Information of interest to operating railroad and transportation employees

For

For Tuesday, February 24, 1998

CLEVELAND -- The United Transportation Union (UTU) filed new Article XX, Section 5, charges against the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers (BLE).

The UTU said in a February 20 letter to AFL-CIO President John J. Sweeney that the BLE violated the Federation’s bylaws for publishing "BLE News Flashes" accusing the UTU, among other things, of "acting as a carrier puppet" as well as a report by its Iowa legislative chairman.

In addition, UTU International President Charles L. Little told Sweeney that the UTU has been waiting for more than a year for resolution of an Article XX charge against the BLE that the UTU has already won.

"I do not have the ill grace to engage in the intemperate use of language by (BLE) President Monin, but I will say the UTU has been waiting for well over a year for finality to its charge against BLE upheld on appeal concerning its disregard of UTU’s successorship rights for conductors on the I&M Rail Link," said Little.

Clinton railroad proposal is feeling heat

WASHINGTON – A plan by the Clinton Administration to charge the railroad industry and its users $16 million to pay for railroad regulators could harm safety efforts, some critics charge.

Rail users are saying the Clinton plan might leave them no recourse for challenging railroad practices because it would cost tens of thousands of dollars more to lodge complaints with the Surface Transportation Board (STB).

President Clinton’s fiscal 1999 budget proposes paying the STB’s entire $16 million budget through new "user fees." The board now charges some user fees, but at a lower cost. The STB itself does not support the Clinton plan.

CP Railways at impasse with Canadian Auto Workers

WINNEPEG -- Contract negotiations between the Canadian Pacific and Canadian Auto Workers are at an impasse and union members are in the middle of a strike mandate vote from its CP members.

More than 4,000 CAW members working for CP are shop craft workers, who repair and maintain locomotives and freight cars. The CAW says both sides are standing back for a little while and the union is focussing its attention on getting a deal done. Issues of wages and pensions are key to the dispute. The CAW wants its members to benefit from the CP’s record profits.

SEPTA negotiations turning nasty

PHILADELPHIA – The 5,600 SEPTA workers in the Philadelphia area represented by the Transport Workers Union Local 234 are locked in what the local newspaper describes as a "nasty dispute."

A dramatic rewriting of union work rules and practices has prompted mean spirited cartoons about SEPTA management, the Inquirer reported. The paper quoted a SEPTA board member as saying this negotiation "has the potential to get real nasty."

However, the Inquirer reports that it was SEPTA management that fired the first nasty salvo when in December its chief negotiator told reporters that SEPTA was "a classic case of inmates running the asylum." TWU says SEPTA’s tactics from the start was to "demonize the workers."