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 [...]
The Federal Railroad Administration published a safety bulletin Dec. 29 regarding an unintended release of a train’s air brakes while stopped at a signal. The text of the advisory as published in the Federal Register is reproduced below. FRA is issuing Safety [...]
Brothers and sisters — The year is drawing to a close and we have put the nation on notice. We transportation workers are the definition of essential, and as the nation struggles with a major weather event with zero-degree temperatures and face-numbing sub-zero wind-chills, o [...]
The SMART Transportation Division would like to thank all of you for your historic response to the FRA’s Notice of Public Rulemaking (NPRM) on Freight Train Crew Size. In the moment when our livelihood and the safety of all involved was on the line, SMART members, along with [...]
The Federal Railroad Administration’s Office of Railroad Safety issued the following bulletin on Dec. 20, 2022: SUBJECT: Pre-Departure Inspections – Appendix D to 49 CFR Part 215 The Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) is investigating a recent fatal accident when a [...]