News - Page 410 of 647

SOFA warns of winter-related safety issues

November 14, 2014 The upcoming months are historically the most deadly time of year for railroad workers, with more career-ending injuries than any other period of the year. In February 1998, a Switching Operations Fatalities Analysis (SOFA) working group, with representatives from the Federal [...]

Tags SOFA, Switching Operations Fatalities Analysis, winter conditions

SMART Constitution available online, officers elevated

November 14, 2014 The official SMART Constitution, as amended by SMART delegates at the first SMART General Convention, is now available on both the SMART website at smart-union.org and the Transportation Division website at www.utu.org. In January 2014, the SMART Sheet Metal and Transportatio [...]

Tags SMART constitution

Former Local 911 Chairperson Fred Croes Jr. dies

November 14, 2014 Retired former Local 911 (Minneapolis) Chairperson Fred J. Croes Jr., 78, a mentor to many United Transportation Union and SMART Transportation Division officers in the Upper Midwest, died Nov. 12 of natural causes. Croes was born May 18, 1936, in St. Paul, Minn. At age 18, h [...]

Tags Fred J. Croes Jr., Local 911

N.D. considers rules to make oil by rail safer

November 14, 2014 North Dakota’s energy regulators are considering new rules to make the state’s “Bakken” crude oil, which has been involved in a number of explosive train crashes, safer to move by rail. Proposed standards announced Thursday by the state Department of M [...]

Tags crude oil, North Dakota

Low on coal, utilities ask regulators to prod rails

November 14, 2014 WASHINGTON – Ongoing rail service problems have left power plants from Minnesota to Texas low on coal as an early blast of winter weather hit the nation’s midsection this week. Some fear the stage has been set for a repeat of last winter, when heavy snowfall and subzero tempe [...]

Tags coal, STB, Surface Transportation Board

Ill. SLD Guy's letter supporting Amtrak published

November 13, 2014 SMART Transportation Division’s Illinois State Legislative Director Bob Guy responded to a “letter to the editor” published in the Nov. 5 issue of the The News-Gazette and Guy’s letter was published by the newspaper Nov. 13. The original letter by Corr [...]

Tags Amtrak, Illinois State Legislative Director Bob Guy

Union leaders vow push for infrastructure solutions

November 13, 2014 Transportation union leaders vowed to “redouble their efforts” to push for bipartisan solutions to the growing transportation infrastructure investment crisis that is undermining the economy and idling millions of jobs, said AFL-CIO Transportation Trades Departmen [...]

Tags AFL-CIO Transportation Trades Department, John Previsich, John Risch

Constitution Now Available Online

November 13, 2014 The SMART Constitution and Ritual was passed at the First General Convention in Las Vegas, Nevada. It represents the contributions of members representing every industry and occupation this Union services members in. Click here to view a copy of this important document.

Obama to renominate Elliott for STB

November 13, 2014 President Barack Obama announced his intent Nov. 12 to nominate the following individuals to key Administration posts: Daniel Elliott III – member, Surface Transportation Board, and upon appointment to be designated chairman; Lauren McFerran – member, National Labor Relations [...]

Tags Dan Elliott III, STB, Surface Transportation Board

Sheet Metal Trade Seeks Veterans To Join Ranks

November 12, 2014 Many veterans enlisted in the military instead of going to college. Instead of learning where their dorm room was, they learned where they would be stationed for the next year. Instead of learning statistics, they learned the art of war. For those who spent their formative ye [...]