UTU News Digest - Friday, June 25, 1999

UTU Daily News Digest

Information of interest to operating railroad and transportation employees

Friday, June 25, 1999

TOLEDO: Port officials complain of blocked rail crossings

TOLEDO -- Trains blocking the only entrance to the Port of Toledo are driving up trucking costs and compromising safety, while late rail deliveries have prompted a port customer to move its local warehousing operations to Chicago, port officials told the Toledo Blade.

Bill Hodges, president of Toledo World Industries and Bituminous Products Co., said that since June 1, those two firms have lost at least $48,000 because parked CSX Transportation Co. trains have blocked the Front Street grade crossing northeast of Millard Avenue.

The safety risk posed by having dozens of dock and terminal workers isolated from fire and rescue services for hours by a blocked rail crossing "just scares the daylights out of us,'' he added.

Meanwhile, Cominco Ltd., a Vancouver-based mining and metals company, is moving its zinc-warehousing business out of Toledo to Chicago because of rail delivery delays, according to Robert Greenlese, the Toledo-Lucas County Port Authority's director of surface transportation and logistics.

Cominco's move and trucking delays at Toledo's port are both results of service difficulties CSX and Norfolk Southern have had since June 1, when they jointly took over Conrail's railroad network.

Kea Barker, a spokeswoman at Cominco headquarters, said company officials familiar with the rail situation were not available to comment.

Last week, port authority officials sent a letter to CSX asking for better cooperation in keeping the Front Street crossing clear of parked trains.

The hours-long delays, which exacerbate a problem that had existed long before the Conrail transaction took effect, could "jeopardize'' the cooperative relationship between the port and CSX, port president James Hartung and Ray Medlin, Jr., the chairman of the port's board of directors, wrote in the June 17 letter to CSX president John Snow.

Mr. Hartung said that port authority officials will "have to explore our options'' should CSX trains continue blocking the port entrance. So far, he said, the port is lucky that the delays have not been so long as to keep a ship from leaving on time, which would cost thousands of dollars a day.

Gary Wollenhaupt, a CSX spokesman in Indianapolis, said Mr. Snow's office received the port's letter Monday and a response is being prepared. The railroad has asked regional managers to be more aware of the Front Street crossing, he said.

Both CSX and, to an even greater extent, Norfolk Southern, have experienced long train delays and lost and misrouted shipments, which they have blamed on problems integrating information about the Conrail system into their computer systems.

Their rail yards congested with freight cars lacking proper documents, the two railroads have resorted to parking other trains on main tracks outside the yards, sometimes blocking crossings for hours.

Rudy Husband, a spokesman for Norfolk Southern, conceded yesterday that it could be mid-July before the railroad straightens out its computer problems and works through a backlog of freight shipments that has accumulated on its system.

Traditional July shutdowns in the automobile and coal industries - the former for model retooling, the latter for miners' vacations - provide "a major opportunity to flush our system,'' Mr. Husband said.

Mr. Wollenhaupt said CSX's problems likely will persist into next month too. "We are making progress on a daily basis, but obviously there are still some problems,'' he said.

Service delays have left many rail shippers short of freight cars in which to load their products and manufacturers short of raw materials. United Parcel Service, America's largest user of premium railroad service, announced last week it would divert half of its eastern rail traffic to trucking until the rail delays are resolved.

NORTH CAROLINA: Union leaders call textile win greatest ever in South

KANNAPOLIS -- Labor leaders say the vote in favor of union representation by North Carolina mill workers marks a milestone in the effort to organize the Southern textile industry.

Workers at six Fieldcrest Cannon mills apparently voted to accept representation by the Union of Needletrades Industrial and Textile Employees, or UNITE. Four previous attempts since 1974 to unionize the workers had failed, but the union finally declared victory on Thursday.

AFL-CIO President John J. Sweeney called it the greatest union victory in a Southern textile mill.

North Carolina has nearly 167,000 textile workers -- the nation's biggest such workforce -- in a state where the overall level of union membership is just 4.2 percent. The national level is 13.5 percent.

