UTU News Digest - Tuesday, April 13, 1999

UTU Daily News Digest

Information of interest to operating railroad and transportation employees

Tuesday, April 13, 1999

MISSISSIPPI: Slater hold meeting on Highway-Rail Crossing Safety

RAYMOND, Miss.-U.S. Transportation Secretary Rodney E. Slater with Federal Railroad Administrator Jolene Molitoris, U.S. Rep. Ronnie Shows and U.S. Rep. Bennie Thompson recently discussed highway-rail grade crossing safety at a community roundtable meeting in Raymond, Miss.

"Record levels of investment are bringing about improved rail safety, demonstrating President Clinton's leadership and emphasis on safety as the highest transportation priority," Secretary Slater said. "We need to do more by continuing to work with state and local officials to increase state and local investment and enforcement on grade crossings."

In fiscal 1999, the U.S. Department of Transportation provided $154.8 million to states to be used exclusively for highway-rail crossing improvements or elimination. An additional $314.8 million of funding for hazard elimination also may be used for eliminating or improving grade crossings. As part of TEA-21, Mississippi received $2.2 million in fiscal 1999 for highway-rail crossing improvements. In addition, $4.1 million in discretionary funds are available to eliminate grade crossing hazards.

There are more than 259,000 existing highway-rail grade crossings in the United States. States and localities, working with DOT, have closed more than 33,000 such grade crossings since 1991.

"Five years ago we launched a multi-faceted initiative to save lives at highway-rail grade crossings and have achieved dramatic results-fewer highway-rail crossing collisions, fewer fatalities and fewer injuries," Molitoris said.

She said that there have been 30 percent fewer highway-rail crossing collisions since 1993, 33 percent fewer highway-rail crossing fatalities and 31 percent fewer highway-rail crossing injuries.

"Last year in Mississippi, 23 people were killed and 63 seriously injured in rail grade crossing collisions. Although good work is being done and we are beginning to see some positive safety results, these avoidable tragedies still occur, as we saw just a few weeks ago in Illinois. So we must continue to address this issue and find ways through safety upgrading, through education and public awareness campaigns, and through creative and substantive approaches to make railroad crossings safe. This discussion here today is a good way to start," said Congressman Shows.

DOT is currently deploying and testing a series of innovative approaches to grade crossing hazard elimination. In Connecticut, four quadrant gates block all lanes of the highway at the School Street crossing in Mystic, completely restricting access to the crossing. If the crossing is blocked or obstructed, the locomotive engineer is notified through the cab signal system, which gives instructions on how to proceed.

In North Carolina, a sealed corridor initiative incorporates non-mountable curbs, four quadrant gates and in some locations, a combination of the two. The sealed corridor is a project to improve the safety of 131 crossings in a 92-mile Charlotte-to-Greensboro segment of North Carolina's high-speed rail corridor.

In Illinois, arrester nets are deployed in three separate locations. The vehicle arrester barrier (VAB), which safely prevents intrusion by motor vehicles onto the highway-rail crossing, is similar to the nets used on aircraft carriers to stop planes. The nets are deployed by track circuits activated by trains as they approach grade crossings.

Photo-enforcement technology in California automatically takes pictures of license plates and drivers who violate warning devices at grade crossings. This information is used to issue fines.

DOT supports projects in Minnesota and Illinois to test the effect of in-vehicle warning systems to improve rail-crossing safety. With DOT support, San Antonio, Texas, is looking at the feasibility of incorporating notices on delays at railroad crossings into information distributed to travelers. DOT is also sponsoring a test of systems to warn locomotive engineers if an obstacle, such as a stalled vehicle, is blocking a crossing, warnings that automatically could bring the train to a complete stop, if necessary.

DOT works with Operation Lifesaver, Inc., a non-profit safety organization, in educating the public about grade crossing hazards and the dangers of trespassing. Together, they work aggressively with the trucking industry and professional school bus operators to raise awareness of danger at grade crossings.

