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Brothers and sisters,

For many Americans, Labor Day simply signifies the end of summer, beginning of the school year or is viewed as a day off from work. For those of us involved in organized labor, it means more. However, and whenever you are able to celebrate Labor Day, I ask that you take time to educate those around you of how this country’s labor movement impacted the working conditions for EVERYONE in this nation. 

What this holiday is emblematic of is the celebration of the core values of SMART-TD and all Americans who built this country’s blue-collar middle class. The contributions of the labor community keep that dream alive in this country today. Labor Day is a chance to reflect on the achievements of our predecessors whose efforts provided the pathway to lives where the work you are willing to do ideally reflects your quality of life. With that in mind, we ask that you and your family recognize that the fight is never over and intensify your support for those engaged in labor fights.

Today has been made better by the men and women who came before us. It’s a disservice if we take the inroads they made for granted. This holiday weekend, I ask that we commit as union brothers and sisters to do two things. 

First, we should reflect on these men and women who fought before and are fighting now. It strengthens this union and labor as a whole when we take the time to learn about labor history. Perspective is a powerful tool. The collective power of union solidarity is as important to our lives today as it was to workers in the 1800s. The stands we make against the greed of management are the same fights that have gone on for hundreds of years.

Second, this weekend is an opportunity for us engaged in the struggle to take inventory of whether our commitment to our union is proportionate to what those who laid the groundwork before us have done. Child labor laws, minimum wages, the sanctity of healthcare being part of the compensation for our labor WERE NOT GIVEN TO US. Blood was spilled to make these things possible. 

Paying monthly dues provide membership in a union, but getting involved and living as good stewards of this legacy is what ignites and creates a community. These communities are what establish world-changing action.  

 Will you join the fight? Your union and our country need your voice and your talents. We are facing a large-scale resurgence of class warfare that threatens to erase the historic gains and protections the labor movement has earned. 

The world we live in provides many challenges to all of us in the labor movement. We need every one of our proud members to be engaged in order to better the lives of all. Let us keep the trails that were blazed by our predecessors clear, open, and accessible to all.  Be sure that the path to prosperous working-class lives is not enveloped by greed and exploitation.

Please stay safe this holiday weekend!

Solidarity forever,

Jeremy R. Ferguson,
President, Transportation Division

Local 200 chairperson, general chairperson and SLD’s combined efforts get opportunity for cut workers to remain in industry

E. Hunter Harrison has been dead since Dec. 16, 2017. His legacy known as Precision Scheduled Railroading (PSR) is still alive and kicking.  

Some of the railroads have said publicly that they are trying to steer away from PSR. But in an unexpected twist, the specter of Harrison is rearing its ugly head in the lives of all our Union Pacific members with the recent ascension of new CEO Jim Vena.   

Vena is a known student of Harrison. When UP employees, some stockholders and SMART-TD general chairpersons expressed alarm at Vena’s hiring, the carrier put out a well-polished piece of propaganda about how Vena 2.0 was a changed man. 

We were all supposed to be put at ease, that he had learned the hard way that PSR was an unnecessarily disruptive force to the industry, the supply chain and in the personal lives of railroad employees.  

For the record, SMART-TD never bought this idea. The five GCs of our UP General Committees in no uncertain terms informed the carrier that they strongly disagree with Vena’s hiring. In the letter sent to UP’s vice president of labor relations, our GCs said “As COO, Jim Vena enacted policies, practices, and procedures that deliberately destroyed our members’ quality of life for the sake of profit. 

“He orchestrated huge furloughs and cuts to every department in transportation, which resulted in the crew shortages we have yet to recover from,” the GCs wrote. 

This second point came into play almost immediately upon Vena taking over Aug. 14. Less than a week into his reign, Vena proved our GCs to be absolutely correct by announcing UP was going to cut 94 positions across four crafts and 13 terminals.  

These men and women whose jobs were erased through no fault of their own were represented by the IBEW, IAM, NCFO and SMART Mechanical Division. Many of these fellow railroaders worked in remote locations where the UP terminal was the largest employer. As a result, many of them were going to have to uproot their families and pursue new career opportunities. 

SMART-TD Local Chairperson Amanda Snide (Local 200, North Platte, Neb.) didn’t like what she was hearing. She was frustrated and confused why these railroaders, though from different crafts and unions, were being thrown to the wolves while her terminal was desperately looking to find candidates to fill their posted openings for conductor positions.  

