The House Republican leadership, at the instigation of airline management, is seeking to overturn that National Mediation Board ruling that updated the agency’s union-representation voting rule. Previously, those not casting a ballot in a representation election were considered to have cast a “no” ballot. Nowhere else in American society does such a rule exist.
The NMB changed the rule to provide for a majority vote of those actually voting in a union representation election. That change was affirmed by a federal appeals court after airline carriers challenged it in court. Failing in court, the carriers turned to their friends in the House.
The transportation labor organizations told Congress in their joint statement:
“A rewrite of long-standing labor law deserves proper and due consideration through the normal deliberative process. Acting otherwise directly conflicts with the non-partisan recommendations of the 1994 report of the Dunlop Commission on the Future of Worker-Management negotiations. Unilaterally changing that law without labor’s input and without due deliberation threatens to unravel its carefully balanced goals of labor stability and uninterrupted commerce.
“Rewarding the House Republican leadership’s desire to rewrite decades of long-standing labor law in a flash by inserting an unrelated and controversial labor provision in a much needed aviation safety and security bill, without notice, hearing or debate, sets an extremely dangerous precedent.
“We urge the Senate to delete the provision of the bill that would amend the RLA and pass the clean FAA reauthorization that all concerned recognize this country sorely needs and supports.”
Killer trucks are on the attack, with Congress considering a new highway bill that would permit longer and heavier trucks on the nation’s highways.
Aside from the safety concerns of motorists – and those concerns are significant and well known by automobile drivers who have been terrorized by tractor-trailers even at the current lengths and weights – there is the killer economic impact on railroad jobs.
The railroad industry estimates that were longer and heavier trucks permitted on the highways, almost one-fifth of rail traffic would be diverted – and the impact would be more than 40 percent of lost traffic for shortline railroads.
The argument of those advocating longer and heavier trucks – truck trains of three trailers being pulled by a single driver – is that there would be fewer total trucks, improved highway safety, less fuel used and less damage to pavement.
Each of these allegations is false.
Any motorist who has shared the road with truck drivers pulling two and three trailers – which now are permitted on limited segments of Interstate Highways – knows firsthand the danger to life and limb of truck trains that sway back and forth, blind vision with spray in wet weather, slow traffic when traveling in passing lanes and are difficult to pass when they are in the right lane.
By taking traffic off the rails, the amount of truck traffic actually will increase.
And as for pavement damage, as truck weights kill pavement, increasing pavement damage every mile they travel. The evidence is readily seen in the difference in pavement conditions between the right lane – where trucks mostly travel – and the left lane. Some cash-strapped states have even urged automobile drivers to stay in the left lane to avoid the rough surfaces in right lanes that states can’t afford to repair.
Indeed, tractor trailer combinations already underpay the actual pavement damage they cause, according to multiple studies by federal and state governments and university researchers. Were the weight of combination tractor-trailers permitted to increase nationwide from the current 80,000 pound limit to the almost 100,000-pound limit sought, those trucks would pay barely half of the pavement damage they cause, putting the increased cost burden on automobile owners.
By contrast, railroads pay to build and maintain every mile of their privately owned rail network. Thus, longer and heavier trucks, by taking traffic from the rails, would reduce the railroads’ ability to maintain their track network and likely cost untold thousands of rail jobs from the lost rail traffic.
More trucks would increase highway congestion at a time that Congress has been cutting investment in Amtrak.
There is neither common nor economic sense in Congress permitting longer and heavier trucks – and you can help stop this foolishness by contacting your congressional lawmakers. An initial vote on the proposal to increase truck lengths and weights could occur as early as Feb. 2 in the House.
Railroaders have helped stop the attack of killer trucks numerous times in the past, and it can be done again.
To send a courteous message to your House and Senate representatives to vote “no” against permitting longer and heavier trucks, click here. Select your state, then click on the name of your senators and representative. You then have the information necessary to send an email or fax, or make a telephone call.
UTU-represented engineers and conductors employed by Apache Railroad in Arizona have ratified a new three-year agreement providing for wage increases, certification pay, improvements in disability and life insurance benefits, an increase in the employer match for a 401-k plan, substantial improvements in the healthcare insurance plan, and a reduction in the employee contribution.
UTU International Vice President John Previsich, who assisted in negotiations, praised the efforts of General Chairperson Danny Young (GO 017) for doing “an excellent job of bringing the concerns and wishes of his members to the negotiating table and working to obtain a positive outcome.”
Apache Railroad is a shortline operating in Arizona between Snowflake and Holbrook. Its principal commodities include paper, pulpwood, wood chips, coal and chemicals.