Category: News

2011: So, where are we headed this year?

January 6, 2011 By UTU International President Mike Futhey We continue making progress in negotiations to amend the national rail agreement, affecting some 40,000 UTU members employed by BNSF, CSX, Kansas City Southern, Norfolk Southern, Union Pacific and many smaller railroads represented b [...]

UTU conductor double-amputee in NS mishap

January 5, 2011 UTU conductor double-amputee in NS mishap Norfolk Southern conductor and UTU Local 768 member Larry McVay, age 43, lost an arm and a leg in a switching accident near Lafayette, Ind., the morning of Jan. 3, and is recovering in an Indianapolis hospital. A UTU member since Dec. [...]

Tags amputee, Larry McVay benefit fund, mcvay, Norfolk Southern, NS, switching accident

We’ll keep pressing to improve, protect

January 4, 2011 By James StemUTU National Legislative Director January brings a new session of Congress and the start of state legislative sessions across the country. Our UTU legislative team in Washington and our state legislative directors will be on guard protecting the interests of our [...]

Tags funding, Jay Rockefeller, John Mica, legislation, privatization, RSIA, safety, state legislative directors

UTU-represented shortline has new owner

January 4, 2011 LONGVIEW, Wash. — UTU-represented train and engine employees of Columbia & Cowlitz Railroad here have a new employer in Patriot Rail Corp. after Patriot completed purchase of the shortline from paper manufacturer and forest products supplier Weyerhaeuser. Also inclu [...]

Tags Arty Martin, Columbia & Cowlitz Railroad, grievances, merger, Patriot Rail Corp., Paul Tibbit, Railway Labor Act

Fired. BNSF says workers are ‘too fat’

January 3, 2011 CHICAGO — At the BNSF Corwith intermodal yard here, the railroad has dumped a contractor and said it intends to hire its own workers to load and unload containers and trailers onto and off of flat cars, reports Chicago News Cooperative. This comes after BNSF told many o [...]

Rail traffic continues growth trend

December 31, 2010 U.S. Class I railroad traffic continued its growth trend through the Christmas holiday week, reports the Association of American Railroads. Carloads were up almost 30 percent versus the same holiday week in 2009, and intermodal (trailers and containers on flat cars) was up mo [...]

Tags AAR, growth, intermodal, rail, rail traffic, traffic

NS Crescent Corridor gains federal funds

December 30, 2010 Norfolk Southern has won final funding from the U.S. Department of Transportation for its long planned 2,500-mile Crescent Corridor linking New Orleans, Memphis and the Northeast, reports the Journal of Commerce. The Crescent Corridor improvements, when completed, will increa [...]

Isn’t it time to stop smoking?

December 29, 2010 What better gift to your health and your family’s health could there be than to resolve to stop smoking in 2011? Easier said than done. That’s for sure. But help is available. For UTU rail members covered by the national contract health plans, each of the medical benefi [...]

Former KCS GC Bob Martin dies at 80

December 28, 2010 SHAWNEE, Kan. — Robert G. Martin, a former UTU general chairperson (GO 457) on Kansas City Southern Railway, died here Dec. 24 at age 80. A native of Beaumont, Texas, he was a member of UTU predecessor Brotherhood of Railroad Trainmen, and, later, UTU Local 20 in Beaumo [...]

UTU working to improve Rail Safety Act

December 27, 2010 By James Stem, UTU National Legislative Director The Rail Safety Improvement Act of 2008 (RSIA) was not all that rail labor wanted in a safety bill, but it was a good start, and contains much of what we have long sought. Work still needs to be done, including an end to limbo [...]

Tags H.R. 6519, James Stem, Rail Safety Act, Rail Safety Improvement Act, RSIA, safety