UTU News Digest - Friday, March 19, 1999

UTU Daily News Digest

Information of interest to operating railroad and transportation employees

Friday, March 19, 1999

WASHINGTON: CN/IC agree to UTU merger demands

WASHINGTON -- The United Transportation Union yesterday gave its backing to the proposed merger of Canadian National Railway Co. (CN) and Illinois Central Corp. (IC). The UTU, along with the IBEW, announced their support at the oral hearing on the merger conducted by the U.S. Surface Transportation Board. The STB will hold a voting conference on the merger transaction March 25.

The UTU had recently told the U.S. Surface Transportation Board (STB) that it opposed the deal because outstanding issues had not been resolved. However, those issues, detailed in the UTU’s filing with the STB and highlighted in a recent press release, have largely been taken care of.

The UTU, the fourth union to back the merger, agreed to provisions that are meant to preserve job opportunities for UTU members after the merger, as well as commitments by the CN/IC not to impose all portions of either existing labor agreement on hundreds of UTU members affected by the transaction.

"Once again, the UTU has worked to preserve its members jobs and incomes in our deal with the Canadian National and Illinois Central," said UTU International President Charles L. Little. "The carriers will not seek through the implementing agreement process the application of the entire IC agreement on the Grand Trunk Western, or vice versa.

"In addition, we have addressed safety concerns and the carrier has promised to make available job opportunities to active UTU-represented employees, which will allow them to maintain their current level of annual compensation during the protective period without a loss of income," Little said.

The UTU deal gave the parties until July 1 to work out a post-merger voluntary implementing agreement and that neither party will seek arbitration under New York Dock conditions before that date. It also required that any changes to existing labor agreements be based on transportation benefits to the public and not solely on cost-cutting grounds.

The UTU did not receive a commitment regarding the road switcher issue. The carrier asserted that this is a matter for collective bargaining and not proper for the STB. If the UTU had pressed its opposition because of this single issue, the STB in all likelihood would have ruled along those lines.

With the announcement of a UTU agreement, CN and IC could claim they now have more than 50% of their unionized rail workers lined up behind the transaction.

The Brotherhood of Railway Signalmen, the Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employes and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers also support the transaction. Those unions represent more than half of the organized work force of CN and IC in the United States.

Now, the STB’s task in deciding on the merger proposed by Canadian National Railway Co. and Illinois Central Corp. has been narrowed down to a handful of commercial and labor issues.

The commissioners' votes at that conference likely will focus on the conditions under which the merger will be approved rather than the application itself, since the applicants appear to have no outright opponents to the transaction itself.

The most complicated question the board must address at its March 25 voting conference on the $2.4 billion proposal is a unique marketing agreement that links CN/IC with the Kansas City Southern Railway. The Union Pacific Railroad proposed that the three-way deal amounted to a far larger transaction than the actual merger filing. That situation could force the board to decide whether to sever the marketing agreement from the transaction and alter the expected traffic diversion of more than $300 million that would be created by new rail routes created by the alliance itself. UP stands to lose more than half of the business that the alliance partners would capture from other carriers.

The marketing agreement accounts for most of the financial benefits from the transaction that would position CN/IC as the primary rail carrier for North-South rail traffic that might be generated from higher international trade resulting from the NAFTA.

A rail tunnel near Detroit jointly owned by CN and CP is another battleground. Attorneys for CP insisted Thursday that CN should be required to sell the tunnel as a condition of the merger because CN has its own solely owned tunnel for U.S.-Canada traffic. CP attorneys claimed that CN discouraged expansion of the tunnel to include full-sized rail equipment for container and automotive traffic, but CN argued that there has been no proposal to enlarge the tunnel. CN claims the tunnel is for sale and has called for arbitration to decide the price, while CP wants the STB to decide the terms.

International labor issues also face STB. Several labor unions, including ones that represent clerks and train dispatchers, fear that some U.S. jobs will be transferred to Canada. Labor attorneys argued that Canadian law requires that Canadian workers fill positions in Canada if they are available, raising the prospect that the U.S. workers would lose their jobs if the work was transferred. Labor attorneys argued further that the inability to follow a transferred job would cost the U.S. worker because they forfeit the industry's standard severance package if they don't follow the work to a new location.

A Washington attorney that represented CN said he was unsure that any jobs would be transferred. The carriers have said previously that they would agree to standard industry severance for displaced workers. The STB’s Linda. Morgan pressed Mr. Cunningham for assurances that CN would engage in good faith bargaining with those unions that have not supported the transaction.

