By Mike Futhey, SMART Transportation Division President –
The events that unfolded July 6 in the Canadian province of Quebec, where a runaway train exploded and killed 47 people in the city of Lac-Megantic, weigh on the minds of an assortment of people whose lives were touched, directly or indirectly.
On that grizzly evening, a dark stretch of tankers jettisoned through the center of that small community, exploding in the night and leaving an indelible mark for decades to come.
I am not writing this to lay the blame at anyone’s feet; not at the feet of the management of the Montreal, Maine & Atlantic Railway, nor at those of the single operating crew member. However, I would be remiss if I did not raise, again, the dangers inherent in a single-person train operation.
We have been diligent in our endeavors to stop this untenable act by submitting petitions to governmental agencies and by talking directly to the carriers that exercise the “right” to single-person operations.
Unfortunately, our demands for safety regulations, either arbitrarily or voluntarily, have fallen on deaf ears.
This event is not one of first impression. In 1997, in the state of Wisconsin, then Gov. Tommy Thompson petitioned for and signed a bill that requires a two-person train crew operation in that state. It came about after a runaway train and subsequent explosion that did not reach the level of the Lac-Megantic wreck, but that was significant enough to warrant a legislative solution.
Obviously, we find ourselves in another inexcusable scenario, wherein inactivity is an unacceptable alternative. This issue will not go silently into the night.
As such, we will reach out to likeminded leaders in the transportation industry and to legislative bodies that regulate train operations to correct this situation. In doing so, we will expose those that ignore public safety by droning on in semantic, self-justifying plausible deniability.
The new apocalyptic Lac-Megantic will not allow us to merely register a historical footnote. We will now deal with the inextricable knowledge that a single-person train operation contributed to the destruction of life.
Pray for the families of the victims. We will honor them by fighting for change.
Responding to a federal mandate and acting on transportation legislation passed this year by the General Assembly, Gov. Bob McDonnell announced Tuesday that Virginia will assume more financial responsibility for Amtrak regional service in the state.
The agreement had to be in place by Oct. 1 or the regional rail service would have ceased in the state.
On July 29, Railroad Retirement Board Labor Member Walt Barrows addressed attendees at the SMART Transportation Division’s Anaheim, Calif., regional meeting.
He spoke about the beginnings of the RRB, pensions and retirement plans, attacks on workers in both the public and private sectors.
“We are entitled because we worked for it. We are entitled because we sacrificed for it. We are entitled because we contributed to it,” Barrows said. “We are entitled because the profits enjoyed by the railroad industry came from our blood and our sweat. Nobody gave us anything. We earned it.”
Read the complete text of Barrows address below.
Also note the chart comparing Railroad Retirement and Social Security Administration annuities.
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“Thank you, Mike (Futhey) for the invitation.
“It is truly an honor to be here with you today (July 29) and to have the privilege of addressing SMART Transportation Division members and questions.
“You can take great pride in the fact that your union’s leaders are fighting to protect our railroad retirement system. Your union has a proud history of fighting to protect and improve Railroad Retirement.
“Our retirement system is something all of rail labor can be proud of and it is certainly worth fighting for. There were many challenges to establish the Railroad Retirement Act and challenges have continued over its 78-year history.
“The first contributory private pension plans were established in the railroad industry in late 19th century, on the Grand Trunk Railway of Canada and then on the B&O Railroad. By the end of the first decade of the 20th century, 66% of railroaders were covered by some type of private pension. The number grew to over 80% at the beginning of the great depression. The pioneer trade unionist of the SMART’s predecessor unions were a part of the establishing these early pension plans.
“The problem with the plans was that the benefits provided by these plans were inadequate. A 1930s survey of the plans showed that while 80% were covered by the plans, that because of restrictions in the plans, only 17% of railroader workers would ever qualify for the benefits. In addition, the plans were easily terminated by the railroads and gave little or no assistance to disabled workers or survivors.
“When the Great Depression hit, the already unstable railroad pension plans were thrown into a state of crisis. Railroad unions sought a separate federal retirement system. The system would consolidate the existing railroad plans into a uniform national plan. The first law was passed in 1934 and the railroads immediately went to court to challenge the new law. The Supreme Court sided with the railroads, and in a 5 to 4 decision deemed the law unconstitutional. The unions went back to Congress and, in 1935, a new law was passed. Again the railroads went to court to challenge the law. This time the court held some of the law to be constitutional but deemed other parts of the law unconstitutional. In 1936, President Roosevelt asked labor and the industry to work out their differences. An agreement between rail labor and the rail industry was enacted in the 1937 amendments to the Railroad Retirement Act.
