House passes Rail Safety Improvement Act
WASHINGTON, D.C., October 17 — Today, representatives in the U.S. House passed the Railroad Safety Improvement Act (H.R. 2095) eliminating camp cars and decreasing limbo time, both important issues for Teamsters rail conference members.

“Our rail members, the engineers, trainmen and maintenance of way workers who ensure that this nation’s rail system runs safely, won a major victory with the passage of H.R. 2095 today,” said Jim Hoffa, Teamsters General President.

“We’ve been fighting Norfolk Southern for years about eliminating their disgusting camp cars and finally Congress is backing us up,” said Fred Simpson, President of the Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employes division of the Teamsters Rail Conference. “Norfolk Southern was the last railroad to keep these substandard accommodations and we will be glad to see them go. Our members should never have had to endure the cramped and unsanitary conditions in those cars.”

Camp cars are mobile dormitories that are used to house maintenance of way crew members while on assignment repairing tracks. Usually the cars house eight men each and most are not equipped with indoor toilets or potable water. Men assigned to these cars must walk outside, even in the dead of winter, to use porta-johns and drink bottled water because the water in the cars is unfit to drink.

Another part of the far-reaching act sets new limits for limbo time for locomotive engineers and trainmen. Currently, engineers and trainmen can work up to 20 hours or more per shift before they take eight hours of rest. Since their full work day can last up to 12 hours, they might spend 8 hours or more in limbo time where they can’t sleep, must remain vigilant and are not paid for that time.

“This is a step in the right direction to impede the rail carriers’ abuse of our much needed rest time,” said Don Hahs, President of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen. “The passage of H.R. 2095 means that engineers and trainmen may eventually be paid for all of the time they spend on the job. They will also have the chance to obtain adequate rest between assignments, reducing fatigue.”

Among other provisions in H.R. 2095 are:

* Restructuring of the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA), placing greater emphasis on its safety role and increasing substantially the number of qualified inspectors;

* Creation of fatigue management programs, a guarantee of 10 hours of undisturbed rest, and a guarantee of one 24-hour off-duty period every seven days;

* Strengthened whistleblower protections; a worker may refuse to authorize the use of equipment the employee reasonably believes to be unsafe or hazardous to operate or work with;

* Implementation of positive train control, a technology serving as a backup device to improve the safety of locomotive engines for all rail workers;

* Vast improvement in safety for operations in un-signaled track, or dark territory;

* Certification of train conductors;

* A study of locomotive cab conditions;

* A requirement for emergency breathing apparatus in all locomotive cabs; and

* New regulations that would put an end to the harassment and intimidation of rail workers who report personal injuries.

The Teamsters Union was founded in 1903 and represents 1.4 million hardworking men and women throughout the United States, Canada and Puerto Rico. The Teamsters Rail Conference comprises the members of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen and the members of the Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employes Division. The BLET represents 59,000 professional locomotive engineers and trainmen in the United States.

Brothers:
 
Just a short reminder about our 16% profit sharing for 2007.  The Carrier began reducing our 3% General Wage Increase on the 16th of this month to coincide with the new agreement where we traded 2% GWI for another 4% profit sharing payout which brings the SF road engineers up to 16%.  Many of our road members will start seeing a reduction in their pay checks due to the fact that since July 1st they have been receiving 3% GWI and it will now be reduced down to 1%.  Please post the word so your members will be reminded of what is taking place and it will save everyone many phone calls.
 
Pat

There will be no back pay from 7-1-07 to Oct 15-07 account you were entitled to the 3% GWI for the SF road crews. The yard crews and the road switchers, and locals only received a 1% GWI account they went to the 12% PS. Now effective October 16, 2007 your pay will go down 2% due to the fact that is when the SF road crews start their 16% PS.

