Keith Fitzhugh is a conductor trainee on Norfolk Southern’s Atlanta North District.
He could be playing football with the New York Jets.
If you think trading a National Football League playbook for an operating employee’s rulebook is something akin to carrying the ball toward your own goal line, think again.
The 24-year-old Fitzhugh — who has made application for UTU membership when he completes his probationary period in January — knows the value of steady work and regular paychecks in an economy thrown for a loss. “You can have a fine living working for the railroad,” Fitzhugh said.
Cut by the Jets pre-season, Fitzhugh responded to an early December invitation to return as a defensive back with a polite, “thanks, but no thanks.”
Fitzhugh began conductor training with NS in September, established seniority in November, and looks forward to membership in UTU Local 511 in Atlanta. He was raised in nearby Hampton, Ga.
“For me, having job security is important,” said Fitzhugh, who is helping to support his disabled father, a former truck driver. “I was released three times [twice by the Jets, once by the Baltimore Ravens]. There is no job security [in the National Football League]. Why risk losing a good job with Norfolk Southern? I have buddies with two degrees who can’t find a job.
“Working for Norfolk Southern is one of the best prestigious jobs you can have,” Fitzhugh said. “I don’t want to give up what I have now, go back to playing football a couple of weeks and then be released again. I have to look out for what’s best for me and my family.”
“To sacrifice what he did for his family is the most unselfish thing I’ve heard by a player in sports,” Fitzhugh’s agent told the Associated Press.
“I think riding on a locomotive is one of the coolest things,” Fitzhugh said. “I talked with my parents about it. They have always thought highly of Norfolk Southern, where it’s safety first.”
Fitzhugh, a standout safety at Mississippi State University, was signed by the Jets in 2009. He was named by USA Today as one of the top 200 college football players in the nation, and played as a senior in the East-West Shrine Bowl. At Mississippi State, he earned a degree in communications, with a minor in marketing.
Fitzhugh
Author: paul
WASHINGTON — House Republicans selected their committee leaders Dec. 7.
As expected, John Mica (R-Fla.) was elected to chair the Transportation & Infrastructure Committee for 2011-2012. Most legislation affecting air, bus and rail members originates in this committee.
Here is the full list of Republican chairs for the upcoming Congress:
Agriculture: Frank Lucas of Oklahoma
Appropriations: Hal Rogers of Kentucky
Armed Services: Howard “Buck” McKeon of California
Budget: Paul Ryan of Wisconsin
Education and Labor: John Kline of Minnesota
Energy and Commerce: Fred Upton of Michigan
Financial Services: Spencer Bachus of Alabama
Foreign Affairs: Ileana Ros-Lehtinen of Florida
Homeland Security: Peter King of New York
Judiciary: Lamar Smith of Texas
Natural Resources: Doc Hastings of Washington
Oversight and Government Reform: Darrell Issa of California
Science and Technology: Ralph Hall of Texas
Small Business: Sam Graves of Missouri
Transportation and Infrastructure: John Mica of Florida
Veterans’ Affairs: Jeff Miller of Florida
Ways and Means: David Camp of Michigan
WASHINGTON — Random drug and alcohol tests administered by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, the Federal Aviation Administration, the Federal Railroad Administration and the Federal Transit Administration to air, bus and rail workers in safety sensitive positions will remain at 2010 levels, says the U.S. Department of Transportation.
For 2011:
- For bus drivers, the random drug testing rate will be 50 percent; and the random alcohol testing rate will be 10 percent.
- For airline workers, the random drug testing rate will be 25 percent; and the random alcohol testing rate will be 10 percent.
- For rail workers, the random drug testing rate will be 25 percent; and the random alcohol testing rate will be 10 percent.
- For transit workers, the random drug testing rate will be 25 percent; and the random alcohol testing rate will be 10 percent.
A 65-mile route through California’s Central Valley and Fresno has been selected by state officials as the starting point for a high-speed rail passenger line intended initially to connect Los Angeles and San Francisco, reports The New York Times.
That segment would make use of $4.5 billion in federal stimulus funds allocated by to California as seed money for a HSR project that might eventually link Sacramento, San Francisco, Los Angeles and San Diego.
