Guys:

Help out with this problem. We have many cases we've been trying to get
heard but are hand cuffed due to no money available to pay the referees.
The President is trying to force the unions to pay for arbitration out
of their own pockets and this is a good way to get it done.

Pat


Public Law Board funding

Legislative Alert: Contact your member of Congress to secure Public Law
Board funding

http://www.ble.org/pr/news/newsflash.asp?id=4546

CLEVELAND, November 15 - BLET members are asked to contact their members

of Congress and urge them to vote to override President Bush's veto of
the
Labor-HHS appropriations bill (H.R. 3043). President Bush vetoed the
bill
on November 13, which was passed by the House on November 8 by a vote of

272-141.

The bill was intended to provide fiscal year 2008 funding for the
National
Mediation Board (NMB), which creates and administers public law boards.
The appropriation would also fund the National Railroad Adjustment Board

(NRAB). If Congress fails to override the veto, then there will be a
continued freeze on public law board activities. The House vote was
three
votes short of the two-thirds majority that would be needed to override
a
veto.

The Bush administration said the President vetoed the bill because it
would provide $150.7 billion in discretionary spending, which is $9.8
billion more than he requested. He called the bill's spending
"excessive."

The fiscal year 2007 budget for the NMB and public law board activities
expired Sept. 30. The NMB, which funds public law boards, is operating
under a continuing resolution, which provides interim funding in
expectation of a 2008 fiscal year appropriation. But the uncertainty
over
fiscal year 2008 funding has forced the NMB to halt travel for
arbitrators, and the NMB advised arbitrators not to hear public
law-board
cases.

A 1966 amendment to the Railway Labor Act created public law boards,
which
consist of one member from the carrier, one from labor and a neutral.
The
carriers and labor compensate their respective representatives, but
compensation of neutrals - including travel, office administration and
wages - is paid by the NMB through congressional appropriations.

To contact your member of Congress, please visit the BLET National
Legislative Office's website at: http://www.bletdc.org/action/congress/

Ability to Mark-Up 24 Hours Prior to the End of Vacation and Bump - Or, just Bumping in General - This one is still generating lots of questions.

Stated simply, the system will not allow anyone to make a displacement while on a lay-off or vacation board. In order to exercise seniority 24 hours prior to the end of a 7 or more day vacation period, the first step must be to mark up early from vacation, which will place the returning employee to the displacement board (board 04). After you are successfully placed to board 04, you can then make a displacement from board 04 ONLY.

Even if you are not on vacation, you must be "marked up" to displace. Another example - on a pool position and laying off personal business on board 01. I am displaced while laying off. The system will not start the notification process until you are marked up. So at the end of the layoff, you are auto-marked and the notification period begins. On notification, you can make your displacement without having to do the mark-up step. In places where you mark up ahead of the auto mark time or there is no auto mark, you must accept notification and mark up, which will place you to the bump board. You can then exercise seniority over anyone your junior.

The steps are - mark up, then displace.


This week's Update:

Processor time improved dramatically. The table reproduced follows:

Oct 15 Processing behind 2 Hours (or 2 1/2 hours from start to completion)

Oct 22 Processing behind 53 Minutes (or 1 Hour 23 Minutes from start to completion)

Oct 29 Processing behind 12 Minutes (or 42 Minutes from start to completion)

Nov 5 Processing behind 54 minutes (or 1 Hour 24 Minutes from start to completion)

Nov 12 Processing behind 0 minutes (or 23 minutes from start to completion - the longest batch of the day)

Also, when the batches started, the longest processor time was 4 minutes and 12 seconds. So, the changes in the array and priority of the batch has met our initial goal for the first time, in that each batch finished in less than 30 minutes. While this is a significant achievement with processing time, we are still continuing to look at ways that will speed the batch in the processing queue and get it down to complete quicker. We have a significant increase in vacations in the next several weeks, so we are in a good position to further test the system for speed and volume.

As far as accuracy, the calls / e-mails are continuing to decrease, indicating that we have both better understanding and better handling occurring with respect to Article 11.

