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KELSO, Wash. — A van shuttling BNSF workers to Vancouver, Wash., was struck by a BNSF freight train at a private crossing here Wednesday afternoon, March 23, killing two van passengers and the van driver, and critically injuring another passenger.

Killed were conductor trainee Chris Loehr, 28, of Seattle; engineer and BLET member Thomas J. Kenny, 58, a 22-year BNSF employee of Shoreline, Wash.; and the Coach America Crew Transport driver Steven Dean Sebastian, 60, of Castle Rock, Wash.

Loehr signed on with BNSF in January after his honorable discharge from the U.S. Army. He was an Iraq combat veteran, according to his family.

Critically injured and hospitalized is UTU member and conductor Dwight L. Hauck, 51, of Auburn, Wash., a member and trustee of UTU Local 324 with 22 years of railroad service.

There were no reported injuries to the crew operating the freight train, none of whom have been identified.

The 4:32 p.m. accident occurred at what BNSF calls Longview Junction. Kelso is about six miles northeast of Longview, Wash., and about 120 miles south of Seattle. Vancouver, Wash., where the van was headed, is some 40 miles south of Kelso and some 10 miles north of Portland, Ore.

The Longview Daily News reports the shuttle van had just departed a BNSF yard at Kelso and was crossing the tracks at the private crossing when struck by a northbound freight train with a consist of three locomotives and 106 carloads of grain. The Seattle-bound train had originated in Crookston, Minn.

Following the collision, the van plunged down a 25-foot embankment, landing some 50 feet from the highway-rail grade-crossing.

The BNSF operating employees in the van reportedly had brought a train from Seattle to Kelso and were being transported by Coach America Crew Transport to Vancouver for overnight lodging.

A BNSF spokesperson told the newspaper that the private crossing has “crossing signs and stop signs.”

The Federal Railroad Administration has launched an investigation.

Why are many UTU members participating across America in rallies opposing attacks on collective-bargaining rights?

Why have we created the Collective Bargaining Defense Fund to assist our union brothers and sisters under attack?

Because we know that those who ignore the past are doomed to repeat it.

We know that if right-wing extremists succeed in busting public-employee unions, their next target is airline, bus and railroad labor unions.

The history of working men and women in America — before we fought for and won the right to join a union, engage in collective bargaining and have grievances resolved by neutral parties — was a bleak history of low wages, few if any benefits, unsafe working conditions, and arbitrary discipline and discrimination on the job.

Let’s take a short trip back to the times before workplace democracy.

Before labor laws and worker rights, courts considered any combination of workers seeking wage increases and/or improved working conditions as a criminal conspiracy, punishable by fine and imprisonment.

Picketing an employer — by even one picket — was considered by courts an unlawful restraint of trade.

Workers typically put in a 12-hour day, six days a week, with no overtime pay, no paid vacations, no employer-provided health care insurance, no process for worker grievances to be heard and no compensation for on-the-job injuries.

Railroads once hired Pinkerton detectives to spy on workers, blacklisted troublemakers and warned workers in writing that if injured on the job, the railroad had no responsibility.

There was a time in America that federal troops were used to put down work stoppages.

Infamous railroad baron Charles Crocker responded to a work stoppage by announcing it was he who made the rules — that if workers didn’t return to their jobs, he would pay them nothing for the work already performed and for which they were owed.

“Robber barons prevailed in their pursuit of endless treasure at the expense of their employees,” wrote a federal judge in 2006, describing working conditions before establishment of the very labor laws right-wing extremists now seek to eliminate.

Turn back the clock?

Never.

We will not go away. We will not forget.

Together, in solidarity, we can and will win this fight and emerge stronger than ever.

To help achieve this victory, please contribute to the UTU Collective Bargaining Defense Fund.

Your contributions will help to provide signs, t-shirts with slogans, and other activities to increase public awareness and support for preserving workplace democracy and the union movement.

Please make your contribution today by writing a check to the UTU Collective Bargaining Defense Fund and sending it to:

UTU Collective Bargaining Defense Fund
United Transportation Union
Suite 340
24950 Country Club Blvd.
North Olmsted, OH 44070-5333

It is said that “all politics is local,” and a hero co-pilot with U.S. Airways made a symbolic gesture in Madison, Wis., last week on behalf of the public employees whose collective bargaining rights are under attack.

