Rail Workers Weekly News Digest
Number 8 - May 14th, 2019
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Below is a series of articles compiled over the previous week.
From various sources, they are of interest to railroad workers.
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2019-8 Article 1
l
What Does the Green New Deal Mean for Workers?
We believe that as the Green New Deal is being developed, everyone needs to be at the table — that’s why I’m excited to tell you that on May 21st, at 3 pm EST, we’ll be hosting another town hall with Grist! This time we’ll be talking to labor leaders from across the country about what a Green New Deal could mean for workers.
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The Green New Deal would invest in our infrastructure, transportation and industry while working to secure clean air and water for all communities — and that’s a huge opportunity for workers in our country. We’re proud to help host this discussion, and spotlight the leaders who have been working to fight climate change and create economic opportunities for workers across this country every day.
Read more ...
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PSR News
2019-8 Article 2
'THE INSANITY MUST STOP'
Railroad Shippers Seek Federal Action
Rail customers across the country are asking federal regulators to take action after a surge in fees stemming from an industrywide policy change spearheaded by Jacksonville-based
CSX
Corp.
Unless the situation changes, the customers say in filings with a federal regulator, rail customers will go out of business, freight will clog highways and railroads will cease to be a viable shipment option. The complaints focus on demurrage and accessorial charges, fines the railroads impose when a customer fails to comply with the railroads' rules governing how customers handle railcars.
The complaints are among those that have been filed with the Surface Transportation Board, which will hold a hearing on May 22 and 23 with all Class I railroads. The hearing was originally scheduled for one day, but the volume of shipper complaints led the STB to add another day to the proceeding.
Read more ...
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PSR News
2019 - 8 Article 3
UP Trains Block Crossings in Arkansas, Systemwide
Add
Peach Orchard
in Northeast Arkansas to the communities with long-running problems with blockage of rail crossings by stopped
Union Pacific
trains.
KAIT reported
on the community’s complaints last week. It’s a problem, says a rail union lobbyist, that could get worse.
Fox 16 reported earlier this week
on the seven-hour blockage of a crossing near
Hensley
in Pulaski County. Union Pacific, which told KAIT it had no “record” of problems in Peach Orchard, apologized for the disruption in Hensley and put it down to a new system efficiency plan.
Response to the Hensley item reported here was interesting.
Read more ...
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2019-8 Article 4
Remember the Chinese immigrants who built the transcontinental railroad
The nation’s first transcontinental railroad, completed 150 years ago today at Promontory Summit in Utah, connected the vast United States and brought America into the modern age. Chinese immigrants contributed mightily to this feat, but the historical accounts that followed often marginalized their role.
Between 1863 and 1869, as many as 20,000 Chinese workers helped build the treacherous western portion of the railroad, a winding ribbon of track known as the Central Pacific that began in Sacramento.
Read More ...
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2019-8 Article 5
VIA Rail reports 2018 ridership, revenue increases
VI
A Rail Canada Inc
. logged 4.7 million passengers and CA$392 million in total revenue in 2018, marking a four-year trend of steadily increasing ridership.
The number of VIA Rail passengers increased by 353,000 last year compared with 2017's level. The railroad's total revenue increased by CA$26.9 million, according to VIA Rail's
annual report
.
“The increase in revenue combined with efficient cost management and economies of scale have helped the company reduce the cost of mobility on Canadian taxpayers by 15 percent (subsidy per passenger mile, excluding pension past service cost)," said VIA Rail President and Chief Executive Officer Yves Desjardins-Siciliano in a press release.
Read More ...
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2019-8 Article 6
FRA proposes changes to locomotive engineer certification
The
Federal Railroad Administration
(FRA) yesterday announced a notice of proposed rulemaking to update the regulation governing locomotive engineer qualification and certification.
The proposed change would make the rule consistent with the corresponding regulation for conductors, FRA officials said in a press release.
If approved, the rule would adopt the conductor certification regulation process established in 2012 by making conforming amendments to the engineer certification regulation, which was issued in 1991 and last amended in 2000.
Read More ...
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2019-8 Article 7
The FRSA Protects Hours of Service Act Compliance
Did you know that rail workers who refuse to violate the Hours of Service Act are protected by
Section 20109 of the FRSA
? The Norfolk Southern Railway just found out the hard way.
In
Lancaster v. Norfolk Southern Railway Company
, the NS required a locomotive engineer to continued writing a statement beyond the time he outlawed. When he refused to violate the HSA by continuing to write the statement beyond his HSA deadline, his NS managers accused him of insubordination and suspended him without pay for 40 days.
The Judge held that is a violation of the FRSA. Noting “The Hours of Service Act was enacted to protect train crews and the public from the life-threatening risks posed by crew fatigue,” the Judge found the NS managers put their demand “for written statements ahead of their duty to obey and enforce a federal statute designed to keep railroads safe” and in so doing intentionally violated the FRSA.
Read more ...
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2019-8 Article 8
Unifor Council 4000 ratifies three CN agreements
CN
announced last week that union members have ratified three of four tentative agreements reached between CN and Unifor Council 4000 negotiators in March.
The three ratified agreements, reached prior to their expiration, cover 2,000 CN railroaders in Canada, including all clerks and intermodal workers, excavator-operators, as well as conductors and locomotive engineers working on the SAR internal short line in northern Alberta, Canada, according to a CN press release.
The agreements include wage increases, ratification bonuses and improved medical, dental and health-care benefits as well as modified work/rest rules, CN officials said.
Read more ...
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PSR News
2019-8 Article 9
Shippers complain to regulators about PSR-related charges
Shippers are not exactly jumping for joy over Class I railroads’ shift to Precision Scheduled Railroading operating models.
Instead, those who have written to federal regulators are hopping mad over increased use of demurrage and accessorial charges. Shippers say the charges are unfair, involved changes that were made too quickly, and are a hassle to overturn when they are a result of frequent railroad service failures.
Read more...
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Railroad Workers United
Solidarity -- Unity -- Democracy
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