Another organizing victory for UTU
January 26, 2012
UTU News
In its latest organizing victory, the UTU now represents maintenance-of-way employees on Missouri & North Arkansas Railroad, a RailAmerica property.
Contract negotiations, led by UTU Alternate Vice President Doyle Turner, will begin shortly. Turner heads the UTU’s shortline outreach program.
Rich Ross, the UTU’s director of organizing, and International organizer Mike Lewis were commended by International President Mike Futhey for this 28th UTU organizing win over the past 48 months.
Missouri & North Arkansas Railroad operates some 530 miles of line in Arkansas, Kansas and Missouri, with trackage rights over Union Pacific and connections with BNSF and Kansas City Southern. Primary commodities include coal, grain, frozen foods, minerals, steel, chemicals and asphalt.
America’s Railroads: One-in-Five New Recruits are Veterans
WASHINGTON, D.C.
– Nov. 8, 2011–
AAR News
Freight Rail Industry Celebrates Long History of Supporting our Nation’s Troops
Freight railroads have had more than a century-long commitment to our nation’s servicemen and women, and in 2011 they continue to hire veterans at a robust pace. According to the Association of American Railroads (AAR), one in five of the more than 15,000 new employees freight railroads expect to hire this year have served in our nation’s military.
“Freight rail continues to be a steady driver of our nation’s economy, and as demand increases we need even more employees to help keep our wheels turning,” said AAR President and CEO Edward R. Hamberger. “For this reason, our industry is on pace to hire approximately 15,000 new employees in 2011, and thousands of these jobs will go to members of the military, who are uniquely qualified to work in freight rail.”
To celebrate the connection between railroads and veterans, AAR has developed a special online tribute to freight rail employees with service in the military. This section profiles individual former-military employees from all walks of life and in a variety of rail jobs.
In addition, AAR launched a slideshow with a historic look at how railroads have helped our military efforts, titled “Victory by Rail: America’s Railroads During Wartime.”
Hamberger noted that there is a common sense overlap in personal traits and skill sets of railroad employees with military service men and women. “Our vets have a disciplined background, with special capabilities and qualities that are uniquely suited to help keep freight railroads efficient and safe,” he said.
Freight rail engages in programs with the military that identify talented service men and women and work with the armed forces to transition from military service to private sector employment. To attract such talent, railroads have instituted military recruitment programs and offer competitive benefits.
DOT ‘hero’ awards to 2 Amtrak conductors
November 4, 2011
UTU News
Heroism has no timetable, no expectation, no formula. It is displayed instantaneously and accompanied only by rare courage.
Enter, center stage, two UTU heroes – Amtrak conductors Richard d’Alessandro and Loxie Sanders – a couple of regular rails, represented by the UTU and seemingly little different than neighbors down the street.
Their time of extreme selfless bravery came the night of June 24, when a tractor-trailer, traveling at high-speed, plowed directly into Amtrak’s westbound California Zephyr near Lovelock, Nev.
The crunch of steel meeting steel at a highway-rail grade crossing is gut wrenching; the derailing of rail passenger cars, unnerving; the sudden and rapid spread of all-consuming fire, deadly; and the presence of thick smoke, terrifying.
It was at that moment that d’Alessandro and Sanders became heroes. Nobody nominated them. Nobody asked them. Nobody expected it of them. Such is heroism.
With passengers disoriented, injured and frightened — many seemingly hopelessly trapped in two burning passenger cars – d’Alessandro and Sanders demonstrated why highly trained passenger-train conductors are essential for passenger and train safety.
d’Alessandro, initially knocked unconscious by the horrendous collision, awoke to find he was lying outside his passenger car on the ground, an arm broken and finger missing. In complete disregard for his own life, and ignoring his painful injuries, d’Alessandro climbed back into the flaming cars in search of disoriented and injured passengers. First one, then another, and still another, he led and assisted them to safety through emergency exit windows and into waiting arms on the ground.
Only when the two no longer could hear voices or find additional passengers did they take leave of the burning passenger cars.
Then Sanders, suffering smoke inhalation and a severely burned hand, remembered conductor Laurette Lee. Where was she? Once again, he climbed back into the mouth of burning and smoke-filled hell. Finding her dead beneath a metal door, Sanders lifted her body and carried it outside and away from the inferno.
Among the first to visit d’Alessandro and Sanders in the hospital following the accident was Amtrak President Joseph Boardman, who had taken the first available flight from Washington, D.C., to be at the scene of this horrific accident that claimed six lives and would have claimed many more had it not been for the selfless actions of d’Alessandro and Sanders.
On Nov. 3, d’Alessandro (UTU Local 166, Salt Lake City) and Sanders (UTU Local 1525, Carbondale, Ill.) were formally recognized in Washington, D.C., by the U.S. Department of Transportation for heroism. In presenting the awards, Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood cited both for saving lives “that went above and beyond the call of duty.”
