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Time to act on two-person rail crews is now!

July 29, 2014 Members of the SMART Transportation Division and all of rail labor are reminded that they have the opportunity to make it federal law to have two qualified persons working on all freight trains operating in the United States a reality. Now is the time to contact your legislat [...]

Tags H.R. 3040, two-person rail crews

FMCSA, OSHA strengthening worker protections

July 28, 2014 WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of Transportation’s Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) and the U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) have signed a Memorandum of Understanding to strengthen the coordination and cooper [...]

Tags FMCSA, OSHA

RRB announces additional pre-retirement seminars

July 24, 2014 Additional locations have now been added to the U.S. Railroad Retirement Board’s (RRB) schedule of Pre-Retirement Seminars for railroad employees and their spouses. Designed for railroad employees and spouses planning to retire within five years or less, the seminars will fam [...]

Tags pre-retirement seminars, Railroad Retirement Board, RRB

Simon’s direction at LIRR leads to win-win deal

July 24, 2014 After over four years of battling with New York’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority during a difficult and highly publicized contract dispute, SMART Transportation Division members have prevailed on Long Island. The MTA was seeking net zero wage increases, major pension r [...]

Tags LIRR, Long Island Rail Road

Conductor makes special delivery boy will never forget

July 23, 2014 CLINTON, Utah – A simple act of kindness is something a 12-year-old boy with an autism spectrum disorder is going to remember for the rest of his life. Matthew Mancil loves trains. “I don’t know how it started, but he just absolutely loves them,” Aaron Mancil, Matthew’s fathe [...]

Tags autism spectrum disorder, conductor, Union Pacific

Local 1701 takes labor dispute to city council

July 22, 2014 MONTEBELLO, Calif. – SMART Transportation Division Local 1701 bus members here July 9 picketed outside Montebello City Hall prior to and during a meeting of city council to bring attention to their dispute with city over wages, rest periods, meal periods and payment of pensio [...]

Tags bus, Cecilia Lopez, Local 1701, Montebello, Tom Pate

Will U.S. railroad service ever get better?

July 22, 2014 “I just returned from a trip to Europe, and really enjoyed riding the high-speed Eurostar and TGV. Why can’t we have something like that here in the U.S.?” So asked a reader, and the fundamental answer is simple: The United States, as a nation, does not and [...]

Tags high-speed rail

Videos embody theme of ‘Strong, Proud, United’

July 18, 2014 The theme of the SMART Transportation Division’s Convention in San Diego, Calif., June 30-July 2, was “Strong, Proud, United,” and videos were presented to the delegates and attendees each day during the convention that embodied those concepts. SMART Transpo [...]

Tags 2014 SMART Transportation Division Convention videos

LIRR strike averted, tentative deal reached

July 17, 2014 A tentative deal has been reached to avoid a strike at the nation’s largest commuter railroad, sparing hundreds of thousands of commuters the headache of finding alternate routes to and from the city, Gov. Cuomo announced Thursday. The agreement, which still must be rat [...]

Tags LIRR, Long Island Rail Road, strike averted, tentative agreement

LIRR unions, MTA end another day of talks

July 17, 2014 NEW YORK – With a Long Island Rail Road strike potentially set to start Sunday, the unions and the Metropolitan Transportation Authority returned to the bargaining table Wednesday and talked for several hours without reaching a deal. But both sides were set to work through th [...]

Tags LIRR, Long Island Rail Road