The DOT created the PC Accident Prediction system to help track highway-rail grade crossings incidents. This information provides data and tools to states and localities to help them identify locations where highway-rail grade crossings should be closed or consolidated, or where safety-warning devices should be upgraded. It also helps states identify where grade crossing safety initiatives might be most effective.

DOT has proposed two new rules for commercial vehicle operators to ensure they drive with extreme caution at rail crossings. Under these proposals, truck or bus drivers convicted of violating laws or regulations concerning railroad-highway grade crossings would be disqualified from driving for 60 days for a first offense and 120 days for a second offense. Commercial drivers also would be prohibited from driving onto a rail crossing unless there is sufficient space to drive completely through the crossing without stopping.

DOT has a commercial vehicle safety partnership program, which informs judges, prosecutors and legislators in the states about their important roles in identifying problem truck and bus drivers and preventing them from causing crashes.

DOT field staff, including members of the Federal Railroad Administration and Federal Highway Administration, deal with highway-rail crossing safety across the country, working with states, local governments, and railroads on crossing safety programs. Additional staff will be hired this year. In addition, DOT works with representatives from the law enforcement community to generate increased enforcement activities at the state and local level.

JOURNAL OF COMMERCE: CSX puts $550 million price tag on Maryland rail improvements

WASHINGTON -- CSX Corp. has put a $550 million price tag on Maryland rail improvements that are a key factor in the selection of a superport by CSX subsidiary Sea-Land Service Inc. and alliance partner Maersk Inc.

Maryland Gov. Parris Glendening asked CSX to identify reasonable rail improvements that could boost Maryland's chances to win the new port after CSX officials raised questions about Maryland's rail infrastructure. Maersk and Sea-Land are expected to decide this month whether to locate that facility at Baltimore, New York-New Jersey or Halifax.

"You should not interpret these estimates as requesting what may or may not be needed for a successful bid," CSX Vice President Randy Evans said in a letter to John Porcari, Maryland's secretary of transportation.

CSX officials have said that the final decision would be made by Maersk and Sea-Land based on economic benefits to those carriers.

The CSX list included $200 million for a third main track in Maryland, up to $130 million for double-stack train clearances, up to $80 million for a new intermodal yard in New Jersey, up to $135 million to improve tracks north from Baltimore to New Jersey and up to $30 million for port area enhancements in Baltimore.

"We have always been willing to talk about reasonable improvements that translate directly to the bottom line of the Maersk-Sea-Land deal," Mr. Porcari said in a telephone interview on Monday. "If you look at what the state already is putting into the deal, this is a very ambitious wish list."

Maryland already has committed at least $200 million to improvements tied to its Maersk-Sea-Land proposal, according to outside estimates. The CSX wish list apparently would cost at least 20 times more than proposed improvements to lines operated by CSX's competitor, Norfolk Southern, after it begins serving Baltimore in June.

"We are wrapping this up very quickly," Mr. Porcari said. "We have a very specific idea of what is required by Norfolk Southern and a very good working relationship with them. On the CSX side, we hope to refine the specific improvements that may be desired. We are very careful about equity in this deal. We will take pains to assure that NS is treated fairly."

In a separate letter to Gov. Glendening, CSX Chairman John Snow noted that New York-New Jersey is about to make a last, best offer and urged Maryland to do the same.

"I am not in a position to tell you what reasonable action Maryland can undertake to be successful," Mr. Snow said. "I simply encourage the state to submit their best possible proposal."

"We are continuing to work very hard to make an attractive offer," Mr. Porcari said. "We believe for the long-term benefit of both steamship companies that Baltimore is the best choice."

ILLINOIS: New route to rail plan sought

CHICAGO -- North suburban mayors and Metra officials will begin searching today for ways to save their plan to expand service on the highly successful North Central Line to Antioch in the face of federal rejection of funding.

