A benefit fund has been established for the family of Norfolk Southern conductor Christopher Ochoa, a member of UTU Local 1895, Chicago, who died Oct. 17.
Ochoa is survived by his wife, Elly Medrano-Ochoa, and children: Daniel Medrano, age 15; Brian, age four; and twins Alexander and Ayden, age three.
Ocha was a Marine Corps veteran and had six years’ service on Norfolk Southern.
Contributions to the Christopher Ochoa Memorial Benefit Fund may be made at the Chicago Community Bank at 1110 W. 35th St., Chicago, IL 60609, or at 11157 S. Ewing Ave., Chicago, IL 60617, or mailed to Chicago Community Bank, Attn: Gina Fezler, 1110 W. 35th St., Chicago, IL 60609.
Local 1895 delegate and UTU Director of Organizing Rich Ross said, “Brothers and sisters helping each other and their families in time of need goes to the very core of union brotherhood and sisterhood.”
Author: paul
Retirees receiving Railroad Retirement Tier I or Social Security benefits will see their payments rise by 3.6 percent beginning Jan. 1 – the first increase in those benefit payments in two years.
Increases in Railroad Retirement and Social Security benefits are tied to the Department of Labor’s Consumer Price Index.
For railroad retirees, Tier II payments will rise by 1.2 percent, as the Tier II increases are calculated at 32.5 percent of the Consumer Price Index. Those receiving vested dual benefits payments, phased out in the early 1980s, and supplemental annuities will not see an increase in those payments.
Increases in Medicare Part B premiums will be announced by mid-November.
For railroad retirees who have not attained the full retirement age and are employed while receiving Railroad Retirement benefits, the maximum earnings not subject to a reduction will rise to $14,640 Jan. 1 from the current $14,160. The earnings deduction is $1 in benefits for every $2 in earnings over the exempt amount.
Railroad retirees, regardless of age, who work for their last pre-retirement non-railroad employer, are subject to an additional earnings deduction in their Tier II and supplemental benefits — $1 for every $2 in earnings up to a maximum reduction of 50 percent. This earnings restriction does not change from year to year and does not allow for an exempt amount.
For more information, contact your nearest Railroad Retirement or Social Security office.
Some 430 UTU represented conductors and brakemen employed by Canadian National properties Wisconsin Central; Duluth, Winnipeg & Pacific (DW&P); and Duluth Missabe and Iron Range (DM&IR) have ratified an implementing agreement — effective Jan. 1 — consolidating the three properties under a single agreement.
The new agreement provides for four stand-alone general committees under the jurisdiction of one general committee – with General Chairpersons Matt Koski (DW&P, GO 325), Steve Haus (DM&IR, GO 315) and Saint W. J. Laurent (DM&IR, GO 321) merging with General Chairperson Ken Flashberger (WC, GO 987).
“The merger reduces the administration costs associated with four general committees,” said UTU International Vice President John Babler, who assisted with negotiations. “The implementing agreement satisfied both New York Dock, Article 1, Section 4, merger conditions and the parties’ Railway Labor Act Section 6 notices.”
Also provided by the agreement are general wage increases, additional personal leave days, up to eight new extra board positions, a reduction in the number of years to qualify for additional weeks of vacation, a new bid rule and prior-rights zones.
Additionally, the new agreement provides terminal protection for DW&P and DM&IR trainmen, preserves no-furlough clauses on each former property, reduces call windows to four hours, guarantees consecutive days off for extra boards and pools, and establishes an order of call when the extra board is exhausted.
“General Chairpersons Flashberger, Koski, Haus and Laurent played key roles in the negotiations, each recognizing the value of a negotiated settlement, and came to the negotiations fully versed on their respective agreements,” Babler said. “They came prepared to make the tough choices that would best suit their members’ needs in the short-term and long-term. The also did a remarkable job holding town hall meetings to inform members about the implementing agreement,” Babler said.
LIMERICK, Maine – Former Alternate National Legislative Director Gene Plourd (1993-1997) died Oct. 15 at age 79.
Plourd, 79, born in Providence, R.I., hired out on Maine Central Railroad in December 1954, and was promoted to fireman in 1955, and engineer in 1962.
