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The following update on Amtrak negotiations is from UTU General Chairperson Roger Lenfest (GO 769), who is the UTU lead negotiator. The UTU International is not participating in the talks. Under the UTU’s guarantee of craft autonomy, the International participates in on-property negotiations only when requested to do so by general chairpersons.

The existing UTU agreement with Amtrak remains in force until amendments are concluded under provisions of the Railway Labor Act.  

According to Lenfest:

“Here are some of the reasons why we have not yet reached a settlement.

“So far, none of the crafts who have settled have come close to a net 3 percent increase in pay for their members any year for the next five years. In fact, in the last three years of those agreements, the single-employee contribution to health and welfare could be $230 per month.

“On the other hand, there are several important issues specific to our craft that we are serious about resolving. Certification and the attendant pay for certification is important, as is the issue of the treatment of single-day vacations.

“Furthermore, the meal allowance for conductors who are required by Amtrak to be away from home must be addressed.

“Another important issue to our members is to achieve an adequate amount of time-off for those members who work for long hours.

“In the meantime, there are several economic reports coming in that inflation and increased costs for fuel and groceries are right around the corner.

“It is our goal to reach a reasonable and honorable settlement with Amtrak in the near term; however, we must be vigilant that any settlement is equitable and that we meet our responsibility to place our members in a better economic situation.

“Presently, we are not the only major craft negotiating with Amtrak. The Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen and the Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employes have yet to reach a settlement with Amtrak.

“In fact, the BMWE recently polled its Amtrak-employed members concerning the acceptance of a contract with Amtrak under similar terms and conditions as those accepted by the crafts who have already signed. We understand that more than 2,000 ballots were sent out to BMWE members; and 85.5 percent of the responses voted to continue to bargain for a better settlement.

“I shall provide further updates as negotiations continue.”

(Editors’ note: In May 2010, Amtrak clerks and carmen represented by the Transportation Communications Union ratified new five-year agreements with Amtrak that, according to the TCU, provided for a 15 percent general wage increase over five years.)

WASHINGTON — The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) says it will sue Arizona, South Carolina, South Dakota and Utah, seeking to invalidate those states’ recently passed constitutional amendments prohibiting workers in the private sector from saying “union, yes” through card-check, reports The New York Times.

Bus industry labor relations are covered by the National Labor Relations Act, which is administered by the NLRB.

Labor-friendly congressional lawmakers have been pushing for card-check under federal law — a process that would automatically certify a union when a majority of workers indicate a preference for a union through authorization cards. Currently, card-check is merely an option under federal law, and requires employer acquiescence.

The constitutional amendments of the four states require secret-ballot elections regardless of whether an employer accepts card-check and regardless if a new federal law imposes the card-check result.

“The four amendments differ in language, but all conflict with federal law by closing off a well-established path to union representation recognized by the Supreme Court and protected by the National Labor Relations Act,” said the NLRB in announcing its intention to sue the states.

“The states have no authority dictating which method employees use in deciding whether to be represented by a union,” Samuel Estreicher, a labor law professor at New York University, told The New York Times.

Following an eighth negotiating session in mid-January with the National Carriers’ Conference Committee (NCCC), UTU International President Mike Futhey said, “We continue to make progress through interest-based bargaining toward developing a common framework recognizing the needs of both sides, and we are prepared to reach a voluntary agreement with the carriers.”

The NCCC represents BNSF, CSX, Kansas City Southern, Norfolk Southern, Union Pacific and many smaller railroads. Some 40,000 UTU members employed by those railroads are covered by the national agreement. The national agreement came open for amendment Jan. 1, 2010, and remains in force until amendments are concluded under provisions of the Railway Labor Act.

Three additional dates for national negotiations have been scheduled between the UTU and the NCCC in February, March and April.

Interest-based bargaining involves joint problem solving whereby both sides seek to understand the needs of the other. It differs from demand-based bargaining, where each side’s list is endless.

“Our negotiating team has been armed with a solid understanding of carrier economics and fact-based arguments justifying our Section 6 notice that was prepared by our general chairpersons,” Futhey said.

In addition to UTU lead negotiator President Futhey, UTU officers on the negotiating team include Assistant President Arty Martin; National Legislative Director James Stem; UTU International Vice Presidents Robert Kerley and Delbert Strunk; and General Chairpersons John Lesniewski (CSX, GO 049), Pate King (NS, GO 680) and Doyle Turner (CSX, GO 347).

