The economic stimulus package, formally known as the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, contains provisions that will provide retirees with one-time payments of $250, extend unemployment benefits an additional 13 weeks, and subsidize employee-paid health-care insurance f [...]
By UTU International President Mike Futhey While railroads oppose our efforts to obtain for new hires equal pay for equal training, responsibility and accountability, they are spending tens of millions of dollars to defend their pricing power that pads their bottom lines. Wit [...]
WASHINGTON — Any federal funds flowing to freight railroads as part of a stimulus package, or investment tax credit or loans should be accompanied by a requirement that the railroads not use the money for technology that eliminates jobs. That was the principal message J [...]
WASHINGTON — By unanimous voice vote, former Rep. Ray LaHood (R-Ill.) was confirmed by the Senate Jan. 22 as President Obama’s transportation secretary. A day earlier, the Senate Commerce Committee enthusiastically recommended the confirmation. LaHood becomes the 16th t [...]
By Assistant President Arty Martin andGS&T Kim Thompson Among the most difficult challenges facing us in 2009 arrives in November, when we exchange Railway Labor Act Section 6 notices with the carriers — the list of each side’s demands for the next collective [...]
By Vic Baffoni Vice President, Bus Dept. It’s a new year. We have a new administration in Washington and a larger labor-friendly majority in the House and Senate. It is a time of new hope. It will not be easy. The deteriorating economic conditions in this country are se [...]
By Vice Baffoni Vice President, Bus Dept. Congratulations to Community Transit General Chairperson Calvin Studivant in Newark, N.J., whose members in Local 759 ratified a new contract providing an across-the-board wage increase, an extra holiday with pay, an increase in vacat [...]
Almost a year has passed since Mike Futhey, Arty Martin and Kim Thompson took office. They ran on a platform of specific promises, including full disclosure. Following are Futhey administration promises and results, so far: Promise #1: Restructure the International by reducin [...]
By Dr. Norman K. Brown UTU Medical Consultant What is influenza anyway? Centuries ago, just as today, people developed respiratory infections after getting chilled. In the Italian culture, such infections were thought to be caused by “influenza di freddo,” or infl [...]
The UTU and the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen filed on Nov. 14 a joint petition for review by the Federal Railroad Administration of the FRA’s so-called emergency cell phone order, requesting that the FRA make additional exceptions to the order in the [...]
SMART Union