Sister Snide took matters into her own hands at that point. She successfully brokered the idea with the local management at the North Platte terminal to offer 11 employees slated to be let go in the mechanical crafts positions as conductors.  

As we approach the Labor Day holiday, there can be no better example of the value of labor movement than what these three accomplished for these fellow railroaders and their families. We thank you for defending our rail labor brothers and sisters against the corporate greed that threatened everything they had worked to build.  

Snide’s results giving the workers affected by Vena’s malicious cuts at her home terminal the chance to preserve their income, health benefits and retirement, impressed Nebraska’s SLD Foust. He took what Snide had started and turned his attention to the 83 other casualties of Vena’s short-sighted greed. Foust contacted General Chairperson Luke Edington from GO-953. Brother Edington, who was already on the record with UP about not being on board with UP’s “new vision,” took it from there. 

Edington took Snide’s plan and Foust’s vision of expanding it straight to UP’s Human Resources Department. SMART-TD is very proud to announce that Brother Edington succeeded in reaching an agreement with UP that at all terminals where they are simultaneously attempting to hire conductors and laying off other craft employees will give the same opportunity to transfer to conductor positions that Snide had enacted in North Platte.  

As of Aug. 30, 50% of the affected employees in eligible terminals had applied for transfers to conductor positions — quite a few salvaged railroad careers.  

SMART-TD is very proud of the initiative taken by Sister Snide, SLD Foust and GO-953 GC Luke Edington to make this happen.  

As we approach the Labor Day holiday, there can be no better example of the value of labor movement than what these three accomplished for these fellow railroaders and their families. We thank you for defending our rail labor brothers and sisters against the corporate greed that threatened everything they had worked to build.  

There has always been and will always be Hunter Harrison and Jim Vena types in the rail industry. What is important is that we commit ourselves as a union and as individuals to make sure we can match them with the wits, fight, solidarity and humanity exhibited by members like Amanda Snide and that the union spirit embodies. 

Upwards of 70% of UPS employees are represented by the Teamsters Union. In one of the most prominent news stories of the summer, the Teamsters and UPS workers fought the good fight against the corporation and made large gains in their levels of pay and company-provided fringe benefit packages.

SMART-TD would like to echo many of the media’s responses and congratulate the Teamsters and especially our union brothers and sisters who do tireless work on the frontlines of UPS. However, it is worth pointing out that the wage and benefit increases gained in the wake of a 2022 Biden-appointed Presidential Emergency Board (PEB #250) are in many ways equal to, or better than, the commendable achievements of the Teamsters and UPS drivers, although our achievements received far less positive fanfare and attention from the media.

As many of us have seen in the news, UPS CEO Carol Tome made the eye-opening statement that drivers at UPS will now be making $170,000 annually. That got the attention of many of us in the rail industry, and at SMART-TD. When we looked closer at that statement, we identified some important nuances that this executive did not make apparent to the general public.

More specifically, the figure of $170,000 appears to be CEO Tome’s claim for the amount of total compensation, including fringe benefits, that Teamster-represented UPS drivers are estimated to receive at the conclusion of the five-year contract. As many SMART-TD members know, this is the same rhetoric that rail carriers and their analysts used during PEB #250, in their unsuccessful attempts to convince the PEB members and the general public that railroad employees were already generously compensated for the work that we do. We rejected those tactics then, and we reject them now from CEO Tome.

In researching this issue, we noted that CBS News recently reported that at the conclusion of five years’ worth of stepped raises, full-time Teamster-represented UPS drivers will be earning approximately $49/hr. Assuming a 40-hour work week, this adds up to a base annual salary of $101,920, pretax. CBS News also reported that the fringe benefit package for Teamster-represented UPS drivers adds up to approximately $50,000, for a total combined compensation of approximately $151,920.

Based on the above, it appears that in some rare circumstances, CEO Tome’s claims could be technically correct, provided that the UPS employee works a considerable amount of overtime. However, we do not believe that CEO Tome’s claims are representative of most UPS employees, and we object to her making statements that are undoubtedly intended to mislead people into believing that UPS drivers commonly receive a salary of $170,000.