And what did these two still humble heroes have to say after receiving the awards? They credited their classroom training, exercises and structured debriefings required under 49 CFR Part 238 as giving them the knowledge and tools.
Heroism, of course, can’t be legislated or regulated. Heroism comes from the heart and soul, and will long be remembered by dozens alive today only because when tragedy struck, well-trained and dedicated Amtrak conductors d’Alessandro and Sanders were present.
‘We must not let the crazies turn back the clock’
October 25, 2011
UTU News
(For more than six decades, Bill Lucy has been a labor-union foot soldier. In 1968, as an officer of AFSCME Local 1733 in Memphis, Tenn., he collaborated with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. during the sanitation workers’ strike, during which Dr. King was assassinated. In August, Bill Lucy spoke to delegates at the UTU’s quadrennial convention in Hollywood, Fla. Following is a summary of his remarks.)
The UTU, through its Collective Bargaining Defense Fund, has demonstrated a solid commitment to trade union principles and solidarity. President Futhey recognizes there is a daily crisis in the lives of working families as they struggle to put bread on their tables, clothes on their backs and a roof over their heads.
The crazy governors of Ohio and Wisconsin have seen the solidarity of the UTU as it works to preserve collective bargaining rights and quality health care. The UTU may be small compared to some other unions, but it’s right in the middle of the fight – and that’s where you should always be.
The crazy lawmakers who would strip workers of their democratic right to have a union now know you will fight until hell freezes over, and then skate across the ice to continue the fight to protect those rights. You have that reputation, and you can be proud.
A question was raised on CNN whether poor people are responsible for our nation’s economic condition. That’s an incredible question to ask after we bailed out Wall Street, bailed out the banks and bailed out corporations.
The poor can’t pay and the rich won’t pay, and who does that leave? Look across the room at each other and you spot those who are going to bring this nation out of the difficulty it is in. The fact is that it is always the working men and women on whom the weight falls to clean up the mess politicians create.
Working families are victims of the lunacy that has overtaken the political extremists who want to take away our democratic rights to determine our bargaining representatives.
There is currently an unrestrained effort to end workers’ rights to have a voice in the workplace. It is the collective bargaining process that gives us fairness and justice in the workplace, and we will fight for it every step of the way. I reject the notion that if God meant for you to be well off, he would have made you that way.
We as workers must come together to fight back against the forces that seek to turn back the clock to weaken unions and cheapen the cost of labor.
False rumors by competitors target UTUIA, DIPP
October 17, 2011
UTU News
As the perfectly healthy man told the obituary editor of his local newspaper, “Reports of my demise are grossly exaggerated.”
And so it is with the UTU Insurance Association (UTUIA) and the UTU’s Discipline Income Protection Plan (DIPP).
Vicious and absolutely false rumors are circulating that the UTU and UTUIA are going out of business, and that UTUIA policy holders and DIPP participants should flee to competing organizations.
Not surprisingly, one of these false rumors originated with a competitor to DIPP.
The plain dealing truth is that neither the UTU nor the UTUIA are going out of business.
The UTUIA, which is wholly owned by its policy holders and regulated by the Ohio Department of Insurance, is doing business as usual. There is no change in the status, service, or security of the UTUIA. UTU General Secretary & Treasurer Kim Thompson reported earlier this year that the UTUIA earned more than $400,000 from operations in 2010 and remains financially strong with nearly $26 million in surplus.
Similarly, DIPP is its strongest in years. Participants in the DIPP also should keep in mind – and this has been consistently and frequently proven – that the DIPP is steadfast in looking for ways to pay claims of participants, while non-UTU plans are known to look for ways to avoid paying claims.
In addition to the UTU DIPP being the largest and most effective discipline income protection plan, it is the only program of its kind regulated by the Department of Labor – publishing financial statements, holding its funds in trust and audited annually by a public accounting firm.
The UTU, the UTUIA and the DIPP are alive and well and will continue to serve UTU members. Don’t allow mischievous and self-serving rumor mongers upset your financial security.
Arbitrator rules in favor of SMART merger
October 11, 2011
UTU News
An arbitrator has ruled that a merger between the UTU and the Sheet Metal Workers International Association (SMWIA) be implemented at the “earliest possible date” and that the presidents of the two unions – or their designees — meet within 15 days to decide how the implementation is to proceed.
Arbitrator Michael H. Gottesman said the UTU-ratified merger agreement to create the Sheet Metal, Air, Rail and Transportation (SMART) Workers Union is an enforceable agreement. Gottesman was named by AFL-CIO President Rich Trumka to decide the question of enforceability after binding arbitration was ordered by Federal District Court Judge John Bates.
