UTU News Digest - Friday, October 30, 1998

UTU Daily News Digest

Information of interest to operating railroad and transportation employees

Friday, October 30, 1998

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Organized labor stops Republican Congress’ anti-worker agenda

WASHINGTON -- Organized labor played good defense in Congress this year, joining with Democrats and moderate Republicans to stop almost every legislative effort unions considered anti-worker.

Facing a GOP majority committed to changing workplace laws, unions helped defeat efforts to weaken affirmative action programs, restrict their ability to raise money for political campaigns and make it more difficult to target open shops.

Unions also opposed President Clinton in working with Democrats led by Rep. Dick Gephardt of Missouri, the House minority leader, to defeat "fast track" trade authority they saw as a threat to American jobs.

Republican leaders, AFL-CIO President John Sweeney said to his officers, "knew that as long as we were watching and calling their hand as we did in 1995 and 1996, they couldn't push the same aggressive anti-working family agenda contained in the Contract With America."

With the "Contract," House Republicans ascended to power in 1994 promising to change some of the labor-related rules their business allies considered outdated or anti-business. But with 60 votes needed to move bills past Senate filibusters, and a Democratic president with veto powers, change has been slow.

Bruce Josten, executive vice president of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, saw "significant advancement and improvement" just in getting House votes on many workplace issues and hearings on such matters as the Teamsters' tainted elections and union dues going to political campaigns. But both Republicans and business leaders need to understand, Josten said, that progress "is going to have to be defined very incrementally."

There were some achievements for business, but many bills originating in the House, where anti-union sentiments run strong, ended up going nowhere.

A bill protecting small businesses against "salting," in which union organizers infiltrate open shops, passed the House 202-200 but couldn't get by a Senate filibuster.

Some Republicans joined Democrats in defeating attempts to water down an affirmative action program aimed at awarding 10 percent of highway construction contracts to companies owned by women and minorities.

GOP leaders, angered by organized labor's lavish spending for mainly anti-Republican ads during the 1996 presidential election campaign, pushed hard during for a law to require unions to have their members' written consent before using dues for political activities. Their "paycheck protection" bill was defeated in a House vote.

Two prominent labor bills that Clinton vetoed in the last Congress saw little action. A "comp time" bill, to make it easier for workers to take time off instead of receiving overtime pay, passed the House last year but stalled in the Senate. The "Team Act," which would have allowed workers and management to form groups on safety and other noncollective-bargaining issues, was stuck in committees.

The House passed a bill to eliminate required overtime pay for some office salespeople who do business by phones and computers. The Senate didn't act.

The House narrowly approved a bill requiring the National Labor Relations Board to issue a final decision on unfair labor practice complaints within a year and to pay attorneys' fees to the party that prevails against the NLRB in court cases. The Senate didn't act.

Republicans blamed teachers' unions for Clinton's veto of a bill that would have allowed parents to set up tax-free educational savings accounts to pay for school costs, including private school tuition. Teachers' unions saw it as a threat to the future of public schools.

They also accused the administration of giving in to unions on a bill to improve the Customs Service's drug-fighting capabilities. It passed the House and Senate in different versions, then got hung up over administration objections about provisions that would limit labor-negotiating rights.

CN says it is increasing productivity program

MONTREAL –Canadian National is intensifying its drive to improve productivity to meet the profound competitive challenges posed to Canadian shippers by United States rail industry consolidation, says CN President and Chief Executive Officer Paul M. Tellier.

Tellier, speaking Thursday to the Board of Trade of Metropolitan Montreal today, said CN cannot ignore the competitive muscle of newly created, and newly forming, rail giants in the U.S. because north - south traffic between Canada and the U.S. is growing at about 11 per cent annually; this traffic will soon represent more than 50 per cent of CN’s business.

"Increasingly, our customers compete in the North American marketplace. Our job is to keep them competitive in that market place. To do that we must provide services that are as consistent, as reliable and as cost-efficient as those provided by other railroads to our customers' competitors. No one should be in doubt. Ultimately, it is the customer who shoulders the burden of any failure by us to match the standard of excellence available to his competitors."

The emergence of the "Big Four" U.S. rail carriers from the most recent round of rail mergers in the U.S. will intensify competition for CN and its customers. Example: CSX Corp. (CSX), one of two companies dividing rail carrier Conrail Inc., will soon provide traditional consumers of Quebec paper products in the U.S. Northeast with a new source of products in the U.S. South.

Tellier said there is little doubt that U.S. railroads, which are already significantly more productive than CN, "will emerge as even fiercer and more powerful competitors than they are now" following the latest round of acquisitions. "Falling behind our competitors is not acceptable. The standards by which we are judged - the standards to which we aspire - are North American standards. We must anticipate where the U.S. rail industry will be when consolidations run their course – and act accordingly."

In response to these challenges, CN is compelled to make more intensive use of its assets and to improve service while using fewer locomotives, fewer cars and fewer facilities to do the work. "One result is that we need fewer people to run locomotives, repair rolling stock, maintain facilities or provide supporting management and administrative services."

The competitive and market forces now confronting CN, Mr. Tellier said, provide the context for the Company's decision to take a $590-million special charge, announced last week, to cover the cost of reducing CN's workforce by 3,000 persons over 18 months from mid-1998 to December 1999. "It was a painful, but a necessary decision."