"The unions, when it came to North Carolina, used to say, 'Why bother?"' said University of South Carolina history professor Tom Terrill.

The past six decades has seen the number of workers decline steadily due to modernization, increased imports and the shifting of jobs overseas.

"I've been talking to a lot of clothing manufacturers, and one of the problems they bring up all the time is the shortage of skilled labor," said Ian Taplin, a Wake Forest University professor who studies labor-management issues. "This could make management more tolerant about considering a union."

The National Labor Relations Board still must validate the 2,270-2,102 outcome. The union and the board have challenged a total of 285 votes.

"There's going to be massive discussion about these contested votes," said Chuck Hansen, chairman of Fieldcrest Cannon's parent company, Pillowtex Corp. "I think when it's all resolved, the vote will come back for the company."

The top election issues concerned job changes that have accompanied $50 million in added automation since 1997, when Dallas-based Pillowtex bought Fieldcrest for $700 million. Union organizers said change was displacing workers.

This time, UNITE did a good job of sizing up what it needed to do to win, including the enlisting of young, college-educated organizers, Taplin said.

The union is "good at alerting the public about what is happening," he said. "And they let the government know when there are violations."

Union organizing has a storied history here. Twenty-five years ago, a North Carolina woman's organizing efforts at a textile mill 200 miles away inspired the movie "Norma Rae."

"I knew it eventually would happen, but I didn't think it would happen in my lifetime," said Tracy Moody, a Fieldcrest employee.

Fieldcrest Cannon makes towels, sheets and comforters under the names Royal Velvet, Cannon, Touch of Class and Charisma. Pillowtex makes bed pillows, mattress pads, blankets and down comforters for the Ralph Lauren, Disney and Martha Stewart lines.

KENTUCKY: Suspected serial killer intelligent, dangerous

LEXINGTON-- Authorities in Kentucky warned people Thursday not to underestimate the intelligence of suspected serial killer Rafael Resendez-Ramirez. They said the Mexican-born murder suspect has tutored people in algebra, geometry and English and no one should think of him as an uneducated person with little knowledge of the United States.

"Rafael Ramirez is street smart. He's probably lucky getting around on the rails and through the country as he does, but he's certainly someone who has some sense of intelligence about him," said Lexington police

Resendez-Ramirez is wanted in connection with a series of vicious killings. All of them took place at night, near train tracks -- including two last week in Illinois. He was formally charged Monday with the Illinois killings.

He is wanted for questioning in six more killings -- five in Texas and one in Kentucky.

The first of the eight killings took place in 1997, and four of them occurred during the last few weeks. That has led authorities to fear the killing spree has intensified.

Sources close to the investigation said the serial killer works slowly, methodically and may even take pleasure in watching the victims die. They also said that the killer covered his victims with blankets and left a signature at each crime scene -- although they wouldn't say what it was.

Investigators said anyone who spots Resendez-Ramirez should call police and not try any heroics. Reward money totaling $250,000 is being offered for information leading to his arrest.

The FBI, hoping tips from the public will help lead to the his capture, released a new photograph of Resendez-Ramirez on Thursday showing him with a receding hairline and a scraggly beard, wearing glasses.

"We have a very dangerous, violent person out there that's been connected to eight homicides across this country that we know of, and what we really want to do is to get as much information as possible to try to catch him," said FBI task force leader Don Clark.

As of Thursday, telephone tips and information provided by the public have produced more than 1,150 leads, Clark told reporters in Houston, where the FBI is coordinating its nationwide manhunt.

Barnard said there were confirmed sightings of Resendez-Ramirez from June 16 through June 18 at homeless shelters in downtown Louisville, Kentucky. The suspect reportedly was wearing a white T-shirt, blue jeans and a baseball cap.

Resendez-Ramirez is suspected of committing an August 1997 slaying in Lexington, but he has not been tied to any killings in Louisville.