“Since that time, there have been nine significant pieces of legislation that made changes to the system. Many of those changes resulted in improved benefits. The 1937 law did not include occupational disability, spouse or survivor benefits. These were all added later. Other changes improved funding of our pension. In the 1970s and 1980s, the system faced a funding crisis. This was due in large part to sharply declining employment and increased benefit costs brought on by very high inflation. Labor and the rail industry agreed to changes that addressed the problems.
“The most recent major legislation was enacted in 2001. These changes reduced full retirement age from 62 to 60 with 30 years of service, improved the survivors benefits and created the National Railroad Retirement Trust Fund which now invests the Railroad Retirement assets.
“The fight to protect retirement benefits for American workers is never over. No, this fight is an ongoing battle. If you read the newspaper or turn on the TV, it seems like every day there is another assault against American workers and their pension plans.
“Since 1985, 84,350 pension plans have been ended by employers. We have gone from nearly 50 percent of U.S. workers covered by a defined benefit plan to about 15 percent covered.
“Rail workers find themselves in a unique situation. They have good wages, they have good health care and they have a good retirement system. But all around us that is not the case;
“All around us workers are making less,
“All around us workers are losing their good health care coverage.
“And all around us workers are losing their defined benefit pension plans.
“Defined benefit pension plans have been replaced by tax deferred savings accounts, like 401(k) plans, and other less desirable substitutes. During that same period, we have seen good health care plans replaced by high deductible plans that only provide catastrophic coverage. We have seen industries that paid a good living wage, now paying wages you can barely live on.
“It is happening all around us. Workers in the manufacturing, steel, airline, and auto industries have all seen their pension plans stripped away. And now we see a new attack on public workers.
“While other workers watch their standard of living recede, their health care becoming too costly, and their retirement security stripped away, we cannot sit back and believe this will not impact us.
“An attack on public workers, an attack on private workers, an attack on union or non-union workers must be seen as an attack on our pension system.
“For far too many workers, the defined pension plan is becoming a relic from a past generation. And with the disappearance of pension plans, far too many Americans cannot retire with any sense of dignity or security.
“Recently, a union member asked me, “What am I going to get out of the money I’m paying into Railroad Retirement?”
“Good question. You see workers are being told they would be better off if they saved their own money. Let me tell what you get. 60/30, occupational disability after 20 yrs, and a survivor benefit that far exceeds most retirement plans. For the career railroad worker who retired in 2012 at age 60 with at least 30 years of service, we estimate that over the lifetime of that railroad worker, Railroad Retirement will pay him and his spouse total benefits of about $2 million. That same worker under social security, who couldn’t retire until age 62, will receive with his spouse, benefits totalling about $900 thousand over their lifetime.
“For the past 30 years, the 401(k) has been presented to workers as the future of a secure retirement. It is a lie. The average worker in America cannot save their own money and have true retirement security. The fact today is that in America the average 401(k) savings for a worker between the ages 55 – 60 is about $100k. That is clearly not a plan for a secure retirement.
“Over our 78-year history, the Railroad Retirement Board has paid out over $300 billion in benefits to more than 5.5 million retired employees, spouses and survivors.
“A key component of our retirement system is the Trust Fund. I am happy to report that the Trust Fund continues to outperform many other retirement funds. The balance of the Trust Fund is currently around $26 billion. More important is the report from the Railroad Retirement Board’s Chief Actuary. He assures us that absent a catastrophic loss of rail employment, the Railroad Retirement system is solvent well into the future.
“Wondering if you will be able to receive a steady income during your retirement years is important to you and your family when you consider retirement. Well, railroad retirement gives you that assurance.
“You would think that the strength and solvency of our system would exempt us from attacks, but our retirement system is never totally safe from attack.
“As most of you know, last year a House budget resolution proposed massive changes to our retirement system. While this proposal did not go anywhere, it again demonstrates that rail workers must remain vigilant if we expect our retirement system to be there for us and for future generations of rail workers.
“On March 1 of this year, rail workers were again victims of Washington budget cuts, when their Unemployment and Sickness benefits were reduced 9.2% by the sequestration order. While no reductions were made to retirement, disability or survivor benefits, the RRB administrative budget, which is used to run the agency, was reduced.