Early in his career, he served as his local’s legislative chairperson, and from 1960-1993 as UTU Maine-New Hampshire state legislative director, becoming the dean of state legislative directors by virtue of that long service in the post.
From 1985 to his appointment as alternate national legislative director in 1993 — and concurrent with his post as a state legislative director — Plourd was chief of staff at the UTU national legislative office in Washington, D.C.
Plourd retired in 1997 as a member of UTU Local 1400 (South Portland, Maine), following 43 years of membership in the UTU and its predecessor, the Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen & Enginemen.
A Marine Corps veteran, Plourd served as a member of the University of Maine Labor Education Committee and a member of the New England Regional Commission Task Force on Capital and Labor.
Former UTU International President Tom DuBose recalled Plourd as “a distinguished gentleman in every respect who could be found doing the people’s business to the very end. Gene fought the battles that were required of him and had a capacity to change, a capacity to learn, a capacity to listen, and a capacity to accept life as it is rather than the way he wanted it to be,” DuBose said.
Plourd is survived by his wife, Rosemary, 10 children and 13 grandchildren.
A funeral is scheduled Saturday, Oct. 22, at 11 a.m. at Holy Cross Church, 124 Cottage Road, South Portland. Visitation at Hobbs Funeral Home, 230 Cottage Road, South Portland, will be Friday, Oct. 21, from 6-8 p.m.
The family asks that in lieu of flowers, donations in Plourd’s memory be made to hospice of Southern Maine, 180 U.S. Route 1, Scarborough, ME 04074; or Limerick Fire and Rescue Squad, 24 School Street, Limerick, ME 04048.
As the perfectly healthy man told the obituary editor of his local newspaper, “Reports of my demise are grossly exaggerated.”
And so it is with the UTU Insurance Association (UTUIA) and the UTU’s Discipline Income Protection Plan (DIPP).
Vicious and absolutely false rumors are circulating that the UTU and UTUIA are going out of business, and that UTUIA policy holders and DIPP participants should flee to competing organizations.
Not surprisingly, one of these false rumors originated with a competitor to DIPP.
The plain dealing truth is that neither the UTU nor the UTUIA are going out of business.
The UTUIA, which is wholly owned by its policy holders and regulated by the Ohio Department of Insurance, is doing business as usual. There is no change in the status, service, or security of the UTUIA. UTU General Secretary & Treasurer Kim Thompson reported earlier this year that the UTUIA earned more than $400,000 from operations in 2010 and remains financially strong with nearly $26 million in surplus.
Similarly, DIPP is its strongest in years. Participants in the DIPP also should keep in mind – and this has been consistently and frequently proven – that the DIPP is steadfast in looking for ways to pay claims of participants, while non-UTU plans are known to look for ways to avoid paying claims.
In addition to the UTU DIPP being the largest and most effective discipline income protection plan, it is the only program of its kind regulated by the Department of Labor – publishing financial statements, holding its funds in trust and audited annually by a public accounting firm.
The UTU, the UTUIA and the DIPP are alive and well and will continue to serve UTU members. Don’t allow mischievous and self-serving rumor mongers upset your financial security.
WASHINGTON – A bi-partisan bill has been introduced in the House of Representatives to bring financial relief to distressed transit systems and to help stem cuts in transit jobs and service.
Rep. Russ Carnahan (D-Mo.) and Rep. Steve Latourette (R-Ohio) have introduced H.R. 3200, the Local Flexibility for Transit Assistance Act, over concern that as Americans increasingly turn to transit for transportation to and from their jobs, 80 percent of the nation’s budget-strapped mass transit agencies have cut service, raised fares and laid-off workers.
Within hours of the bill’s introduction, it attracted 106 co-sponsors. The UTU and other AFL-CIO transportation unions have been pushing lawmakers for months to take such action.
The bill, if enacted into law, would allow local transit systems in areas with more than 7 percent unemployment or substantially higher gasoline prices to gain access to federal funds to maintain service and return furloughed employees to work.
The UTU and other AFL-CIO transportation unions were previously successful in pushing an enacted amendment to the 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act to provide transit systemsgreater flexibility to transfer a portion of federal funds –armarked for more equipment — to maintain operations.
When it was recognized more was needed, the UTU and other AFL-CIO unions commenced lobbying lawmakers, resulting in introduction of the Carnahan-LaTourette sponsored Local Flexibility for Transit Assistance Act.