Interviews with witnesses in Louisville indicated the suspect was headed back into the Lexington area to perform migrant work. Investigators located a farm in Russell County in southern Kentucky where he had worked in 1996 and 1998.

Investigators also uncovered a photo taken after he was arrested near railroad tracks in 1996.

Police said Resendez-Ramirez has earned money in the past by donating blood and working on cars.

The suspect, authorities said, had been in touch with relatives in Lexington "within the last few days."

Assistant Police Chief Fran Root described the relatives as being cooperative when interviewed. Root declined to identify who was interviewed, their relation to Resendez-Ramirez or anything about the conversation.

Barnard told CNN that local investigators and FBI agents took part in the interviews and that the family members provided "important information."

"We're four days behind him, and we're getting closer. We know he's been in Kentucky and he's been here," Barnard said.

Resendez-Ramirez also has family members in Juarez, Mexico, just across the border from El Paso, Texas, and is believed to have visited the area recently, the FBI said Wednesday.

"They didn't comment as to whether they thought he did it or did not do it," said Texas Ranger Drew Carter. "I think I would describe them as being in a state of denial -- because he's a loved one and family member they're going to wait and see."

Federal agents are also waiting to see if Resendez-Ramirez contacts those family members again.

"He has been seen in the area here several times ... and we would expect that he might be coming here again as he travels up north and comes back," FBI Agent Al Cruz said Wednesday.

Resendez-Ramirez "travels the rails, we know that," Cruz said, "and I think that the citizens need to be aware of that, especially the citizens here in El Paso and Juarez."

The FBI has said that Resendez-Ramirez, described as a train-riding drifter with many aliases and disguises, could be anywhere in North America. He was added to the FBI's Ten Most Wanted list of suspects Monday.

WASHINGTON: Some American Airlines pilots have dozed off

WASHINGTON -- Some pilots for American Airlines (AMR) have dozed off while flying their passenger jets, according to a report published today.

Union documents obtained by USA Today say the company's policy on rest forces some pilots to fly without adequate sleep.

In one of the alleged incidents, an unidentified pilot was unexpectedly called to work last year to fly to Central America.

The pilot says he "faded fast" while cruising over Mexico.

"When I woke up, I looked over at the captain. He was sound asleep. I estimate we were both asleep for 30 minutes," the pilot says in the report prepared by the Allied Pilots Association and sent to American.

A spokesman for the airlines, Chris Chiames, told the newspaper the union claims are "complete nonsense."

Incidents like those included in the union documents will be investigated by the Federal Aviation Administration in a review of American's flight operations. The probe was prompted by the airline's June 1 crash in Little Rock, Ark., FAA spokesman Paul Turk said.

The National Transportation Safety Board is also looking at possible pilot fatigue. The flight crew of the jet had worked more than 13 hours before the fatal crash.

WASHINGTON: Delay in NAFTA trucking sought by Congress

WASHINGTON -- More than 250 members of Congress want the Clinton administration again to delay allowing Mexican truckers the unfettered access inside the United States spelled out in the North American Free Trade Agreement.

Lawmakers and labor leaders said Thursday many Mexican trucks remain unsafe and there are not enough inspectors along the U.S.-Mexico border to check all the vehicles carrying goods for the American market.

"Do you want to be driving in Michigan or Colorado or New York with your family and have an unsafe truck come up behind you with a 16-year-kid at the wheel making $6 a day?," said James Hoffa, the Teamsters president.

The 1993 pact that drew the United States, Canada and Mexico into a new trade alliance gave Mexico trucks unrestricted access to the United States, beginning in 1995.

But that timetable twice has been pushed back, amid pressure from organized labor in the United States and concerns about the safety of Mexican trucks. Federal officials say Mexican trucks frequently do not meet U.S. weight, driver and insurance standards.

The new date now is January, but 253 members of Congress have sent Clinton a letter urging more delay. The lawmakers say not nearly enough progress has been made to bring Mexican trucks in line with U.S. regulations.