Federal Transit Administration officials late last month issued a preliminary ruling rejecting the proposal's eligibility for federal funding in fiscal 2000. Federal sources were expected to fund 80 percent of the $204 million project, Metra spokesman Frank Malone said.

FTA officials reportedly objected to a lack of 20 percent match funding from the state and decided that double-tracking 11 miles of the line would increase suburban sprawl.

But neither should have been a problem, area officials said. "We told them we would have local funds to match the grant, Metra funds,'' Metra director Phil Pagano said. "It's not an issue.''

Municipalities that built stations have centered economic redevelopment programs around them, Pagano said. Encouraging people to move back into town, near the new stations, discourages sprawl, he said.

Area officials are baffled by the decision because the line, which opened in August 1996, carries more than 4,000 passengers per day--a 147 percent increase since its debut. Metra didn't even have to pay for the first round of station construction. Villages along the route did that and will again.

"They are committed to building [five] new stations. We have never had a village fail to honor its commitment,'' Pagano said.

"Our concern is that ... the FTA has cooled on the project,'' said Buffalo Grove village manager William Balling.

Under the proposal, 11 miles of track and signals would be added to the partial second track that already exists. As a result, about 50 percent of the line would have two tracks for Metra's commuter trains to share with the trains of the Wisconsin Central Railroad. Another 12 trains would be added to raise the daily total to 22.

"We need more track to add commuter trains,'' Malone said. "Otherwise, we cannot keep our schedules.''

Metra and members of the Wisconsin Central Mayoral Task Force will meet today in Buffalo Grove to discuss making another run at FTA approval.

VIRGINIA: NS railroad cuts jobs

ROANOKE – Norfolk Southern will furlough 110 railroad workers in Roanoke next weekend. The company says the jobs are a casualty of the global economic crisis, and a four-percent drop in the railroad's coal- transporting business.

The Roanoke facility makes and repairs "hopper cars," which carry coal. When the jobs are eliminated, the Roanoke facility will cut production of coal-carrying hoppers from 10-cars-a-day down to six. Norfolk Southern says the job cuts are not connected to the takeover of Conrail this June.

ILLINOIS: Crossing safety plan announced

SPRINGFIELD -- Illinois transportation officials have announced plans to spend nearly $20 million dollars next year on improving safety at railroad crossings.

The agency has outlined a five-year plan for cutting down on the number of accidents that occur at crossings. It includes plans for safety education, safety improvements at crossings, and the enforcement of state safety laws. The agency says the number of such accidents has fallen by more than 80-percent over the past 20 years.

TEXAS: Union Contests American Airlines Damage Estimates

DALLAS -- Experts for the Allied Pilots Association say that American Airlines' losses from a sick-out earlier this year are more than $50 million less than the company estimates.

Geoffrey Heal, an economist at Columbia University, and Robert Mann Jr., an airline industry analyst, both testified for the union Monday that the losses they had calculated range between $1.4 million and about $4.5 million, depending on the time period considered.

That's compared to the $58.7 million estimate made by American's parent company, Fort Worth, Texas-based AMR Corp., which has yet to call witnesses in the compensatory damages hearing.

The losses are being debated before U.S. District Judge Joe Kendall, who will determine damages in the civil contempt of court charge against the union. The APA was held in contempt for failing to encourage its members to return to their cockpits during a 10-day job action in February. A total of about 2,500 pilots called in sick, resulting in the cancellation of nearly 6,700 flights.

Kendall ordered the union to make a $10 million down payment, about 25 percent of the union's worth, toward damages resulting from the three days that pilots defied his back-to-work order.

At Monday's hearing, union attorneys argued that only the 233 pilots who called in during the 21 hours immediately following the temporary restraining order should be considered as ignoring the judge's order. Kendall was unimpressed with that argument.

"What I said in that order was, the harm caused here wasn't just the people who called in but the hundreds and hundreds who failed to clear themselves off the sick list," he said.

