SMART UnionWASHINGTON — A national ban on cell-phone use by bus drivers has been proposed by the U.S. DOT. It is expected to be put in place before March.
Bus drivers already are banned by federal regulation from texting while working.
“Every time a commercial truck or bus driver takes his or her eyes off the road to use a cellphone, even for a few seconds, the driver places everyone around them at risk,” said the DOT, noting that fatal bus crashes jumped from 20 to 38 in 2009.
Almost 10,000 train and engine workers returned to work on Class I railroads through the first 11 months of 2010, with T&E jobs up almost 10 percent compared with November 2009, says the Surface Transportation Board, which tracks the data.
The STB says 61,819 train & engine workers are now on the job with Class I railroads.
The increase in train and engine workers during 2010 was more than double the increase in other crafts, said the STB.
By Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood
It is difficult to imagine what America would be like without its Interstate highway system. For decades, our state-of-the-art roadways have been the world’s envy — and rightfully so. They deliver products of agriculture and industry to market. They link people with schools, jobs, family and health care.
America’s highways will remain a crucial component of our national transportation network well into the future. But we can no longer rely exclusively on roads as a strategy for economic growth over the long term. That is why the Obama administration has begun the heavy lifting of building a national high-speed-rail system that will spur economic development and job creation along its corridors.
For years, we have watched other countries pass us by as they build faster trains.
The benefits of high-speed rail are tough to ignore.
It will seamlessly integrate large metropolitan communities and economies through a safe, convenient and reliable transportation alternative. It will ease congestion on our roads and at our airports. It will reduce our reliance on oil as well as our carbon emissions. And it will provide a much-needed boost to America’s hard-hit manufacturing sector during a time of economic struggle.
Since the president proposed his vision for high-speed rail last year, enthusiasm around the country has been overwhelming. To date, states have submitted applications for $64 billion — more than six times the amount of money available.
Interest in the program has come from the public and private sectors — from state governments, rail advocates, workers, environmentalists and a broad spectrum of businesses eager to help get America’s high-speed-rail industry moving.
In fact, last fall, 30 foreign and domestic rail manufacturers committed to employing American workers and locating or expanding their base of operations in the U.S. if selected for high-speed-rail contracts. And the administration’s 100 percent Buy America requirement is sure to generate a powerful ripple effect as manufacturers buy supplies and as workers earn and spend their paychecks.
Recently, some naysayers have argued that we are moving too slowly. Others contend that states are laying track in the wrong places. Two governors-elect declined to move forward on projects that their predecessors initiated.
The fact is this kind of monumental endeavor must take place in a deliberate, thoughtful manner.
As with Interstates highways during the 1950s, we have neither drawn every single route on the map nor reached final agreements on every single financing arrangement. Few states are in a position to quickly spend billions of dollars without detailed planning. Building a nationwide network of high-speed rail lines is not as simple as repaving a road. This is hard work.
Nevertheless, signs of progress are clear. In Vermont and Maine, workers are installing track that was manufactured in Columbia City, Ind.
Other states, such as North Carolina and Illinois, are laying groundwork for major construction in 2011. Florida is poised to become one of the first states with a true high-speed-rail line. And President Obama has committed to creating or improving 4,000 miles of track as part of his plan for America’s next major six-year transportation legislation.
The reality is that we cannot build our high-speed-rail network overnight. This sort of undertaking requires leaders of all parties and persuasions to come together. It requires states to work in concert. And it requires Congress and the administration to maintain focus and commitment.
By staying on track with President Obama’s vision, modern, high-speed passenger service could connect 80 percent of Americans and restore the United States’ economic competitiveness.
When we look to America’s past, it can be easy to forget that America was never predestined to have the world’s best highways. Progress only became possible because generations before us dreamed big and built big — because they imagined, invested and sacrificed for the infrastructure on which we rely to this day.
Like our parents and grandparents, we, too, must exercise the foresight and courage to invest in the most important infrastructure projects of our time.
If we work together, a national high-speed-rail network can and will be our generation’s legacy.
When Union Pacific took possession of six freight cars interchanged from a Mexican railroad at Eagle Pass, Texas, the manifest showed titanium ore as the contents, and a Chicago warehouse as the destination.
Customs agents were suspicious, and discovered, instead, almost 22,000 pounds of marijuana, reports the Chicago Tribune.
The agents resealed the pot and sent the cars on their way — under seal and under tight surveillance. When the pot was unloaded at the Chicago warehouse, agents arrested seven individuals, where the marijuana was formally seized, reports the Chicago Tribune.
With an estimated $22 million street value, the seizure, according to the Chicago Tribune, may be the largest marijuana seizure in Chicago history.
A UTU member will be collecting more than $95,000 in penalties assessed against BNSF by the Occupational Safety & Health Administration (OSHA) for the railroad’s violation of the Federal Rail Safety Act.
OSHA found BNSF guilty of intimidating and harassing an injured UTU member who reported his workplace injury to the Federal Railroad Administration. The monetary award covers back wages, compensatory damages, attorney’s fees and punitive damages.
This is the first major award by OSHA after UTU International President Mike Futhey requested UTU designated legal counsel ramp up efforts to assist members whose whistle-blower rights under the Federal Rail Safety Act have been violated.
BNSF employee Ronald Helm (Local 1532, Kansas City), targeted for discipline after being injured on the job, didn’t feel so helpless against his powerful employer after his local chairperson, Joe Lopez, attended a seminar on whistle-blower rights given by a designated legal counsel. Helm is a 33-year veteran of the former Santa Fe and BNSF.
With assistance from General Chairperson Jim Huston (BNSF, GO 009), and committee Secretary Rex Pence, a case was developed and presented to OSHA, which administers the law as it applies to whistleblower protection.