"We write to urge you to maintain U.S.-Mexican border trucking restrictions," the lawmakers wrote Clinton. "They are essential to our ability to protect the safety of the traveling public and our commercial drivers."

The lawmakers want current safeguards to "remain firmly in place" until the two countries can agree on safety standards, enforcement programs and adequate staffing levels for inspectors.

Mexico has protested the U.S. reluctance to allow its truckers access, saying the delays violate NAFTA. Both countries have been engaged in talks, with the United States pressing Mexico for more aggressive truck inspections before the vehicles enter the United States.

The Mexican Embassy in Washington did not immediately return a telephone message left Thursday.

A report last year by the Transportation Department's inspector general found inspections for only 17,332 of the 3.5 million trucks entering the United States from Mexico in fiscal year 1997. Some 44 percent of those vehicles inspected were taken out of service due to serious safety concerns.

The report also found staff shortages at the 28 crossings on the southern border. Only 13 federal, 55 full-time state and 42 part-time state inspectors were assigned to conduct truck inspections from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., the audit found.

"U.S. border enforcement programs have not significantly improved and Mexican enforcement programs are still virtually nonexistent," said Rep.James Oberstar, D-Minn.

NEW YORK: Impasse over N.Y./N.J. transport improvements

NEW YORK -- Gridlock remained the winner Thursday afternoon in the continuing battle between New York and New Jersey state officials over key transportation improvements in the region and the bi-state authority that manages metropolitan New York's ports, airports and other transportation infrastructure.

The board of commissioners the Port Authority of New York & New Jersey adjourned a brief meeting Thursday afternoon without action on the projects, although members said there would be an unusual special meeting Monday to approve two multi-billion dollar expansions at Kennedy International Airport and Newark International Airport.

Continental Airlines, which has plans for the Newark expansion, had given a Thursday deadline for action before it had to pull the plug on the project, although an airline official said Monday was probably enough time for the board to act.

"I'm confident we have a few days; we do not have a few weeks," said Nene Foxhall, the Continental's vice president of state and civic affairs. Asked if she was surprised by the delay, she only shrugged.

The Continental project would include a new cargo facility for what would become the airline's largest overseas gateway, as well as a new concourse to handle more widebody aircraft and international flights.

Other items on the list for consideration Thursday was the relatively simple authority for port authority staff to enter final negotiations with Sea-Land Service Inc. and Maersk Line on a new lease for their joint operations at the port. The two container shipping giants decided in May to build North America's largest container terminal at the port rather than move operations to Baltimore. But the decision is contingent on some details being finalized.

Sea-Land and Maersk had not set any pressing deadline on its project as Continental had, and officials of the lines were not available for comment. But the board's inability to act on that and other projects brought a rebuke from New Jersey Gov. Christie Whitman.

"The resolution before the commissioners today proposed a comprehensive solution to a whole host of regional concerns," said a prepared statement handed out minutes after the meeting was adjourned. "Its rejection signals a disturbing disregard by New York's commissioners for the millions of families whose livelihoods depend upon an efficient and effective transportation and shipping system in the metropolitan area."

Charles Gargano, the co-chairman of the board and New York Gov. George Pataki's key appointment to the board, brushed past reporters with little comment on the board's inaction.

WASHINGTON: House approves funds for Indiana rail line

WASHINGTON - The House of Representatives Wednesday passed a $12.7 billion transportation funding bill that includes money for a busy commuter rail line connecting Northwest Indiana and Chicago.

Passage of the bill, in a 429-3 vote, means the South Shore Rail Line is a step closer to getting $4 million from the federal government to purchase new rail cars. The bill will now go before the Senate.

"This funding has not yet been guaranteed but each step we take brings us closer to that goal," said Rep. Pete Visclosky. "I am very optimistic that the Senate will include funding for the South Shore when they consider this bill."

The eight-term Merrillville Democrat noted that the rail line is running at 112 percent of capacity during rush hour. With additional cars, Visclosky said the line will become a more viable transportation alternative for commuters.