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Wier

Two new UTU negotiated rail agreements have been ratified by members.

UTU-represented trainmen and engineers employed by Evansville & Western Railroad overwhelmingly ratified a new five-year agreement, while UTU-represented trainmen and engineers employed by Iowa Interstate Railroad ratified a new six-year agreement.
     
The Evansville & Western agreement provides for substantial wage increases with full back-pay, certification pay for conductors and engineers, freezes health care insurance contributions, preserves cost-of-living adjustments, and improves working conditions and seniority moves.

UTU International Vice-President Dave Wier, who assisted with the negotiations, congratulated General Chairperson R.W. “Red” Dare (Canadian National, GO 433) and Local 1525 Chairperson Danny Kautzman for “the great effort put forth in negotiating an agreement with dramatic improvements in wages and working conditions. The wage increases, coupled with the certification pay, provide members with outstanding increases in the daily rates of pay,” Wier said. 

The Iowa Interstate agreement provides for wage increases, a boost in the meal allowance, plus improvements in vacation provisions, working conditions and allowances. Also established is a seniority maintenance provision, and covered employees will gain coverage under the UTU National Health and Welfare Plan as well as the national dental and vision plans. 
     
Wier also assisted with the Iowa Interstate negotiations. He praised General Chairperson Dave McFarland, Local 258 Chairperson Norman Kitchen, and Local 258 President Jesse West for “the extraordinary effort put forth in negotiating a solid agreement with substantial improvements in wages, working conditions and health care benefits. The National Health and Welfare package is far superior to the former Iowa Interstate plan in all aspects and was an integral part of the negotiation process,” Wier said.

Evansville & Western operates some 124 route miles between Evansville, Ind., and Owkawville, Ill, with a branch to Mt. Vernon, Ind. Iowa Interstate operates almost 600 route miles between Council Bluffs, Iowa, and Chicago, with a branch to Peoria, Ill., and connects with all major North American rail systems.

 

UTU members in Massachusetts covered under the National Rail Contract and other UTU plans will not face a tax penalty for the 2011 state tax year for dependent child maternity benefits.

The Massachusetts state legislature had mandated coverage of dependent child maternity benefits. But because the collectively bargained National Rail Contract does not include this benefit, the coverage was deemed to be non-credible health care coverage under state tax law and subject to substantial state tax penalties for the 2011 tax year.

UnitedHealthcare, working with state officials, successfully gained a tax exemption for rail workers in Massachusetts covered under the National Rail Contract.

As a result, the State of Massachusetts has confirmed that the following plans are now credible for the 2011 tax year:

* The National Health and Welfare Plan

* The National Railway Carriers/UTU Health and Welfare Plan

* The GA-46000/ERMA (National Retirement Major Retirement Benefit Plan) in combination with the GA-23111 Plan E for early retirees

All Massachusetts residents covered under these plans will receive a written communication from the State of Massachusetts indicating that their coverage will be considered creditable for 2011, and the 1099HC forms that are sent to them in early January for inclusion with their state tax returns will indicate that their coverage in 2011 was creditable for the entire year.

United Healthcare advises that this certification is for the 2011 tax year only, and does not apply to 2012. UnitedHealthcare is working to resolve his issue on a s to resolve this issue on a permanent basis.

WASHINGTON — The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has announced new rules aimed at preventing dangerous fatigue among passenger aircraft pilots. The rules do not affect all-cargo aircraft pilots.

The new rules are in response to a Colgan Air crash near Buffalo, N.Y., in 2009 that killed 50 people. 

Under the new rules:

• Flight-duty times would range from nine to 14 hours. Additionally, rather than just counting flight time and rest time, flight-duty time would include the time spent flying to the job, which, as in railroading, is called deadheading;

• Flight-time limits will be eight or nine hours, depending on the start time of the pilot’s entire flight duty.

• Minimum rest periods will be 10 hours between shifts. The pilot must have an opportunity for eight hours of uninterrupted sleep during that rest period.

• Pilots must have 30 consecutive hours of rest each week, which is a 25 percent increase over current standards. 

The new rules do, however, allow pilots to sit at the controls for an hour longer per day, from eight hours to as many as nine. 

Also, pilots flying late at night, across multiple time zones or on schedules involving numerous landings and takeoffs, will work shorter shifts than those flying during the day. 

The rule also requires pilots to sign paperwork verifying that they are rested before each flight, in an attempt to educate them and highlight the need for personal responsibility. 

The National Transportation Safety Board has urged safety enhancements to reduce pilot fatigue for decades. Although the board didn’t blame fatigue as a cause in the Colgan crash, it found that neither pilot appeared to have slept in a bed the night before the accident. 

