Category: Transportation
FRA’s SOFA issues safety alert
The FRA’s Switching Operations Fatality Analysis (SOFA) working group recently released two new documents — one on the importance of job briefings and the other a safety alert following three switching accidents that have occurred since August. In the safety alert [...]
Former GC Hiatt passes away
David Eldon Hiatt, a retired general chairperson of GO 377 (Canadian National/Grand Trunk Western), passed away November 11, 2020. He was 73 years old. “I looked up to Brother Hiatt, he was what I strived to be like once I became a union officer,” said current GO [...]
Amtrak repeats call for funding aid as it releases fiscal results
In its preliminary financial report, Amtrak said that the COVID-19 pandemic has reduced ridership on the national passenger carrier by about 75% from pre-COVID levels. While Amtrak leadership expects a slow rebound in ridership, with forecasts seeing an increase to about 40% [...]
Local 18 member passes from COVID
Our union is in mourning after losing Jose “Joe” Alfaro, a member of SMART Transportation Division for more than 15 years, to the COVID-19 pandemic on Nov. 13. He was 58 years old. Brother Alfaro was a member of Local 18 in El Paso, Texas, and worked as a trainman/brakeman fo [...]
Let us all keep our veterans in mind
Veterans Day marks the end of World War I — that fierce global conflict that cost millions of lives – and while the memory of that conflict fades further into history, the need for the heroism and sacrifice on the part of our military personnel endures more than a century lat [...]
SMART-TD mourns the passing of Edward J. Carney
Edward J. Carney, 87, of Ft. Wadsworth, Staten Island, N.Y., died suddenly Saturday, Nov. 7. Carney began his railroading career on the Staten Island Railroad, a subsidiary of the B&O Railroad, in June 1955. Over the course of his 40 years of railroad employment, he worke [...]
Bipartisan bill introduced to end sequestration cuts to railroad unemployment benefits
WASHINGTON – U.S. Senators Rob Portman (R-Ohio) and Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) introduced S. 4860, the Railroad Employee Equality and Fairness Act or the REEF Act, which would end the sequester on the Railroad Retirement Board’s (RRB) Unemployment Insurance Account. Due to the B [...]
RRB: Retirement seminar now available to view online
The Office of the Labor Member is pleased to announce that our Pre-Retirement Seminar presentation is now available to view online. We designed this program to help educate those nearing retirement about the benefits available to them, and what they can expect during the appl [...]