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UTU 324
Home Search Legal Council Forum Minutes Safety
UTU 324
Home Search Legal Council Forum Minutes Safety
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Our MissionOUR MISSION AS OFFICERS AND REPRESENTATIVES OF LOCAL 324 IS TO KEEP OUR MEMBERSHIP INFORMED, ACTIVE, AND PROTECTED.
Contact InformationLocal Representation Below is a list and contact information for your Local Representatives.
QUICK PICKSUTU Organization
To keep up to date about local and federal changes in labor law and practices, labor disputes, and ways to help shape the future visit http://www.thestand.org
Brothers and Sisters
2.) RO: We need a copy of the cut slip, a working ticket, a completed delay
report with mileposts and or stations that are outside of the assignment with a
name of the supervisor instructing the movement, and statement of facts
explaining the events.
3.) BD and MC: We need a call slip if call slip was involved, two snap shots of
the board, one of you and the other person arriving, and another that shows the
crew mishandling or run around, and a statement of facts.
4.) Fred: Claim for placing ETD after Carman inspection and air test, 25.0 miles
per board award 6003. This is payable to both the Conductor and Brakeman.
Note you may also reference the working ticket number on the yard job you
worked
VACATIONS The 2012 Vacations are out now. There will be weekly updates on available weeks during the year. They'll be posted in the yard office as well as this site. Just click on 2012 Vacations. The UTU has no higher priority than fighting for laws, regulations and work rules that ensure our members go home to their families in one piece. We know that the railroad industry is one of the most dangerous, where accidents too often result in career ending injuries or death. Danger similarly lurks for bus, commuter and transit workers, and that is why our efforts include fighting for safer bus and passenger car construction, and increased training in the handling of unruly passengers. In addition to the UTU’s efforts before Congress, state legislatures and regulatory agencies, as well as the negotiating table, to advance workplace safety, we have several dedicated teams that study safety issues and make recommendations -- the Switching Operations Fatalities Analysis (SOFA) working group, the UTU Transportation Safety Team, and the UTU Rail Safety Task Force. The Switching Operations Fatalities Analysis(SOFA) working group is a coordinated effort with the Federal Railroad Administration, carriers and labor organizations to develop safe practices that reduce fatalities and career ending injuries in yard switching operations.
The 13-member UTU Transportation Safety Team assists National Transportation Safety Board investigators in ascertaining facts relating to rail accidents. The UTU Rail Safety Task Force works with general chairpersons, state legislative directors, local officers and members to develop safe practices and techniques to improve – and keep at its highest level -- situational awareness in yard and road operations.Focusing on situational awareness In spite of railroad boasts that they have become safer, the fact is that railroad employee on-duty fatalities have been soaring, according to the Federal Railroad Administration. Twenty-five railroad employees lost their lives in on-duty accidents during 2008, up from 16 in 2007. And 2009 got off to a horrific start, with 11 employee on-duty fatalities in just the first three months of the year. Stunned by this sharp increase in rail-employee on-duty fatalities and career-ending injuries, UTU International President Mike Futhey appointed a four-person task force to craft, in conjunction with the FRA, an action plan to reduce rail-employee risk while on the job. Leading the task force is UTU Arizona State Legislative Director Greg Hynes, who will work with UTU Arkansas State Legislative Director Steve Evans and Michigan State Legislative Director Jerry Gibson. Now retired Arizona State Legislative Director Scott Olson initially led the task force. “I expect the task force to produce an effective solution that includes best practices and techniques to improve situational awareness and keep situational awareness it at its highest level,” Futhey said. Olson said, “If this task force is to be effective, it must digest concerns and suggestions of those who work in the yards and aboard trains. That is the purpose of the link on this page encouraging members to communicate directly with the task force.”
We are familiar with employers imposing unwarranted discipline and even dismissal on employees. A member survey by the UTU's Rail Safety Task Force revealed that more than 50 percent of train, engine and yard workers cite supervisor harassment and excessive operations testing as distracting them from situational awareness and placing them in harm's way. Said one member responding to the survey: "An alarming number of workers are in fear of losing their jobs. Harassment is now the number-one concern in the discharge of duty." Income assistance is available to all UTU members, in all crafts, having to weather such events. The UTU's Discipline Income Protection Program (DIPP) is a vital benefit only available to UTU members to supplement lost income when suspended or dismissed from employment. For a reasonable premium, UTU members may enroll for a daily benefit amount ranging from $6 to $200 per day, not to exceed their normal average daily rate of earnings. To read more on this article, click HERE
FRA URGES : WORK TO THE RULE Shocked that 16 railroad employees were killed in on-duty accidents during 2009 -- eight of them UTU members -- Federal Railroad Administrator Joe Szabo has issued a strong plea that all employees "think about rules compliance and consider its impact on ensuring a safe return home after each tour of duty." Said Szabo, a former conductor and UTU's Illinois state legislative director prior to being chosen by President Obama as FRA administrator: "Having spent 19 years on the ground myself, I -- like you -- understand the realities of railroading. My stomach still turns in knots each time I hear of an on-duty fatality. To read more on this topic, click Rules
FINAL PTC RULE REQUIRES 2 CAB SCREENS WASHINGTON -- A final rule on how positive train control technology (PTC) is to be implemented by the nation's railroads was issued Jan. 12 by the FRA. The Rail Safety Improvement Act of 2008 mandated that freight, intercity passenger and commuter rail routes have operable PTC in place no later than Dec. 31, 2015. Railroads must submit their final PTC plans to the FRA by April 16. The FRA said this final rule will allow railroads to meet the April 16 compliance date. To read more on this article, click POSITIVE TRAIN CONTROL
Railroads are campaigning hard to get federal funding for all or part of the cost of developing and deploying a positive train control (PTC) system, writes Larry Kaufman in Rail Business newsletter. There are two elements to the PTC issue. Most aggravating, the railroads are on the hook to invest anywhere from $5 million to as much as $15 billion, depending on which source omne believes, to satisfy the Congressional mandate that PTC be deployed by the end of 2015 on all tracks that handle passenger trains and/or toxic inhalation hazard (TIH) shipments. To read more on this article, click HERE MORE EYE-OPENING FATIGUE EVIDENCE A new Federal Railroad Administration report made public in early December is the latest confirmation that train and engine service employees with variable start times report for duty less alert than do those with fixed starting time. and sleep patterns of U.S. railroad train and engine service personnel, and the relationship between these schedules and alertness. Members of the UTU and the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers assisted with the study, providing a log that each participant updated daily for two weeks. Some two-thirds of the logs were kept by train and engine service workers with variable start times and what the study terms "significant start time variability." The other third of the logs were kept by workers with fixed work-start times. The study reveals that while train and engine service workers report longer daily sleep than most U.S. adults, they suffer poor sleep quality and high stress levels -- particularly those with variable start times.
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