He withdrew hundreds of thousands of dollars of his personal savings from a Wisconsin bank whose executives are said to have financially contributed to the election of Wisconsin’s union-busting governor, Scott Walker.

Jeff Skiles is remembered as the co-pilot, with Capt. Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger, of the U.S. Airways Airbus A320 with 155 passengers aboard that was disabled by a flight of geese on takeoff from New York’s LaGuardia Airport in January 2009. The two brought the plane down safely into the icy Hudson River, minutes after takeoff, without loss of life — the now famous “Miracle on the Hudson.”

Skiles is a member of the Air Line Pilots Association and a staunch union brother. “They [M&I Bank executives] have supported Gov. Walker and I wanted to send a message to them,” Skiles told the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinal. Skiles reportedly deposited the money in another bank.

Skiles also participated in rallies in Madison, Wis., in support of public employees targeted by union-busting right-wing extremists in the state legislature.

Separately in Wisconsin, the Republican attorney general on March 21 asked a state appeals court to lift a temporary restraining order issued Friday that blocks implementation of the state law revoking public employee collective bargaining rights.

The Court of Appeals has asked for additional information and it is not known when the appellate court may rule. The Republican attorney general alleges the granting of the temporary restraining order against the law is an “overreach” against the legislative branch.

The lower-court judge who issued the temporary restraining order will hear further arguments later this month, and could make the order permanent or revoke it. The appellate court also could overrule the lower court decision.

Wisconsin newspapers speculate the case is likely to reach the state’s supreme court.

Hero co-pilot Jeff Skiles, second from left, and two unidentified flight officers, join with UTU General Chairperson UTU Jim Nelson (CP, GO 261) at a rally in Madison, Wis., last week in support of collective bargaining rights.

By Vic Baffoni
Vice President, Bus Department
 

These are troubling times for our nation, states and municipalities. Budget problems are forcing cutbacks in a wide variety of public services, and public transit often is targeted for cuts.

At the extreme is the union busting going on in Wisconsin, Indiana, Ohio and other states. But even where labor union collective bargaining isn’t under attack, we are facing severe challenges at the bargaining table and with cutbacks in service.

In the not too distant past, when the good times seemed as they would never end, government agencies borrowed and committed to future obligations. The future is now here and it is not a pleasant environment.

The UTU has negotiated some of the best contracts out there, but the economic landscape is now very different. Transit systems have laid off thousands of employees and reduced funding for services.

In Los Angeles, where the UTU represents more than 5,000 rail workers and bus operators, negotiations with the Los Angeles Metropolitan Transportation Authority are slow moving and tense.

The State of California has been furloughing workers, while many cities and counties have frozen wages and benefits as they struggle to pay their obligations. The mood of taxpayers is that taxes should not rise.

Too often, the lawmakers who approve budgets — even those who historically have been union friendly — are turning a deaf ear on the needs of working families, who are struggling to keep their homes and put food on the table.

In this environment, I commend LACMTA General Chairperson James Williams (GO 875) and his negotiating committee, which includes Robert Gonzales, Lis Arredondo, Ulysses Johnson, Eddie Lopez and John Ellis. They are committed to protecting and preserving everything in our contracts and are working tirelessly to improve working conditions and job security for the membership.

I remain confident in their abilities. They are among the best of the best at the bargaining table, as is evidenced by the contracts produced in the past.

In addition to fighting for members at the bargaining table, Mr. Williams and Local 1608 Chairperson John Ellis have recently won a significant arbitration case on behalf of bus operator Adalid Morgana, who had been terminated following an accident.

Working on Mr. Morgana’s behalf, the UTU prevailed on evidence presented in the arbitration and won for him back pay and benefits.

Imagine baseball without rules against bean balls, football without helmets or rules against clipping, roadways without stop signs, and cars without seat belts.

Rules have a purpose. On railroads the rules — developed over more than a century-and-a-half — are to save lives and limbs and keep trains running without incident.

