UTU News Digest - Tuesday, October 12, 1999

UTU Daily News Digest

Information of interest to operating railroad and transportation employees

Tuesday, October 12, 1999

WASHINGTON: Organized labor fights to recover strength

WASHINGTON -- The economy is running away from organized labor, the Washington Post reported.

If you don't believe it, consider these statistics from the AFL-CIO: The ratio of union workers to nonunion workers has dropped from 1 out of 3 when membership in labor unions hit its peak of 22 million in 1955 to 1 out of 7 today.

And this: Ninety percent of the federation's union members are concentrated in only eight of 15 sectors of the economy, with nearly 20 percent of the membership concentrated in the metropolitan areas surrounding New York City and Los Angeles.

So, as the "new" economy gives birth to whole new industries, unions have only managed to sign up one member for every 20 new jobs created. With the U.S. work force predicted to grow by 17.5 million jobs over the next six years, AFL-CIO member unions will have to organize 340,000 new members a year just to stay even at 13.9 percent of the work force.

These are frightening numbers for the leaders of the AFL-CIO as they gathered in Los Angeles this week for the federation's biennial convention, which started yesterday. They have a daunting task ahead as they seek to recover the strength and power of labor past.

"It speaks to the challenge," said Kirk Adams, the AFL-CIO's organizing director. "We have to look at ourselves and the economy in a different way."

Adams has been using the work force numbers to convince the federation's 68 member unions of the need to seek "economic density" as they push to organize new members, meaning that they concentrate on organizing most of the workers within one company or within one industry so they have more clout. Having 1 million members scattered in pockets of 10,000 or so gives the unions little leverage.

The Communications Workers of America has had some success with achieving density. It has targeted the wireless communications industry for organizing, following its stronghold in the majority of traditional telephone companies.

In last year's contract negotiations with AT&T Corp. and the regional Baby Bell telephone companies, the CWA demanded and won the right to an easy unionization process from all the companies where it represents the work force. The processes vary from "card check recognition" at SBC Communications Inc. to an expedited election at AT&T to automatic union recognition at all new facilities at Bell Atlantic.

As a result of what the union calls its "Bargaining for Organizing" campaign, the CWA already has signed up 5,000 wireless workers and is pushing for more as new technologies spread throughout the communications industry.

AFL-CIO President John Sweeney said labor has made progress in simply stemming membership losses in the four years since his election. "We're at the corner; we haven't turned it yet, but we're at the corner," he said. Last year, the AFL-CIO had a net gain of slightly more than 100,000 members, and so far this year the federation appears to have picked up more than 200,000 new members.

Successes include adding thousands of members in the airline industry, accelerating the pace of signing up medical doctors, winning a 30-year organizing campaign with Fieldcrest Cannon Inc. and signing up 5,000 textile workers, and doubling the number of colleges and universities with unions representing graduate assistants.

Even with these gains, many labor officials fear that much of labor's density--both in actual membership numbers and in industry unionization--is often in the wrong places for the new technology-driven service economy.

"The economy, in broad strokes, is moving away from us," said David Chu, director of the AFL-CIO's Center for Strategic Research. Chu notes that the faster-growing cities are where labor is getting weaker.

Of 30 cities surveyed by the federation researchers, the fastest-growing ones--Phoenix, Atlanta, Houston, Dallas and Miami--have the least union density. Only Portland, Ore., Seattle and Sacramento have above-average growth and growing union density.

Sweeney points to the recent contract settlements in the aerospace and auto industries as examples of why density is important, noting that workers got signing bonuses, hikes in their base pay and significantly improved job security. But those contracts also underscore an economy racing away from labor's strongholds. The auto industry, for example, has lost hundreds of thousands of jobs since the start of the 1980s -- 80,000 at General Motors Corp. alone in the past 10 years--reducing the core work force at industry assembly plants to a comparative handful of well-paid, skilled workers.

Some in the labor movement compare what's happening in the auto industry to the decision by the United Mine Workers of America in 1950 to allow the coal-mining industry to use any automated equipment it wanted as long as the remaining miners were the highest-paid industrial workers in the world. The number of active UMWA members today is less than 30,000. They warn that it's a fate awaiting other unions unless they begin to organize in new areas.

In August, the AFL-CIO executive council took the first serious policy steps toward dealing with the problem of density, and now the leadership appears to be holding its breath to see if anyone will pay serious attention.

In an effort to channel labor's organizing energy, the AFL-CIO has set aside approximately $14 million and posted a sign-up sheet for unions that want financial help in running their organizing campaign. Unions must submit a plan for a strategic organizing campaign with a schedule for completion, and a special oversight committee must judge the chances of success before getting any money, other research or logistical aid.