We still have not completed the issue with Locomotive Engineers "self-demoting" when they can still hold the quota. It does not happen every time, and Technology Services is working on this right now as job number one for correction. We believe we have identified the cause, and are now working on the method to correct. In the meantime, we have re-enforced process instructions to the clerical staff to minimize the impact.

Thanks to everyone for their patience and continued communication. We need everyone to continue bringing issues to the Center for correction.

Bobby Pechal

24 Hours to Bump

Engineers returning from 7 or more days of vacation, who have not elected a return to previous job option, will be placed to the displacement board (bump board 04), at lead time to 0900 on the first day following the last day of vacation. Engineers in this status will have 24 hours to make a displacement. There are lots of calls and questions with the thought that engineers in the return from vacation with a bump status will be force assigned or assigned according to their bid sheet. Engineers in this status will not be force assigned unless they fail to exercise a displacement by the 24th hour. If my terminal has an hour-and-one-half call and I am placed to the bump board at 0730 on 11/05/07, I will be force assigned at 0730 11/06/07 if I have failed to make a displacement within the 24 hour period.

Return to Regular Assigned Starting Time Position

There is only automatic return to a pool or rest cycle and no automatic return to an assigned starting time position. Due to this, locomotive engineers have the ability to mark up and displace 24 hours prior to the end of their vacation so they can be in place and ready to work a 0700 local on Monday. One item that may be causing this is the way the selection screen is written, about returning to previous assignment or job. That language is being changed in the system to clearly communicate the election. The short story is, if you are on a job with an assigned starting time, take enough vacation that causes your position to be filled, you will need to displace onto your old position by accessing the system, marking up and making the displacement back to your old position, seniority permitting.

Engineer Bid

There is still some misconception about what this bid does for engineers. Simply stated, Engineer bid is the way you move to a more preferred position. Displacing is the way you move to a lesser desired position. If you have an Engineer Bid on file thinking that if I get displaced, the system will automatically move me to one of those positions, you are not correct. As a practice, I would only have on my engineer bid more desired positions than the one I am on currently. If I am on the job that is my "most preferred", I would not have an Engineer Bid on file. If I can no longer hold my most desired position, I will be provided a displacement and can exercise seniority on anyone my junior.

On to the update.

The focus is still on speed and we were slower this week as compared to last week. Here is the comparison as provided last week:

Oct 15 Processing behind 2 Hours (or 2 1/2 hours from start to completion)

Oct 22 Processing behind 53 Minutes (or 1 Hour 23 Minutes from start to completion)

Oct 29 Processing behind 12 Minutes (or 42 Minutes from start to completion)

Nov 5 Processing behind 54 minutes (or 1 Hour 24 Minutes from start to completion)

We stepped back to the previous week's speed, and here is why. The first Monday of each month is historically the highest processing day of each month, and also, the mornings are the busiest. The processors were all at 100% Monday morning, causing Crew's batch processes to "wait in line" for a while before they began. After starting, the longest batch run time was 6 minutes and 49 seconds. So we are not having trouble processing the moves, we are having a challenge "getting up to the plate" to begin processing.

As of yesterday, Technology Services was able to get our priority in the queue increased. This should eliminate the issue of "waiting in line", and get us where we need to be with speed.

There is one other software concern that has sporadically started to happen. We have seen several instances where locomotive engineers have been allowed electronically to exercise seniority on a ground position when they could still hold the quota. Locomotive Engineers that are displaced must exercise seniority as an Engineer if they can hold the Engineer's quota. We are backing up any of these types of moves we find and expect to have this corrected by TS soon. If you came out of the engineer's quota to get a displacement, can still hold the engineer's quota, you must exercise seniority back into the engineer's quota.

Retiree Earnings Limits to Rise


Those railroad retirement annuitants subject to earnings restrictions can earn more in 2008 without having their benefits reduced, as a result of increases in earnings limits indexed to average national wage increases.