There is no more dangerous civilian occupation than working in a railroad switching yard, where accidents too often kill, maim and end careers.

Yard safety also requires situational awareness, which is a state of mind coupled with teamwork, communication and uninterrupted attention to the task at hand.

Eight switching fatalities and 63 career-ending injuries — seven involving amputations — occurred in rail yards during 2010. Already in 2011, there has been one switching fatality.

To combat yard fatalities and career-ending injuries, the Switching Operations Fatalities Analysis (SOFA) Working Group was formed in 1998.

It is a peer review group comprised of representatives from labor, management and the Federal Railroad Administration — all collaborating to bring railroaders home in one piece.

SOFA’s five lifesaving tips that can save yours:

  • Secure all equipment before action is taken.
  • Protect employees against moving equipment.
  • Discuss safety at the beginning of a job or when work changes.
  • Communicate before action is taken.
  • Mentor less experienced employees to perform service safely.

The SOFA Working Group also warns of special switching hazards:

  • Close clearances
  • Shoving movements
  • Unsecured cars
  • Free rolling rail cars
  • Exposure to mainline trains
  • Tripping, slipping or falling
  • Unexpected movement of cars
  • Adverse environmental conditions
  • Equipment defects
  • Motor vehicles or loading devices
  • Drugs and alcohol

Going home in one piece requires situational awareness.

The SOFA Working Group’s lifesaving tips are proven to reduce your risk of a career-ending injury or death while on the job.

To view the most recent SOFA Working Group report, which includes five new advisories related to inexperienced employees, close clearances, industrial track hazards, job briefings and mainline train hazards, click here.

WASHINGTON — Federally mandated improvements to locomotive cab security and comfort, along with enforceable remote control operation (RCO) regulations, are being sought by the UTU and the BLET in joint comments filed with the Federal Railroad Administration.

Significantly, the FRA is being asked to ban remote control operation on mainline track.

The two organizations responded to an FRA Notice of Proposed Rulemaking to update, consolidate and clarify existing locomotive safety regulations.

Following are the requests made by the two organizations to the FRA:

Locomotive cab security

A fatal shooting of a conductor and wounding of the engineer, by a street thug in New Orleans in June 2010 highlight the imperative of enhancing crew member cab security. But sealing the locomotive cab also requires adequate air conditioning and improved window glazing (bullet resistant material).

Extreme heat in the cab can accelerate crew fatigue, slowing reaction time and compromising train safety.

Requested of the FRA is a requirement that all newly purchased and reconstructed locomotives — as well as locomotives already equipped with air conditioning — maintain an interior cab climate of between 60 degrees and 80 degrees Fahrenheit.

As for window glazing, the two organizations said, “If a glazing is available that can protect operating employees from most of the firearms available to common criminals, then FRA should require the installation of such glazing on the locomotives.”

Remote control locomotives

The UTU and the BLET note that the FRA has yet to issue enforceable regulations for the operation of remote control locomotives. It is time to do so, they said, and the regulation should include a prohibition of RCO on mainline track.

“The manufacturers of the remote control locomotive technology in use today designed the software and equipment for switching operations, not mainline movements,” the organizations said.

Additionally, the organizations seek a regulation mandating remote control operator units “be as simple in design and uncluttered with any function not necessary for safe operations.”

The UTU and the BLET also asked the FRA to develop an improved electronic record-keeping system for employee on-duty hours in remote control service. Under the FRA’s current record-keeping, they said, it is difficult to compare accurately the number of employee hours worked in remote control switching versus conventional switching.

“Switching hours must be accurately recorded so that the number of accidents, incidents and fatalities can be compared on an apples-to-apples basis,” the UTU and the BLET said.

Improved locomotive seats also are requested. The organizations said railroads continue to scrimp on proper seating on new locomotives without regard for the safety or health of crew members — an effort to save a mere $220 on a $2.2 million locomotive. Such penny-pinching, said the organizations, is “shamefully inconsistent with providing a safe working environment.

“Improper and unsafe seats have caused many injuries and illnesses to operating crews in the past decades, and now is the time for FRA to accept the scientific facts and offer requirements for specifications of locomotive seats on occupied locomotives,” said the UTU and the BLET.