As you can probably imagine, comparing a UPS driver’s total compensation package to a SMART-TD rail member’s compensation package is not a simple task. There are many factors that weigh into our salaries and compensation packages; seniority, assignment preferences, rail traffic/volume and work location, to name a few. When working on an extra board, sometimes our compensation depends on downright luck. The provisions of on-property agreements in effect at our specific work location negotiated by our General Committees of Adjustment and subject to ratification by the members on that specific property are another factor.

Over the last several decades, our organization has published an annual fringe benefits sheet intended to illustrate the monetary value of our hard-earned and well-deserved national benefits package.

In doing so, some assumptions must be made. These examples are illustrative of an experienced railroader with enough seniority to qualify for full vacation, with earnings that exceed the Railroad Retirement Tier II tax limit and meet the Railroad Retirement Tier I tax limit. This is done not to mislead, but to illustrate the maximum potential value of our fringe benefits.

With the above in mind, in our 2023 publication, our members’ annual fringe benefits are valued at nearly $75,000, which brings the members’ total compensation package to nearly $235,000.

In the case of a railroad member who earns $118,800 in compensation (Railroad Retirement Tier II tax limit) and qualifies for three weeks of vacation, their annual fringe benefits are valued at an estimated $63,000, for a total compensation package of close to $182,000. We believe that this estimation is representative of a much larger percentage of our members and is a fairer and more direct comparison to most UPS drivers.

When making this comparison, it is worth reiterating that the above estimates for railroad employees are based on 2023 data. UPS CEO Tome’s claims are based on estimates of what an experienced UPS driver will earn five years from now, nearing the expiration of the current contract.

We hope that this article sheds some additional light on the issue and helps our members, as well as the general public, better informed on these issues.

SMART-TD will continue our fight for exemplary wages and benefits that align with the essential work you do and the sacrifices you make. Together, we will continue to lead the way as the nation’s largest rail employee union, setting the standard for collective bargaining within our industry and beyond it.

Please take the time to follow this link to read a breakdown of Your Fringe Benefits prepared by the staff at SMART-TD’s International headquarters. Prior fringe benefit documents are available behind the SMART Member Portal.

The initial schedule and information about the upcoming SMART Transportation Division Regional Training Seminar (RTS) set for Oct. 3 through 6, 2023, at the Hilton Garden Inn in Toledo, Ohio, has been released and is available through the SMART app or via PDF.

2023_Toledo_RTS_short_agendaDownload

Learning sessions at the Regional Training Seminar (RTS) are all-inclusive for SMART-TD local leaders. From a president to a trustee, all bus and rail members can get valuable information, strategies and tools from union experts who have years of experience on the issues that they face as labor leaders at the meeting.

Attendee check-in for the meeting begins the morning of Oct 3, and those attending should plan to arrive then. The meeting’s opening session takes place at 1 p.m. Oct. 3, with the classes and workshops kicking off the morning of Oct. 4.

The cost for TD members to register to attend the seminar is $50.

The RTS includes classes for local governance, roles of a local president, secretary & treasurer, legislative representatives and local chairpersons in protecting members and on the SMART Constitution, among others. Sessions are taught by national officers and other subject-matter experts associated with SMART-TD. It’s an exciting opportunity for local leadership and members to engage one on one with union experts to help fulfill the need for live, in-person training from local leaders closer to home.

TD President Jeremy Ferguson and other union leaders are scheduled to appear to answer membership questions throughout the event. To register for the seminar, visit https://register.smart-union.org/. The deadline to register for the Toledo meeting is Saturday, Sept. 30.

Please note: Attendees are responsible for making their own hotel reservations.

A room block has been reserved at the site of the meeting, the Hilton Garden Inn, 101 N. Summit St., in Toledo. The SMART TD event rate is $129 per night with the deadline for discounted hotel reservations being Friday, September 15, 2023.

Follow this link to book online.

For more information, contact Ohio State Legislative Director Clyde Whitaker at 419-565-2629 or by email at smartunionoslb@gmail.com.

The city of Pleasant Hill, Missouri, requested help from their community to restore a historic Missouri Pacific caboose on display in the town square. In response to this need for civic involvement, SMART-TD Local 933 out of Jefferson City answered the call and has partnered with local Boy Scout and Cub Scout troops to do the heavy lifting on the project.  

