Transportation News

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UTU working to improve airline safety

By UTU Assistant President Arty Martin Fatigue is a serious problem for pilots and flight attendants. Flight attendants additionally are without protections afforded under the 1970 Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSHA). The UTU, working with the Transportation Trades Depa [...]

Keeping close watch on proposed bus law

By Richard Deiser, Vice President, Bus DepartmentBonnie Morr, Alternate Vice President, Bus Department The Surface Transportation Authorization Act, introduced by House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chairman Jim Oberstar (D-Minn.), includes provisions of interes [...]

UTU, BLE comment to FRA on HOS

In a joint submission aimed at improving safety and the security of member paychecks, the UTU and Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen have asked the Federal Railroad Administration to clarify and simplify its interim policies relating to, and interpretations of, [...]

UTU Rail Safety Alert No. 3

Career-ending personal injuries and fatalities have continued to increase in the rail industry. To educate members on the circumstances of these incidents, and in attempts to avoid them in the future, the UTU Rail Safety Task Force, appointed by International President Mike F [...]

Not today. Not tomorrow. Never!

SAN FRANCISCO — In response to UTU International President Mike Futhey announcing the flawed merger attempt with the Sheet Metal Workers International Association “dead,” some 800 UTU members at a western regional meeting here July 8 responded with thunderou [...]

UTU Rail Safety Alert No. 2

This is the second in a series of safety alerts issued by the UTU Rail Safety Task Force. The task force was appointed by International President Mike Futhey in response to a spike in railroad on-duty employee fatalities. This safety alert focuses on the job of protecting the [...]

Carriers ask court okay to violate contracts

The nation’s major railroads have asked a federal court to permit them to violate existing collective bargaining agreements with the UTU and the BLET when the railroads implement new hours-of-service regulations that take effect July 16.  The soon-to-be-implemented hour [...]

UTU Rail Safety Alert No. 1 (revised)

UTU Rail Safety Alert No. 1 (revised) (Following is the first safety alert, revised June 22, issued by the UTU’s recently appointed Rail Safety Task Force. UTU International President Mike Futhey appointed the task force in response to a sharp spike in railroad on-duty [...]

Spending your dues money wisely

By Kim ThompsonUTU General Secretary & Treasurer Nobody spends someone else’s dollars as carefully as we spend our own. The UTU International leadership is especially sensitive to the fact that members entrust us with their own hard-earned dollars, and every member rightf [...]

Members helping members, the UTU way

By Vic Baffoni,Vice president, UTU Bus Dept. Local UTU officers sacrifice much of their personal time, without compensation, to assist and serve their memberships, and they deserve recognition for their outstanding commitment. That is what I intend to do in this month’s colum [...]