The rules will take effect in two years, and cost passenger airlines $297 million over 10 years. The rules will, however, save airlines $247 million to $470 million in reduced accidents and lower health-care expenses for pilots, according to the FAA.

A fund has been established for the family of Local 1957 member Stacy Rieger, a BNSF conductor, who was killed Dec. 18 when his head reportedly struck a bridge beam while leaning over the railing of his moving locomotive’s side running board in an attempt to check the fuel level in a fuel-tank sight glass.
Local 1957 member Caleb Butler set up a benefit account in Stacy’s name at Community Bank to aid Rieger’s family. Community Bank is located at 645 North 5th St., Silsbee, TX 77656-4040. The phone is (409) 386-6058; the account number is 51036468.
Rieger’s wake is Wed., Dec. 21, from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. at Broussard’s Funeral Home in Silsbee, Texas.  The funeral will be Thurs., Dec. 22, at 4 p.m at Crestwood Baptist Church on Highway 69 in Lumberton, Texas.
Rieger, 41, of Lumberton, was a four-year member of Local 1957, Silsbee.
He is survived by his wife, Ann, four daughters and a stepdaughter.
According to reports, Rieger, after striking his head, tumbled from the locomotive down a 48-foot embankment into the Navasota River. Emergency responders, summoned by the locomotive engineer, pronounced Rieger dead at the scene.
The nighttime accident occurred some 80 miles northwest of Houston, in Grimes County, at milepost 26.8 of the BNSF Conroe Subdivision.
The Federal Railroad Administration is investigating the accident.
Rieger is the tenth UTU member killed on duty in 2011, two more than were killed during calendar year 2010.

Once again, the Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has ordered a railroad to reinstate an employee and pay him back wages for violating an employee’s rights as a whistleblower.

In the latest OSHA order, Union Pacific was ordered immediately to reinstate an employee in Idaho and pay him back wages, compensatory and punitive damages and attorney’s fees totally more than $300,000.

The unidentified UP employee had filed a whistleblower complaint with OSHA, alleging suspension without pay and then termination 23 days after notifying the company of an on-the-job injury. OSHA’s investigation found reasonable cause to believe that the disciplinary charges and termination were not based on the complainant breaking a work rule, but on the complainant reporting an injury to the railroad, in violation of the Federal Railroad Safety Act’s whistleblower protection provisions.

“The safety of all workers is endangered when employers intimidate injured workers so that they do not report injuries,” OSHA said in assessing the penalties.

This was the fifth OSHA whistleblower violation against Union Pacific since 2009. BNSF, Metro North Railroad, Norfolk Southern and Wisconsin Central also have been penalized by OSHA for violating workers’ whistleblower rights.

As UTU rail members are painfully aware, railroads have routinely tied managerial bonuses to low reportable injury rates among employees, creating a culture of fear through harassment and intimidation – a culture that discourages the reporting by workers of on-duty injuries and allows railroads to claim an industry safety award accompanied by glowing press releases as to its low employee-injury rate.

After collecting file drawers full of verified complaints from members of carrier harassment and intimidation following an on-duty injury, the UTU’s National Legislative Office was successful in shepherding through Congress the Federal Rail Safety Act of 2007.

The law’s purpose is to protect rail workers from retaliation and threats of retaliation when they report injuries, 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 also is 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.

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 https://www.smart-union.org/td/designated-legal-counsel// or may be obtained from local or general committee officers or state legislative directors.

To view a more detailed OSHA fact sheet, click on the following link:

www.osha.gov/Publications/OSHA-factsheet-whistleblower-railroad.pdf

The Department of Homeland Security has been ordered by a federal district court in Nebraska to cease assessing fines against Union Pacific and seizing its rolling stock following discovery of illegal narcotics on trains originating in Mexico and delivered by Mexican railroads to UP at the Mexican border.

The court said U.S. Customs and Border Protection — an agency of the Deparatment of Homeland Security — exceeded its authority in assessing the fines and seizing the railcars in which the illegal narcotics were found.

UP, which sued the federal government, said it had been wrongly assessed more than $37 million in fines and penalties by Customs and Border Protection after the illegal narcotics were found in rail equipment delivered to UP at the Mexican border crossings at Brownsville, Texas, Calexico, Calif., and Nogales, Ariz. The court cancelled the $37 million in fines and penalties.

Earlier this year, UP agreed to spend some $50 million to improve its border- crossing security, and to work more closely with Customs and Border Protection. UP has assigned railroad police, K-9 teams and private security contractors to its border crossings in an effort to find those narcotics when the railcars are delivered by the Mexican railroad. UP also paid to construct an office and observation towers for use by Customs and Border Patrol officers.