The average cost for reducing each position is about $195,000, reflecting some of the finest employment benefits available in Canadian industry. A clerk earning $45,000 a year with eight years service can elect to take a lump sum payment of $65,000 or receive employment security and collect annual payments of about $40,000 for up to six years. A clerk eligible for five years bridging to retirement can expect to receive more than $200,000 in income protection, including fringe benefits and lump sum separation payment upon retirement.

Double decker trains pulled on LIRR

NEW YORK -- New double-decker trains that are supposed to replace the Eisenhower-era diesels on the Long Island Railroad are being yanked from the line after less than a week.

That's after tests have discovered problems with the state-of-the-art locomotives' computerized braking system. The trains were slated for operation along the Oyster Bay line. LIRR officials say they hope to have the glitch worked out in one week.

Wisconsin Central reports lower 3^rd quarter earnings

ROSEMONT, Ill. -- Wisconsin Central Transportation Corp. reported that its third quarter income fell to $19.4 million, or 38 cents a share, on revenue of $88.8 million.

In the same period a year earlier, the big regional rail system posted earnings of $21.4 million, or 42 cents a share, on revenue of $85.1 million.

WC's income from its North American operations reached a record $26.4 million on revenue of $88.8 million. Income rose 13% higher from $23.4 million on revenue of $85.2 million in the 1997 period.

The third quarter results include income from English Welsh & Scottish Railway Holdings Ltd. of $5.2 million, compared with $8.3 million for the year-ago quarter, $3 million in earnings from Tranz Rail Holdings Ltd. compared with $1.1 million in the year-ago quarter and $300,000 in income from Australian Transport Network Ltd., which began operations in November 1997.

The company's North American operating ratio for the third quarter of 1998 was 70.3 percent compared to 72.6 percent for the year-ago quarter. Edward A. Burkhardt,

WCTC chairman, president and chief executive officer, stated, "Our improved North American results reflect the significant improvements made to infrastructure and railway operations."

As previously announced, the company began providing haulage services in August 1998 for Canadian National Railway's carload and bulk commodity trains between Superior, Wis., and Chicago. The third quarter 1998 operating revenues include $3.1 million of haulage revenue related to this new service.

Air Force base to be turned into transportation hub

VICTORVILLE, Calif. -- The city of Victorville and Stirling, a Laguna Hills developer, are on the verge of signing an agreement aimed at turning the former George Air Force Base into a major air-freight, trucking and rail hub.

Such a step could position the shuttered military base -- which, in its new capacity, has been renamed Southern California International Airport -- ahead of other closed defense facilities in the race to serve the region's growing appetite for air-delivered goods. The Mojave Desert site lies about 65 miles northeast of Los Angeles.

Over the next 20 years, the Victorville airport could handle up to 3.3 million tons of air cargo -- even more than the three million tons projected for giant L.A. International Airport, according to a study put out earlier this year by the Southern California Association of Governments, which coordinates planning among six counties.

The airport could generate as many as 15,000 jobs over the next seven to 10 years. Even if that is overly optimistic -- as is often the case with such projections -- the development clearly has the potential to make up for the 5,500 military and civilian jobs lost when George shut down in 1992, ending 49 years of fighter plane operations.

SEPTA opens hotline, offers rewards to nab Workers' Comp Fraud

PHILADELPHIA -- SEPTA is intensifying its campaign against workers' compensation fraud with the posting of a reward, the introduction of a new 24-hour hotline and a series of eye-catching anti-fraud ads.

Workers' Compensation currently costs the transit agency more than $20 million annually and the latest enforcement efforts follow a series of steps to reduce employee on-the-job accidents and generally improve workplace safety throughout the Authority, SEPTA General Manager John K. Leary Jr. announced Thursday.

Leary, who said the enforcement effort is "unprecedented" at SEPTA, announced the launch of the new SEPTA Workers' Comp. Fraud Hotline as a means of giving employees and the public easy access to fraud investigators. Tipsters will be eligible for rewards of up to $5,000 for information leading to the removal of an employee from the Workers' Compensation rolls.

Also, Leary said SEPTA Inspector General Peter Connelly has personally written to every employee about the anti-fraud campaign and is encouraging them to come forward with any information about comp abuse.

Committing workers' compensation claims fraud is a felony. An investigation by SEPTA and the Philadelphia District Attorney's Insurance Fraud Unit has led to the conviction of a former SEPTA mechanic for illegally collecting $52,540.00 in workers' compensation disability pay while working full-time as an employee with the City of Philadelphia Water Department. Albert Johnson began receiving workers' compensation from SEPTA in August, 1984. In September, 1991, Johnson joined the City of Philadelphia Water Department as a mechanic. His conviction -- the first of its kind at SEPTA -- includes a $5,000 fine, full restitution, and five years probation.

UTU Bus Vice President Bernie McNelis said, "The case involving Mr. Johnson was with another bargaining unit – not UTU. "Turning employees against one another for 'twenty pieces of silver.' Employees may start turning in operators out on comp, not even knowing facts of the matter, hoping to reap a reward."