John Wilson, a student from Howell High School, joined two dozen teens from across the nation to spend a week riding the rails. They weren’t trying out the hobo life; they were participating in Michigan Technological University Rail and Intermodal Transportation Program, part [...]
WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of Transportation’s (DOT) Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) today issued a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) that will help protect communities from crude oil and hazardous materials incidents by strengthening requirements for securing [...]
Pat Corp, Virginia State Legislative Director of the SMART Transportation Division, submitted the following letter to the editor of The Roanoke Times. It was published Aug. 22, 2014. Re: the July 28 article “Coal exports bypass emission rules” from the Associated Press. The a [...]
WASHINGTON – U.S. workers face a dim future, with stagnant or falling pay and fewer openings for full-time jobs. That’s the picture that emerges from a survey of Harvard Business School alumni. More than 40 percent of the respondents foresee lower pay and benefits for w [...]
For some workers, having to sit through captive audience meetings where employer representatives tell you that, “you have the right to organize, but it would be a very bad idea” has become mandatory while on the way to organizing for a voice at work. A new trend has emerged, [...]
The much needed “Fair Play and Safe Workplace Executive Order,” signed by President Obama, provides new reporting requirements on federal contractors and limits contractors’ ability to impose arbitration clauses for certain types of workplace lawsuits. According to a White H [...]
More trained eyes should be on the tracks in Minnesota in coming months, state and federal authorities say. The Minnesota Department of Transportation is hiring more rail inspectors as required by a new state law. Federal authorities also have bolstered the ranks of their rai [...]
KANSAS CITY, Mo. – BNSF Railway Co. has been found in violation of the Federal Railroad Safety Act by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration for disciplining an employee at its Murray Yard complex for following a physician’s t [...]
The Surface Transportation Board announced Tuesday, Sept. 2, 2014, that it has found five U.S. Class I railroad properties to be “revenue adequate for the year 2013, meaning that five of the Class I railroads achieved a rate of return equal to or greater than the Board& [...]
A new study, from University of Illinois-Urbana professors From Labor and Employment Relations professor Robert Bruno and Illinois Economic Policy Institute Director Frank Manzo found that just as “Right-to-Work” allows some workers to freeload to the detriment of others, it [...]