Click here for a joint letter from UTU International President Mike Futhey and Sheet Metal Workers’ International Association General President Joe Nigro on the merger between our two organizations to become the Sheet Metal, Air, Rail & Transportation Workers (SMART).

SANTA MONICA, Calif. – UTU members employed by Santa Monica Regional Bus Lines (UTU Local 1785) have ratified a new three-year contract by a three-to-one margin.

The contract, which expires June 30, 2014, includes pay raises, maintains and improves work rules, retains full-coverage health care insurance, and provides that discipline for using cell phones on duty must be verified on camera or witnessed by two or more independent sources. (The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration cell-phone ban affects only drivers in interstate commerce.)

Adhi Reddy

UTU International Vice President Vic Baffoni, who assisted in negotiations, praised the efforts of General Chairperson Adhi Reddy and Local 1785 officers Moses Avila and Martin Guerrero.

We are into the season of losing limbs and lives in yard accidents.

More career-ending injuries and fatalities occur during winter months – even in warmer climates – than any other season of the year.

Even veteran rails – not just new yard employees — lose their situational awareness during this period, and the price they pay is devastating.

Maybe it’s the holidays. Maybe it’s concern over bills that arrive after the holidays. Maybe it’s seasonal darkness. Maybe it’s thoughts of summer’s return. Maybe, maybe, maybe.

But what we know is that when we lose situational awareness, the likelihood of losing limbs or life skyrockets, and the objective of zero switching accidents and fatalities flies out the window faster than heat through an open window into chill air.

Consider the cold, hard facts:

* 23 percent of yard fatalities occur in December and January.

* 50 percent of fatalities from being struck by mainline trains occur in December and January.

* 2011 is stacking up as a more dangerous year than 2010. Just through September 2011, according to the Federal Railroad Administration, 51 severe injuries occurred vs. 47 for the first nine months in 2010. Eight amputations occurred during the first nine months of 2011 vs. same period in 2010.

Here are some tips to help you avoid a career-ending injury or loss of your life this winter season:

* Be sure winter clothing does not restrict movement, or degrade hearing and vision.

* Identify any winter-related conditions affecting safety. For example, ice can cause derailments. Ice, snow and mud can cause falling. And snow can muffle sound and reduce visibility.

* Adjust productivity expectations based on darkness and weather.

* Discuss winter conditions in safety briefings, and post any weather-related concerns on bulletin boards.

* Above all, don’t lose situational awareness no matter other circumstances in your family or personal life.

Finally, as in all months of the year:

* Review current operating and safety rules that specifically address remote control locomotive and conventional switching operations that require employees to go between rolling equipment, and determine whether those rules provide adequate protection to employees, or need to be updated or revised.

* Develop, implement and monitor sound communication protocols that require employees on multi-person switch crews to notify their fellow crewmembers when the need arises to enter between two pieces of rolling equipment – regardless of whether the employee is the primary RCO or working on a conventional crews.

* Review SOFA Safety Recommendation No. 1 relating to adjusting knuckles, adjusting drawbars and installing end-of-train devices, and communicate procedures implementing that recommendation to employees working in yards or other locations where the possibility of entering between rolling equipment exists.

That recommendation provides: Any crew member intending to foul track or equipment must notify the locomotive engineer before such action can take place. The locomotive engineer must then apply locomotive or train brakes, have the reverser centered, and then confirm this action with the individual on the ground.

Additionally, any crew member that intends to adjust knuckles/drawbars, or apply or remove an EOT device, must ensure that the cut of cars to be coupled into is separated by no fewer than 50 feet. Also, the person on the ground must physically inspect the cut of cars not attached to the locomotive to ensure they are completely stopped; and, if necessary, a sufficient number of hand brakes must be applied to ensure the cut of cars will not move.

* Recognize that personal safety is your responsibility.

* Always perform tasks safely and in compliance with established railroad rules and procedures.

To view more information on rail safety, click on the following link:

https://www.smart-union.org/safety/

WASHINGTON – The Department of Transportation has ordered the following minimum random drug and alcohol testing rates for 2012:

For workers in safety sensitive positions and whose safety is regulated by the Federal Railroad Administration, the Federal Transit Administration or the Federal Aviation Administration, employers must perform random drug tests on at least 25 percent of covered workers, and perform random alcohol tests on at least 10 percent of covered workers.

For workers in safety sensitive positions and whose safety is regulated by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, employers must perform random drug tests on at least 50 percent of covered workers, and random alcohol tests on at least 10 percent of covered workers.