Helm had been assessed a 30-day record suspension with no time lost, given one-year probation, and assessed 40 points against his personal performance index after reporting his personal injury to the FRA. Had the injury not been FRA reportable, he would have been assessed only five points.
BNSF said the penalty against Helm was for using a pin lifter, instead of a hickory stick, to adjust mismatched couplers in BNSF’s Argentine, Kan., yard. Evidence showed BNSF had not made the hickory stick available until after Helm’s injury.
Moreover, according to OSHA, BNSF’s discipline was arbitrary because BNSF typically does not discipline workers for using different tools if work is performed in a timely manner.
“An employer does not have the right to retaliate against employees who report work-related injuries,” said OSHA. And BNSF’s points system serves to discourage the proper reporting of workplace injuries, said OSHA.
In addition to the monetary penalty, BNSF was ordered to inform each of its employees in its Kansas Division — and in writing — of their whistle-blower rights under the Federal Rail Safety Act of 2007.
“This case and the work of our designated legal counsel shows that the federal law protecting whistle-blowers has teeth and that it can and will be used to stop the intimidation and harassment faced by our members,” Futhey said.
“UTU members who think they have been retaliated against for reporting workplace injuries should discuss the matter with a UTU designated legal counsel, their general chairperson or state legislative director,” said Futhey.
Complaints must be filed with OSHA within 180 days of the alleged employer retaliation.
Click on the following link for a listing of UTU designated legal counsel:
https://www.smart-union.org/td/designated-legal-counsel//
Click on the following link for a detailed OSHA fact sheet:
www.osha.gov/Publications/OSHA-factsheet-whistleblower-railroad.pdf
Now that Congress has approved, and sent to President Obama for signing, the compromise tax cut and jobless benefits legislation, the question UTU members have, is, “What does it mean for me?”
These federal-aid benefits begin after an initial 26 weeks of state-provided jobless benefits. The federal benefits extend the 26 weeks of state-provided jobless benefits to 60 weeks in states with unemployment rates of less than 6 percent; and to 99 weeks in states where unemployment rates top 8.5 percent. It is estimated that some 3 million Americans have exhausted their initial 26 weeks of unemployment benefits.
For workers earning $50,000 annually, the additional take-home pay from reduced payroll taxes will be some $1,000 over the course of the year. For those earning the maximum Social Security (and Tier I Railroad Retirement) taxable income, the additional take-home pay will top $2,000.
Additionally, the legislation:
The legislation also provides tax relief for short line railroads that invest in their properties. The tax relief encourages more investment by short lines, protecting jobs of short line rail workers as well as Class I workers that benefit from the interchange traffic flowing to and from short lines that otherwise would travel by highway.
Amtrak maintenance-of-way employees say they want a new wage package at least equivalent to what is paid on the highly profitable freight railroads, reports Angela Greiling Keane for Bloomberg. But unlike profitable freight railroads, Amtrak loses about $1 billion annually, says Bloomberg.
Bob Poole, founder of the Reason Foundation, a think tank advocating smaller government and more privatization — and expected to have influence on a new Congress heavily peppered with conservative Tea Party members — calls the BMWE demand “well beyond what the public would think is reasonable given the state of the economy and what’s happened to private sector compensation over the last couple of years,” reports Bloomberg.
Amtrak funding by Congress next year will face “much tougher scrutiny than they have ever had” as the House Republican leadership and a more conservative Senate consider deficit reduction, Poole told Bloomberg.
Congress determines Amtrak’s annual subsidy — $1.58 billion in fiscal year 2010, reports Bloomberg — and could cut back on Amtrak funding or impose its own labor agreement if negotiations between Amtrak and any of its unions reaches an impasse and the sides cannot agree to recom
mendations of a presidential emergency board. Under the Railway Labor Act, existing contracts remain in force until amended.
Bloomberg quotes BMWE official Jed Dodd as urging his members to hold out for more than the almost 15 percent over five years already agreed to by the Transportation Communications Union (TCU) and Amtrak. The UTU is still in contract negotiations with Amtrak.
During the previous round of Amtrak negotiations — which took eight years to conclude — Amtrak agreed to wage increases of some 35 percent over 10 years, reports Bloomberg. That agreement was retroactive to 2000.
When you think you have heard it all, along comes this one.
Union Pacific, according to the Associated Press, has filed a lawsuit against an Idaho food processor, alleging its processed dehydrated mashed potato flakes stuck to the wheels of some freight cars and caused a 2009 derailment at UP’s massive North Platte, Neb., classification yard. UP says the potato flakes affected the cars’ brakes.
The lawsuit, initially filed in a Nebraska state court, was transferred to a federal court, with UP seeking nearly $242,000 in damages, reports the Associated Press.
Idahoan Foods, of Lewisville, Ida., says its dehydrated mashed potatoes rival the taste of real mashed potatoes. Apparently, however, they don’t complement the wheel-rail interface.
PUEBLO, Colo. — The number of passengers boarding regional carrier Great Lakes Airlines at Pueblo is up 45 percent this year, which may help the airport qualify for additional federal funding, reports the Pueblo Chieftain.
The UTU represents Great Lakes pilots and flight attendants. Great Lakes operates three flights daily between Pueblo and Denver.
COMMERCE, Calif. — Hundreds of pedestrians and drivers are killed on railroad tracks and at highway-rail grade-crossings each year, but a triple fatality near Los Angeles Dec. 13 was especially horrific.
The Los Angeles Times reports three young men — perhaps all teens — were walking on tracks in Commerce around 9 p.m. Dec. 13 when they were hit by an Amtrak train and killed.
Two were identified as 15 and 17 years of age, while the age of the third was not determined.
The Amtrak train, with 125 passengers, was enroute from San Diego to Los Angeles.