Negotiations also continue between the NCCC and two other rail-labor coalitions.

One, which includes the Transportation Communications Union, the American Train Dispatchers Association, the International Association of Machinists, the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, and the Transport Workers Union, previously applied for services of the National Mediation Board (NMB), and a mediator was assigned.

A second coalition, which includes the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen, the Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employes, the Brotherhood of Railroad Signalmen, the Brotherhood of Boilermakers and Blacksmiths, the National Conference of Firemen and Oilers, and the Sheet Metal Workers International Association, requested the mediation services of the NMB on Jan. 11.

That leaves only the UTU in voluntary negotiations with the NCCC.

WASHINGTON — Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison of Texas, the senior Republican on the Senate Commerce Committee, announced she will retire at the end of 2012, when her third six-year term ends.

The Senate Commerce Committee has oversight of many rail, transit, air and bus issues. She is considered a moderate Republican.

The Senate Commerce Committee, with a Democratic majority, is chaired by Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.).

Rail traffic continued its torrid growth the first week of 2011, with the Association of American Railroads (AAR) reporting freight carloadings were up more than 20 percent versus the same week in 2010, and intermodal (trailers and containers on flat cars) were up almost 9 percent from the first week of 2010.

This comes on the heels of a banner year for freight railroads in 2010. The AAR said the combined increase in total annual carloads and intermodal in 2010 was equivalent to some 20,000 additional trains moving when compared with 2009.

In the wake of the horror of Tucson, which reawakened among Americans of all races, religions and cultures the knowledge that there is more that binds us in our hopes and dreams than divides us in our politics, the words of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., in his “I Have a Dream” speech, are as powerful and relevant today as they were on Aug. 28, 1963, when Dr. King spoke them at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C.

 

I Have a Dream
By Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

I am happy to join with you today in what will go down in history as the greatest demonstration for freedom in the history of our nation.

Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today, signed the Emancipation Proclamation. This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of Negro slaves who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of their captivity.

But one hundred years later, the Negro still is not free. One hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination. One hundred years later, the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. One hundred years later, the Negro is still languished in the corners of American society and finds himself an exile in his own land. And so we’ve come here today to dramatize a shameful condition.

In a sense we’ve come to our nation’s capital to cash a check. When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir.

This note was a promise that all men, yes, black men as well as white men, would be guaranteed the “unalienable Rights” of “Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note, insofar as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check, a check which has come back marked “insufficient funds.”

But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation. And so, we’ve come to cash this check, a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of justice.

We have also come to this hallowed spot to remind America of the fierce urgency of Now. This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism. Now is the time to make real the promises of democracy. Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice. Now is the time to lift our nation from the quicksands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood. Now is the time to make justice a reality for all of God’s children.

It would be fatal for the nation to overlook the urgency of the moment. This sweltering summer of the Negro’s legitimate discontent will not pass until there is an invigorating autumn of freedom and equality.

Nineteen sixty-three is not an end, but a beginning. And those who hope that the Negro needed to blow off steam and will now be content will have a rude awakening if the nation returns to business as usual. And there will be neither rest nor tranquility in America until the Negro is granted his citizenship rights. The whirlwinds of revolt will continue to shake the foundations of our nation until the bright day of justice emerges.

But there is something that I must say to my people, who stand on the warm threshold which leads into the palace of justice: In the process of gaining our rightful place, we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred. We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline.

We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence. Again and again, we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force.

The marvelous new militancy which has engulfed the Negro community must not lead us to a distrust of all white people, for many of our white brothers, as evidenced by their presence here today, have come to realize that their destiny is tied up with our destiny. And they have come to realize that their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom.

We cannot walk alone.

And as we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall always march ahead.
We cannot turn back.

There are those who are asking the devotees of civil rights, “When will you be satisfied?” We can never be satisfied as long as the Negro is the victim of the unspeakable horrors of police brutality. We can never be satisfied as long as our bodies, heavy with the fatigue of travel, cannot gain lodging in the motels of the highways and the hotels of the cities.