The AFL-CIO leadership also has developed a policy on union jurisdictions designed to protect a union involved in a successful organizing campaign from rival unions seeking to horn in on any organizing success.

These seemingly common-sense rules for a labor movement under siege are not without controversy within the AFL-CIO. Union jurisdictional questions have never been easy, and they don't get any easier in a shrinking labor movement with scarce dues money.

Sweeney said the new policies adopted by the executive council in August are a key to labor's future organizing efforts. "We're trying to get them [member unions] to focus on opportunities in their major industries and to focus on where they have the resources," he said.

This week, the federation will ask its member unions to approve a major organizational restructuring of the field operations, giving the federation more power over state and local organizations. The proposal, which must be approved by the convention, would basically remove much of the independence of state AFL-CIOs and 600 local Central Labor Councils so that the national AFL-CIO leadership would have more power to set the agenda of these groups.

The current field structure was created in 1955, when the American Federation of Labor merged with the Congress of Industrial Organizations to form the AFL-CIO.

Federation leaders are counting on the new structure to strengthen both their organizing and political efforts in the field.

The percentage of U.S. workers belonging to a union has declined steeply since the mid-1950s, and the rate is much lower for those in the "new economy."

1954 -- % all workers 35%

1998 -- % all workers 14%; % all new jobs 5%

ENGLAND: Rail regulator launches license breach probe after crash

LONDON -- The U.K.'s Rail Regulator Tom Winsor Monday said he is seeking the Health and Safety Executive's (HSE) advice to determine whether there has been a breach of license by the companies involved in the Paddington rail crash, Dow Jones reported.

"I am seeking the HSE's advice both in relation to a possible breach by Railtrack and the train operators of their license obligations in respect of Railway Group Standards as well as a possible serious breach of the Railways Safety Case Regulations 1994," Winsor said.

Although the HSE is the main authority in charge of safety-related issues, the rail regulator and the HSE agreed in 1994 to liaise on these matters.

Under the arrangement, the HSE is to advise the regulator of possible breaches of safety cases or safety-related license obligations.

The regulator said he would consider what enforcement action to take after receiving the HSE's advice.

The companies involved in Tuesday's crash are Go-Ahead Group PLC (U.GOG), which ran the Thames turbo train that collided with the Great Western express train operated by FirstGroup PLC (U.FGP). Railtrack PLC (U.RTK) is the rail infrastructure operator in charge of track signaling.

Monday, shares in Railtrack dropped 4.45% or 56 pence to 1202 pence, while Go-Ahead closed 0.9% or 6.5 pence up at 726.5 pence, and FirstGroup ended 1.8% or 5 pence higher at 283 pence.

The crash killed at least 30 people, with 29 seriously injured and many still unaccounted for.

The U.K. government Monday confirmed reports that it is keen to strip Railtrack of its responsibility for regulating passenger safety.

In a speech to the House of Lords, transport minister Lord Macdonald said: "Ministers are minded to transfer the main functions of the Safety and Standards Directorate out of Railtrack in order to ensure public confidence that there is no conflict between safety standards and commercial interest."

The government will consider where the responsibility for safety should be placed and will legislate if necessary, Macdonald said.

He noted comments by the Chief Inspector of Railways that any individual omissions relating to the Paddington rail crash should be considered as symptomatic of the more general problems in the organization and culture of the industry.

Macdonald said he supports actions already taken by the Railway Inspectorate, which include demands for Railtrack to introduce additional controls at those signals passed in a dangerous situation most regularly.

In addition, Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott, who is also Secretary of State for Environment, Transport and the Regions, has asked the Health and Safety Commission to provide him with a report each week on the number of signals passed at danger, MacDonald said.

"The lasting legacy of this awful accident at Paddington - the outcome of all the urgent action now in progress - must surely be a more open, more responsive, more rigorous culture of safety across our whole rail industry," MacDonald concluded.

CALIFORNIA: Fines go up for drivers who ignore rail gates

LOS ANGELES COUNTY -- Hoping to stem the tide of rail-related deaths and injuries, fines for motorists ignoring closed rail crossing gates along Metro Blue Line and MetroLink railroad tracks will jump substantially Jan. 1 under legislation signed Friday by Gov. Gray Davis, the Los Angeles Times reported.

The minimum fine for driving through closed rail crossing gates would jump to $271, the same amount charged motorists who violate carpool lanes on freeways.

That represents a jump of $167 from the current minimum of $103.