The catalyst for the dispute that led to the sickout was an inability by the union and American to agree on the assimilation of the recently purchased Reno Air, an issue that has yet to be resolved. The union contends that Reno pilots should be integrated into American from the Dec. 23 purchase, raising salaries for those affected from that date. The airline says it will pay the higher rates as the pilots are retrained to American standards.

The union and company met last week with a federal mediator in hopes of resolving the disagreement, but no settlement was announced. No further talks are currently scheduled, but are expected to resume. The hearing will start up again Thursday morning.

OBIT: Renowned country music singer "BoxCar Willie" dead at 67

BRANSON, Mo. -- BoxCar Willie, whose gentle country voice and songs of life on the road evoked memories of a time when hobos watched America pass by from the door of a freight car, died Monday of leukemia. He was 67. He died at home, a family spokeswoman said.

BoxCar Willie had recently announced he was canceling his 1999 season of shows when the disease, first diagnosed in 1996, returned. Until his health began to fail, he was not only a Branson performer but one of the music town's elder statesmen.

Roy Clark became the first nationally known entertainer to put his name on a Branson theater in 1983. But BoxCar Willie liked to boast that unlike Clark, who often booked other people into his venue, he became the first name entertainer to work the town year-round when he arrived in 1987. He did six or more shows a week nine months of the year until his health failed.

BoxCar Willie took it upon himself to mentor performers as they arrived in Branson, telling them what worked and what didn't in a conservative, heartland town of 3,700 residents and millions of tourists. And he fumed about performers who left Branson.

"There's been about 30, 35 artists that came into this town and then left since I've been here," he said in 1996. "They don't pay their taxes here, they don't vote here. Doggone it, it just kind of bothers me."

Born Lecil Martin in Sterrett, Texas, in 1931, BoxCar Willie was the son of a railroad man who used to play his fiddle on the porch while his son sat in on guitar.

By his teens he had graduated to playing in jamborees all over the state, but he gave up show business to enlist in the Air Force. He spent 22 years there, logging some 10,000 hours as a flier.

After retiring from the service he returned to performing, and by the 1970s he had developed the singing hobo persona, complete with overalls, a battered old hat, worn suit jacket and two days' growth of beard.

Although he never had a hit single, his albums sold well over the years and he built a loyal following that would later make him one of the most popular performers in Branson, where he operated a motel and train museum as well as his theater.

He said he took the BoxCar Willie look, as well as the name, after seeing a freight train pass him by one day in Lincoln, Neb., as he was stuck in traffic.

"And there was an old boy sitting on a boxcar, dressed the way I dress today, and he looked just like a buddy of mine named Willie Wilson," he told The Associated Press in 1997. "I said, 'There's Willie in a boxcar, and that's where it came from."

Although he had traveled by freight train as a young man himself, BoxCar Willie said in that interview, he had long since given it up as America changed and it became too dangerous. He is survived by his wife, two daughters and two sisters.

AFL-CIO: The Week in Labor

GETTING AHEAD—That’s what 1,273 workers wanted when they voted to join SEIU in late March and early April. In Los Angeles, the 800-member Municipal Constructors Inspectors Association completed an affiliation agreement with Local 347. In Hamilton County, Ohio, wages and workplace policies and procedures topped the issue list for the 165 Head Start teachers, assistant teachers, aides, bus drivers and other employees who voted for District 925. Another 148 technicians and maintenance staff at Niagara Falls (N.Y.) Memorial Medical Center chose Local 652, along with 100 personal care assistants employed by Menorah Home Care in Buffalo. A unit of 60 pharmacy technicians at Swedish Medical Center in Seattle voted for Local 6.

A UNION EDUCATION—Harlan County, Ky., school workers weren’t fooling April 1 when they voted to join the MineWorkers. The 400 custodians, lunchroom cooks, teachers aides and bus drivers were concerned about increased health insurance costs, low wages and seniority, said custodian Paul Hicks, a 20-year school employee.

