SEATTLE — SMART Transportation Division National Legislative Director John Risch gave attendees a broad overview of the landscape of the transit industry on the third day of the TD regional meeting. Among the topics covered: how to grow support for transportation-relate [...]
SEATTLE — SMART General President Joseph Sellers Jr. said Tuesday that the union will move in a unified direction at all levels in the fight against the ongoing attack on labor by monied right-wing interests. His call to action at the second day of the SMART Transportat [...]
Strength, unity and education will be the way to fight the United States Supreme Court’s 5-4 decision last week on Janus v. AFSCME 31 that overturned more than four decades of legal precedent. That was the message given at the opening session of the SMART Transportation [...]
Big Blue Bus (BBB) operator and SMART TD member Rochelle Beamon (Local 1785) has been honored by Santa Monica, California’s city manager with the city’s “Elaine” award. Beamon has been labeled a hero after she managed to miss hitting a man on an electr [...]
Let’s offer our Sisters, Brothers and Friends to the north a belated “Happy Canada Day” on Sunday, June first. Before the rest of us begin to enjoy ourselves and spend time with our friends, family and loved ones on this Fourth of July, let’s pause to remember the liberties w [...]
OSHA’s campaign to keep workers safe in the heat OSHA’s Heat Illness Prevention campaign, launched in 2011, educates employers and workers on the dangers of working in the heat. Through training sessions, outreach events, informational sessions, publications, soci [...]
The chief actuary of the Railroad Retirement Board (RRB) said in his triennial report that the railroad retirement fund will remain solvent with no cash flow problems for nearly three decades, barring any unforeseen drops in rail worker employment over that time. The positive [...]
The Switching Operations Fatality Analysis (SOFA) Working Group in June issued its latest updates on switching fatalities and severe injuries for the entirety of 2017 and for the first quarter of 2018. According to SOFA, there were three switching-related fatalities and nine [...]
The Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) ruled in favor of safe train operations in June by denying a request by Canadian National (CN) that sought a waiver allowing an extinguished intermediate signal aspect to provide a signal indication. The SMART Transportation Division [...]
A victory for safety was achieved in June when the Federal Railroad Administration’s (FRA) Railroad Safety Board denied a request by the Association of American Railroads (AAR) to lengthen the “off-air” restriction from four to 24 hours for required brake tests and inspection [...]