We cannot be satisfied as long as the Negro’s basic mobility is from a smaller ghetto to a larger one. We can never be satisfied as long as our children are stripped of their self-hood and robbed of their dignity by signs stating: “For Whites Only.” We cannot be satisfied as long as a Negro in Mississippi cannot vote and a Negro in New York believes he has nothing for which to vote. No, no, we are not satisfied, and we will not be satisfied until “justice rolls down like waters, and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

I am not unmindful that some of you have come here out of great trials and tribulations. Some of you have come fresh from narrow jail cells. And some of you have come from areas where your quest — quest for freedom left you battered by the storms of persecution and staggered by the winds of police brutality.

You have been the veterans of creative suffering. Continue to work with the faith that unearned suffering is redemptive. Go back to Mississippi, go back to Alabama, go back to South Carolina, go back to Georgia, go back to Louisiana, go back to the slums and ghettos of our northern cities, knowing that somehow this situation can and will be changed.

Let us not wallow in the valley of despair, I say to you today, my friends.

And so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.

I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.”

I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia, the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.

I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.

I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.

I have a dream today!

I have a dream that one day, down in Alabama, with its vicious racists, with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of “interposition” and “nullification” — one day right there in Alabama little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers.

I have a dream today!

I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, and every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight; “and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together.”

This is our hope, and this is the faith that I go back to the South with.

With this faith, we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith, we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith, we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day.

And this will be the day — this will be the day when all of God’s children will be able to sing with new meaning:

My country ’tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing.
Land where my fathers died, land of the Pilgrim’s pride,
From every mountainside, let freedom ring!

And if America is to be a great nation, this must become true.

And so let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire.

Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York.

Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania.

Let freedom ring from the snow-capped Rockies of Colorado.

Let freedom ring from the curvaceous slopes of California.

But not only that:

Let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia.

Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee.

Let freedom ring from every hill and molehill of Mississippi.

From every mountainside, let freedom ring.

And when this happens, when we allow freedom ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God’s children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual:

Free at last! Free at last!

Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!

(The following article, written by Ken Orski, editor and publisher of Innovation Briefs, is reproduced with permission of Mr. Orski.)

WASHINGTON — Congressional action on transportation this year, including the shape of the next surface transportation bill, will be inevitably influenced by the changed political geography of the 112th Congress.

Not only will the level of funding for transportation be dictated by new, fiscally conservative House appropriators, but the program priorities will be influenced by a new House majority that largely hails from small-town and suburban America.

None of the new GOP majority on the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee represents big city transit-oriented districts. A majority come from the heartland. The closest to a major urbanized areas that any of the Republican members come from, are Oklahoma City and Charleston, S.C.

Thus, the committee will likely focus on traditional concerns of keeping roads and bridges in a state of good repair — and try to stabilize the Highway Trust Fund by bringing expenditures in line with expected gas tax receipts. That means a budget of approximately $40 billion to $41 billion annually.

Within these budget limits, transit will maintain its customary standing — although it may receive somewhat less emphasis, given the changed composition of the T&I Committee.

Also likely to be curtailed will be support for high-speed rail, given its cool reception in Wisconsin, Ohio, Iowa, Florida and other Republican-dominated state legislatures.

Discretionary “executive earmarks,” such as the TIGER grants, will most likely be severely cut back if not entirely eliminated. They have not been popular with Republican lawmakers.

Chairman Mica’s resolve to make passage of a multi-year authorization a top priority increases the likelihood that a transportation bill will be brought to the House floor and approved during the first session of the 112th Congress. The Senate is likely go along.

While the next authorization will almost surely be more modest in size and less “transformational” than many in the transportation community would like to see, it will at least restore the federal surface transportation program to a stable and predictable multi-year footing.

WASHINGTON — As the Jan. 1, 2012, effective date for conductor certification approaches, the UTU and Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen are urging the Federal Railroad Administration to revise certain portions of the proposed certification rules.

Chief among areas of concern is the lack of a streamlined appeals process when railroads move to decertify a conductor. The UTU and the BLET also are asking the FRA to amend existing engineer certification rules with such a streamlined appeals process that will also require appeals to run their course before a conductor may be decertified.

Conductor certification is one dozens of actions required by Congress in the Rail Safety Improvement Act of 2008 (RSIA).

Other worker-positive safety advances ordered by the RSIA, also being advanced by the FRA, are mandatory availability of breathing apparatus for train and engine workers, implementation of positive train control, and hours-of-service reform. In each case, the UTU and the BLET also are working to refine those rulemakings in line with concerns of UTU and BLET members.