WORKERS BREAK DOWN ALAMOS WALLS—For the first time ever, despite what Teamsters organizers said was a $500,000 to $750,000 anti-union campaign, workers at an Alamo car rental agency voted for union representation. The victory for 230 nonmanagement workers in Las Vegas was helped by strong community support and by member-organizers from other IBT-organized car rental agencies.

STRONG AS STEEL—By better than a two-thirds margin, workers at the Monroe County Care and Rehabilitation Center in Waterloo, Ill., voted to join the Steelworkers last month. Organizers said the 220 workers endured fierce management resistance, including threats of arrest for distributing union materials and threats of dismissal for talking about the issue with their families. The drive was conducted by the Unification Organizing Committee of the Machinists, UAW and USWA, which has won several other recent central and southern Illinois campaigns.

CHECKING INTO CWA—Some 95 SBC Wireless workers in Arkansas recently gained Communications Workers membership through a card-check recognition campaign. About 2,000 workers have joined the union since card-check and neutrality were negotiated in March 1997 for SBC and its subsidiaries in five states. The agreement now is extended to 3,000 SBC wireless workers in nine more states and the District of Columbia.

THE REAL DEAL—Four hundred union members, consumer advocates and health care activists joined President Clinton, AFL-CIO President John Sweeney and other leaders April 9 at a rally in Philadelphia to urge Congress to act now on a real Patients Bill of Rights. Speakers called on lawmakers to back the legislation (S. 6 and H.R. 358) by Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-Mass.) and Rep. John Dingell (D-Mich.). Those bills would ensure that doctors--not HMO bureaucrats--make critical treatment decisions and allow patients to hold HMOs accountable when their decisions injure or even kill patients. The AFL-CIO, Families USA, the National Partnership for Women and Families and 30 other organizations launched a nationwide Internet petition urging quick action on a real Patients Bill of Rights when Congress returns to work this week. To sign the petition, go to www.aflcio.org/publ/patbill.htm on the AFL-CIOs website.

CHINA CONCESSIONS NOT ENOUGH—Chinas concessions on market access for U.S. agricultural products are overdue but are not enough to gain membership in the World Trade Organization, AFL-CIO President John Sweeney said. "Many tough questions remain unresolved," he said, "such as fair rules for textiles trade and protections against dumping." But more important, China must end its "horrendous pattern of human and worker rights abuses before serious consideration can be given to WTO membership," Sweeney said.

EQUAL PAY—Equal Pay Day, April 8, marked the New Year for working women as their pay finally caught up to wages men earned in 1998. Unions have partnered with women’s, civil rights, religious and community organizations in 26 states to introduce equal pay legislation. Equal pay is "not just a women’s issue--its a bread-and-butter issue for Americas working families," said AFL-CIO Executive Vice President Linda Chavez-Thompson, stressing that equal pay is a top priority for the AFL-CIOs Working Families Agenda, which is aimed at passing equal pay laws within state legislatures. Across the nation, more than 500 groups held press conferences, educational forums and lobby days, wore buttons reading, "Where’s my 26 cents?" and carried red purses to show that women’s wages remain in the red. Equal Pay Day, coordinated by the National Committee on Pay Equity, was kicked off April 7 with a White House roundtable on the pay gap.

OSHA SLAPS AVONDALE HARD — After a massive inspection of Avondale Industries New Orleans shipyard, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration cited the firm for nearly 500 serious and willful hazard conditions carrying fines of $537,000. Seven workers have died at Avondale since 1990, and the yard's death rate is three times higher than that of other shipyards with major U.S. Navy contracts. In 1993, workers at the yard voted to form a union to make the yard safer, bring their wages and benefits up to par with other shipyard workers and earn respect on the job. The company has refused to negotiate and has conducted a six-year war on its workers.

