UTU News Digest - Friday, July 2, 1999

UTU Daily News Digest

Information of interest to operating railroad and transportation employees

Tuesday, July 6, 1999

ILLINOIS: Visibility may be factor in fatal train-van collision

CERRO GORDO -- Poor visibility may have contributed to Thursday's train-van collision that killed two people a mile east of Cerro Gordo on Thursday, the Decatur Herald Review reported.

Illinois State Police said witnesses reported the van stopped before reaching the tracks, then edged forward until it was on the tracks, where it was struck by the eastbound Norfolk Southern freight train. The driver, Carol Miller of Decatur, and one passenger, Gerald Bradshaw of Decatur, a conductor for Norfolk Southern and president of Local 768, were killed.

Injured were passengers J.H. Irby of Decatur, a member of UTU Local 768, and Gary K. Martin of Oakley, employees of Norfolk Southern and part of a relief crew on its way to meet another freight train on those tracks. As of Friday afternoon, Martin remained in critical condition at Carle Foundation Hospital in Urbana; Irby was in fair condition.

"You have to be just about on those tracks to see back toward Cerro Gordo," said Vicky Gagnon, a school bus driver for Monticello Bus Service in Cerro Gordo.

That crossing is part of her regular route, she said, and she has even altered her routine to avoid crossing there. After picking up the children who live in a nearby house, Gagnon said she usually turns the bus around and heads back out to Illinois 105 rather than continue north over the crossing.

"I know there's been times I had to back up because there was a train coming," Gagnon said. "Those tracks just scare me to death."

Part of the problem is a hedgerow to the west of the crossing, said Monticello Bus Service manager Joanne Weaver. She used to drive the route herself.

"The hedge from that side just blocks a lot. It's terrible," Weaver said. "I have nothing good to say about that crossing."

Train traffic around Cerro Gordo has increased so much recently that there are signs in the village itself warning of the increased traffic, Weaver said. But those signs are not in place outside of the village or near the crossing at Piatt County Road 200 East, where the collision occurred. The crossing has neither gates nor warning lights.

"There's nothing out there, and (trains) are constantly going in both directions," Weaver said.

The railroad is responsible for keeping brush trimmed, said Beth Bosch of the Illinois Commerce Commission, but the exact area the railroad is responsible for depends on the circumstances and location of the tracks.

Norfolk Southern spokesman Frank Brown was unavailable for comment on Friday.

WASHINGTON: NMB begins hearing on union representation for engineers

WASHINGTON -- The National Mediation Board is scheduled to begin a hearing today that could decide the union representation for more than 30,000 locomotive engineers and change the shape of upcoming contract talks between major railroads and more than a dozen unions, the Journal of Commerce reported today.

The board, which has authority over rail labor disputes, will decide whether train crew workers comprise a single craft that should be represented by a single union, instead of the two labor organizations representing them today.

The United Transportation Union, over the objection of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers, is attempting to convince the NMB that a single craft exists.

The BLE, which has scheduled a rally for today that is expected to attract hundreds of engineers, argues that if the NMB calls for a representation election involving the two unions at Union Pacific Railroad, it would be tantamount to a takeover attempt.

The UTU has twice as many members as the BLE.

Such an election also could complicate national talks because UP subsequently would have to negotiate with a single union, while every other carrier would have to negotiate with two.

But a vote at UP also could open the door for similar elections on other carriers.

Creation of a single union also would affect the balance of power in negotiations, since such an organization would become the industry's largest labor group, with more than 40% of unionized rail employees.

The UTU has been pressing union for a ruling on the single craft issue since January 1998. Last year, the two unions agreed to merge, ending decades of feuding. But the BLE pulled out of that merger two months ago, citing financial irregularities at the UTU.

In denying those charges, the UTU said the real reason was to divert attention from a recall election now in progress against BLE President Clarence Monin.

In a related move, the AFL-CIO on Friday imposed sanctions on the UTU over the BLE dispute.

AFL-CIO President John Sweeney said in a letter to other union officials that the UTU had exhausted its appeals of an AFL-CIO ruling that sanctions should be imposed because of UTU violations against the AFL-CIO's rules against "raiding" of other unions.

The sanctions identified in Mr. Sweeney's letter bar the UTU from filing any complaints with the AFL-CIO, commit the AFL-CIO to aid organizations that are resisting the UTU's efforts and orders other unions not to assist the UTU effort.

OHIO: UTU, BLE resume dispute at NMB beginning today

CLEVELAND -- North America's two biggest rail unions are back on a collision course.

The United Transportation Union and the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers have folded talks to merge by Jan. 1, and their bitter dispute over who gets to represent train workers is headed to a federal mediation panel, the Associated Press reported on Sunday.

The National Mediation Board, a federal agency that tries to work out rail industry disputes, has scheduled a hearing Tuesday in Washington on the UTU's request for a vote by employees of the Union Pacific Railroad to decide who will represent them.

The Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers, which opposes a Union Pacific vote, has planned a protest and rally in Washington to coincide with the hearing.

Most of the Cleveland-based BLE's 56,000 members are train engineers. The UTU, based in the Cleveland suburb of Lakewood, has about 125,000 members -- primarily train conductors, trainmen, brakemen and switchmen. Both unions trace their roots to the previous century and have members in the United States and Canada.

