Category: Washington
More than 13,000 comments received for FRA’s Rule of 2
The SMART Transportation Division would like to thank all of you for your historic response to the FRA’s Notice of Public Rulemaking (NPRM) on Freight Train Crew Size. In the moment when our livelihood and the safety of all involved was on the line, SMART members, along with [...]
Union organizes rallies on Capitol Hill, elsewhere
WASHINGTON – SMART Transportation Division organized rallies in multiple locations Dec. 13 to bring attention to rail-related issues, including maintaining the current safe level of a minimum two-person crew in the cabs of locomotives, paid sick leave for workers and an end t [...]
Union states 2PC case before FRA
The Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) held its much-anticipated hearing Dec. 14 to receive public testimony on its Notice of Proposed Rule Making (NPRM) regarding a minimum train crew size. As it was set up, representatives from just two Class I carriers — Union Pacific a [...]
Seventy members of Congress send letter to Biden urging action on railroader sick leave
More than five dozen Democratic members of the U.S. Senate and the House sent a letter to President Joe Biden advocating that the government guaranteed paid sick leave for freight rail workers. “It is literally beyond belief that rail workers are not guaranteed this bas [...]
AFL-CIO TTD: Rail labor will not rest until freight rail industry is fixed and rail workers are treated fairly
The AFL-CIO Transportation Trades Department (TTD), of which the SMART-TD and -MD are members, released the following statement on behalf of rail unions regarding next steps in our push forward on reforms to a freight rail industry that is failing its workers and the American [...]
SMART-TD statement on the results of the U.S. Senate vote to impose the rail agreement
As prescribed by the Commerce Clause of the U.S. Constitution, the SMART Transportation Division acknowledges the ability of Congress to legally impose the Tentative National Rail Agreement upon the operating-craft employees represented by the SMART-TD. While it is unfortunat [...]
SMART-TD statement on potential extension of status-quo period
As the largest freight rail operating union in the United States, the SMART Transportation Division rejects the notion that any extension of the status quo cooling-off period would have a benefit to alleviating the current contract impasse. The intransigence of the railroad c [...]SMART-TD statement on congressional intervention in the national rail negotiations
The SMART Transportation Division does not support the notion of Congress intervening in our collective bargaining negotiations to prevent a strike. We firmly believe in the workers’ right to fight for their own best interests, as well as the best interests of their families. [...]