Rail labor has been outspoken in recent months about its desire to make sure that negotiated labor contracts are not overridden by STB in merger cases. While promising good faith bargaining, the CN’s attorney urged the STB not to change past policy and decide the terms of post-merger job assignments through its decision on the merger.

Instead, he argued that the traditional approach of negotiation and arbitration should be followed before any dispute reaches the board.

MICHIGAN: BLE engineers sue Grand Trunk over spying

PONTIAC, Mich. -- A group of train engineers is suing their railroad, claiming the company spied on them by using a secret video camera in a locker room.

The 19 engineers yesterday accused Grand Trunk Western Railroad of invasion of privacy and unlawful surveillance at the Pontiac, Mich., facility where they change clothes before boarding locomotives.

The suit says the engineers recently found a tiny camera lens poking through a small hole in the locker room's plastic exit sign. After the discovery the angry engineers had their union, the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers, file a protest. Over the past two months the union repeatedly demanded the railroad hand over information about the surveillance.

But the suit says the union failed to provide "satisfactory answers." That's when they decided to sue.

The lawsuit charges the railroad, a division of Montreal-based Canadian National Railway Co., with invasion of privacy and violating the Michigan Eavesdropping Act and Employee Right to Know Act. The lawsuit filed in Oakland County Circuit Court seeks an injunction to stop secret surveillance. The engineers also are looking for compensatory, exemplary and punitive damages.

Illinois: Witness saw trucker trying to run the gates

BOURBONNAIS, Ill. -- An eyewitness has told authorities that a truck loaded with steel tried to zigzag through lowered crossing gates just before it was struck by an onrushing Amtrak passenger train, a federal source has confirmed.

The account given to investigators on Thursday supports what the engineer of the doomed City of New Orleans provided just after Monday night's deadly crash, said the National Transportation Safety Board source in Washington.

"We are continuing to interview him, but his statements are not inconsistent with what the engineer originally said," the source said on condition of anonymity.

Eleven people were killed and more than 100 injured in the nation's worst railroad accident in three years. Some of the dead are still being identified. The 14-car train slammed into the truck loaded with steel rods at 79 mph in a rural crossing 50 miles south of Chicago. All of those killed in the fiery wreck were found in a sleeper car that was badly damaged by one of the engines.

The engineer was quoted as saying the truck driver had been trying to maneuver his truck through closed crossing gates. NTSB member John Goglia said a full statement from the engineer will have to wait, since he is sedated and still shaken by the tragedy.

The motorist claiming to be an eyewitness called Amtrak on Wednesday, saying his vehicle was directly behind the truck, the source said. Federal officials have declined to identify either the witness or the engineer.

Driver John Stokes, 58, reportedly said he couldn't see the train coming and the gates were up when he entered the crossing. Stokes has retained an attorney and future communications must be through the lawyer, Goglia said. Authorities have confirmed a criminal investigation is under way.

Tests have found that the crossing signal and gates were working. And in a re-enactment of the crash using a truck and locomotive, the truck was able to drive around the downed crossing gates without hitting them. Stokes was driving on a probationary license after receiving three Indiana speeding tickets in a year. In all, he had been ticketed for speeding seven times since 1993 and had to take two separate safety classes last year to keep his driving privileges, according to records in Indiana and Illinois. A company that had him under hire, Melco Transfer Inc., declined comment.

In Bourbonnais on Thursday night, about 100 people, including one family that lost a relative, attended an emotional service in Grace Community Methodist Church. Eleven white votive candles were lighted and 11 chimes sounded while those on hand hugged each other and wept.

"This evening we are one," the Rev. Stan Haxton told the mourners. "We are one in grief, for who has not been touched by this tragedy?"

ILLINOIS: In crash's wake, tales of lives cut short

BOURBONNAIS, Ill. -- Sheena Dowe was an ambitious young college student and single mother, visiting family in Chicago during spring break.

June Bonnin was happily married and running a charming country inn in the South when she brought her daughter, granddaughter and friends to Chicago on a shopping trip.

Dowe, 22, and Bonnin, 46, lived totally different lives, but both were on Amtrak's City of New Orleans when it slammed into a semitrailer loaded with steel rods at a railroad crossing. Both were killed, along with nine others.

Their acts of courage, even as their own lives were being cut short, emerged Thursday, three days after the collision.

All the fatalities occurred in the sleeper car. Dowe had taken a friend's son to the bathroom in the car when she felt the jolt of the train slamming into the truck. She yelled at the boy to go to his mother, relatives said. Her friend, the boy and Dowe's own 1 1/2-year-old son survived, but Dowe never made it out of the bathroom.