Jorge Moralez, a Local 933 trustee and 16-year veteran conductor with Union Pacific (UP), is leading the effort by assembling a workforce of Local 933 members and area scouts and will be running the restoration project this fall Oct. 2 through 8.  

Jorge Moralez, a conductor and local trustee out of Local 933 in Jefferson City, Missouri, is shown on the job. Brother Moralez and other members of his local are leading efforts to restore an old Missouri Pacific caboose in Pleasant Hill, Missouri.

Our brothers and sisters will work with the community to do large-scale repairs to the historic caboose that ran on local lines from 1971 through 1986. Among the fixes — repainting it and fortifying the stabilizing base of the caboose, which was donated to the town of Pleasant Hill and put on display in their downtown in 1998 as a tribute to the community’s rich history as a midwestern railroad town. 

“I see this project and this caboose as a rallying point for anyone who wants to see downtown Pleasant Hill continue to be a place the community can be proud of together,” Moralez said. 

Funding for the project is coming from private donations and has been supplemented by the city of Pleasant Hill contributing $2,000, The Pleasant Hill Community Betterment Board also contributed $2,000, and UP put $1,000 dollars into the project.  

SMART-TD Local 1409 (Kansas City, Kansas) is sending a contingent of SMART Army participants on October 3 to pick up the mantle and lead the restoration that day. 

The next day, Local 933’s monthly meeting will be conducted in the caboose. The meeting will begin at 10 am, and the restoration efforts as well as a BBQ lunch that will begin when the meeting concludes.  The BBQ will be prepared by Local 933’s own conductor/pit boss Don Mccon, who has offered his talents to the project.  

The restoration is far from complete, and monetary donations are needed for supplies and to feed the volunteers over the seven-day project. In addition to financial donations, Local 933 and Brother Moralez are asking all our members in the greater Kansas City area to come out during the week and help the cause. They are in need of your talent, tools, and your railroad stories to keep the young volunteers entertained and engaged. 

If you are able to participate please contact Brother Moralez by email at jorgemoralez@gmail.com, or you can send donations via PayPal by following the QR code featured in the flier above.  

SMART-TD and the SMART Army are very proud the commitments of both Local 933 and Local 1409 to their community. You both are great examples of our union’s mission to be leaders around the country.  

John Trembczynski, vice local chairperson of LCA 623/IHB, and former three-term Local President of Local 1381 (Hammond, Ind.) has been forced into early retirement due to a series of bouts with cancer.  

Brother John Trembczynski of Local 1381 is fighting cancer.

Brother Trembcynski has been on the railroad as a conductor and engineer for Chicago Rail Link, Norfolk Southern and Indiana Harbor Belt since his honorable discharge from the United States Navy in 1988.  

Having served SMART-TD and our predecessor, the UTU, in many capacities, Trembczynski has led as a vice local chairperson, a GCA vice chairperson, and local president spanning from the early 1990s until 2022.  

In addition to his formal roles, John has always been known as a strong union brother who fights for his members. He has gone out of his way to shepherd new conductors and engineers and has given all of himself to this union.  

John has already faced kidney cancer in 2022, as well as a brain tumor that was removed in the spring of 2023. Unfortunately, SMART-TD has recently found out that his cancer is back and has spread to his lungs and other organs. Now is the moment when SMART-TD and its members have an opportunity to give back to Brother Trembczynski for his years of service. 

Fellow Local 1381 member Brother Justin Skripac has started a GoFundMe campaign to assist John and his loved ones in his time of need. If you are able to do so, SMART-TD is asking you to consider following this link to Brother Trembczynski’s GoFundMe page and giving what you can. 

All who know John know that he is a fighter and the epitome of the guy you never count out. Please help us circle the wagons around him in this moment and show how united SMART-TD is.  

Rail and bus members have until Sept. 28 to start coverage

INDEPENDENCE, Ohio (Aug. 15, 2023) — SMART-TD announces an additional opportunity for actively working bus and rail members to enroll in the new Voluntary Long-Term Disability (VLTD) and Voluntary Group Life (VLIFE) insurance plans.

This will be the last opportunity this year for members to get protected. The last date for enrollment is Sept. 28 for an Oct. 1, 2023, effective date. Coverage highlights are detailed below:

SMART-TD VLTD

  • Protects members’ income if they cannot work due to injury, illness or surgery.
  • Tax-free benefits with no medical exams/questions required to enroll.
  • Up to $5,000 of monthly benefits for up to five years.
  • Benefits start paying after the SMART VSTD stops — 238 days for rail members and 365 days for bus members.