Carnahan is a member of the House Transportation & Infrastructure Committee, while Latourette is a member of the House Appropriations Committee’s Transportation subcommittee.
To view H.R. 3200, click on the following link:
http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c112:H.R.3200:#
Rail and bus workers continue to call out to the United Transportation Union for representation in these troubling times.
The UTU’s ability to negotiate industry-leading contracts, process grievances and achieve workplace safety improvements are most often cited as the reason.
Over the past few weeks, the UTU was successful in three additional organizing drives, bringing to 27 the number of new properties added to the UTU family within the past 44 months.
Workers at Columbia & Cowlitz Railway (which includes Patriot Woods Railroad) in Longview, Wash.; Intermodal Services of America of Lorain, Ohio; and First Transit of Farmington, N.M., are now represented by the UTU.
Transportation and mechanical employees at shortline Columbia & Cowlitz Railway (which includes Patriot Woods Railroad for representation purposes) — both part of the Patriot Rail group and operating in southwest Washington state — voted unanimously for UTU representation, rejecting another labor organization. UTU Director of Organizing Rich Ross and Assistant President Arty Martin made presentations to the workers, leading to a unanimous show of support in the representation election.
Intermodal Services of America (ISA), which provides intra-plant switching for manufacturing and processing plants at numerous locations in the Midwest and Southwest, voluntarily recognized the UTU as its transportation employees’ bargaining representative. Ross, UTU Assistant General Counsel Erika Diehl, Illinois State Legislative Director Bob Guy and Local 1895 (Chicago) Local Chairperson and Regional Organizer Larry Grutzius were instrumental in the organizing drive.
At First Transit, a public transit operator and part of First Group America, former UTU member Steve Moots, now employed there, provided a testimonial on UTU representation abilities to his fellow then-unorganized workers. Bonnie Morr, alternate Bus Department vice president, was assisted in the organizing drive by Alternate Vice President John England, Columbia & Cowlitz Railway General Chairperson Sean Kibbee, New Mexico State Legislative Director Dennis Baca and Assistant President Arty Martin.
Janna Shaver, 49, daughter of retired Colorado State Legislative Director Jack Shaver, and his wife Barbara, died Oct. 10.
Janna would have graduated from The University of Denver Law School next May.
She is also survived by her sister, Lisa.
Donations made in Janna’s honor are suggested to Denver Dumb Friends League, 2080 S. Quebec St., Denver, CO 80231.
Qualitest Pharmaceuticals has issued a voluntary nationwide recall of its oral contraceptive owing to a packaging error that could leave women at risk of an unintended pregnancy.
Medco, which supplies many UTU members and family with prescription drugs, is notifying its patients who may have been supplied with the voluntarily recalled packages, as are other mail order and retail pharmacies. Should you have questions, you should contact your mail order provider, retail pharmacy or physician.
You may also contact Qualitest directly at at 1-877-300-6153 between the hours of 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. Central time, Monday-Friday, or visit the Qualitest website: http://www.qualitestrx.com/pdf/OCRecall.pdf
During the first six months of 2011, 37 serious injuries occurred during switching operations, resulting in three fatalities and eight amputations; while over the past two years, five rail workers have died in accidents involving rolling rail equipment.
The Switching Operations Fatality Analysis (SOFA) Working Group and the UTU Rail Safety Task Force have been consulting with the FRA to study the causes and prevention of such horrific accidents, leading the FRA Oct. 11 to issue new recommendations aimed at preventing such fatalities and injuries.
The recommendations, published in the Federal Register, are intended, says the FRA, to convey to carrier management and rail workers “the critical importance of following key operating procedures when going between rolling equipment.”
These recommendations include:
* 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.
SOFA Safety Recommendation No. 1 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 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.”
* Convey to employees that their own personal safety is their responsibility and that railroad management supports and encourages those employees that make safety their number one priority, regardless of their immediate assignment;
* Convey to employees that they should encourage fellow employees to perform their tasks safely and in compliance with established railroad rules and procedures.
To view the FRA’s Federal Register notice, click on the following link:
http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/FR-2011-10-11/html/2011-26283.htm
To view more information on rail safety, click on the following link: