In today’s world, it’s important for the union to keep current and accurate information so members can stay informed on things that are important to them. This can be accomplished through the SMART mobile app, via the SMART Member Portal on the SMART website or the old-fashioned way — by just letting your TD Local secretary know.
It’s no secret that we and the carriers do not often see eye to eye, and there is a false narrative out there that we openly share member/employee information with each other. Carriers have zero obligation to voluntarily share any change in your personal information with your union, including your job craft. Even in this age of easy communication, maintaining good labor relations isn’t the strong suit of many carriers, and that includes notifying the union when one of our members has moved, changed contact information or have changed craft roles at work, for example, holding dual certification as a conductor/engineer.
A feature has been added in the SMART app and the SMART website’s Member Portal so members can more accurately update their info with the union. It’s important to fulfill that SMART constitutional duty (Article 21B, Section 49) by keeping your contact info (address, phone number and email) as well as your emergency contact info, work craft and military service record current. To avoid missing out on important notices and to make your union one member stronger please use the app, website or contact your local leadership to ensure that your union has the most accurate information. Together we are stronger!
The SMART Union app is available by texting the word APP to 67336 or for download on Apple’s App Store or Google Play.
Sara Youngdahl, managing partner of The Youngdahl Law Firm, P.C. in Houston, Texas, has been appointed by SMART-TD President Jeremy Ferguson to serve as Coordinator of SMART’s Designated Legal Counsel. Ms. Youngdahl is the only woman in the United States designated as legal counsel for a rail union. Ms. Youngdahl also serves on the Academy of Rail Labor Attorneys (ARLA) Board of Managers.
Sara Youngdahl
Ms. Youngdahl has been representing railroad workers in Federal Employers’ Liability Act (FELA) and Federal Rail Safety Act (FRSA)(OSHA Whistleblower) cases for nearly 25 years. Ms. Youngdahl has handled hundreds of cases on behalf of railroad workers and their families who were injured or tragically suffered death on the job. She has also fought for railroaders who have been retaliated against for reporting railroad safety violations, personal injuries, and those who have been denied medical treatment.
Ms. Youngdahl comes from a family of union organizers and lawyers representing working people all over the country. Dedication to values such as fair wages, the right to organize, equal access to justice, and the notion that railroads must honor their legal and ethical obligations has been the cornerstone of Ms. Youngdahl’s practice.
Ms. Youngdahl has been designated counsel for SMART for nearly 20 years, and looks forward to serving as SMART DLC coordinator.
On this Memorial Day, let us reflect on and honor those who have made the ultimate sacrifice while in service to our great nation. Their willingness to voluntarily face hardships where others cannot or will not is a testament to their character. We would not be the country we are today or enjoy the freedoms we have without these men and women.
Members of SMART-TD visit the grave of Troy J. Jordan, who was killed in a railroad accident in September 2015.
As a veteran of the U.S. Army, I view this holiday with great reverence and respect. SMART-TD would like to take this opportunity to express our appreciation to members of the military, and their supporting affiliates — those on active duty, those who have retired and those who are no longer with us.
Their sacrifices must not go unnoticed nor be forgotten.
As we all celebrate this Memorial Day, please take a moment to reflect on the holiday’s true meaning. Keep their memories and teachings close to you always and be thankful for those who continue to endure these duties today.
As a reminder, our union has many resources for veterans available — please see the links below. As we continue into June, which is PTSD awareness month (National PTSD Awareness Day is Tuesday, June 27), be sure to take care of yourselves and seek out help or support if you need it. More information about PTSD and treatment options are available here.
If you are suffering from PTSD and think you may hurt yourself, please call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255 to reach a trained counselor. Use that same number and press 1 to reach the Veterans Crisis Line.
As kids all over the world know, railroaders tend to work “all the live-long day.” This is baked into the cake and explained at hiring sessions of all the major railroads, but the hours-of-service (HOS) laws in place say, in no uncertain terms, that 12 hours is the extent of how long rail workers are supposed to be on duty.
The first time the federal government limited the consecutive hours at work on a train or asset(s) for a railroad transportation employee was in 1907 when they set the mark at 16 hours. It has since evolved into the 12 hours that all of us in railroading are familiar with today.
Though the intention of the HOS laws is that a rail crew is supposed to be entirely relieved of duty by the 12-hour mark and on their way home or to away-from-home lodging, we all know that is not how it plays out. Often, crews stop their train at the 12-hour mark and spend additional hours waiting on a recrew or transport.
The carriers expect their transportation employees to skirt these federal laws. When crew members mark off time tickets, there is a mechanism to report to the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) that HOS have been exceeded. Unfortunately, self-reporting these violations to the carriers and FRA has not changed the reality on the ground.
SMART-TD’s National Legislative Department is asking for all rail members to help us bring this quality-of-life issue into a better light.
In the spirit of being user-friendly, the Technology Event and Safety Condition Reports that are available on the app have been streamlined as well. All three are pivotal to SMART-TD’s ability to represent you in the manner you deserve and they play a large role in our government affairs strategy.
The information we are trying to gather will only be effective if we consistently hear from our outlawed crews across all carriers about HOS violations. Please make your voice known and help us represent your interests in the halls of Congress and to hold carriers accountable now, and into the future.
Information gathered on the SMART website and via any links on the SMART app is solely visible to SMART-TD and the details on the forms we receive (including the names of who reported) will not be given to carriers.
PLEASE be a part of the solution to this problem. SMART-TD looks forward to working with you to help bring this abuse to an end.
Recently, you may have received (or may receive) a letter from Amalgamated stating that you can keep your coverage with Amalgamated on an individual basis by setting up “a direct payment arrangement through your checking account” with them. While you may stay covered by Amalgamated if you prefer, you will automatically remain covered by the SMART-TD Voluntary Disability Plan with Sun Life. SMART-TD will continue payroll-deducting your monthly VLTD premium and will remit those premiums to Sun Life on your behalf, so nothing is required of you to remain covered.
Below is important information for your reference:
Enrolled SMART-TD members have been covered by Sun Life since March 1, 2023.
Your monthly payroll deducted premiums have been paid to Sun Life and your coverage is current.
Members covered by the new Sun Life plan do not owe Amalgamated any premiums.
If you are currently on a claim with Amalgamated, you will maintain your monthly benefits through Amalgamated for the duration of your claim.
If you have any questions, please contact the SMART TD Customer Service Center at 224-770-5328.
Many members miss opportunities when their address and contact information on file is not current. To keep things up to date, this can be accomplished through the SMART mobile app, via the SMART Member Portal on the SMART website or the old-fashioned way — by just letting your TD Local secretary know.
It’s no secret that we and the carriers do not often see eye to eye and there is a false narrative that we share member/employee information with each other. The carriers have zero obligation to voluntarily share any change in your personal information with your union. Even in this age of easy communication, maintaining good labor relations isn’t the strong suit of many carriers, and that includes notifying the union when one of our members has moved or changed their contact information.
Truthfully, if you update information with the carrier, it might not even be in their best interest to share that info — they may prefer that the bad information stays in our system as it means one more member is left in the dark. It makes SMART-TD one member weaker as they wonder why the union is perceived as being silent and inactive, never trying to share information or contact them but collect their dues anyway.
That couldn’t be further from the truth. The union sends out daily emails that share the latest union and transportation industry news via the SMART-TD Newswire. Communication is absolutely essential with our membership, whether it be through social media, our website, email or other ways of connecting. For instance, information about military veterans’ service is used so that your service may be honored with an annual gift. We are also in the process of targeting craft-specific information out to the membership, so it important to have that properly listed on your member profile as well.
To avoid missing out, please fulfill your SMART constitutional duty (Article 21B, Section 49) and make your union one member stronger through the app, website or contacting your local leadership to ensure that your address, phone number and email, as well as your craft, military service and emergency contact info are current. Together we are stronger!
WATCH: SMART-TD Ohio State Legislative Director Clyde Whitaker testified about rail safety issues before a U.S. Senate committee in March 2023.
Last week’s much-anticipated hearing of the U.S. Senate’s Committee on Environment and Public Works featured a discussion of the Norfolk Southern derailment and the subsequent release of chemicals in East Palestine, Ohio. The spectacle of seeing NS CEO Alan Shaw fend off questions from the senators was clearly the main event of the day; however the undercard of the hearing was well worth the price of the ticket.
The hearing’s opening panel featured a robust discussion of the new bipartisan legislation being considered in the Senate known as the Railway Safety Act of 2023. Three out of the four title sponsors of the bill were in the hearing and testified about the goals they seek to achieve through the Safety Act.