Said UTU International President Mike Futhey: “Safety regulations with real teeth in them are long overdue.”

Said BLET National President Dennis Pierce: “BLET and UTU remain united and unwavering in our commitment to the safety and security of our members.”

Click here to read the 21-page joint UTU-BLET submission to the FRA.

WILMINGTON, Del. — Amtrak CEO Joseph Boardman, FRA Administrator Joseph Szabo and former BNSF top attorney Jeff Moreland, now an Amtrak board member, were enroute here from Washington Saturday morning for dedication of the new station renamed for Vice President Joe Biden.

They got as far as Baltimore on their first-class passes.

A power problem on the Northeast Corridor stopped all Amtrak trains dependent on the overhead catenary for power.

Fearful they would miss the dedication, they made a call and soon left the train, piling into an automobile quickly provided, and reached Wilmington only a bit late. Biden was patiently awaiting them.

“We would not have gotten off the train if we could have sequenced it faster, but the event would have been over … and that’s the evaluation we made,” Boardman told ABC News.

The news dispatch reported they “were escorted from the coach by security guards and a small entourage of assistants.” ABC News said rental cars were obtained for the entourage.

Biden understood. He said later he had taken more than 7,000 roundtrips between his home in Wilmington and Washington while a U.S. senator; and, yes, not all were on time.

The remaining passengers on the train endured a two-and-a-half hour delay, later attributed to a malfunctioning transformer in Philadelphia.

Boardman used the opportunity to make a pitch for more federal funds for the Northeast Corridor. “If we’re going to really grow the Corridor the way it needs to be grown, we have to substantially increase the amount of power that’s available so that we don’t trip these transformers,” he told ABC News.

WASHINGTON — Speaking to labor’s rank-and-file via an AFL-CIO electronic town hall meeting last week, Vice President Joe Biden warned of “barbarians at the gate” of working families as attacks on collective bargaining and union membership move forward in numerous state legislatures.

“The only people who have the capacity — organizational capacity and muscle — to keep, as they say, the barbarians from the gate, is organized labor,” Biden said.

“And make no mistake about it: The guys on the other team get it. They know if they cripple labor, the gate is open, man. The gate is wide open.”

Encouraging organized labor to continue the fight against extremists who would destroy labor unions, Biden said, “You built the middle class. We don’t see the value of collective bargaining, we see the absolute positive necessity of collective bargaining.”

MADISON, Wis. — It may be only a temporary restraining order, but the decision of a Wisconsin judge last week to block the state legislature from revoking the collective bargaining rights of public employees reflects the controversial nature of the action and keeps it before ever-increasing citizen wrath.

Wisconsin Circuit Court Judge Maryann Sumi, appointed by former Wisconsin Republican Gov. Tommy Thompson, issued the temporary restraining order, barring Wisconsin’s secretary of state from publishing the law, effectively staying its implementation.

The challenge accuses Republican lawmakers — who control both the Wisconsin House and Senate — of violating the state’s requirement for open meeting requirements when they passed the law. It is alleged that because Democratic members of the legislature were not present, the open meeting requirements were violated.

An appeal to a higher court of the temporary restraining order is expected this week, and Judge Sumi also later could permit the law to be published following a hearing she scheduled to begin March 28.

Additionally, Wisconsin Republicans, who control the legislature, could bring the bill up again for a vote, now that Democratic members — who had fled in an earlier unsuccessful attempt to block the law’s passage — have returned.

“We highly doubt a Dane County judge has the authority to tell the legislature how to carry out its constitutional duty,” said Republican Sen. Scott Fitzgerald and Republican Rep. Jeff Fitzgerald.

The fight is far from over in Wisconsin or elsewhere.

It's not just Wisconsin. UTU members participate in a rally in Lansing, Mich., last week where the legislature there is considering bills whose intent is union busting. Similar rallies are taking place nationwide as union members and non-union members are speaking as one against the assault by right-wing extremists against collective bargaining rights.

 

WASHINGTON — Two commuter railroads — Los Angeles Metrolink and Chicago Metra – get it. They recognize that commuters aren’t hogs and logs on freight trains, and passenger and crew safety is paramount.

