September 22, 2021 — The Rail Unions comprising the Coordinated Bargaining Coalition (CBC), negotiating together in the current round of National Negotiations, have issued the following statement:

As we advised in January of 2021, the CBC and the nation’s rail carriers have been at the bargaining table since the beginning of 2020. Since January, CBC has continued to meet with the Rail Carriers, returning to in-person meetings in August. At that meeting, CBC made it clear to the Rail Carriers that neither our Bargaining Coalition, nor our collective memberships, would accept a concessionary agreement on a voluntary basis. The Carriers were told that our members have been asked to work as essential workers throughout the Pandemic, while being treated more like expendable workers. Our members are infuriated that they have worked through these conditions without a wage increase in over two (2) years and it is unacceptable that the Nation’s Rail Carriers continue to stonewall CBC Unions in our effort to settle our contract negotiations on a voluntary basis.

“In January, we said that ‘the Rail Carriers have not made any proposals worthy of consideration by the membership of the CBC Unions.’ No Carrier proposals have been received since our January 2021 update that would change the veracity of that statement. We will continue to negotiate in good faith, fully recognizing that it is our members who must ratify any voluntary agreement.”

###

The unions comprising the Coordinated Bargaining Coalition are: the American Train Dis-patchers Association (ATDA); the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen / Teamsters Rail Conference (BLET); the Brotherhood of Railroad Signalmen (BRS); the International Association of Machinists (IAM); the International Brotherhood of Boilermakers (IBB); the National Conference of Firemen & Oilers/SEIU (NCFO); the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW); the Transport Workers Union of America (TWU); the Transportation Communications Union / IAM (TCU), including TCU’s Brotherhood Railway Carmen Division (BRC); and the Transportation Division of the International Association of Sheet Metal, Air, Rail, and Transportation Workers (SMART–TD).

Collectively, the CBC unions represent more than 105,000 railroad workers covered by the various organizations’ national agreements, and comprise over 80% of the workforce who will be impacted by this round of negotiations.

Click here for a PDF copy of the statement.

The post Statement on National Negotiations by the Coordinated Bargaining Coalition appeared first on IAMAW.

In a petition dated April 15, 2020, BNSF next requested that FRA modify the granted regulatory relief to expand its pilot program to include additional origination and departure points along the carrier’s Southern Transcon Route and origination and departure points on BNSF’s Northern Intermodal Route, between Portland, Oregon; Seattle and Tacoma, Washington; the Greater Chicago, Illinois, region (S, Q, and Z Trains); and any unit coal and grain trains that could traverse this northern route.

On May 27, 2020, FRA granted BNSF an expansion of the previous relief to include additional origination and departure points along the carrier’s Southern Transcon Route and for BNSF’s Northern Intermodal Route to operate intact with up to approximately 2,600 miles between brake tests. The expansion onto the Northern Intermodal Route operated under the following conditions. First, each test train would receive a Class I airbrake test and pre-departure test at Portland, Oregon; Seattle or Tacoma, Washington; or in the Greater Chicago, Illinois region. Next, test trains would then pass WTD monitors located both east and west of Havre, Montana, to record braking performance through power braking events. Finally, if there was any doubt about WTD system performance, reliability and data quality or fewer than 95 percent of the brake valves in the consist have qualified brakes as verified by the automated WTD system, a manual intermediate inspection would be performed at Havre, Montana, (the designated inspection point).

Together, the initial relief granted by FRA on April 12, 2019 and subsequent expansion of the waiver by FRA on May 27, 2020, provided BNSF certain relief from 49 CFR 232.15, Movement of defective equipment; 49 CFR 232.103(f), General requirements for all train brake systems; 49 CFR 232.213, Extended haul trains; and a statutory exemption from the requirements of title 49, United States Code section 20303.

On March 18, 2021, BNSF again petitioned FRA for an expansion of the current test waiver to include additional trains from compliance of certain provisions of the Federal railroad safety regulations contained at 49 CFR part 232, Brake system safety standards for freight and other non-passenger trains and equipment; end-of-train devices. In its current petition, BNSF stated that the test waiver committee for BHE has been actively reviewing the data generated since August 2018, and during that time, BNSF has tested more than 5,500 trains. BNSF also contended that the test waiver on the Southern Transcon intermodal trains and the Northern Transcon grain trains was a success and now sought to expand its BHE initiative onto BNSF’s coal network in a two-phase program. The first addition would be the Pike’s Peak route with detectors at Monument and Castle Rock, and, the second would be the addition of the Sand Hills route with detectors at testing sites.

