Category: News
OSHA elevates whistleblower priority
WASHINGTON – Whistleblower protection administered by the Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has been elevated in agency priority, with the program now administered directly by OSHA’s assistant secretary of labor. The Department of Labo [...]NJT conductor charged in ticket fraud
A New Jersey Transit conductor has been arrested and charged with official misconduct, theft and conspiracy, according to news reports, following a seven-month investigation into missing ticket money. The alleged crime is said to have occurred on NJT’s North Jersey Coast Line [...]Rep. Bucshon: Tear down that bill
A daily fact of life for train crews is transportation to and from terminals in shuttle-vans operated by firms under contract to railroads. Over the past year, four crew members died and another was seriously injured in two separate accidents while riding in shuttle vans. Shu [...]
FAA proposes raising pilot qualification standards
WASHINGTON – Qualification requirements for first officers who fly for U.S. passenger and cargo airlines would be “substantially” raised under a proposed Federal Aviation Administration new rulemaking to be published in the Federal Register Feb. 29. The agency, in a notice of [...]3 crewmembers dead in VIA Rail derailment
BURLINGTON, Ont. – Three Canada VIA Rail crew members riding in the lone locomotive of a five-car passenger train died in a derailment here Feb. 26. More than 40 passengers and another crew member were injured, many seriously. News reports indicate the fourth crewmember suffe [...]
UTU officer pushes transit safety improvements
Just ask UTU District of Columbia Legislative Director Willie Bates about safety standards for rail-transit systems. Unlike freight and passenger railroads, rail-transit systems are not bound by federal construction standards, nor are their workers in safety senstive position [...]UTU aiding locked out workers in six states
UTU locals and state legislative boards in Minnesota and North Dakota are collecting non-perishable foods to aid union brothers and sisters who have been locked out of their jobs in six states by American Crystal Sugar (Bakery, Confectionary, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers [...]Oil, natural gas drilling benefits rail workers
A lot is being written about reducing America’s dependence on foreign energy; and increased domestic exploration of crude oil and natural gas is paying meaningful dividends to railroads – and, by extension, to their workers, whose jobs, wages and benefits are being made more [...]