Unfortunately, 24 other commuter railroads don’t get it.

Under the umbrella of the American Public Transit Association (APTA), those other commuter railroads are pleading with Congress to delay for three years implementation of the life- and limb-saving technology offered by positive train control (PTC).

Instead, those other 24 commuter railroads are looking to spend the money on gussied up passenger stations, platforms and even new office buildings for executives.

Indeed, at a hearing of the House Rail Subcommittee March 17, APTA, in emphasizing everything except passenger and train-crew safety, asked that the deadline for implementation of PTC on commuter rail routes be delayed for three years — from Dec. 31, 2015, to Dec. 31, 2018.

By contrast, Los Angeles Metrolink and Chicago Metra are putting the highest priority on passenger and crew safety by moving forward to meet the 2015 deadline — established by the Rail Safety Improvement Act of 2008 — for installation of PTC.

Los Angeles Metrolink and Chicago Metra are the only two commuter railroads opposing the three-year delay sought by the other 24 in the PTC implementation date.

At Los Angeles Metrolink — a 512-mile system that is the second largest commuter railroad in size and fifth largest in ridership — the recently installed CEO, John Fenton, has made a commitment to put passenger safety first.

Metrolink has taken the lead in selecting vendors, setting equipment standards and implementing new training programs in preparation for meeting the 2015 PTC mandate.

“We are fully dedicated to meet or beat the PTC implementation deadline of 2015,” Fenton said in testimony submitted to the subcommittee. “We don’t think there is any time to waste given the unforgiving nature of the environment within which we operate.”

Fenton and Metrolink employees know this first hand.

Each wears a green wrist band with the words, “Never Again,” reminding them of the horrific accident in Chatsworth, Calif., Sept. 12, 2008, between a Union Pacific freight train and a Metrolink commuter train that killed 25 and injured 135. “We still walk in the shadow of that pain in mourning for all those touched by the tragedy,” Fenton said.

“A firm sense of resolve is clear,” he said. “PTC can be the technological edge that helps Metrolink achieve the safest operations possible when combined with a culture of positive safety, management leadership by example, sound operating rules and practices, a collaborate approach to stakeholder involvement and our crash-energy-management car fleet.”

While the other 24 commuter railroads complain of the cost of PTC and assert there is “no off-the-shelf technology” readily available, Los Angeles Metrolink has been at work to make PTC happen and to meet the 2015 installation deadline.

Within two months of passage of the 2008 congressional mandate for PTC installation, Metrolink assembled a PTC development team, which defined the scope, schedule and budget to create a glide path for PTC implementation by 2015. A vendor contract was awarded in October 2010.

If Los Angeles Metrolink and Chicago Metra have any complaints, it is with the other 24 commuter railroads fighting the 2015 installation mandate. By so doing, say safety experts, those 24 are reducing incentives for vendor research and development, limiting competition among vendors, and thereby further driving up the costs of implementation of which they already complain.

“We believe that PTC is perhaps the most important safety innovation in our lifetime,” Fenton said. “Our families, co-workers, friends and neighbors ride our trains every day. Their safety is our responsibility. It is our core value. PTC is too important in our mission of zero safety incidents.”

Also providing testimony was rail labor, supporting maintenance of the 2015 implementation date for PTC — for commuter railroads as well as freight railroads.

Emphasizing that many deaths — passenger and crew — could have been saved and will be saved by PTC, the rail labor organizations told the subcommittee, “There is no such thing as federal regulatory overreach when it comes to returning our members safely to their families.”

Said UTU National Legislative Director James Stem: “Implementation of PTC is a small price to pay for saving lives and limbs. PTC, long advocated by the National Transportation Safety Board, will become an integral part of the safety overlay protecting passengers, the public and train crews.”

PTC is collision avoidance technology that monitors and controls train movements remotely. It can prevent train-to-train collisions, prevent unauthorized train movement into a work zone, halt movement of a train through a switch left in the wrong position, and stop trains exceeding authorized speeds.

To view an animated depiction of how PTC works as a safety overlay system to improve railroad safety, click here.