Bus operators of SMART Local 1715 in Charlotte, N.C., on Saturday, Feb. 4, 2023, ratified a new collective bargaining agreement with a vote margin of 20 to 1. The new contract for the operators for the Charlotte Area Transit System (CATS) calls for a significant wage increase [...]
The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) has been launched to investigate a 50-car Norfolk Southern derailment that caused an inferno in East Palestine, Ohio, the night of Feb. 3. According to WKBN, a state of emergency was declared by the mayor of the village with a p [...]
Labor had a lone representative Feb. 1 at the House Transportation & Infrastructure Committee discussion of transportation infrastructure and supply chain challenges as it convened under new chairman U.S. Rep. Sam Graves of Missouri. Greg Regan, of the Transportation Trad [...]
The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law is infusing $292 million into the completion of the Hudson Tunnel modernization project, which will rehabilitate the old North River Tunnel connecting New York and New Jersey, build a new tunnel and improve reliability for the 200,000 passengers who traverse the tunnel each weekday.
The Civil War-era tunnel will be replaced by the brand-new Frederick Douglass Tunnel. Not only will this save commuters time on the largest rail bottleneck between Washington, DC and New Jersey; thanks to a new project labor agreement (PLA), both SMART sheet metal workers and SMART Transportation Division members working at Amtrak stand to benefit for years to come.
In a letter dated Jan. 25, the general chairperson of SMART Transportation Division’s GO 577 informed Union Pacific’s senior vice president of operations that the union was withdrawing from any participation in the company’s safety program effective Feb. 1, 2023. GC Roy [...]
SMART Transportation Division members now have the chance to get up to five times the guaranteed coverage in the Union’s new VLTD plan. Beginning March 1, 2023, Sun Life Financial will administer the VLTD Plan and provide the 24-hour coverage plan participants enjoy now, with [...]
Dear SMART-TD members and retirees — Major disasters can occur anytime and anywhere to our union Brothers and Sisters, and the SMART Transportation Division Disaster Relief Fund is primed to assist members in their times of need. In recent memory, the fund has helped du [...]
In today’s age of economics driven by corporate greed, there are many trade unions in our country at odds with the so-called “captains” of their industries and the profit-obsessed mindset of upper management. Few unions, however, share such similar struggles as the members of [...]
In a letter sent Jan. 5, 2023, to the CEOs of the seven Class I railroads operating in the United States as well as to Association of American Railroads (AAR) President/CEO Ian Jeffries, Federal Railroad Administrator Amit Bose warned them that “incremental” chang [...]