UTU News Digest - Wednesday, January 5, 2000

UTU Daily News Digest

Information of interest to operating railroad and transportation employees

Wednesday, January 5, 2000

CANADA: BC Rail, workers resume talks to end dispute

VANCOUVER -- BC Rail Ltd. and its unionized workers resumed talks on Tuesday aimed at ending the labor dispute that has halted freight and passenger services on Canada's third largest railroad for more than a week, Reuters reported.

The two sides, who had spared in court but done little negotiating since the government-owned railway imposed a lockout Dec. 27, agreed to resume talks at the request of a provincial labor mediator, a company official said.

"All I know is we've been convened here. Hopefully there is enough in common we can get a deal here," BC Rail spokesman Alan Dever told CKNW Radio outside the Vancouver offices of the B.C. Labor Ministry.

A union official also told local media the talks have resumed, but refused to give details.

BC Rail and its seven unions are at odds over the railroad's demands for "productivity" improvements. Details of the company's proposal have not been released, but it is believed to involve a reduction of train crew size.

They met briefly with a mediator last week immediately after the lockout was imposed, but the talks quickly broke off. The workers have been without a contract for two years.

The unions and several shippers have called on provincial Premier Dan Miller to end the lockout, but Miller's office said on Tuesday he was monitoring the situation in hope that the parties will resolve the dispute themselves.

BC Rail operates 1,446 miles (2,328 kilometers) of track in British Columbia with a main line that runs from Vancouver to Fort Nelson. Its core business involves the shipment of forest products and coal.

Shippers have been forced to look for alternative transportation, although the lockout had a relatively limited impact last week because many customers were operating at reduced capacity because of the holidays.

"What it means in the short term for us is higher costs, which is not good," said Susan Yurkovich, spokeswoman for Canfor Corp., which has sawmills in northern British Columbia served by BC Rail and Canadian National Railway Co.

The railway and unions have skirmished several times in court since the lockout began with a judge barring the workers from picketing two companies in the port of Vancouver associated with BC Rail.

BC Rail has said it needs to reduce operating costs to remain competitive with trucks and other railways, but the company's unions have complained its proposal will eliminate jobs and create safety risks.

CANADA: Unions hopeful as talks resume with BC Rail

VANCOUVER -- Talks between the two sides in the heated BC Rail lockout resumed Tuesday and continued late into the night, the Vancouver Sun reported.

"We have some reasons for optimism," said Bill Tieleman, spokesman for the Council of Trade Unions, who hoped a deal could be reached.

Tieleman and BC Rail representative Alan Dever said just before 11 p.m. that both sides were prepared to talk through the night.

Provincial mediator Irene Holden was overseeing the negotiations, which began at 4:30 p.m. Tuesday at the downtown offices of the B.C. Labour Relations Board.

Dever wasn't as openly optimistic as Tieleman, but said, "It's better to be talking than not talking."

BC Rail locked out its 1,600 unionized employees Dec. 27 after the union served strike notice. Since then, the 1,573-kilometre railway, the third largest in Canada, has been shut down.

Groups such as the Union of B.C. Municipalities have urged Premier Dan Miller to get the parties back to the bargaining table.

The union has said it is concerned about company plans to cut 20 per cent of the unionized work force.

BC Rail also wants to take other steps to increase productivity and efficiency.

CANADA: No safety problems reported before collision

MONTREAL – The Montreal Gazette reported that the tanker train involved in Thursday's accident near Mont-Saint-Hilaire that killed a locomotive engineer and a conductor was the 1,300th Ultratrain since 1996 on the 250-kilometre run between the Ultramar Diamond Shamrock Corp. refinery near Quebec City and Ultramar's storage tanks in Montreal East.

The Gazette reports that the impact of the fatal accident, which closed the Canadian National Railway's main line and Highway 116, could have been much worse if it had occurred in a built-up residential area adjacent to the CN tracks, rather than in an industrial section of the South Shore town.

The two CN union employees killed in the accident were conductor Paul Davis, a member of UTU Local 4, and Yvan M. Theriault, a BLE member.

