The percentage of American workers in labor unions took an unusually large fall in 2012, dropping to 11.3 percent last year from 11.8 percent in 2011, the Bureau of Labor Statistics announced. The total number of union members also took an unusually big drop, by 400,000, to 1 [...]
Days after super storm Sandy hit the New York Tri-State area, Long Island Rail Road GO LIRR General Chairperson Anthony Simon established the “UTU Hurricane Sandy Relief Fund” for Long Island Rail Road members in need. Through both mail-in and boots-on-the-ground donation cam [...]
The National Labor College will conduct regional hazardous materials training workshops for railroad workers at various locations throughout the United States in 2013. The first two workshops are five-day Hazardous Materials Chemical/Emergency Response Training Programs, that [...]
Last year was the safest year in the history of the railroad industry, based on performance measures tracked by the Federal Railroad Administration. For the fifth fiscal year in a row, the industry has improved on all six of the FRA’s official safety performance measures, inc [...]
Alternate International Vice President Larry Barrilleaux, 61, has retired, effective Jan. 15. A member of Local 1836 at New Orleans, Barrilleaux began his railroad career in 1973 as a switchman on Texas Pacific/Missouri Pacific Railroad in New Orleans, La. In 1975, he was ele [...]
WASHINGTON — The U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration has signed an accord with BNSF Railway Co. announcing BNSF’s voluntary revision of several personnel policies that OSHA alleged violated the whistleblower provisions of [...]
The White House has confirmed today that Labor Secretary Hilda Solis will not return for President Barack Obama’s second term. Prior to her confirmation as Secretary of Labor, Solis served as a member of Congress, representing the 32nd Congressional District in Californ [...]
The U.S. Senate has confirmed Christopher R. Beall and Yvonne Brathwaite Burke as new members of the Amtrak Board of Directors for five-year terms. Beall, of Oklahoma, is a partner at Highstar Capital, an infrastructure investment firm specializing in the transportation, envi [...]
The so-called fiscal cliff bill approved by the House and Senate Jan. 1 allows extended railroad unemployment benefits to continue through Dec. 31, 2013, with Congress appropriating $250,000 to the Railroad Retirement Board to administer those extended benefits under the Rail [...]
Random alcohol and drug testing rates for railroad workers in safety sensitive positions will remain at the same rate during 2013 as 2012. The Federal Railroad Administration said that because the random alcohol testing violation rate has remained below 0.5 percent for the pa [...]