The estimated total cost of the project could reach $60 billion. California voters in 2008 voted to authorize the selling of almost $10 billion in bonds to help finance the project, with hopes of attracting additional federal funds, plus private sector funds. Were the bonds sold, the combination of bond funds and the existing federal grant would total less than $15 billion — about 25 percent of the total cost.
The California HSR project is described by The New York Times as “the largest public works project in the United States … [but] “it is unclear how the Republican-controlled House and a tighter Senate will view the project in the next Congress.”
Some Republicans have indicated they will seek to reclaim the $4.5 billion DOT grant as it was awarded without congressional input.
WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court will hear an argument by CSX in 2011 challenging standards for rail workers bringing lawsuits under the Federal Employers’ Liability Act (FELA), reports Bloomberg.
The decision could affect future FELA cases.
The specific case to be heard, reports Bloomberg, involves a CSX engineer who won a $184,250 FELA award for a hand injury suffered while on duty.
Said Bloomberg, “The case centers on the test for determining whether a railroad’s negligence was the cause of an employee’s injury.”
The federal judge hearing that case, reports Bloomberg, told the jury “that the railroad was responsible for negligence if its negligence ‘played a part — no matter how small — in bringing about the injury.'”
CSX, according to Bloomberg, contends that injured rail workers should meet a more demanding standard, as is required in other types of personal-injury lawsuits not covered by the FELA, which applies only to railroads and their workers.
The more demanding standard would require the employer’s action to be the “primary cause” of the injury, known as “proximate cause” in legal jargon.
The UTU’s negotiating committee and railroads party to the national rail agreement — affecting some 40,000 UTU members — have met seven times since the contract came open for amendment Jan. 1.
“Nothing has been agreed to, but progress is being made on wages, benefits and working conditions,” said UTU International President Mike Futhey. “It is impossible to say that any issue has been finalized until all issues are agreed on.”
The existing national agreement remains in force until amendments are concluded under provisions of the Railway Labor Act.
Carriers in national handling, under the umbrella of the National Carriers’ Conference Committee (NCCC), include BNSF, CSX, Kansas City Southern, Norfolk Southern, Union Pacific and many smaller railroads.
In addition to UTU lead negotiator President Futhey, UTU officers on the negotiating team include Assistant President Arty Martin; UTU International Vice Presidents Robert Kerley and Delbert Strunk; and General Chairpersons John Lesniewski (GO 049), Pate King (GO 680) and Doyle Turner (GO 347).
Negotiations also continue between the NCCC and two rail-labor coalitions.
One, led by the Teamsters Rail Conference, 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.
The other, which has asked for mediation under provisions of the Railway Labor Act, 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.
A zero-tailpipe-emissions transit bus is in the works from GE Global Research, report canadiandriver.com and wired.com.
The new technology, according to canadiandriver.com, combines an energy-dense sodium batter with a high-power lithium battery, and could “help accelerate the electrification of bus fleets by combining the best qualities of each battery for cost efficiency.”
GE is pursuing the research in conjunction with the U.S. Federal Transit Administration and Northeast Advanced Vehicle Consortium, reports wired.com.
Canadiandriver.com explains that lithium batteries, while providing power, “are not optimized to store energy for driving range, while sodium batteries store large amounts of energy but are less optimized for power. The key cost advantage of a dual system is that it provides flexibility to integrate less-expensive battery chemistry without having to increase the size of the battery to address the vehicle’s power and energy storage needs,” reports canadiandriver.com.
“Over the past decade,” reports the Minneapolis Star Tribune, “court records show [that] judges around the country have disciplined BNSF after finding that the company or its lawyers broke rules aimed at ensuring fair legal proceedings in 13 cases involving collisions or workplace injuries.
“From Minnesota to California, BNSF has drawn judicial penalties for misconduct,” reports the Star Tribune in a four-part investigative series. Links to all four parts of the series are found at the end of this article, along with BNSF’s response.
The newspaper says judges have cited BNSF for “a range of actions, including destroying evidence and other obstructive discovery practices. In four of those cases, judges declared mistrials or ordered new trials after concluding the company or its attorneys engaged in misconduct.”