The Ultratrain is a unit train that carries highly inflammable gasoline, heating oil, diesel fuel and other refined petroleum products. It is pulled by two diesel locomotives and composed exclusively of 68 tank cars with a total capacity of 45,000 barrels or more. The train can carry the equivalent of 275 highway transport tanker-trucks, according to CN.

The trains travel through residential areas near Levis and follow the CN main line to Montreal, crossing the Victoria Bridge at Saint-Lambert.

They then head west through CN's Point St. Charles and Turcot yards before swinging east across Montreal Island to Ultramar's storage area in Montreal East.

Ultramar did not return telephone calls yesterday.

Until 1996, Ultramar used tanker ships operated by Socanav Inc. to bring refined products to the Montreal market from its refinery in Saint-Romuald, across the St. Lawrence River from Quebec City.

When Socanav president Michel Gaucher proposed a rate increase Ultramar deemed excessive, the oil company looked into the possibility of building a pipeline, Levis Mayor Jean Garon recalled in an interview yesterday.

"There were meetings," said Garon, who was the Parti Quebecois MNA for Levis at the time.

"It was very advanced. Then CN came up with a good price (for rail transport), so they abandoned the idea of a pipeline."

Transport Canada official Donald Beaulieu said in Montreal yesterday that it is possible the Transportation Safety Board, which is investigating the Mont-Saint-Hilaire accident, could recommend Ultramar build a pipeline to carry its refined petroleum products to the Montreal market.

"There is really no limit to the recommendations that the Transportation Safety Board can make," Beaulieu said.

The city of Levis opposed CN's plans for the Ultratrain and called on the National Transportation Agency at hearings in February and March 1996 to conduct a full environmental assessment of the Ultratrain project.

The agency ruled it was "not necessary to hold a public hearing in this matter," quoting assurances offered by the railway: "CN maintains that public safety will not be put at risk by the transport of dangerous goods."

Since August 1996, the Ultratrain, as CN calls the dedicated-unit trains, have been traveling from the Ultramar refinery in continuous 36-hour cycles, CN spokesman Pierre Leclerc said.

As one train is unloaded in Montreal East, another leaves from Saint-Romuald. On April 13, an Ultratrain derailed shortly after leaving Saint-Romuald but there was no explosion, Garon said. In 1998, a train carrying chemical products derailed in nearby Saint-Jean-Chrysostome.

"It raises questions that should be addressed in a larger inquiry," Garon said. "Are the safety standards adequate?"

On Thursday night, according to Jean-Pierre Arseneault of the Transportation Safety Board, one car of the westbound Ultratrain derailed as an eastbound freight train was approaching on a parallel track.

"It happened in a flash," Arseneault said. The engineer on the eastbound locomotive didn't have time to react.

The eastbound train slammed into the derailed tank car, sparking an explosion. Engineer Yves Theriault, 47, and conductor Paul Davis, 49, were killed instantly, and 35 tanker cars were consumed in the resulting fire, which closed the CN main line. It is expected to be reopened today.

Arseneault said seven or eight sections of rail have been taken from the point where the tanker car derailed and will be studied as part of the Transportation Safety Board's investigation, which could take as long as a year to complete.

CN's Leclerc said both trains were traveling about 80 kilometres an hour at the time the accident occurred.

Leclerc said CN regrets the death of its two employees, who were both from the Quebec City region. He added that the railway has invested heavily to ensure the safety of its trains.

Before the Mont-Saint-Hilaire accident, CN had a safety record of 1.41 accidents per million gross-ton miles, the best among railways in North America, Leclerc said.

"It's like the airlines," he said. "Everything is safe until a crash happens."

CN makes regular visual inspections of its tracks and uses sophisticated devices to verify the safety of its tracks and its equipment.

"We have the highest safety standards," Leclerc said. "It (the Ultratrain) is another train like the others, and we try to make it as safe as possible."

NEW JERSEY: Broken wire disrupts rail service in New York, New Jersey

NEWARK, N.J. (AP)--An overhead electric line that powers trains between Newark and New York broke Tuesday afternoon, disrupting rush hour train traffic along the East coast, officials said.