Union Pacific, based in Omaha, Neb., operates west of the Mississippi River and has about 22,000 union-covered employees. About 14,000 of those workers are loyal to the UTU and 8,000 to the BLE.

The UTU believes the train workers should be considered a single craft, represented by the UTU.

The BLE believes train engineers are part of a distinct craft and that the proposed vote amounts to a raid on BLE's Union Pacific members. If everyone at Union Pacific votes for their own group to represent all the workers, UTU win easily, BLE leaders note.

"We have a dangerous precedent happening here," BLE President Clarence Monin said. "UTU is engaging in the equivalent of a hostile takeover and attempting to use a government agency to grease the skids. If UTU is allowed to steamroll this election, it would say there's no difference between a licensed engineer and a brakeman."

But UTU spokesman David Eden said his group's only goal is to unify train workers to create a stronger voice in contract talks with the nation's rail companies.

"I think you'll see that a great proportion of the rank and file believes in one union on trains," Eden said, "On the BLE side, what you're seeing now are the last gasps of a 19th century union that doesn't want to do what's best for its members of the future."

AFL-CIO President John J. Sweeney sent a letter Thursday presidents of all the labor organization's affiliated unions, the AFL-CIO's trade and industrial departments and regional directors, advising that AFL-CIO's executive council sides with the BLE in the dispute. Sweeney also banned any assistance to the UTU in its Union Pacific campaign.

The two unions now are at the same point as in March 1998, when Monin and UTU President Charles Little met in Washington with high-ranking officials of the AFL-CIO, who urged them to stop bickering and consider some form of affiliation.

Merger talks lasted about a year and broke down May 10. The next day the UTU asked the National Mediation Board to activate its petition for a Union Pacific vote.

BLE spokesman John Bently said the BLE believes the UTU is motivated only by financial problems and that the merger talks broke off when the UTU failed to deliver a detailed financial report the BLE had demanded by a May 1 deadline.

"They use that as an excuse, but it's as bogus as a $7 bill," said Eden, the UTU's spokesman. He said the UTU is financially secure, with $44 million in assets and with an insurance association that has $32 million in reserve.

Eden blamed the breakdown of the merger talks on Monin's reaction to a recall election within the BLE. But Bentley disagreed. That recall, which is still pending, "doesn't really have anything to do with the UTU situation," Bentley said.

CALIFORNIA: Two UP freight trains crash; crewman suffer minor injuries

PALM SPRINGS -- Two freight trains crashed head-on at relatively low speed today, derailing more than a dozen engines and cars and spilling diesel fuel. Two crewmen suffered minor injuries.

The Union Pacific Railroad trains collided in a rural area at about 2 a.m., police Sgt. Mitch Spike said.

A preliminary investigation indicated one of the train operators ran a red light, Spike said. Federal Railway Administration officials were investigating, police said.

Union Pacific spokesman Mike Furtney said the company wouldn't comment until the investigation is completed.

Each train contained more than 20 cars, mostly flat cars hauling cargo compartments for tractor-trailers, said police Sgt. Patrick Williams.

Although the six engines and nine cars closest to them were thrown from the tracks, the majority of cars remained upright and close to the tracks, Williams said.

He estimated the engines were traveling at 15 to 20 mph; "Otherwise, those cars would be all over the place."

Investigators checked the trains for dangerous materials, while firefighters and a hazardous materials crew cleaned up a spill of 10,000 gallons of the engines' diesel fuel, police said.

Each train had one engineer and one conductor, and they all leaped from the trains before the impact, authorities said. Two of them were taken to Desert Regional Medical Center, where spokesman Joseph Shaw said both were in good condition.

CANADA: CN sells Alberta ail lines to North America RailNet

EDMONTON -- Canadian National Railways has transferred 364 miles (586 kilometers) of track in Alberta to North America RailNet Inc.

North America RailNet of Bedford, Texas, operates short-lines in 10 U.S. states. The track is now operated by its newest subsidiary, Alberta RailNet Inc.

Alberta RailNet's Y-shaped network begins 36 miles northeast of Jasper, Alberta, at Swan Landing and runs north through Grande Prairie to Hythe and Tangent, Alberta. It handles about 40,000 carloads coal, forest products and grain a year.

North America RailNet operates five short-line railroads in ten U.S. states. Alberta RailNet is its first Canadian operation.

WASHINGTON: Overnite drivers, dockworkers Strike

WASHINGTON -- Dockworkers and truck drivers at the Overnite Transportation Co. went on strike Monday night at six terminals around the United States to protest unfair labor practices, a Teamsters union spokesman said.

Some 1,400 union workers struck terminals in Atlanta, North Atlanta and Marietta, Ga.; Memphis, Tenn.; Kansas City, Mo., and Indianapolis, spokesman David Cameron said.

Ira Rosenfeld, an Overnite spokesman, said all the service centers in question are open and that "we expect to make all deliveries and pickups on Tuesday."

The Teamsters claim to represent workers at 38 of Overnite's 166 service centers, while Rosenfeld said the union only represents the workers at 21 centers.

Cameron accused the company of intimidating and even firing some union organizers working at Overnite, something Rosenfeld categorically denied.

"We've been bargaining with the Teamsters ... and we will continue to bargain," Rosenfeld said.

Cameron said the strike would end when the workers felt their grievances over unfair labor practices were resolved.

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