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By BONNIE MORR
Alternate Vice President, Bus Department

As some in Congress seek to slash spending on public transit – the only affordable means for millions of Americans going to and from work – ridership is soaring.

The American Public Transit Association says more than five billion trips were taken via public transit during the first six months of 2011 – up sharply from the same period a year earlier. In fact, transit ridership is at its highest level in more than half-a-century as Americans continue to abandon the expensive automobile commute in favor of convenient and more affordable public transit.

Public transit is also shown by researchers to be a beneficial to local economies. In many communities without effective public transit options, small business has difficulty in recruiting workers for service jobs as many cannot afford automobiles to take them to and from work.

The American Public Transit Association says that for each $1 billion invested in public transportation, 36,000 jobs are supported and created.

A study released by the University of Wisconsin found that cuts to bus service in Milwaukee made 40,000 jobs at 1,700 employers inaccessible by public transit. And, concluded the study, proposed new cuts in public transit budgets would put 13,000 jobs out of the reach of workers not owning automobiles.

“The very people perhaps most in need of jobs would face another barrier to getting a job,” concluded the study. “That’s no way to rebuild an economy.”

The UTU continues to deliver to Congress the message that public transit is an essential service deserving of full funding support. I encourage members to email and phone their congressional representative with the same positive message.

Budget cuts also are adversely affecting public transit workers, and our UTU organizers are seeing a surge of interest among the unorganized to be represented by a strong labor union such as the UTU.

With demand for public transit soaring in the midst of layoffs, drivers are being asked to work more overtime, limiting their ability to obtain sufficient rest between shifts and spend quality time with their families.

We will continue to reach out to the unorganized. Over the past 43 months, the UTU has organized 24 separate properties.

Mike Futhey with Bill Lucy

(For more than six decades, Bill Lucy has been a labor-union foot soldier. In 1968, as an officer of AFSCME Local 1733 in Memphis, Tenn., he collaborated with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. during the sanitation workers’ strike, during which Dr. King was assassinated. In August, Bill Lucy spoke to delegates at the UTU’s quadrennial convention in Hollywood, Fla. Following is a summary of his remarks.)

The UTU, through its Collective Bargaining Defense Fund, has demonstrated a solid commitment to trade union principles and solidarity. President Futhey recognizes there is a daily crisis in the lives of working families as they struggle to put bread on their tables, clothes on their backs and a roof over their heads.

The crazy governors of Ohio and Wisconsin have seen the solidarity of the UTU as it works to preserve collective bargaining rights and quality health care. The UTU may be small compared to some other unions, but it’s right in the middle of the fight – and that’s where you should always be.

The crazy lawmakers who would strip workers of their democratic right to have a union now know you will fight until hell freezes over, and then skate across the ice to continue the fight to protect those rights. You have that reputation, and you can be proud.

A question was raised on CNN whether poor people are responsible for our nation’s economic condition. That’s an incredible question to ask after we bailed out Wall Street, bailed out the banks and bailed out corporations.

The poor can’t pay and the rich won’t pay, and who does that leave? Look across the room at each other and you spot those who are going to bring this nation out of the difficulty it is in. The fact is that it is always the working men and women on whom the weight falls to clean up the mess politicians create.

Working families are victims of the lunacy that has overtaken the political extremists who want to take away our democratic rights to determine our bargaining representatives.

There is currently an unrestrained effort to end workers’ rights to have a voice in the workplace. It is the collective bargaining process that gives us fairness and justice in the workplace, and we will fight for it every step of the way. I reject the notion that if God meant for you to be well off, he would have made you that way.

We as workers must come together to fight back against the forces that seek to turn back the clock to weaken unions and cheapen the cost of labor.

FRA logoWASHINGTON – Deputy Federal Railroad Administrator Karen Rae is departing the agency Nov. 3 to rejoin the New York State government as deputy secretary of transportation in the office of New York Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo.

Rae has been the number two to Administrator Joseph Szabo since March 2009. No successor, who will require Senate confirmation, has been nominated.

Before her appointment as deputy FRA administrator, Rae was deputy commissioner of policy and planning for the New York DOT.

amtrak car; amtrakAmtrak General Chairperson Dirk Sampson (GO 769), issued the following update on wage, benefits and work rules negotiations with Amtrak:

“In continuing contract talks with Amtrak, we are striving to obtain an equitable agreement for our members.

“We recently sent a letter to Amtrak President Joseph Boardman and Amtrak Vice President of Labor Relations Charles Woodcock outlining our position.

“Certification pay and the interpretation of single days continue to be the obstacles holding us up. I remain confident that with the efforts of our UTU negotiating team, we will be able to obtain an agreement that will be beneficial to the Amtrak members.”

Negotiating with Sampson is Amtrak General Chairperson Bill Beebe (GO 663), assisted by International Vice President John Previsich.

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.”

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:#