Testimony started off with U.S. Sen. Bob Casey, a Pennsylvania Democrat. Last December, Casey not only voted for U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders’ legislation to guarantee seven paid sick days for railroad employees, but he also spoke at the SMART Transportation Division-led rally Dec. 13 outside the U.S. Capitol in Washington D.C. in support of ending Precision Scheduled Railroading (PSR).
With the Feb. 3 Norfolk Southern derailment and subsequent aftermath unfolding mere feet from Sen. Casey’s state, it makes sense that he would be among the group of legislators trying to rein in the effects PSR is having on our industry.
In discussing the Railway Safety Act of 2023, Casey said, “The future has to be about passing the Railway Safety Act that Senator Brown, Senator Vance, Senator Fetterman and I and others are leading. It’s bipartisan. That never happens around here on big bills, or rarely, I should say. It would be a good start by Norfolk Southern to tell us here today in addition to what more they are going to do for the people of Ohio and Pennsylvania, to tell us today that they support the bill! That would help.” Casey continued, “That’s what the people of both states deserve.”
Following Sen. Casey’s testimony, the spotlight went to the two Ohio senators. Sherrod Brown and JD Vance are on very different ends of the political spectrum, but they both did solid work discussing the strengths of and the need for the legislation.
“Lobbyists for the railroad companies have spent years fighting every effort to strengthen rules to make our trains and our rail lines safer. Now Ohioans are paying the price.”
– Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brown
In discussing Norfolk Southern’s large derailment in Ohio on March 4th, Sen. Brown said, “Another NS train derailed in Springfield, Ohio. This time the cars that derailed weren’t carrying hazardous chemicals, but other cars on that 200-plus-car train were. The only thing that saved Ohioans from another disaster was luck. But we need more than that. That is why Senator Vance and I have come together to introduce our bipartisan Railway Safety Act.”
He went on to say that “lobbyists for the railroad companies have spent years fighting every effort to strengthen rules to make our trains and our rail lines safer. Now Ohioans are paying the price.”
Sen. Vance came out swinging pretty hard at the railroads, especially considering he is just months into his first term in Congress. For his part, Vance pointed out that, “This is an industry that enjoys special subsidies that almost no industry enjoys. This is an industry that enjoys special carveouts that almost no industry enjoys. This is an industry that just three months ago had the federal government come in and save them from a labor dispute. It was effectively a bailout. And now they’re claiming before the Senate and House that our reasonable legislation is somehow a violation of the free market? Well pot, meet the kettle, because that doesn’t make an ounce of sense. You cannot claim special government privileges, you cannot ask the government to bail you out and then resist basic public safety.”
In reference to his colleagues in Congress, Vance offered this: “We have a choice. Are we for big business and big government, or are we for the people of East Palestine? It’s a time for choosing. Let’s make the right one.”
It’s hard to put a finer point on it than that. SMART-TD is happy to have the combination of these three legislators along with Sens. John Fetterman (D-Pa.) and Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), pushing this bill in Washington. We applaud their interest in safeguarding the rail industry and look forward to helping them as we get the Railway Safety Act of 2023 over the finish line.
The state of Michigan is a great microcosm of the United States as a whole. It has major metropolitan areas, heavy industry, expansive agriculture and a diverse transportation network.
Train tracks crisscross “The Big Mitten,” moving people to and from the state and getting products to both national and international markets. Belying their role in the supply chain, Norfolk Southern, CSX and a large number of shortlines have loomed large over the State House in Lansing for decades, peddling the kind of influence that reflects their role in the state’s economy as well as their bottomless lobbying budgets.
Unfortunately for the carriers, another thing Michigan is known for is a hard-nosed and organized workforce. The most-recent demonstration of this has come from SMART Transportation Division’s own Don Roach — our state legislative director (SLD) in Michigan. Despite being outspent and outmanned in Lansing during his more than three years as SLD, Brother Roach and everyone on the State Legislative Board have not been outworked. This is being made readily apparent by the early results in this year’s legislative cycle with four pieces of legislation introduced and carrying momentum.
First on the agenda is SB 100, Michigan’s two-person crew bill. With state Sen. Erika Geis as primary sponsor (she’s also chair of the Senate Transportation and Infrastructure Committee), it also has the additional push of nine cosponsors. With these 10 backers, the bill is already halfway to the total number of votes needed to get through the senior chamber.
