Category: News
Western Rail Road members ratify new pact
Turner Train, engine and mechanical forces represented by the UTU on shortline Western Rail Road in Texas have ratified a new agreement reached with mediation assistance from the National Mediation Board. Negotiations were led by UTU Vice President Paul Tibbit and UTU General [...]Register for hazmat training programs
Rail worker training in hazardous materials and chemical emergency response will be offered in Portland, Ore., Sept. 24-28, and in Houston, Texas, Dec. 3-7. Sponsored by the National Labor College, the training focuses on the Occupational Safety and Health Administration and [...]UTU member dead in Iowa switching accident
MASON CITY, Iowa – Trainman Georgiy Soloviyov, 35, became the fifth UTU member killed on duty in 2012 following a Union Pacific yard accident here early July 31. Mason City is some 130 miles north of Des Moines, near the Minnesota border. Soloviyov, of Stanhope, Iowa, and a m [...]BNSF intimidation alleged to extend to witnesses
The UTU and the Sheet Metal Workers International Association (SMWIA), along with two other rail labor organizations, have filed a complaint with the Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), alleging BNSF has expanded its harassment and inti [...]
Every tool in use to protect members’ jobs, safety
Delivering on the theme of the 2012 regional meetings – “We will not back down” – UTU International President Mike Futhey told more than 1,000 attendees at the Memphis meeting how the UTU is using every tool available – negotiations, legislative and legal — to defend it [...]Second quarter 2012 rail profits wrap-up
BNSF reported a 16 percent increase in profit for the second quarter 2012 versus second quarter 2011. BNSF’s second quarter 2012 operating ratio of 71.1 percent was a more than 3 percentage point improvement over second quarter 2011. Operating ratio is a railroad’s operating [...]
November election all about saving middle-class
If you’re part of a working family and attracted to some of the positions of the Tea Party, you had best check the bait for a barbed hook intended to reel-in labor unions, government-provided benefits such as Railroad Retirement, Social Security, Medicare and unemployment ins [...]OSHA reiterates zero tolerance for worker retaliation
Here we go again – or should we say, again and again and again and again. This time it is Canadian National’s Illinois Central Railroad and short line Chicago, Ft. Wayne & Eastern Railroad that have been hit with more than $650,000 in sanctions by the Department of Labor’ [...]