“You can be very proud of the work that James Stem and John Risch are doing on Capitol Hill defending our retirement system against those who try to weaken it. Last year rail labor quickly went to Capitol Hill to kill any plans to change our retirement system, and this year they are fighting to get the unemployment and sickness benefits restored.
“Our retirement system has faced many challenges over the 78-year history of the Railroad Retirement Act. At times its solvency was in question; at times the White House and Members of Congress questioned the need for a separate RR system; and at times, the commitment by the rail industry to the system was less than lukewarm.
“But every time there was an issue threatening the integrity and stability of the system, rail labor has met the challenge. That speaks volumes to the strength and solidarity of the rail labor movement.
“Let me say a little bit about the agency itself. I am proud of the RRB’s long history of excellent service to both active and retired railroad workers.
“That record of service is the result of nearly 900 Federal workers at the Board’s Chicago headquarters and 53 field offices who show up and work every day on behalf of railroad workers. As trade unionist, I ask you to defend Federal workers, like those who work on your behalf at the RRB.
“I applaud each and every one of you for your efforts to protect and carry forward the work of those who preceded us. It is now up to us to ensure that our retirement system is there to provide protection and retirement security for future generations.
“So let me close with this. When we hear retirement benefits attacked; and when we hear them referred to as entitlements; and when we hear the code words “entitlement reform,” remind people that railroad workers are entitled.
“We are entitled because we worked for it.
“We are entitled because we sacrificed for it.
“We are entitled because we contributed to it.
“And we are entitled because the profits enjoyed by the railroad industry came from our blood and our sweat. Nobody gave us anything. We earned it.
“Since the establishment of the railroad retirement system 78 years ago, labor has fought to protect and preserve these benefits. And as your member on the Railroad Retirement Board, it is an honor for me to stand here today to tell you that I will fight to protect our retirement system.”
SMART Transportation Division President Mike Futhey, left, presents Railroad Retirement Board Labor Member Walt Barrows with a UTU clock following Barrows’ address to attendees at the TD’s Anaheim regional meeting. At right is meeting master of ceremonies Ed Carney.
In last month’s SMART Members’ Journal, I discussed the importance of transparency in our Union. Concern about transparency cuts across a wide spectrum of topics, including foreign affairs, the environment, information gathering, corporate actions, product safety, union operations, and more. The issue generally centers on what needs to be transparent and what does not. Transparency has benefits: we know what is being done, who is doing it, and why. But transparency can also have some drawbacks when something is very complex, requires a great deal of context, or exposes the who, what, or why that could put someone—or national security—in danger, or when transparency conflicts with our basic right to privacy. A lack of transparency has much more immediate negative implications: suspicions, rumors, leaks, and then once the secrecy is exposed, protests and demonstrations.
As stated, unions, too, must grapple with transparency concerns. Unions have not always valued transparency, and even today we can seem to be overly protective of information that members want—and have a right—to know. Your dues keep our international and your local union operational. Unions cannot afford to leave members in the dark. Doing so only feeds the negative stereotype of crooked union bosses which does not help attract new union members, make members feel welcome in their own Union or build a strong labor movement.
One of the most important transparency related actions we’ll take over the next year is publication of an interim SMART Constitution, to be in effect until SMART’s General Convention beginning August 11, 2014. The interim Constitution will be available soon on SMART’s website (smart-union.org) and in hard copy for reading at your local union office. The Constitution we adopt next year will be in effect until 2019. It’s important, therefore, for you to have the opportunity to offer amendments or resolutions to your local union leaders for consideration.
Now there were a lot of questions about the Constitution at the recent SMART Transportation Division’s Meeting in Boston, MA. I welcome questions and I need the feedback since it is you, the member for whom this Union exists. One of the questions raised was about accountability regarding the checks and balances with respect to the leadership of SMART.
A great question since your Union is governed not by me, but by our Constitution as acted upon by our General Executive Council (GEC) and carried out through SMART’s Local Unions across the continent. The GEC is made up of leaders with diverse backgrounds and experiences representing SMART members working in the range of industries within SMART’s jurisdiction. I sit on the General Executive Council along with General Secretary Treasurer Sellers, Transportation President Futhey, Assistant President/General Secretary and Treasurer Previsich, US National Legislative Director James Stem, Vice President/International Representatives Robert Kerley, David Wier and John Lesniewski. Our purpose, as well as the GEC’s goal, is to do what’s best for every member of every industry represented by this Union. Not only is that the General Executive Council’s goal, but part of their mission is to keep me straight in ensuring that this is achieved by serving as a voice for every member across every one of our represented industries. The GEC structures ensures that SMART is not, and never will be, a monarchy where the General President has absolute rule over Local Unions and members’ interests.
