Former UTU C&NW chairperson dies

Donald F. “Monk” Markgraf, a former UTU general chairperson on Chicago & North Western Railway (now part of Union Pacific) died March 3 at age 81. A native of Antigo, Wis., Markgraf hired on at C&NW as a switchman in Milwaukee, and initially was a member o [...]

FRA to scale back miles for PTC installation

WASHINGTON — The Federal Railroad Administration has agreed to a request by railroads to scale back the number of rail route miles over which positive train control (PTC) must be implemented before January 2016. Railroads asserted that since the Rail Safety Improvement [...]

Day of Protest by UTU Arizona members

PHOENIX — The UTU’s Arizona State Legislation Board and UTU members participated in a lobbying day at the Arizona state capitol here to protest the attack in numerous states on collective-bargaining rights, the right to join a union and payroll deduction of union [...]

FRA proposes crossing-hazards hotline

WASHINGTON — Railroads soon will be required by the Federal Railroad Administration to establish toll-free telephone numbers to allow the public to report malfunctioning highway-rail grade-crossing warning signals, disabled vehicles blocking crossings and other unsafe c [...]

Ohio Senate: ‘Public opinion be damned’

In the face of an NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll showing 62 percent of Americans oppose revoking collective-bargaining rights for public employees, the Ohio Senate March 2 moved to repeal the core of those rights for Ohio state employees. The New York Times reports the mea [...]

CSX yardmasters ratify consolidation pact

CSX-employed yardmasters represented by the UTU have ratified a coordination-of-operations agreement affecting CSX eastern district (former Baltimore & Ohio) and northern district (former Conrail) lines. The agreement was negotiated in response to a CSX filing with the U. [...]

Is BNSF’s Matt Rose headed elsewhere?

BNSF CEO Matt Rose, 51, is said by the Ft. Worth Star-Telegram to be a possible successor to 80-year-old Warren Buffett as the next CEO of holding company Berkshire Hathaway, whose assets exceed $372 billion. The newspaper bases the speculation on a Securities and Exchange Co [...]