The Star Tribune quotes BNSF officials as “strongly” denying allegations that BNSF “has attempted to thwart the legal system in lawsuits over deaths or injuries related to the railroad’s operations.”
BNSF attorney Charles Shewmake told the Star Tribune that “litigation is an adversarial process where both sides try hard to win. Occasionally, Shewmake said, attorneys on both sides break the rules.”
BNSF launched a dedicated webpage Dec. 5 to refute the Star Tribune’s allegations, saying:
“Criticisms of our conduct in court occurred in a miniscule fraction of a percent of the cases involving our railroad over the past decade. The Minneapolis Star Tribune has chosen to focus on those very few cases to falsely portray BNSF as not committed to safety and ethical conduct when our overall record plainly refutes this. The Star Tribune also has failed to fairly report on the extent to which plaintiffs’ counsel and plaintiffs themselves have been sanctioned by the courts.”
The Star Tribune did report that “BNSF has complained repeatedly about plaintiffs’ attorneys abusing the legal system by making burdensome demands for evidence and deposition testimony. In June, a federal judge in Seattle was so irritated at a noted Minneapolis rail attorney in an injury case brought by a BNSF worker that he ordered him to explain why he shouldn’t be disqualified from representing the worker,” reported the newspaper.
The Star Tribune recalled that in 2004, the New York Times reported on other railroads alleged to have “engaged in cover-ups to hide their responsibility for rail crossing accidents.” That 2004 series, written by Walt Bogdanich, assistant editor of the Times’ investigative desk, won a Pulitzer Prize — the third Pulitzer Prize won by Bogdanich for investigative reporting.
To read Part 1 of the Minneapolis Star Tribune series, click on the following link:
To read Part 2 of the Minneapolis Star Tribune series, click on the following link:
To read Part 3 of the Minneapolis Star Tribune series, click on the following link:
www.startribune.com/investigators/111405579.html
To read Part 4 of the Minneapolis Star Tribune series, click on the following link:
To read the BNSF response, click on the following link:
All UTU locals are now required to make federal tax payments on-line using the Electronic Federal Tax Payment System (EFTPS).
This is because the Internal Revenue Service announced that effective Jan. 1, 2011, it no longer will accept Form 8109 FTD (federal tax deposit) coupons for filing federal tax payments.
The EFTPS is a free service from the Treasury Department. It is available by phone or online 24/7.
UTU treasurers should start using EFTPS beginning with December 2010 payroll tax liability payments due in January 2011. An exemption will be for employers who have $2,500 or less in quarterly payroll tax liability for 941 returns and pay this liability when filing the return.
Note that federal tax payments due Jan. 15, 2011, for the December payroll tax liability will not be accepted if you try to pay with a paper coupon. Any December 2010 federal payroll tax payment due on any date of January 2011 must be submitted electronically, either by phone or online. Therefore, you must be set up for electronic filing before Dec. 31.
If you are already making deposits using EFTPS, you need to do nothing.
Failure to remit your payroll tax payment electronically after Jan. 1, 2011 may result in a 10 percent penalty charge on the deposit amount for each non-electronic payment.
A letter with more information is being mailed to treasurers.
A cost-of-living adjustment will be made Jan. 1 to UTU-member wages governed by the national rail contract.
The amount of the COLA, based on a formula contained in the national rail contract, is three cents per hour.
The COLA reflects a low rate of consumer inflation. By contrast, Railroad Retirement and Social Security benefits will be frozen at the 2010 level in 2011 owing to the low-rate of consumer inflation as calculated by the U.S. Labor Department’s Bureau of Labor Statistics.
The national rail contract also provides that health care insurance cost sharing will increase slightly in 2011. Effective Jan. 1, the employee contribution will be $202.90 monthly for operating craft employees, and $202.71 for yardmasters. The difference is due to the straight-time equivalent-hours component in the national rail contract formula that determines health care insurance cost sharing.
To view the 2008 national rail agreement, click on the following link:
https://static.smart-union.org/worksite/PDFs/Agreements/utu_nccc_070108.pdf