Category: Transportation
Broad alliance tells White House: Transit workers need better protection from COVID-19
SMART General President Joseph Sellers Jr. and SMART Transportation Division President Jeremy Ferguson as well as dozens of unions, business groups, economic justice organizations, and local transit advocates from across the nation wrote today to Vice President Mike Pence and [...]
Local 23 mourns death of retired former S&T from COVID-19
Members of Local 23 in Santa Cruz, Calif., are mourning the passing of Transportation Division retiree Domingo Tovar on April 14 from COVID-19. Brother Tovar, 68, served two stints with Santa Cruz Metro as a bus operator starting in 1982, then leaving for another carrier befo [...]
Vendor American Products taking bulk orders of facemasks
Arrangements have been made to have bulk quantities of facemasks for order through American Products Inc., an endorsed SMART Transportation Division vendor. Two style options are available – one with a washable filter insert and a second single-layer cloth mask. These are cus [...]
Some Railroad Retirement recipients must add dependent info with IRS to get $500 COVID payments
Railroad Retirement benefit recipients who have a qualifying child and didn’t file a 2018 or 2019 tax return have a limited window to register to have $500 per eligible child added automatically to their soon-to-be-received $1,200 COVID-19 payment, the Internal Revenue [...]
America’s freight railroads refuse to cover out-of-pocket COVID-19 treatment costs
While America and the world struggle to combat the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic, new heroes have emerged. While much of America has long celebrated its athletes and celebrities as its heroes, this pandemic has shown us who the real heroes are in our society. At the onset of Wo [...]
In hard-hit NYC, TD members rise up to COVID challenges
What is SMART-TD on Long Island, N.Y., doing during the COVID-19 pandemic? New York City and its bordering suburbs and counties have been among the hardest-hit in the nation by the coronavirus due to its density and the demands of the city’s economic engine driven by the fina [...]
General chairperson quits NJT coronavirus task force, says carrier wasn’t doing enough to protect workers, public
In protest of what he said was gross misrepresentation by New Jersey Transit (NJT) of its response to the COVID-19 pandemic, SMART Transportation Division General Chairperson Jerome Johnson has resigned from NJT’s coronavirus safety task force. Johnson, also president of Loca [...]
Second member passes from COVID; Ferguson calls for federal agencies to act
On April 15, SMART Transportation Division Local 61 (Philadelphia, Pa.) announced that conductor Michael A. Hill, 58, of Glassboro, N.J., died from the coronavirus. Brother Hill was a 30-year member of SMART-TD and worked for the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transit Authority (S [...]