Pat

10/9/07


Today was the first high-volume day for application of
technology / process relating Article 11. Here is a summary of
performance.
Board / Pool Mileage adjustments went as expected, with
technology working as intended and no instances of software / process
failure discovered.
Vacation slide, including the ability to start a vacation 72
hours early performed as intended. Since October 1, we have had 11
locomotive engineers elect to move vacation to start 72 hours earlier,
and 17 engineers slide their vacation start to coincide with their rest
cycle (This is excluding any data prior to October 1, 2007, which would
only be on the 04 and 18 seniority districts).
Electronic removal of people going to vacation worked as
intended, with the "PRE" vacation movement code moving all going on
vacation at the appropriate time, followed up by the VAC move at lead
time to 0900 local time. There were 172 engineers who started a single
day or more of vacation on October 8, 2007.
We did have some difficulty with position filling / backfilling
due to the number of system transactions in queue for the vacancies.
Technology Services is still investigating the length of time it is
taking batch processing to complete, and is investigating solutions.
One solution implemented this morning was to run the programs on a
mainframe that was less busy. This reduced the amount of time it takes
to process all the necessary transactions with backfill. While TS and
Crew Support were discussing methods for correcting the transaction /
volume issue, we manually completed the assignment (and associated
backfill) of approximately 120 engineer positions through simulation.
Simulation is where the system determines the transaction, and a
clerical employee manually handles the transaction.
Our next significant test of the solution will be on Monday,
October 15, 2007. I will provide an update on how we progress.
If any additional information is needed, please let me know.
Bobby Pechal

Subject: RE: Whistle Signals

Thanks for the input ray.  I would bet money on the fact that the officers are using the whistle signal to pad their ops tests numbers.  I’m writing a couple of letters this morning to President Hahs, and to Greg Fox mentioning that very fact.  I’m also going to put out instructions to all L/C to put out the word to all their respective members that from this day forward until further notice that every engineer abide 100% to the FRA regulations that state that an engineer must be in the chair of a moving train.  There is no if and or buts about this rule.  Having the conductor blow the whistle for you while you are taking a leak or whatever is in violation of the FRA regulations.  Therefore,         DO NOT ALLOW THE CONDUCTOR TO RUN NOR ALLOW HIM TO BLOW THE WHISTLE IF YOU NEED TO GET A DRINK, TO USE THE FACILITIES OR TO EVEN SCRATCH YOUR BACKSIDE.  If he fails to blow correctly they are holding the engineer responsible and vice versa.  Living up to the FRA regulations will definitely curtail the Carrier’s velocity program but the way things are out there and the number of whistle signal failures that are appearing we have to do something to protect ourselves.
 
Pat

FYI ,

As information, we are also starting to get questions about the new pay
date and Tier taxes. The employees are concerned that they have maxed
out tier 2 and because we are paying this Dec 17, they are afraid it
will go into next years tax accounting and they have to pay teir 2 tax
on the back pay.

Their concern is unfounded, last half of December earnings are subject
to the new tier tax because they are paid in first half of January.
However the back pay is "paid" in December and thus all those earnings
are under the cumulative 2007 earnings tax structure. Short version,
they have no negative tax consequence with these new dates.
 

Dear Sirs and Brothers,

Recently while the four of us were out on the property in our educational efforts involving the
2007 BLET National and On-Property Settlements, it became quite evident that a large
portion of our membership was not very well acclimated to the provisions set forth and
available in Article II of the 2003 Alternative Compensation Package; more specifically, the
“Flexible Spending Account”.
Once we recognized the problem, we pledged to our Committees to provide a concerted
effort to oblige each of our respective local chairmen and subsequently each of our members
with additional information in an attempt to further educate all involved as to what you are
receiving via the United States Postal System with regard to this matter. We are enclosing
several documents for distribution which will hopefully work to this end.
We suggest you take a few moments to review the material and to consider what you have at
your disposal in accordance with the collective bargaining agreement. Pay particular
attention to the items identified which are eligible for the Plan. We feel you will be very
surprised at the possible savings you may realize by becoming involved in this program.
Further, BNSF posted information about the FSA on their Labor Relations website dated
November 15, 2004 and October 3, 2005