The line broke at about 3:30 p.m., just before the start of rush hour, said Ken Miller, NJ Transit spokesman.

Amtrak service on the Northeast Corridor and service on the Midtown Direct line and North Jersey Coast line was disrupted.

To complicate the situation, NJ Transit trains that were to be used to take passengers to suburbs west of Newark and to New York were still in New York when the line broke, which limited service, Miller said.

Officials redirected riders to alternate train and bus service in New York to help people get out of the city.

A spokesman for Amtrak, which owns the broken cable, did not immediately return a call from The Associated Press. But NJ Transit officials said crews were repairing the damage.

"We anticipate we will not have service for the duration of our rush hour," said Penny Bassett Hackett, another NJ Transit representative.

It wasn't immediately clear what caused the line to break.

WASHINGTON: Burkes named STB vice chairman

WASHINGTON – Surface Transportation Board (Board) Chairman Linda J. Morgan announced on January 4, 2000, the Board designated Commissioner Wayne Burkes as its Vice Chairman. He succeeds Commissioner William Clyburn, Jr., who served in that position during 1999. The Board's Vice Chairmanship rotates among Commissioners on an annual basis.

Vice Chairman Burkes, the fifth Board Member since the agency's creation in 1996, was nominated to the Board by President Clinton, and was confirmed by the Senate on February 22, 1999, for a term expiring December 31, 2002. Vice Chairman Burkes received his B.S., M.Ed., and LL.D. degrees from Mississippi College, and a M.Div. Degree from the New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary. He is also a graduate of the Industrial College of the Armed Forces, the Air University's Air War College, and the Transportation Executive Institute of the University of Virginia.

Commissioner Clyburn was nominated to the Board on September 2, 1997, by President Clinton and began service on December 18, 1998, for a term expiring December 31, 2000. After taking his oath of office on December 21, 1998, as the fourth Member of the Board since its creation, Commissioner Clyburn was designated Vice Chairman by the Board on January 6, 1999. Commissioner Clyburn received his undergraduate degree in Ceramic Engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology and his J. D. degree from the University of South Carolina.

NORWAY: Many still missing after train crash

RENA -- Searchers today picked through the twisted, charred wreckage of two passenger trains that crashed head-on and were engulfed in flames, killing at least seven people.

The two passenger trains, with 100 people aboard, collided Tuesday 110 miles north of Oslo. Seven bodies were found shortly after the crash and 26 more were missing and feared dead. Some victims burned alive.

Another 30 people were injured in what could become the worst rail accident in Norway's history.

Per Erik Skefstad, of the district police, said there was no longer hope of finding survivors. "This is now purely a technical recovery operation."

Police said it would probably take all day today and Thursday to recover the bodies, many of which were badly burned.

A fire in the wrecked trains burned for hours and postponed efforts to rescue those trapped inside or to recover additional bodies until early today.

"The worst thing to experience is to stand there and watch people burn ... going through that train and seeing people who were alive and conscious who we couldn't help," said Ola Sunderaal, an ambulance crewman who was one of the first on the scene.

Officials said the search would be slow and difficult because many bodies will have to be cut out of the still smoldering wreckage. People were working in temperatures of about 5 degrees.

"One of the locomotives, which weighs 100 tons, is leaning, and it is impossible to know if it is secure," said Haakon Grimstad of the state railways directorate, adding that it wasn't even clear in which cars the missing victims were located.

Some rescuers spent the night in military tents set up at the site, with the smell of smoke pervaded the winter air. Early today, soldiers formed a ring around the wreckage to protect it from intruders.

"This is a catastrophe," Transportation Minister Dag Jostein Fjaervoll said in Oslo.

Officials were not certain of the number of missing.

"Because this is a train, there is uncertainty. We cannot completely exclude that that someone could have left the scene without being registered or that there were unregistered passengers on board," Skefstad said.

Both trains' engineers were among the missing.

A local train with 17 people aboard and a larger regional express with 83 people aboard were probably each going up to 55 mph around a curve when they crashed head-on, according to the state railroad directorate.

