Commentary

Rail Union Ordered to Bargain on Crew Consist

This is about a railroad labor union committed to serving its dues paying members, and a rail industry losing its core revenue traffic—coal—and now facing off against omnipresent low-cost, non-union truckers for the trailers and containers comprising much of the railroads’ future traffic base. It’s about new technology—the product of knowledge that for centuries has transformed the nature, quality and quantity of work. In this instance, the technology is Positive Train Control (PTC), a safety overlay system substituting artificial intelligence for engineer inattention or distraction. PTC, as does most new technology, creates job redundancies.

NRLC arbitration board issues health care ruling

A National Railway Labor Conference arbitration board ruled May 23 that the pattern health care terms adopted by the freight railroads and nine of the unions in national bargaining should also apply to the Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employes (BMWE) and the International Association of Sheet Metal, Air, Rail and Transportation (SMART) – Mechanical Division.

Commentary

Labor lawyer Clint Miller: Requisat in pace

Clint Miller studied, recited and practiced railroad labor law with such determination, devotion and precision that his management adversaries often were converted to fans. Had cancer instead picked its fight with him in a courtroom, few would have expected his death last week at age 70.

Additional rail labor agreements reached

As ascendancy of jaw-jaw over war-war is making even a partial national rail work stoppage less probable, an agreement this week between the freight railroads and their second largest labor union has further decreased such concern.

Commentary

The ongoing crew consist size debate

The battle between labor and the management over mandatory two-person crews is far from over and will heat up if a new Democratic-controlled Congress takes charge in 2019. Hoping for big Democratic wins in the U.S. House and Senate later this year, railroad labor quietly continues to set the stage to push for mandatory two-person train crew legislation.

Commentary

CSX: From first to worst

Those who have spent many years in the rail industry know that rail workers are among the most loyal of employees, spending entire careers on the railroad and often following a parent into railroading. This loyalty is expressed in a myriad of ways, including today’s internet chat rooms devoted to railroad topics where railroaders discuss everything from operating plans to locomotive livery, and share photos and recollections.

Two arguments on two-person crews

The Federal Railroad Administration, at a July 15, 2016 hearing regarding the agency’s proposed rule mandating two-person crews, heard two sharply contrasting arguments, one from freight rail management, the other from labor.

BLET, SMART-UTU reject NJT contract

The members New Jersey Transit’s two largest unions, the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen (BLET) and SMART Transportation Division-United Transportation Union (UTU), have voted against the tentative agreement reached in March between NJ Transit and a coalition of its 16 railroad unions.

FRA C3RS program implemented in Boston

Keolis Commuter Services, the Federal Railroad Administration, the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority and union leaders from the American Train Dispatchers Association, Transportation Communications Union, Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen and SMART Transportation Division on May 8, 2015 signed a memorandum of understanding to implement the FRA’s voluntary Confidential Close Call Reporting System (C3RS).

Metra, unions implementing a C3RS

Management and transportation unions at Chicago’s Metra regional/commuter rail system have entered into an agreement to create a Confidential Close Call Reporting System (C3RS) designed “to proactively address safety issues and create a more positive safety culture,” the agency said.
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