Dowe was scheduled to graduate from Tougaloo College in Mississippi in December and wanted to become a brain surgeon "to try to help people," recalled her grandmother, Bessie Mae Dowe. She came to the crash site 50 miles south of Chicago, but left with little solace. "There's nothing I can say or I can do to bring her back," Ms. Dowe said.

Mrs. Bonnin was supervising a slumber party for the young girls in the sleeping car. She saved her daughter by passing her through a window to a cook from the dining car, according to her husband, Max.

Max Bonnin, who is from Nesbit, Miss., near Memphis, said he is relying on his religious beliefs to comfort him after his wife's death. Mrs. Bonnin's 11-year-old granddaughter also died in the crash, as did a pair of sisters, 10 and 8 years old, who were family friends. The Bonnins' 8-year-old daughter Ashley survived, however, and is still hospitalized after having her leg amputated below the knee.

"This is a real example of what faith can do," Bonnin said. "I'm surprised at the sense of peace we all have."

Ashley has become a symbol of survival. Toys, dolls and balloons and visitors have poured into the hospital where she is staying. "For a little girl to experience that type of love, I think, is in her mind reconfirming what her mom was always telling her about what human kindness is all about," Bonnin said. "Now she's seeing a perfect example of it."

ILLINOIS: First lawsuit filed in train crash

CHICAGO -- On Monday night, the train crashed. On Wednesday, the first lawsuit was filed against Amtrak.

Two survivors of the wreck in Illinois had their lawyers go to court in Chicago. Along with the railroad, other defendants include the driver of the truck that was hit, as well as his employer. In their suit they claim "serious and permanent injuries." They want at least $300,000dollars in damages. Eleven people died and more than 100 were hurt in the crash.

TEXAS: Integrated Security Sys Unveils 2 Railroad Safety Barriers

IRVING, Texas -- Integrated Security Systems Inc. (IZZI) introduced VT-6800 and VT-6802-HD railroad safety barriers.

In a press release Thursday, the company said the VT-6800 barrier is designed to lockdown railroad intersections up to 60-feet wide, preventing vehicles driving through and around the barrier.

The company said the VT-6802-HD barrier is designed for intersections up to 55-feet wide. Pricing information wasn't immediately available. Integrated Security Systems provides traffic control systems within the road, and bridge and perimeter security gate industries.

MICHIGAN: Two railroad workers die when boxcar falls on top of them

HAMTRAMCK, Mich. -- Two railroad workers were killed Thursday when a loaded boxcar fell on top of them as they tried to make repairs.

The two Grand Trunk Railroad workers were trying to fix the car's undercarriage while the train was held up by wooden jacks that gave way, police spokesman Walter Tripp said. One of the men was pinned between the tracks and the boxcar, Tripp said. Police were able to extricate him, but the other worker was trapped facedown underneath the fallen boxcar.

POLAND: Wisconsin Central mulling a $500 million investment in Poland

WARSAW -- Wisconsin Central Transportation Corp. said Thursday it is interested in the sell-off of Poland's PKP state railways and was considering investing at least $500 million in the company.

"For the time being we are not able to give any concrete figures we might spend as first we need to estimate the value of the company ... We think our investment would be at least $500 million," Diana Kiedbojt, WC's Polish unit head old Reuters.

According to a tentative government plan, PKP is slated for sale between 2000 and 2002 after it's divided into two companies - one which own the tracks and other property and one which would operate trains.

While WC specializes in freight, it is interested in the privatization of the entire PKP company, Ms. Kiedboj said.

Analysts said PKP, which has about 218,000 workers, needs to slash some 60,000 jobs and invest about three billion zlotys ($766.7 million) a year until 2005 to modernize its aging equipment.

MEXICO: TFM to invest $731 million in locomotives, other improvements

MEXICO CITY -- The Mexican railroad company TFM is investing $731.8 million over the next four years, $300 million of which will go to the purchase of 150 new locomotives.

The company also announced an association with Ferrocarriles de Mexico for an express route between the northern industrial giant Monterrey and the Pacific coast port of Manzanillo.

Finally, the company reported next month it will begin an inter-modal route between Monterrey and the Gulf coast port of Altamira to open a gateway for exports from Monterrey, known as the Sultan of the North, to Europe and South America. Francisco Vera, marketing manager of the rail line, informed that sales increased 15% in the second half of last year as compared to the same period of 1997 and are expected to rise another 20 to 25% this year.