VLIFE

  • Members can elect up to $250,000 with no medical exams/questions required.
  • Benefits double in the event of an accidental death.
  • Enrollees receive 24/7 on- and off-the-job protection.

Members can learn more and enroll about these two plans by visiting www.smart-vltd.com.

Members can explore options such as cancer insurance, accidental death & dismemberment, and hospital indemnity insurance via the UTUIA.

The trustees of the SMART Discipline Income Protection Program (DIPP) are pleased to announce additional improvements to the program in addition to the reduction of assessments that take effect Aug. 1.

Due to the strong health of the program and positive claims experiences reported, trustees have elected to take the measure of eliminating the graduated duration of coverage (benefit days) structure of the program that had been based on the participants active months in the plan.

This means that, beginning Aug. 1, all enrollees in DIPP, new and continuing, regardless of their period of participation (months), will receive 365-day coverage for covered incidents. It should be noted that any claims with an incident date prior to Aug. 1 will be paid out under the plan rules prior to this change.

Additionally, participants electing to increase their benefit level no longer need to wait 12 months from their last increase. Increases are now effective on the first day of the month following 90 days after the increase is received by the DIPP office.

This improvement, paired with the 25-cent reduction in assessments announced in May, is another reason why the SMART DIPP leads the way in providing value and protection to its membership and the nation’s largest rail labor union.

More information, including the SMART DIPP Summary Plan Description reflecting these changes, is available via the SMART website.

SMART DIPP Trustees are General President Michael Coleman, General Secretary-Treasurer Joseph Powell and SMART Transportation Division President Jeremy Ferguson.

Registration has opened for SMART Transportation Division’s Regional Training Seminar (RTS) to take place Oct. 3 through 6, 2023, at the Hilton Garden Inn in Toledo, Ohio.

Attendee check-in begins the morning of Oct 3, and those attending should plan to arrive then. Classes and workshops kick off the morning of Oct. 4.

Attending an RTS is an exciting opportunity for local leadership and members to engage one on one with union experts to help fulfill the need for live, in-person training from local leaders closer to home.

The cost for TD members to register to attend the seminar is $50.

The RTS includes classes for local governance, roles of a local president, secretary & treasurer, legislative representatives and local chairpersons in protecting members and on the SMART Constitution, among others.

The classes are taught by national officers and other subject matter experts associated with SMART-TD.

TD President Jeremy Ferguson and other union leaders are scheduled to appear to answer membership questions. To register for the seminar, visit https://register.smart-union.org/.

The deadline to register to attend is Saturday, Sept. 30.

Please note: Attendees are responsible for making their own hotel reservations.

A room block has been reserved at the site of the meeting, the Hilton Garden Inn, 101 N. Summit St., in Toledo. The SMART TD event rate is $129 per night with the hotel reservation deadline Saturday, September 2, 2023.

Follow this link to book online.

For more information, contact Ohio State Legislative Director Clyde Whitaker at 419-565-2629 or by email at smartunionoslb@gmail.com.

SMART Transportation Division-represented members from Local 1626 (Anchorage, Alaska) on the White Pass and Yukon Route will begin electronic voting tonight on whether to authorize a strike against the carrier.

Negotiations with the tourist railroad have been open since the expiration of the last labor contract in late 2017.

In an interview with the Whitehorse Daily Star, SMART-TD General Chairperson Jason Guiler (GCA-WPY) said that the carrier is seeking to increase the burden of health care costs onto workers as well as reducing the number of operating crew members.

He told the newspaper that ticket prices have increased by $27 per ticket since 2017 to an average of $152 per ticket and the carrier is expected to transport some 600,000 passengers this year.

As set forth by the Railway Labor Act, if a strike is authorized by members after the three-day voting period, a National Mediation Board mediator will then determine whether to release workers from mediation. If mediation is concluded and a strike authorized, a proffer of arbitration would then happen.

If arbitration is rejected by either the union or carrier, it would begin a 30-day cooling-off period before a strike could occur.

White Pass and Yukon operates as a Class III narrow line from Skagway, Alaska, to Carcross in the Yukon Territory and is the largest employer in Skagway.