BNSF also provided that coal trains in this program would be subject to the same requirements for training completion of all related work groups, and the detectors would not be activated until training records were provided to the test waiver committee. BNSF further claimed that it was prepared to begin training on BHE processes in Denver, Colorado; Alliance, Nebraska; Temple, Texas; and Amarillo, Texas, back in March and May 2021.

The Brotherhood Railway Carman (BRC) has filed comments opposing BNSF’s current petition to expand the test waiver. BRC representatives have attended the test waiver committee meetings, participated in the conference calls regarding the test waiver and challenged BNSF’s position on the processes that needed to be implemented to collect accurate information for the test waiver database. The test waiver committee consists of representatives from the railroad industry, rail labor and inspectors from the FRA.

During several of the test waiver committee meetings, both the BRC representatives and the FRA investigators made several points of concern regarding BNSF’s current test waiver as well as with the proposed expansion. The principle concerns were as follows:

• First, in the current request for expansion, any cars that pass the WTD monitors, after receiving the initial QMI inspection and fail, will ultimately be traveling upwards of 2,300 miles before being inspected again;
• Second, this test waiver has, from the start, failed to address the issues of cars having defects other than brake health and wheel defects;
• Third, current trains operating under this test waiver are not adhering to Condition .7 of the test waiver guidelines which requires certain inspections be performed on the test trains and that BNSF provide the inspectors with all WTD information prior to conducting inspections;
• Fourth, BNSF has also not been adhering to the modified Condition .15 of the test waiver guidelines which requires inspectors to perform a Class I or transfer train brake test prior to moving defective cars to be repaired before the cars are added into trains; and
• Finally, the FRA inspectors provided that not only were they against an expansion of the test waiver because it is not in the best interest for public safety, they also provided that they did not even have enough resources to monitor the waivers that have already been granted to BNSF.

“BNSF has proven that there is no benefit to continue this test waiver due to the carrier’s repeated violations of the test conditions that FRA set forth in their decision letters,” says BRC General President Rich Johnson. “To allow the current waiver to continue or to add more trains to the test waiver would not be in the best interest of public safety at this time.”

Click here to read BRC’s comments

The post UPDATE: BNSF Petitions FRA to Expand its Wayside Detector Pilot Program Yet Again appeared first on IAMAW.

The Brotherhood Railway Carman (BRC) has joined with other rail unions to oppose UP’s petition for waiver because the requested relief will not ensure the same level of safety as provided by the current Federal regulations. In summary, the unions made the following arguments against granting the requested relief:

1. the new trains made by adding or removing cars poses a risk of interrupting the consistency of brake mechanisms;
2. origination inspections also include checks of important safety appliances and a variety of common issues such as missing brake shoes or wheel flanges that can pose serious risks to operators and other rail users if not addressed;
3. there is no guarantee that simply combining trains will mean that every brake is properly engaging as part of the newly formed train;
4. added length will always cause additional strain on the air compressor;
5. use of distributed power configurations to mitigate the risk posed by skipping the Class I brake tests is not an excuse to abandon critical safety checks;
6. abandoning the required Class I brake test would not necessarily be safer for rail workers;
7. Class III brake tests are not more reliable if they rely on End-Of-Train devices given that these devices are subject to technology failures caused by increasingly long trains; and
8. should the UP petition be granted, FRA must apply as robust, if not more strenuous, conditions to UP’s relief that FRA applied to a similar request made by the BNSF Railway in 2020.

“Allowing this relief to UP is unsafe and irresponsible,” says BRC General President Richard Johnson. “Class I and IA brake tests are the cornerstone of safety in the railroad industry. With precision scheduling and other forms of system wide testing relief already provided to UP across its entire system, any change to the current regulatory framework should only be done if UP could guarantee the same level of safety as the current regulations provide, something the carrier has not accomplished in its request.”

Click here to read rail labor’s comments.

The post UP Requests Relief to Combine Two Existing and Operating Trains without Additional Inspections appeared first on IAMAW.

UP is now the fourth Class I rail carrier operating in the U.S. to request that 3-D simulations be used as an alternative to “hands-on” refresher training since 2019. The first of the three previous requests occurred in February 2019, when Norfolk Southern Railway (NS) petitioned FRA for this relief. FRA granted NS’s request in May 2019. Then, the Canadian Pacific Railway (CP) filed for the same relief in December 2019. FRA granted CP’s request in April 2020. Finally, CSX Transportation, Inc. (CSX), filed for the same relief in January 2020. FRA granted CSX’s request in April 2020.