In addition to the 2PC bill, Michigan’s Senate is also looking at SB 139 to legislation limiting freight trains in the state to 7,500 feet with fines to carriers of up to $5,000 per infraction. With the number of auto rack trains rolling out of Detroit, having this law in their state of origin will help train crews up and down the Midwest and eastern seaboard. When the rack trains start coming out of Michigan with 75 cars rather than the 200-car monsters we’ve been wrestling with during Precision Scheduled Railroading, Michigan’s crew bases won’t be the only ones who benefit from this new law. Both rail congestion and road traffic congestion due to blocked crossings should see improvement.
A third bill Michigan’s legislative team has in the works aims to defend our brothers and sisters in passenger rail and bus service. This bill that is ready to be dropped in Lansing seeks to make it a felony in Michigan for anyone to assault an employee of a commuter or passenger train or a bus driver. In addition to upping the level of criminal classification for such actions, the bill also seeks to strengthen the fines for these crimes, ranging from $1,000 to $5,000 per conviction.
Finally, our Michigan contingent have their eyes on SMART-TD’s national goals. The most-recent legislation put on the state’s agenda is a resolution stating support from Michigan’s Legislature for the Railway Safety Act of 2023 introduced in the U.S. Senate by a bipartisan collaboration. State resolutions of support will play a large role in garnering support from Michigan’s members of Congress as well as serve as a lead for other states to follow.
To sum it up, our union is leading by example in labor’s war against PSR. All of us at SMART are excited to see the progress being made in Michigan and elsewhere and look forward to what comes next.
SMART-TD, behind the leadership of National Legislative Director Greg Hynes and Alternate National Legislative Director Jared Cassity, have unprecedented positive momentum in the halls of state legislatures across the country. Our legislative directors currently have bills in front of 17 state legislatures and many are showing signs of being successful. SMART-TD is very proud of the progress that the SLDs are making in all of these states and would like to share some of the highlights.
· Washington HB 1839 — SLD Herb Krohn’s train-length bill is scheduled for a vote in the Washington House Transportation Committee at noon Feb. 23.
· Arizona HB 2531—SLD Robert Jones has a train length bill limiting trains to 8,500 feet. It was passed through committee and is heading to the floor of the Arizona House.
· Arizona HB 2531—SLD Robert Jones has a train length bill limiting trains to 8,500 feet. It was passed through committee and is heading to the floor of the Arizona House.
· Iowa SF 184 —SLD Chris Smith has a train length bill limiting trains to 8,500 feet. It has been passed through committee in the Iowa Senate and is heading to the Senate floor.
· New Mexico HB 105—SLD Don Gallegos has a two-person crew bill that passed the floor of the New Mexico House of Representatives and is heading to the Senate.
· Minnesota SF 1417—SLD Nicholas Katich has a two-person crew bill that is currently in committee.
· Ohio HB 23—SLD Clyde Whitaker has a two-person crew bill that includes provisions for regulating adherence to wayside defect detectors that is currently in committee.
In the 17 states where SMART-TD’s legislative team is pushing legislation in this cycle, we have 49 combined bills currently in play. These pieces of legislation have the potential to bring about a tremendous amount of progress in our industry and make your day-to-day lives better while holding rail carriers accountable. Your support is needed!
The SMART Transportation Division and its Public Relations Department are looking to better serve you, our members. We are responding to feedback that the stories we put out should be more focused on what is happening at the ballast and road levels and within the crew bases that we aim to serve.
Over the winter, members of SMART-TD Local 195 in Galesburg, Ill., served breakfast to members of the community at VFW Post 2257 in Galesburg. (Photo courtesy Local Chairperson Jerrod Sammons)
To that end, we are humbly requesting your assistance in this goal. If you are a trainman or bus member who has a story lead about a co-worker with an accomplishment you would like to see highlighted, please reach out to us so that we can give you a voice in your union.
If you have information about your carrier changing a policy that is concerning or a TD member that has gone above the call of duty, we are asking you to email the Public Relations Department of SMART-TD at news_TD@smart-union.org.
We would love to hear from you about your brothers’ and sisters’ accomplishments and celebrations of careers as well as your perspectives on industry trends or changes that should be discussed in a large-scale forum.
In your emails, please leave your contact information so that we can discuss the topics with you further in order to give the story its just due and get it right for all involved.
SMART-TD’s Public Relations Department would like to thank you in advance for your participation, and we look forward to bringing you the stories that make a difference to all of us.