Conductor certification will be published as a new Part 242 of Chapter 49 of the Code of Federal Regulations. Engineer certification, implemented by the FRA in 1991, is published as Part 240

“Conductor certification has long been an objective of the UTU, as it enhances the professionalism and indispensability of the craft,” said UTU International President Mike Futhey. “One of the most sought after provisions of conductor certification, contained in the FRA’s proposed rulemaking, enables a conductor to refuse to violate operating rules and federal regulations even if demanded by a carrier officer.

“We also are pleased that the FRA proposes uniform training for conductors, which includes a requirement for territorial testing and qualification that must be preceded by face-to-face classroom training and territorial training with a pilot,” Futhey said.

“Railroads must also provide conductors with a map and listing of all safety hazards, and must keep a list of conductors qualified on each territory,” Futhey said. “The proposed rule also makes it unlawful to require a conductor to work on territory where the conductor is not qualified,  and provides that a lone engineer must be certified as both an engineer and a conductor, or be accompanied by a certified conductor. Collective bargaining will determine additional pay for certified conductors,” Futhey said.

In reviewing the FRA’s proposed rule for conductor certification, the UTU and the BLET noted that “the FRA cannot deny that the railroads have repeatedly abused” their discretion in disqualifying engineers under the two-decade old engineer certification rule.

Thus, the UTU and the BLET urged the FRA to streamline the decertification appeals process for conductors as well as engineers.

Unacceptable, for example, is the appeals process for engineer decertification, which requires hiring of an attorney and can stretch on for years.

The UTU and the BLET also want decertification to be delayed until the appeals process has run its course. “We contend that the only legitimate reason to impose a suspension prior to the employee being provided due process is if the alleged violation is deemed a willful violation; otherwise, the suspension serves no useful purpose,” the UTU and the BLET told the FRA. “The notion that someone will go right out and inadvertently commit additional ‘cardinal sins’ is preposterous.”

The UTU and the BLET also asked the FRA to include, in the final rule, a requirement for FRA review of unilateral decisions by railroads to make conductor certification requirements more stringent than contained in the rulemaking. “It is not unreasonable to expect the railroads to identify those areas where each railroad will implement additional or more stringent requirements for its conductors,” the UTU and the BLET told the FRA.

To read the comments of the UTU and BLET, click here.

The Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority, whose drivers are represented by the UTU, is phasing out its last diesel engine bus, becoming the nation’s first major urban bus fleet equipped entirely with alternative-fuel technology, which includes compressed natural gas, electric and gasoline-electric hybrid engines.

The LACMTA operates more than 2,200 buses.

The last diesel engine bus will be ceremoniously retired by Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, with UTU General Chairperson James Williams participating in the event.

The Los Angeles Times reports that the LACMTA is “well ahead of Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Miami, New York and other large metropolitan areas in replacing diesel buses with more environmentally friendly vehicles.”

WASHINGTON — Republicans have finalized appointments to the House Transportation & Infrastructure Committee, which will be chaired in the upcoming Congress by John Mica (R-Fla.).

Members include Minnesota’s Chip Cravaack, who defeated Democrat Jim Oberstar in the November congressional elections. Oberstar has served as chairman of the T&I Committee under Democratic control that expires at year-end.

Most transportation legislation affecting aviation, bus and rail originates in this committee.

The Republican members (excluding subcommittee chairpersons, yet to be named) are:
      
Lou Barletta (Pa.)
Larry Bucshon (Ind.)
Shelley Capito (W.Va.)
Howard Coble (N.C.)
Chip Cravaack (Minn.)

Rick Crawford (Ark.)
Jeff  Denham (Calif.)
John Duncan (Tenn.)
Blake Farenthold (Texas)
Stephen Fincher (Tenn.)

Bob Gibbs (Ohio)
Sam Graves (Mo.)
Frank Guinta (N.H.)
Richard Hanna (N.Y.)
Andy Harris (Md.)

Jaime Herrera Beutler (Wash.)
Randy Hultgren (Ill.)
Tim Johnson (Ill.)
Jeff Landry (La.)
James Lankford (Okla.)

Frank LoBiondo (N.J.)
Billy Long (Mo.)
Pat Meehan (Pa.)
Candice Miller (Mich.)
Gary Miller (Calif.)

Tom Petri (Wis.)
Tom Reed (N.Y.)
Jean Schmidt (Ohio)
Bill Shuster (Pa.)
Steve Southerland (Fla.) 

Don Young (Alaska)