Rail labor opposed all three of these previous petitions for waiver, and, in response to UP’s recent request for relief, the Brotherhood Railway Carman, the American Train Dispatchers Association and the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen filed joint comments opposing the waiver. In addition, the Transportation Trades Department of the AFL-CIO also filed comments opposing the UP petition for waiver as well.

Among other things, the above labor organizations specifically complained to FRA that simulated testing should be used only as a supplement to, and not a replacement for, the “hands-on” training that railroad employees currently receive in the field. In addition, we also commented that UP has the ability to perform the “hands-on” refresher training because the carrier has an ample supply of rail cars to use for testing its inspectors, and because UP has plenty of time to arrange for the periodic “hands-on” refresher training given that such training occurs once every three years.

“Once again we see a Class I rail carrier complain that it does not have the time to follow the guidelines provided by the current Federal regulations,” says BRC General President Richard A. Johnson. “Such a request is troubling given that, in the current environment, railroad workers are being made to inspect cars within incredibly short time frames due to precision scheduling practices, while the carriers have also benefited from previously granted waivers that allow them to perform fewer overall inspections. Under these circumstances, now is not the time to reduce the quality of key safety training, given that there are already ongoing factors that inhibit the safety of the rail system.”

To read the joint comments of BRC, ATDA and BLET click here.

To read the TTD comments click here.

The post Another Carrier Petitions FRA for Relief from “Hands-on” Periodic Refresher Training appeared first on IAMAW.

TTX still has several open positions due to the uptick of traffic. They have exhausted all of their furloughed Carmen lists available for recall and are in desperate need of Carmen in the following locations:

Chicago, IL
Denver, CO
Harrisburg, PA
Chambersburg, PA
Los Angeles & the surrounding areas
Atlanta, GA
Gardner, KS
North Baltimore, OH
Jacksonville, FL
Spokane, WA
Flat Rock, MI
Norfolk, VA
Dallas, TX

Anyone interested can apply for these jobs on the TTX website at TTX.com.

Any interested furloughed TCU Carmen can contact Don Grissom at grissomd@tcunion.org to have their information passed to TTX.

The post TTX Still Looking to Fill Several Open Carmen Positions appeared first on IAMAW.

Click here to see available FRA positions on the USAJobs site.

How to Apply: Follow the directions in the vacancy announcement. Most positions will require you to apply on-line through USAJOBS, but some positions will require you to send your application to the address listed in the vacancy announcement.

Click here for more information and a listing of FRA jobs available, on the FRA website.

For questions or help with the application process, send an email to websteward@tcunion.org

The post Jobs Available at the FRA appeared first on IAMAW.

From left to right in photo:  Mrs. Cheryl Abitz, Former Alaska RR Local Chairman, James Abitz & Assistant General President of the Carman Division, Don Grissom.

On May 23, 2021, AGP Don Grissom presented Brother Abitz a plaque in recognition of his service to the BRC/TCU Union.  This picture was taken in Fond du Lac, WI in front of Wisconsin Central Steam Locomotive 2714, where Brother Abitz began his railroad career on May 29, 1990 for the Wisconsin Central RR.  This Locomotive was built in May 1911 and logged over 2 million miles between Fond du Lac and Minneapolis.  In 2001, the CN purchased Wisconsin Central RR.  

Brother Abitz transferred to the Alaska RR on October 20, 2004.  He then retired May 1, 2020 with 30 years of service.  Brother Abitz held several union positions with Alaska Local Lodge 6067, including Financial Secretary from 2006 to 2010.  In 2010 he became Local Chairman.  He held this position until he retired in 2020.  Brother Abitz and his wife moved back to the Fond du Lac area after his retirement. 

The post TCU Lodge 6067 Local Chairman James Abitz Retires with 30 Years of Service appeared first on IAMAW.

On January 15, 2021, the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) issued an extensive Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) entitled “Amendments to Brake System Safety Standards Governing Operations Using Electronic Air Brake Slip System.” More specifically, FRA proposes to amend its brake system safety standards to address operations using an electronic air brake slip (eABS) system, which is a system that tracks details related to individual freight car brake tests. The proposed rule would provide an alternative regulatory framework for railroads to utilize when choosing to use an eABS system, but would not require railroads to use such a system. The NPRM proposes to extend the distance certain individual rail cars may travel (from 1,500 to 2,500 miles) without stopping for brake and mechanical tests, if the cars have a valid eABS record. The NPRM also proposes to allow railroads to add or remove multiple cars from a train without conducting additional brake tests, if the train is solely made up of cars with eABS records.