Like social security benefits, some railroad retirement benefit payments are subject to deductions if an annuitant’s earnings exceed certain exempt amounts. These earnings restrictions apply to those who have not attained full social security retirement age. For employee and spouse annuitants, full retirement age ranges from age 65 for those born before 1938 to age 67 for those born in 1960 or later. For survivor annuitants, full retirement age ranges from age 65 for those born before 1940 to age 67 for those born in 1962 or later.

For those under full retirement age throughout 2008, the exempt earnings amount rises to $13,560 from $12,960 in 2007. For beneficiaries attaining full retirement age in 2008, the exempt earnings amount, for the months before the month full retirement age is attained, rises to $36,120 in 2008 from $34,440 in 2007.

For those under full retirement age, the earnings deduction is $1 in benefits for every $2 of earnings over the exempt amount. For those attaining full retirement age in 2008, the deduction is $1 for every $3 of earnings over the exempt amount in the months before the month full retirement age is attained.

When applicable, these earnings deductions are assessed on the tier I and vested dual benefit portions of railroad retirement employee and spouse annuities, and the tier I, tier II, and vested dual benefit portions of survivor benefits.

All earnings received for services rendered, plus any net earnings from self-employment, are considered when assessing deductions for earnings. Interest, dividends, certain rental income, or income from stocks, bonds, or other investments are not considered earnings for this purpose.

Retired employees and spouses, regardless of age, who work for their last pre-retirement nonrailroad employer are also subject to an additional earnings deduction, in their tier II and supplemental benefits, of $1 for every $2 in earnings up to a maximum reduction of 50 percent. This earnings restriction does not change from year to year and does not allow for an exempt amount.

A spouse benefit is subject to reduction not only for the spouse’s earnings, but also for the earnings of the employee, regardless of whether the earnings are from service for the last pre-retirement nonrailroad employer or other post-retirement employment.

Special work restrictions continue to be applicable to disability annuitants in 2008.

Regardless of age and/or earnings, no railroad retirement annuity is payable for any month in which an annuitant (retired employee, spouse or survivor) works for a railroad employer or railroad union.

# # #



John P. Tolman
Vice President & National Legislative Representative
25 Louisiana Avenue, N. W. ,
Washington, D. C. 20001
office 202-624-8776
DC fax 202-624-3086
direct fax 216-694-0241
cell 216-272-1246
tolman@ble.org
bletdc.org

Will again start this update with some "understanding issues" regarding Article 11.

Sliding Vacation Up 72 Hours

When the election is made to "slide my vacation 72 hours earlier'" the following is the handling by the software.

If you are making this election greater than 72 hours prior to the scheduled start of a vacation, your vacation will start at either 1) 72 hours prior to lead time for the 0900 start of the vacation period, or 2) when you tie up at the home terminal less than 72 hours prior to lead time for scheduled vacation.

If you make this election less than 72 hours prior to lead time for the 0900 start of the vacation period, the slide will be made immediately.

In other words, there is no option to elect to slide for a pre-determined number of hours between 1 and 72 prior to the lead time of vacation start. It is either 72 hours or immediately on request if requested less than the 72 hours.

Ability to Mark-Up 24 Hours Prior to the End of Vacation

Stated simply, the system will not allow anyone to make a displacement while on a lay-off or vacation board. In order to exercise seniority 24 hours prior to the end of a vacation period, the first step must be to mark up early from vacation, which will place the returning employee to the displacement board (board 04). After you are successfully placed to board 04, you can then make a displacement from board 04 ONLY.

The steps are - mark up, then displace.

When to Call if a Transaction has not Happened

If you are scheduled to layoff for vacation at 0730, and you check at 0745, please do not call. The explanation below tells how long the transactions are taking. Moving forward, would like for Locomotive Engineers to wait at least 30 minutes before questioning why a move was not made. The reason for this is first and foremost, the transaction may not have gotten through the system (see batch times below). Secondly, by calling the clerical employee, they may manually intervene which will cause the batch to stop and not finish electronically. Reading below explains the transaction times better, and as we move forward with improving speed there should not be as much lag time between when a transaction should occur and when it actually occurs.