News Archive
Local 590 conductor killed in accident
Brother Robert “Rob” J. Hemling, 39, of Randolph, Wis., and a member of Local 590, died in a train accident March 27 in Sparta, Wis. Brother Hemling, a conductor for Canadian Pacific, was working at Cedar Creek Lumber when he was killed. Police and media reports d [...]
Vince Alvarado To Head NM Federation of Labor
On March 20, the New Mexico Federation of Labor Executive Board unanimously appointed Vince Alvarado to lead the state labor federation as their new President. Brother Alvarado is the Business Manager and Financial Secretary for SMART Sheet Metal Workers’ Local 49, a po [...]
Operations suspended at Great Lakes Airlines
Great Lakes Airlines, a Wyoming-based regional carrier, announced that it will suspend scheduled flight operations effective Monday, March 26, after more than 40 years in business. A release from the company said that it was going to lay off employees and that its 34 planes w [...]
Amtrak, transportation benefit from omnibus spending bill
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Congress passed and President Trump signed into law Friday a bipartisan spending agreement also known as the “omnibus” spending bill that provides a massive boost toward several of our union’s priorities, including transportation infrastructure projects, th [...]
IRS Releases Withholding Calculator
The Internal Revenue Service today released an updated Withholding Calculator on IRS.gov and a new version of Form W-4 to help taxpayers check their 2018 tax withholding following passage of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act in December. The IRS urges taxpayers to use these tools to [...]
SMART Army Brings March Madness to Peoria Youth
Local 1 SMART Army members helped local Peoria youth hold their their own March Madness event. Student athletes had a high school basketball tournament along with junior high school exhibition games and events. For the fifteenth year in a row, Local 1 members were on hand to [...]
FRA takes proactive approach to help railroads meet Congressional PTC requirement
Railroads’ progress on Positive Train Control remains uneven WASHINGTON—The U.S. Department of Transportation’s (US DOT’s) Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) today released a status update on its efforts to assist railroads in implementing positive train control syst [...]
FRA declines SMART TD request to limit long trains
The Trump administration’s Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) has declined a request made by SMART Transportation Division to address the safety concerns of excessively long trains. In an April 25, 2017, letter from National Legislative Director John Risch to Robert Lauby, [...]