Accountability goes hand in hand with transparency. The union is accountable to our dues-paying members to provide representation and services to the best of our abilities. SMART will be transparent in all of its operations—sheet metal, air, rail, and transportation—and fully accountable for its actions. You may be assured of your General Executive Council’s dedication to those principles. However, if you ever feel we could improve in either transparency or accountability, please call, write, or send an e-mail to me at jnigro@smart-union.org. You can also visit our new website at smart-union.org for information.
The decision to move in the right direction with greater transparency and more accountability requires we all stay united, regardless of what we do. Our diversity in experience, work, and even where we live contributes to our strength as a Union. We must prepare for the next generation of union members and their leaders a new past that is prologue to a stronger and united future. I have no doubt we can navigate the challenges ahead.
Fraternally,
Joseph J. Nigro
WASHINGTON – As hundreds of commuters emerged from Amtrak and commuter trains at Union Station on a recent morning, an armed squad of men and women dressed in bulletproof vests made their way through the crowds.
The squad was not with the D.C. Police Department or Amtrak’s police force, but with one of the Transportation Security Administration’s Visible Intermodal Prevention and Response squads — VIPR teams for short — tasked with performing random security sweeps to prevent terrorist attacks at transportation hubs across the United States.
Canadian midstream company Gibson Energy Inc and logistics provider U.S. Development Group (USDG) said on Tuesday they will build a 140,000-barrel-per-day terminal in Hardisty, Alberta, to ship oil sands crude by rail.
The project would be the largest terminal for western Canada, where demand to move crude by rail has been gathering pace as producers look for ways to ease congested export pipelines.
(Via Mark Gruenberg, Press Associates News Service) Corporate ineptitude on a big U.S. Navy shipbuilding contract in Mobile, Ala., is looming over the latest organizing drive among Austal shipyard workers there, a drive run by the AFL-CIO’s Metal Trades Department. As a result, one point that department President Ron Ault makes to Pentagon officials to get them to ban Austal from using taxpayer dollars to defeat the union organizers is to explain that a unionized workforce at the yard would help solve the mess in Mobile. MTD’s drive at Austal USA is important for several reasons. One is that success would add yet another Navy-oriented shipyard full of union workers, preventing builders from undercutting union workers elsewhere. A second is unionizing Austal would be yet another beachhead – aiding underpaid, exploited workers – in the anti-union South. Right now, there are two battles brewing in the Austal shipyard, where workers toil at constructing the littoral combat ship (LCS), a multipurpose warship that is supposed to be able to sail with a relatively small crew and easy ability to change missions by changing modules of high-tech equipment. One is between Austal USA, the U.S. subsidiary of an Australian firm known for anti-union attitudes Down Under – attitudes and actions it repeats in the U.S. Austal is one of two contractors building the littoral combat ships. Northrop-Grumman, in Wisconsin, is the other builder in the combined 52-ship $40 billion 10-year program. Austal is so hostile to unions, says Ault, that when workers at one of its Australian shipyards unionized, the company retaliated by unilaterally closing the yard and moving the work to Singapore. And Austal broke U.S. labor law so flagrantly during past Sheet Metal Workers organizing drives that the National Labor Relations Board threw out two prior elections, which the union lost, as tainted. Some 2,100 workers toil on the LCS in Mobile. “They’re more worried about the union coming in than they are about building a good ship for the Navy,” Sheet Metal Workers organizer Jim White says of Austal. So the Sheet Metal Workers turned to Ault’s department for more power, after losing the first election to the firm’s general labor law-breaking in 2002 and the second to racism-laced labor law breaking – including linking unions with the “n” word and the anonymous posting of a noose and a threatening note in the men’s bathroom – in 2008. “They were extremely aggressive and played things along racial lines,” adds Paul Pimentel, the Sheet Metal Workers’ Director of Research. Ault’s department took over the organizing at the Mobile yard, and the latest drive involves all the Metal Trades unions, just as MTD organized the Avondale Shipyard in New Orleans almost a decade ago. In the Sheet Metal Workers’ prior election drives, pro-union workers were harassed and their welding machines were sabotaged. White says the harassment continues. “The workers are excited, but they’re feeling the heat with one-on-one meetings, long anti-union group meetings” called by management “and workers getting written up if they go outside their areas” to get supplies, he adds. When MTD started the third drive, in mid-June, Austal promptly fired one worker whom bosses observed signing an union