Under the bill, written by Assemblyman Bob Hertzberg (D-Sherman Oaks), local transit agencies throughout the state would receive 30% of each fine, or at least $81. The money would be earmarked for local safety programs.

The new fine would raise an estimated $200,000 for the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority, one of the sponsors of the bill.

But raising money is secondary to creating a major new deterrent, said MTA spokesman Marc Littman.

Since 1990, when the Blue Line began, there have been 402 accidents and 47 fatalities, according to the MTA. Accidents involving MetroLink trains have claimed 16 lives and resulted in 38 injuries since the commuter rail line began in 1992.

"The purpose of the bill is to save lives and reduce injuries," Littman said. "It will really help us in terms of our effort to improve safety for both the Blue Line and MetroLink."

VIRGINIA: Norfolk Southern announces entry into telecom industry

NORFOLK -- Norfolk Southern Corporation (NYSE: NSC) today announced the formation of a new subsidiary, Thoroughbred Technology and Telecommunications, Inc., to enter the wholesale telecommunications bandwidth business, the company said in a press release.

The new company is actively pursuing development opportunities in fiber optic and microwave technology using the railroad's 21,600 miles of rights-of-way, an extensive microwave network that includes 400 towers, and numerous sites and facilities throughout the eastern United States with a variety of telecommunications providers.

Thoroughbred Technology and Telecommunications, Inc. will do business as "T-Cubed."

The new company also will explore opportunities for marketing Norfolk Southern's proprietary information systems.

"While we continue to concentrate on our core rail transportation business, we believe the time is right to launch new telecommunications and technology business ventures that will add value to Norfolk Southern's extensive portfolio of assets," said David R. Goode, chairman, president and chief executive officer of Norfolk Southern.

The company is currently negotiating with long-distance carriers, local telephone companies, competitive local exchange carriers, and cable companies. As deregulation in the telecommunications industry unfolds, these companies will be looking for efficient ways to expand their offerings for transmission of voice, data, video and cable signals.

"These providers will be seeking ways to reach beyond the major metropolitan markets into regional centers and even smaller locations," said Charles W. Moorman, who will serve as president of the new company. "In the East, where the population densities are higher and so is the cost of real estate, Norfolk Southern offers a unique set of infrastructure assets and expertise to these companies."

Moorman has served as vice president Information Technology since 1993. He joined Southern Railway as a student co-op in 1970 and later became a management trainee, holding positions of increasing responsibility in the Engineering and Transportation departments. He was named vice president Employee Relations in 1992. Moorman is a graduate of Georgia Tech and the Harvard Graduate School of Business.

LOS ANGELES: AFL-CIO plans for grassroots political action

LOS ANGELES -- The slide-show presentation for AFL-CIO state directors darkly dubbed it "the Trifecta that would dust off the 'Contract With America"' -- Republican George W. Bush in the White House, Republican majorities in the House and Senate, the Associated Press reported.

Trying to spoil this GOP dream for 2000, the 13-million-member labor federation will spend about $40 million on voter education and a grass-roots mobilization bearing little resemblance to its $35 million ad campaign in 1996, which many AFL-CIO officials now concede was a mistake.

"Our biggest resources are people and power," federation President John Sweeney said in an interview today.

Sweeney rallied that people power soon afterward, with a battle cry to 1,000 union activists gathered for the biennial AFL-CIO convention: "It's time to clean out the House!"

The new focus is on mobilization -- leafleting, voter registration, issues education, phone banks and door-to-door campaigning. Underlying it are the problems of 1996, a challenge to use of union dues in politics, the wide popularity of Bush and a belief that a GOP White House and Congress would be disastrous for workers.

Hence the slide show, in which AFL-CIO officials claim that Republicans want to "gut" workplace safety regulations, the right to collective bargaining and more.

In 1996, Republicans filed a federal complaint accusing "big labor bosses" of colluding with the Democratic Party and trying to buy control of Congress with their TV ads against GOP House incumbents. Democrats lost most of the targeted races.

Republican National Committee spokesman Mike Collins said this year's tactical shift would make little difference. "The fact is that extreme left, big union bosses like Sweeney have been a financial I.V. unit to a Democratic party that is on life support," Collins said.

Union leaders don't deny their Democratic sympathies, although Washington state federation president Rick Bender noted his group recently named GOP state Rep. Tom Campbell "Legislator of the Year."

"It sends a message to Democrats that they can't take us for granted. It tells Republicans if they support our issues, we'll support them," Bender said.

The 1996 campaign left one lasting lesson. "We paid a big price for giving Republicans the opportunity to attack us as big labor union bosses with a silver platter," said Gerry Shea, governmental affairs assistant to Sweeney.