Gottesman acknowledged that there is pending before Judge Bates another merger related case – a complaint by several UTU members that Titles I and V or the Labor Management Reporting and Disclosure Act (LMRDA) were violated. When Judge Bates ordered binding arbitration to determine if the UTU-SMWIA merger agreement is enforceable, he said the LMRDA claims were beyond the purview of the arbitrator, and that he would decide those claims following the outcome of the arbitration.
Although the SMWIA asked Gottesman to allow the SMWIA to, in Gottesman’s words, “effectively micromanage the implementation of the merger, complete with timelines and very detailed instructions for the behavior of UTU officials,” Gottesman denied the request.
Ruled Gottesman: “It is far better that the parties decide how to implement the merger than to have an arbitrator do so. Accordingly, the award simply directs the presidents of UTU and SMWIA (or their designees) to begin meeting not later than 15 days after the effective date of this award (Oct. 10) to discuss any and all issues pertinent to implementation of the merger … and to continue meeting on a regular basis until all such matters have been resolved.”
Rail safety concerns? Questions? FRA all ears
Chicago
October 1, 2011
UTU News
Here is an opportunity to voice your rail safety concerns directly to the administrator of the Federal Railroad Administration.
A 90-minute town hall meeting on rail safety will be held Tuesday, Oct. 11, in Chicago. FRA Administrator Joseph Szabo will take questions and hear concerns as part of the agency’s outreach to rail labor.
Szabo, formerly the UTU’s Illinois state legislative director and a fifth-generation railroader, promises “a frank and often safety discussion.” He also will share with the audience details on the FRA’s risk reduction program, which is a non-punitive approach to addressing safety in advance of an accident or injury.
FRA Associate Administrator for Safety Jo Strang wrote of that program some months ago in an exclusive column that appeared in the UTU News and on the UTU website. A link to that column is provided below.
Here are the details of the town hall meeting:
WHEN: Tuesday, Oct. 11, from 9-10:30 a.m.
WHERE: Chicago Laborers District Council, 999 McClintock Drive, Burr Ridge, Ill. Burr Ridge is 20 miles southwest of downtown Chicago
UTU pact sweet as health care premiums soar
September 28, 2011
UTU News
The UTU’s ratified national rail contract – locking in for six years a $200 monthly health care insurance premium — is looking even more attractive following a Kaiser Family Foundation study showing health care costs and health care premiums are rocketing into space.
Nationally, the average monthly premium for family health care insurance through an employer reached $1,256 in 2011, according to the study– and even higher monthly premiums are forecast in the years ahead.
Although employers generally pay a significant portion of those premiums, the employee share for private sector and federal workers is anywhere from almost double to more than double what is paid by rail workers under the recently ratified UTU national rail contract.
It is expected that most private-sector and government employees will be paying considerably more in health care insurance premiums in the years ahead, while those covered by the UTU national rail contract pay not a penny more for coverage through mid-2016. Moreover, the UTU national rail contract includes improvements in a health care plan already considered one of the most comprehensive in America.
The Kaiser Family Foundation study found that health care insurance premiums have doubled over the past 10 years, outstripping, for most Americans, the growth in wages.
Local meetings source of information, inspiration
September 15, 2011
UTU News
By General Secretary & Treasurer Kim Thompson
As a young railroad employee, I wondered why we had the wages and benefits that we had, why we had rules for assignments and for the work we performed. I wondered what could be done to make things right when things didn’t seem right. Only then did I attend my first local meeting.
I discovered local officers conduct the meeting in an orderly fashion and officers give reports related to their positions. I discovered that due to our collectively bargained agreement, a grievance process exists through which we can submit claims for violation of our rights. But what are those rights? What is the contract?
Further interest revealed that our “contract” is actually a compendium of many agreements made over a period of time. The Railway Labor Act provides that all agreements remain in effect until changed. They do not expire. This means that interpretation is required as to what earlier agreements have been changed by later agreements, and interpretation can be made only by the parties to agreement — the UTU and the carriers.
Had my local not held regular meetings, I would not have had an opportunity to learn the basics of how my union works. Had my local officers not conducted meetings in an orderly and professional manner, I would not have learned about my contract and how it is applied.
I don’t recall ever being invited to attend my first local meeting. Maybe I was invited, but too self-centered or all-knowing to care. Maybe I was too busy to take the time.
I have learned much about this industry in the years since my early local meetings, but the foundation for my understanding began there. I am eternally grateful for that opportunity, and for the desire to learn from a reliable source.
My message to you is to attend your local meetings.
Be active and take part in discussions. Ask questions of your local officers. If so moved, run for local office. The more you become involved, the more of an asset you are to your union.
Most importantly, ask a member to attend your local meeting, especially the young members. We can all make a difference.