recognition election authorization card. That forced the department to file a labor law-breaking charge with the NLRB’s Atlanta regional office. And White says the firm is taking the cards from workers’ lockers. “Everybody’s watching them every minute,” he adds in a telephone interview. The other battle is between Austal and the Navy: Costs have escalated and the mission has shrunk for the littoral combat ships. The non-partisan federal auditors, the Government Accountability Office (GAO), recommended on July 25 that the Pentagon should either slow down its purchases of the littoral combat ships, or temporarily halt buying them, until the department figures out what the ships’ mission should be – and how to adapt them to it. “Significant questions remain about the littoral combat ship program and its underlying business case,” GAO procurement specialist Paul Francis testified, even as the Navy continues to order ships from Austal and Northrop-Grumman and weapons packages from other suppliers. “Given the program’s cost growth and schedule delays, the cost cap has increased from $220 million in fiscal year 2006 to $480 million in fiscal year 2010 per ship. Expected capabilities have lessened from optimistic, early assumptions to more tempered and reserved assumptions,” Francis added. So Ault of the Metal Trades Department uses Austal’s ineptness as a tool in lobbying the Navy to enforce an Obama administration executive order barring the use of taxpayer dollars for or against union organizing drives. “All we want is a fair fight” in organizing, rather than the firm using federal (taxpayer) dollars against unions, he adds. “Navy Secretary Ray Mabus is very accessible and we’re asking him for a Navy audit of Austal,” Ault says. “The company lost $12 million last year and now they’re a penny stock on the Australian stock exchange. They’re stretched out for cash, yet they’re spending money on an anti-union drive. “And they haven’t hit any of the contract’s benchmarks on price” of the littoral combat ships, Ault adds. “Congress is up in arms. But we’re telling Mabus that if we go in there with training and programs for the workers, we can fix this mess.” White elaborated on how the yard, if workers went union, could solve the problems the firm faces. “We spend $70 million a year on specialized training in SMWIA,” he explains. “We have certified welding instructors and certified welding inspectors” to train and evaluate the workers before they start working on the littoral combat ships. White says the union can quickly bring the Alabama yard workers up to speed on highly technical skills. Austal now trains the Alabama yard workers and gets a state subsidy for doing so. The Sheet Metal Workers stepped in with such specialized training, White explains, to provide 350 welders within one year for a major project refurbishing and retrofitting the Savannah River, Ga., nuclear power plant. Austal may need the help. The ship’s problems have attracted congressional attention. In a floor speech, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., criticized the LCS purchases. During House Armed Services Committee work in July on the Defense Depart-ment’s money bill, Rep. Jackie Speier, D-Calif., proposed, then withdrew, an amend-ment to eliminate two of the four littoral combat ships the Navy wanted to build in the fiscal year starting Oct. 1. Speier wants the Navy to respond to the critical GAO report, first. The Navy rejected GAO’s go-slow recommendations out of hand, Francis testified. “I am troubled by the idea that we are purchasing first and testing second,” Spe-ier said. “How do we make sure this 2-year oversight opportunity we have is actually exercised in a way that we just don’t say at the end: ‘Well, too bad we missed the window. We are going to build all these ships, they’re not going to meet the standards, the cost overruns are going to be extraordinary and that is just the way it is.'”
The collapse of U.S. transportation funding bills in both houses of Congress points to a broader stalemate over fiscal 2014 spending and threatens to extend across-the-board budget cuts into next year.
Senate Republicans yesterday blocked a $54 billion measure funding highways, aviation, passenger rail and other transportation projects because it exceeded spending limits earlier agreed to by both parties. House Republican leaders called off this week’s vote on a more-austere $44 billion measure amid signs it lacked enough support to pass.
ANCHORAGE, Alaska — The chief executive officer of the state-owned Alaska Railroad is stepping down after his three-year contract expires in September.
Chris Aadnesen announced his departure at a board of directors meeting July 30.
A train carrying highly flammable and corrosive materials derailed in Louisiana on Sunday. Over 100 homes have been evacuated as a precaution, Gov. Bobby Jindal said, adding there were no fatalities or injuries and air monitors have not picked up anything to cause concern.
According to a press release from Jindal’s office, three cars were leaking as of late Sunday. One is leaking lubricant oil while a second is leaking Dodecanol, a tasteless, colorless alcohol that can cause mild skin irritation. The third, however, is carrying a highly corrosive substance called caustic soda, or lye.
