SMART Union
At least 18 times in the past three years BNSF Railway freight trains rolled west out of Minneapolis pulling cars filled with hazardous chemicals that were not on the train’s official cargo list, according to train crew complaints.
That’s contrary to federal regulation because in case of an accident, local firefighters can be left in the dark, unable to take quick action to protect vulnerable residents.
Read the complete story at Minnesota Public Radio.
One of the top executives at the nation’s leading hauler of crude oil in trains said Friday that the proposed Keystone XL pipeline wouldn’t take away any of his company’s business.
Matt Rose, the executive chairman of BNSF Railway, told Fox Business Network’s Maria Bartiromo that the controversial pipeline project would move primarily heavy crude oil from western Canada to refineries on the Gulf Coast.
Read the complete story at McClatchy D.C.
SNOHOMISH, Wash. – A Snohomish man says he’s out hundreds of thousands of dollars he’s owed and is struggling to support his family — all because he was trying to protect you from an oil train derailment.
Moving into a new house is usually cause for celebration, but Curtis Rookaird, his wife, and their two young sons are all in tears Tuesday (Sept. 16).
Read the complete story at Television Station KIRO.
A tentative agreement to reduce train crew size on one of the nation’s largest rail carriers has failed, according to the labor union whose members voted on it this week.
The pact would have eliminated on-board conductors on 60 percent of BNSF Railway, which spans the western two-thirds of the country.
Read the complete story at McClatchy D.C. News Service.
The Kern County’s coroner’s office released the official cause of death for Robert Limon, the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway worker who was found dead on Aug. 17.
According to the coroner’s office, Limon died from multiple gunshot wounds and ruled the matter as a homicide.
Read the complete story at the Tehachapi News.
Two railroad companies want to prevent the public from getting details about oil shipments through Washington state, information the federal government ordered be given to state emergency managers after several oil-train accidents.
But restricting such information violates the state’s public-records law, so the state has not signed documents from the rail companies seeking confidentiality, said Mark Stewart, a spokesman for the Washington Military Department’s Emergency Management Division.
Read the complete story at The Seattle Times.
Burlington Northern Santa Fe carried a record 206,000 units in a single week, more than any other railroad has ever done, CEO Carl Ice announced at a North Texas Commission luncheon recently.
And the Fort Worth-based railroad has carried 200,000 units or more six times already in 2014, putting BNSF on pace to shatter the record set in 2013.
Read the complete story at the Dallas Business Journal.
DENVER – Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway has been ordered to pay more than $526,000 in back wages and other damages to two workers following an investigation by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration. OSHA found that the company, based in Fort Worth, Texas, was in violation of the whistleblower provisions of the Federal Railroad Safety Act for terminating the employees in 2010 and 2011 for reporting a workplace injury that occurred at the company’s Havre, Mont., terminal.
“An employer cannot retaliate against employees who report an injury,” said Gregory Baxter, OSHA’s regional administrator in Denver. “OSHA recognizes that employers can legitimately have, and apply, policies to require prompt injury reporting; however, that is not what happened here. When employers mask their retaliatory intent through application of a policy or rule, they violate the law.”
The former employees submitted complaints to OSHA alleging violations of the anti-retaliation provisions of the FRSA. Because of these complaints, OSHA conducted an investigation and determined that the reporting of the work-related injury was a factor in each former employee’s termination, which is a direct violation of the FRSA. Burlington Northern has been ordered to pay back wages with interest, compensatory damages and attorney’s fees, while reinstating and expunging the two employees’ work records.
The reporting of an injury, regardless of an employer’s policy or deadline, is a protected activity under well-established law. The railway carrier failed to demonstrate that it would have taken the same unfavorable personnel action in the absence of the behavior protected by the FRSA.
Burlington Northern or the complainant may file objections or request a hearing before the department’s Office of Administrative Law Judges within 30 days of receipt of OSHA’s order. OSHA enforces the whistleblower provisions of the FRSA and 21 other statutes, protecting employees who report violations of various airline, commercial motor carrier, consumer product, environmental, financial reform, food safety, health care reform, nuclear, pipeline, worker safety, public transportation agency, maritime and securities laws.
Employers are prohibited from retaliating against employees who raise various protected concerns or provide protected information to the employer or to the government. Employees who believe that they have been retaliated against for engaging in protected conduct may file a complaint with the secretary of labor to request an investigation by OSHA’s Whistleblower Protection Program. Detailed information on employee whistleblower rights, including fact sheets, is available at http://www.whistleblowers.gov.
Under the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970, employers are responsible for providing safe and healthful workplaces for their employees. OSHA’s role is to ensure these conditions for America’s working men and women by setting and enforcing standards, and providing training, education and assistance. For more information, visit http://www.osha.gov.
If you think the man has lost his touch, think again.
Warren Buffett’s ‘elephant-gun’ purchase of the Burlington Northern Santa Fe, LLC, railroad for $34 billion in 2010 was impeccably timed (coming as it did a year off the 2008-2009 financial crisis) and a huge bet on the revival of the US economy.
However, just four years later, this investment is worth at least $65 billion, according to analysts.
Read the complete story at Value Walk.
In an effort to help secure unattended controlling locomotives of all trains against unauthorized entry, BNSF Railway has adopted a D575-style locking mechanism as a standard for new locomotives and is retrofitting existing locomotives with this design, the company announced April 23.
In conjunction, air brake and train handling (ABTH) rules are being revised to add a new rule that addresses the practice of locking controlling locomotive cabs with the D575 lock and the distribution of corresponding keys.
Click here to review the locking controlling locomotive cabs briefing.