The Brotherhood Railway Carman (BRC) joined with four (4) other rail unions to oppose the NPRM. Among other things, the unions argued against the proposed changes for the following reasons:

1. that the current regulatory framework already contemplates that an electronic record may be used as an alternative to a paper slip;
2. that the changes would lead to decreased safety by having fewer brake inspections, fewer timely discoveries of defects and other problems, and by allowing the risks associated with brake system degradation to actually increase across the national rail network; and
3. that following through with a Final Rule would only deliver yet another financial windfall to rail carriers by eliminating inspections, testing and repairs, and deferring routine maintenance.

“Inspections, testing and maintenance of rail equipment are all critical components to the safety of both railroad workers and the general public,” says BRC General President Rich Johnson. “Having an eABS system that provides accurate and timely information is fine, but, a new or different notification system that uses information technology cannot justify reducing the frequency of inspections and repairs to train brakes in the field; such changes will almost certainly reduce the overall safety of trains operating across the country.”

Click here to see the joint comments filed by rail labor:

The post Rail Labor Files Joint Comments on FRA’s NPRM appeared first on IAMAW.

The case, brought by the states of California, Washington and Nevada and by the International Association of Sheet Metal, Air, Rail and Transportation Workers — Transportation Division and the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen, challenged former FRA Administrator Ronald Batory’s order to roll back the Obama administration two-person crew rule for the purpose of adopting a nationwide maximum one-person crew rule and to preempt any state laws concerning that subject matter. The unions and states argued that Batory’s May 2019 order violated the comment-and-notice procedures of Administrative Procedures Act (APA) and that his agency could not implicitly preempt the state safety rules.

The court agreed with both arguments set forth by the states and unions. First, the court ruled that the order was “arbitrary and capricious,” thus violating the APA. In support of its ruling, the court specifically pointed out that the assertions made by FRA and the rail carriers that reducing the number of crew members in the cab to one-person could improve safety “did not withstand scrutiny” and “was lacking.” Indeed, the court chided the FRA for basing its decision on “an economic rationale” instead of its main obligation — safety. Likewise, the court eviscerated the lack of a sound factual basis in the order, which merely cited a single study funded by the Association of American Railroads. On this note, the court held that “a single study suggesting that one-person crew operations ‘appear as safe’ as two-person crews seems a thin reed on which to base a national rule.”

Second, the court also agreed that the order’s “real and intended effect [was] to authorize nationwide one-person train crews and to bar any contrary state regulations,” just as the states and unions maintained. Here, the court additionally criticized the order as not being a “logical outgrowth” of the two-person crew proposal, because “[t]here was nothing in the [order] to put a person on notice that the FRA might adopt a national one-person crew limit.”

In vacating and remanding the order, rail labor can now look ahead to working with FRA again when crew size is next considered on a national level by the agency. It also means that two-person crew legislation in the states that had been targeted by the order remain in effect.

“This is a big win for all of rail labor,” says Brotherhood Railway Carmen General President Richard A. Johnson. “Having two people working together, with any improvements in technology, is the best way to ensure the safety of both the general public and railroad workers while similarly allowing for the effective and efficient movement of our nation’s railroads.”

A copy of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruling is available here.

The post Ninth Circuit Ruling Favors Two-person Train Crews appeared first on IAMAW.

Local officials called the move a blow to local railroad workers and the economy, effectively gutting the future of the railroad jobs in the area.

Through the original 1872 contract, Union Pacific agreed to establish a railroad hub in Palestine with offices, machine shops and roundhouses. The contract also stipulated that Union Pacific will retain a facility and minimum number of employees in Palestine – currently set at 65. In return, the city agreed to raise $150,000 in bonds for the railroad.

United States Federal Judge for the Eastern District of Texas denied the city of Palestine’s motion to dismiss.

“This is a devastating blow to this area and these jobs,” said Carman General President Rich Johnson. “We are disappointed with this decision, there is no end to the corporate greed with the UP.”

Click here to read the full story on the Palestine Herald-Press.

The post Palestine TX – Judge Allows Union Pacific to Break Contract appeared first on IAMAW.