"Now we know we can't win that game," Shea added, referring to television. "We need to de-emphasize that kind of media."

Republicans had retaliated with initiatives requiring unions to get permission from individual members before using dues money for political activities. In California, this took the form of a ballot measure, Proposition 226.

It was the defeat of 226 last year that gave labor an even more instructive lesson for the 2000 election, said Gerald McEntee, president of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees.

Instead of a massive TV campaign, "we did so much better spending our money on grass-roots mobilizing," McEntee said. "We had 25,000 walking the streets, walking the barrios. We started 70-30 (percent) behind, then waltzed in to kill the thing."

Several AFL-CIO officials said focus groups validated an aggressive issues-education strategy as the only way to beat Bush, the Texas governor and GOP presidential front-runner.

"The focus groups start off where they think George Bush is a good candidate and would make a good president," said McEntee. "When you unveil and unfold his record at these focus groups it's only like 25 minutes and they go, whoop! I mean, they just move to the other side."

Stewart Acuff of the Atlanta Labor Council already plans to make the election a regular topic of union meetings and dispatch hundreds of volunteers to hand out leaflets at shopping malls and churches starting next September. "We need to talk to our people on the shop floor, in the workplaces," he said.

Unions are better equipped to battle their foes on this more manpower-intensive front than in the crowded TV ad game, where they risk being drowned out.

"Unless we're willing to saturate the airwaves, which we could never afford to do, we can't compete on that level -- and they can't compete with us and the rank-and-file that we have," said Bender.

On top of whatever political activity an individual union plans, each affiliated union is contributing $2 per member between this year and next for the AFL-CIO's political drive, said McEntee, who chairs the federation's political committee.

"We'll spend more dollars in the year 2000 election than we've ever spent," he said.

But, he added: "Even though we'll have $40 million, we will still be outspent by the right-wing, conservative and business forces in this country probably by 16 to 1. They kill us with all that money."

WASHINGTON: AFL-CIO to offer access to Internet for members

WASHINGTON -- Hoping to wire millions of union households nationwide, the AFL-CIO yesterday announced plans to start a new Internet service that it hopes will give organized labor a high-tech power tool for boosting its political and lobbying clout, the Washington Post reported.

Starting in December, the labor federation plans to offer a low-cost Internet service called Workingfamilies.com to active and retired union members, a potential universe of 17 million households. Union members also will be offered low-cost computers. Non-union members would not be eligible for the service.

Union members would pay no more than $14.95 a month. The goal is to provide Internet access and the cost of buying a computer for no more than $30 a month.

AFL-CIO officials said the $14.95 a month was about one-third less than America Online charges for similar services.

Morton Bahr, president of the Communications Workers of America, said the program was aimed at closing what he called the "digital divide" that separates low-income workers from more affluent users of the Internet.

A new Commerce Department report found that households with annual incomes of $75,000 or more are 20 times more likely to have home access to the Internet than those at the lowest income levels, Bahr said. The report also found that most people who earn less than $25,000 a year cited cost as the primary reason they didn't have Internet access at home. There were no annual income figures available on union members, but many members make substantially less than $75,000 a year.

The service would allow the labor group to bring the power of the Internet to its political and organizing activities, Bahr said. It said he thought it would be particularly helpful in efforts to organize workers at such companies as Microsoft Corp. and International Business Machines Corp.

"This is the language of the high-tech worker," Bahr said. "If you're going to organize them, you have to speak their language." He said contacting high-tech workers on the Internet was the same as hand-billing other workers in a traditional organizing campaign.

The Internet service is being provided by the AFL-CIO's Union Privilege benefit program at no cost to the federation or its 68 member unions.

WASHINGTON: Bipartisan Congress drives toward tougher truck regulations; but battle within GOP is complicating effort

WASHINGTON -- In a little-noticed display of bipartisan comity, Congress is moving to significantly toughen regulation of truck drivers and their vehicles, after hearing a spate of public complaints and testimony suggesting dangerous practices may be far too common, the Washington Post reported.

But the effort is being undermined by an intramural turf battle between the two most powerful House Republicans on transportation issues, who disagree about the seriousness of the problem and who are both anxious to put their imprint on truck safety legislation.

On Saturday, President Clinton signed legislation that effectively stripped most authority to regulate truckers from the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), which critics claim is too close to the industry.

Later this week, the House may take up broader legislation that would create a semi-independent National Motor Carriers Administration with more authority to revoke licenses, as well as shut down rogue operators, and more money for safety enforcement. In the Senate, Commerce Committee Chairman John McCain (R-Ariz.) has announced he plans to report a similar bill later this month.