The diesel trains -- one southbound and the other northbound – collided at 1:30 p.m. at the Aasta Station in Aamot township near the town of Rena.

The cause of the accident was being investigated. The section of track did not have a system that would automatically stop trains headed for each other and was due for an upgrade next year.

The railroad directorate said it was investigating news reports that traffic managers had been unable to warn the trains because they had the wrong cellular phone numbers for the engineers.

Passenger Rasmus Alme, 20, said he tried to save two women who were caught in the wreckage, but the flames forced him to flee.

"It was terrible. I so badly wanted to save them," he was quoted as telling the Oslo newspaper Verdens Gang. "The heat was so intense. The women asked me to stay, but I had to jump."

Steffen Solberg, head of the medical team, said rescuers worked for four hours to cut a 33-year-old woman out of the wreckage. He said firefighters kept the blaze from consuming her until she was finally rescued.

It was the second serious public transport accident in Norway in just over a month. On Nov. 26, 16 people drowned when a high-speed ferry ran aground and sank.

Norway's worst train wreck was a 1975 train collision that killed 27 people.

MINNESOTA: Northwest Airlines sues flight attendants’ union

ST. PAUL -- Northwest Airlines Tuesday filed a federal lawsuit against its flight attendants' union and its officers, accusing them of conducting a "sickout" to pressure the airline as a new contract is negotiated.

The lawsuit in U.S. District Court in St. Paul accuses Teamsters Local 2000 of conducting an illegal job action. Northwest, based in Eagan, said union leaders made public statements showing their intent to take action in their jobs.

The airline said that the union has encouraged and directed flight attendants to call in sick rather than report to work since late December. Northwest said the encouragement came in the form of e-mail, phone calls and notices on Web sites.

"These notices have made clear that the purpose of the sickout is to protest Northwest's position in collective bargaining and to bring pressure to bear on Northwest to accede to the union's demands," the lawsuit said.

Teamsters Local 2000 president Billie Davenport did not immediately return a message seeking comment.

Northwest said there has been a dramatic increase in sick calls, "far beyond historic norms and prior year averages."

Since Dec. 30, Northwest said it has had to cancel more than 300 flights because of the sickout.

The airline asked for an immediate restraining order so it can provide "adequate and reliable service" to its customers.

Northwest also asked the court to require the union to publicly withdraw any orders, requests or suggestions that its members participate in the action.

A hearing on the request was set for 8:15 a.m. Wednesday before U.S. District Judge Donovan Frank in St. Paul.

The union of 11,000 flight attendants has been seeking a new contract for 3 1/2 years, increasing frustrations for some employees.

Courts have ruled recently against sickouts or other job actions not approved by the National Mediation Board.

A federal judge in Texas early last year slapped a $45 million penalty on the union representing pilots at American Airlines, who staged a sickout in February to protest American's acquisition of Reno Air, and then defied the judge's back-to-work order.

In December, Comair filed a lawsuit against union pilots for refusing to fly 270 flights because of mechanical issues that Comair said were minor.

The future of the Northwest talks remains uncertain. Flight attendants in late August overwhelmingly rejected a tentative agreement that had been endorsed by union negotiators.

The two sides met in a mediated session on Dec. 7, but the mediation board said a union proposal presented then asked for too many contract changes.

WASHINGTON: Schulz to leave DOT post for Amtrak

WASHINGTON -- William H. Schulz, director of public affairs at the Department of Transportation, will leave the federal post on Jan. 21 to become vice president, corporate communications for the National Railroad Passenger Corp. (Amtrak).

Schulz has served as the department's chief public affairs strategist and spokesperson since March, 1999. Prior to that, he served as deputy director of public affairs. From 1991-1994, Schulz was press secretary to California state insurance commissioner John Garamendi.

Transportation secretary Rodney Slater announced that Mary Trupo, currently Deputy Public Affairs Director, will serve as acting director of public affairs.

Schulz managed strategic communications concerning the department's major initiatives, including its improvement of air bag and seat belt safety, reauthorization of surface transportation programs under TEA-21 and continuing record level of investment in transportation infrastructure.