Category: Washington

Home>News>Washington

Amtrak privatization bill: ‘A rat hole worth watching’

June 23, 2011 WASHINGTON – Legislation to privatize Amtrak’s Northeast Corridor, as a first step toward destruction of Amtrak, will almost certainly be dead-on-arrival in the Democratic-controlled Senate, and will face a tough challenge in the Republican-controlled House; but the authors o [...]

Tags Amtrak, Lautenberg, Mica, privatization, Rahall, Shuster

Conductor cert, passenger HOS regs on tap

June 22, 2011 WASHINGTON — The Federal Railroad Administration will soon publish final rules instituting conductor certification and imposing new hours-of-service limitations on intercity passenger-train and commuter employees in safety sensitive positions. FRA Associate Administrato [...]

Tags Brooks, conductor certification, FRA, HOS, hours-of-service, John Risch, Lesniewski, Mann, Parsons, RSAC, Stem, strang, Szabo, Tessitore

Wisconsin decision will embolden extremists

June 15, 2011 MADISON, Wis. – A divided state supreme court here June 14 ruled in a 4-3 decision that the state’s controversial law revoking collective-bargaining rights for public employees may go into effect – overturning an injunction issued by a lower court. This is important to UTU me [...]

Tags collective bargaining defense fund, Ohio, political extremists, UTU PAC, Wisconsin

Bus safety crackdown meets House opposition

June 14, 2011 WASHINGTON – Increased authority for random safety inspections of tour buses and money for more safety inspectors received a lukewarm reception by the Republican leadership of the House Transportation & Infrastructure Committee June 14 following the request by Federal Mot [...]

Tags bus, bus safety, FMCSA

Bruce Feltmeyer; Feltmeyer, Bruce; International Employee

UTU, TRRA seek anti-terrorist training grant

June 8, 2011 The UTU and the Terminal Railroad Association of St. Louis (TRRA) are jointly seeking an anti-terrorist security grant from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). If the grant is approved — with a DHS decision expected in August — the UTU and TRRA will collabo [...]

Tags Amtrak, Department of Homeland Security, DHS, Feltmeyer, Futhey, grants, St. Louis, Terminal Railroad Association, terrorist

BNSF, UP target of price-fixing lawsuit

June 8, 2011 A mining and natural resources company, Oxbow Carbon and Minerals, has filed an antitrust suit against BNSF and Union Pacific, alleging the railroads have illegally fixed freight rates, in violation of the Sherman Antitrust Act, “to gouge customers.” Oxbow mines and ships coa [...]

Tags AAR, American Shortline and Regional Railroad Association, antitrust, Association of American Railroads, BNSF, Koch, Kohl, lawsuit, Oxbow, S. 49, Union Pacific

Fight for our futures against labor’s enemies

June 7, 2011 UTU members are stepping up to the plate in the fight to preserve collective bargaining rights, Amtrak, workplace safety, Railroad Retirement, Social Security and Medicare by mounting a counter attack on political extremists intent on destroying organized labor and all it has [...]

Tags Amtrak, anti-union, collective bargaining defense fund, Hynes, Lenfest, Local 113, union busting, UTU PAC

PTC installation could be trimmed 10,000 miles

May 27, 2011 WASHINGTON — The Obama administration suggests scaling back by 10,000 miles a federal mandate that positive train control (PTC) be installed on some 140,000 miles of freight and passenger track no later than Dec. 31, 2015. The 10,000 miles represents track over which fr [...]

Tags AAR, Association of American Railroads, crash-avoidance safety overlay system, federal mandate, National Transportation Safety Board, positive train control, PTC

Amtrak privatization scheme voiced in House

May 27, 2011 WASHINGTON — Two House Republicans with transportation oversight authority — House Transportation & Infrastructure Committee Chairman John Mica (R-Fla.) and Rail Subcommittee Chairman Bill Shuster (R-Pa.) — want to transfer ownership of Amtrak’s No [...]

Tags Amtrak, Amtrak privatization, Congress, intercity rail passenger service, Northeast Corridor, ownership, privatization

Two nominated to NMB; await confirmation

May 19, 2011 WASHINGTON — Democrat Harry Hoglander has been nominated by President Obama for a fourth three-year term — this one to expire in June 2014 — on the three-member National Mediation Board, which administers the Railway Labor Act. Earlier this year, Obama nomin [...]

Tags beck, hoglander, National Mediation Board, NMB, nominated, Obama, Senate confirmation