The legislative push is being fueled by growing concern about dangers to motorists from the nation's trucks.

Although fatalities involving trucks declined in the 1980s, the number has remained above 5,000 for several years. "If something isn't done, the likelihood is that the number will begin to grow again," said Deputy Secretary of Transportation Mortimer L. Downey.

Public attention was focused on the issue in March by the crash in Illinois involving an Amtrak train and a truck operated by a driver whose license had been suspended. Trucks handle more than 80 percent of the nation's freight.

Some 6 million drivers and 490,000 truck and bus companies are subject to federal truck safety laws. The overwhelming majority of roadside inspections to check for violations of federal safety law are done by state inspectors, who have conducted approximately 2 million inspections this year.

But the Office of Motor Carriers in FHWA has been criticized for assessing fines in only 11 percent of the cases in which inspectors document violations of motor carrier safety laws. And where fines are assessed, the department has settled cases for less than 50 percent of the assessed fines, Congress has found.

Rep. Frank R. Wolf (R-Va.), who chairs the House Appropriations transportation subcommittee, has been a prime mover in the drive for tougher regulation, based in part on his experiences driving on the main arteries of Northern Virginia.

"One of five of those trucks are in bad shape," Wolf said in an interview last weekend. Making the rounds recently with state inspectors, Wolf said, he had found lug nuts sheared off, rusted brakes and tires "like baloney skin."

A year ago, Wolf attempted to move truck safety responsibilities into the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), but that move was specifically blocked by the GOP leadership in the House and Senate.

This year, however, he was able to insert a provision that barred any funding for the Office of Motor Carriers as long as it was in FHWA. The provision went into the conference report on the 2000 transportation spending bill, subsequently approved by a large margin in the House and Senate and signed by Clinton on Saturday.

But that course of action has put him on a collision course with Rep. Bud Shuster (R-Pa.), who chairs the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee.

Sources close to the House GOP leadership said Shuster will try to use a procedural maneuver this week to outflank Wolf's objections and get a House vote on repealing the truck safety provision in Wolf's bill.

Wolf said he would fight it. "It's an issue of life and death," he said. If truck safety responsibilities revert to FHWA, "more people are going to die," Wolf said.

Shuster contends that a serious technical flaw in the Wolf-supported legislation would prevent federal safety officials from imposing or collecting fines on truckers. His more serious complaint is that Wolf jumped the gun on the more comprehensive reform proposed in the bill drafted by Shuster's committee that may be considered this week.

Shuster is assured of substantial support. The American Trucking Associations, which is close to the Republican leadership in the House and Senate, backs Shuster's effort to repeal Wolf's provision. It supports establishment of an independent motor carriers administration.

As chairman of the Transportation Committee, Shuster can parcel out hundreds of millions of dollars in highway money to congressional districts all over the country, and he has not been reluctant to use his power.

Shuster has indicated that he disagrees fundamentally with Wolf about the seriousness of the safety situation on the highway network. While acknowledging there is "room for improvement," he contends that "there is not a major safety crisis."

ILLINOIS: Gilbert appointed WC vice president

ROSEMONT -- General Counsel Janet H. Gilbert has been appointed Vice President of Wisconsin Central's North American System, the company said in a press release.

Gilbert joined Wisconsin Central as Assistant General Counsel in 1987 and was made General Counsel in 1996.

Gilbert, 51, heads the legal department of the Wisconsin Central System, manages the company's government affairs, and is active in the American Short Line and Regional Railroad Association. Gilbert began her legal career as trial counsel for the Federal Trade Commission and joined the railroad industry in 1983.

"It is fitting to honor Janet today on Wisconsin Central's twelfth anniversary," said J. Reilly McCarren, president and chief executive officer of the Wisconsin Central System. "As a member of WC's leadership core, she has been tireless in protecting the interests of the company and a key contributor to its success."

Robert H. Wheeler, chairman of Wisconsin Central Transportation Corporation (Nasdaq: WCLX), added, "In my role for many years as general counsel of the holding company, I have been privileged to work with Janet. We have all benefited from her willingness over these years to accept ever- increasing responsibilities. Janet is an excellent example of Wisconsin Central's exceptional depth of management talent."

In other WC news, Alfred J. Pierz, Jr., 50, has been appointed director of purchasing and materials management for Wisconsin Central effective Sept. 20. Since 1988, Pierz had been head of the materials management department for Metra, Chicago's commuter railroad, where he was responsible for purchasing, contracts and materials management.