PHONY DECERTS FAIL—The National Labor Relations Board dismissed two petitions filed by Overnite Transportation seeking to decertify the Teamsters at the company’s Sacramento, Calif., and Grand Rapids, Mich., terminals. The union says management apparently devised bogus decertification campaigns that lack any chance of success both there and at a number of other locations. Meanwhile, IBT filed a new unfair labor practices charge against Overnite, saying the company has threatened to take back wage and mileage rate increases from workers at all 21 certified terminals and deduct from their paychecks money already received for those increases.

FAMILY VALUES—The UAW joined with the Big Three automakers to launch a $6 million project to help working parents in the Detroit metro area care for their children. The Alliance for Children and Working Families will offer nine family service programs, including training and technical assistance for childcare providers, emergency in-home and backup childcare and volunteer projects for young teenagers. Some 60,000 Detroit-area families of the Big Three could benefit from the programs. UAW President Stephen Yokich said the programs were developed jointly "because they benefit our members and the industry as a whole."

THE FILTHY RICH GET FILTHIER—If you made $30,000 in 1994 and your pay grew the way CEO pay has, today you would be making a delicious $165,900. How do the CEOs of American corporations wrangle such stratospheric compensation--326 times more than an average U.S. factory worker in 1997? The AFL-CIOs updated Executive PayWatch website (www.paywatch.org) lets you calculate what your pay would be with CEO-like raises and shows how the boardroom bandits manipulate their boards of directors. They put fellow CEOs--or even their lawyers and bankers--on the compensation committees, do business deals with committee members and even put themselves on the compensation committees. PayWatch cites nearly 150 board members for such conflicts, including former Georgetown basketball coach John Thompson, who received more than $400,000 in endorsements from Nike and who helped give Nike CEO Phil Knight a salary 2,000 times the wage of a Nike factory worker in China. "CEOs and directors must be held accountable for soaring executive pay. The conflicts must be cleaned up," said AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Richard Trumka.

VOTING WITH THEIR FLEET—Six thousand Machinists fleet service workers voted by more than 3-to-1 to ratify their first contract at US Airways. The balloting took place March 29-31. The pact immediately boosts base pay an average of 13 percent, establishes line and longevity pay, puts new limits on subcontracted work and extends medical benefits to part-time workers. "These negotiations were some of the most difficult I have ever seen in this industry, but solidarity and patience paid off," said IAM Vice President Bill Scheri.

SPECIAL DELIVERY—The Letter Carriers union is gearing up for a "high-visibility, in-your-face and effective" mobilization of its members to augment its preparation for binding arbitration, said NALC President Vincent Sombrotto. In a message to carriers, he said the failure to reach agreement with the U.S. Postal Service stems from "one monumental failure, the failure of the USPS to respect your worth." Special mediator Wayne Horvitz ended mediation March 29. The two sides now will choose a neutral arbitrator or, if that fails, have one appointed by the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service. The NALC expects the arbitration process will last through the summer. Rank-and-file meetings over the past month in Atlanta, Chicago, Philadelphia and Los Angeles showed strong resolve to fight for higher pay.

STEELED FOR BATTLE—The International Trade Commission said retaliatory tariffs may be justified against six countries accused of illegally dumping steel plate on U.S. shores. The ITC will investigate whether companies based in France, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan and South Korea are selling their products here at prices significantly lower than elsewhere in the world. As part of their Stand Up for Steel campaign, the Steelworkers and major American steel producers are urging the U.S. Senate to follow the Houses lead and pass legislation to restrict steel imports that already have cost more than 10,000 U.S. jobs.

SHIPYARD ON STRIKE—More than 9,000 members of Steelworkers Local 8888 walked off the job April 5 after rejecting Newport News Shipbuilding’s final offer on wages and pension benefits. Workers took major wage and benefits concessions in 1995 to help the company out of financial trouble and haven’t had a raise since 1993. Now that the yard is profitable--it made a $66 million profit last year--the workers want to be repaid for their sacrifices.