Looking to follow in the footsteps of Ohio, Pennsylvania’s Legislature has before it a comprehensive rail safety bill covering train length, two-person crews and wayside detectors.
H.B. 1028 was introduced by 24 representatives April 25 with the House Consumer Protection, Technologies and Utilities Committee scheduled to vote upon the bill on Wednesday, May 3.
Chairman Robert F. Matzie (District 16) was the primary sponsor, which has, among its provisions:
Fines carriers $10,000 for blocking rail crossings for more than five minutes.
Limits train lengths to 8,500 feet.
Permits rail labor representatives to have an active, participatory role while the state investigates rail safety matters.
Requires a two-person aboard freight trains and fines carriers who violate the provision.
Authorizes the state to inspect to ensure the functionality of wayside detectors in the state.
Authorizes a state study of hazmat/waste transport.
Create a reporting system when carriers operating trains carrying hazmat/waste report these to the state.
SMART Transportation Division Pennsylvania State Legislative Director Paul Pokrowka has been working for years to advocate for rail safety and get legislation across the finish line.
“The incident February just across the border from our state in East Palestine brought attention nationwide to the importance of railroad safety,” he said. “Legislators in Pennsylvania have taken notice and have decided to do something about it. We appreciate their support and look to advance this legislation out of committee and into the full House and beyond — we thank Rep. Matzie and his staff very much for their help in advocating for H.B. 1028.”
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. (April 28, 2023) — Conductors and trainmen on CSX northern lines ratified an agreement for paid sick time today.
SMART Transportation Division GO-049 negotiated the deal with CSX Transportation earlier this month, but it still faced approval by the membership and local officers. Today, SMART-TD General Chairperson Richard Lee announced that the agreement was ratified by the majority of ballots returned.
The lack of paid sick time within the railroad industry was highlighted in the media in 2022 when workers rejected a tentative national agreement that covered most railroad carriers and labor organizations, almost leading to a shutdown of the nation’s vital supply chain.
Since then, CSX reached agreements with several non-operating-craft labor organizations. However, CSX and other Class I carriers failed to reach an agreement with any operating-craft labor organization. The operating crafts (which include engineers, conductors and trainmen) have what is perceived as the most demanding of working conditions of the railroad crafts due to the travel requirements, working in the elements and the on-call nature of their positions. This agreement establishes a benefit in the railroad industry that the majority of the American workforce already enjoy.
In addition to paid sick time, the agreement, which covers approximately 2,400 conductors and trainmen on CSX Northern line, also adopts the current attendance policy put in place by CSX into the collective bargaining agreement. Railroads in the past have been reluctant to negotiate attendance and this is another first for the operating workforce as it subjects the former policy (now agreement) to negotiations if any changes are desired by either the carrier or the employees in the future. In return, the carrier gained flexibility and cost savings through provisions that allow conductors and trainmen to drive company-provided vehicles under certain conditions and also settled a long-term dispute between the SMART-TD and CSX regarding assignment placement.
“It’s refreshing and impressive to see the overwhelming support of the membership on this tentative agreement. It is also encouraging that SMART-TD and CSX leadership were able to sit down at the table and reach a consensus on items as important as these. I am hopeful this momentum will carry forward in future negotiations and help us collectively improve the working conditions and overall moral at CSX,” GC Lee said when asked about his overall feelings on the issues and outcome of the process.
Upon the initial announcement of the tentative agreement being reached, SMART Transportation Division President Jeremy, Ferguson said, “We thank CSX CEO Joseph Hinrichs and Executive Vice President Jamie Boychuk for exhibiting flexibility and working with our union in a collaborative manner in reaching this tentative agreement. This serves as a vital first step to giving T&E personnel the paid sick time they deserve, and I am hopeful this accommodation will be soon be extended to the employees working under the jurisdiction of the other General Committees at CSX as well.”
About SMART Transportation Division GO-049
SMART Transportation Division GO-049 (General Committee of Adjustment) is based in Jacksonville, FL. The General Committee negotiates and maintains property agreements for approximately 2,600 railroad employees in the northeastern quadrant of the United States including several short-line carriers and CSX Transportation. GO-049 is one General Committee of 62 that make up SMART-TD, the largest freight railroad labor union in the United States.
Tentative agreement includes scheduling, paid sick leave
ATLANTA and INDEPENDENCE, OH, (April 28, 2023) — Norfolk Southern Corporation (NYSE:NSC) and the International Association of Sheet Metal, Air, Rail and Transportation Workers — Transportation Division (SMART-TD) announced Friday that they have reached a ground-breaking, system-wide tentative agreement. The agreement would offer a comprehensive suite of new benefits and workplace enhancements to improve quality of life for Norfolk Southern’s conductors.
“This agreement underscores the progress we can make when SMART-TD and Norfolk Southern come together to improve the lives and workplace experience of our hard-working members,” said Jeremy Ferguson, president of SMART-TD. “I want to thank Norfolk Southern for their partnership, and most importantly, our tireless SMART-TD leaders – Jim Ball, Tommy Gholson, David Phillips, Drew Evans, Brian Sharkey, and Jason Roberts – for working collaboratively to reach this extremely positive outcome for Norfolk Southern conductors.”
The new agreement contains meaningful improvements that will transform the conductor experience, including:
Technology-driven enhancements that offer all conductors scheduled days off and greater certainty around their weekly assignments.
Tools and work-rule changes that provide greater transparency and flexibility to enjoy their vacation and other paid time off.
Higher reimbursement for meals when away from home, and additional compensation when working weekends and spending time away from home.
Up to seven days of paid sick leave, including five new paid sick days and the option to use two days of existing leave, to care for their personal well-being.
“I have a deep appreciation and respect for the contributions that my craft colleagues make to our company, our customers, and the U.S. economy,” said Alan H. Shaw, president and CEO of Norfolk Southern. “Coming out of national negotiations, we committed to taking a comprehensive look at quality of life at Norfolk Southern. With this agreement, we are leading the industry’s efforts to provide more predictable work and greater support for the wellbeing of our craft railroaders.”
“I am incredibly proud of the work we’ve done with our labor partners at SMART-TD to reach this landmark deal,” said Wai Wong, vice president, Labor Relations at Norfolk Southern. “This agreement is the culmination of many honest, open discussions with our General Chairmen about our employees’ perspectives and priorities. I look forward to building on the foundation of trust we’ve laid as we continue working together to improve quality of life for our dedicated railroaders.”
The tentative agreement, which is subject to member ratification, also satisfies the parties’ obligation to discuss scheduling enhancements and other related items that were part of last year’s national agreements. The agreement would go beyond those obligations, however, underscoring Norfolk Southern’s and SMART-TD’s mutual commitment to holistically improve quality of life and enhance their shared team’s ability to safely deliver reliable and resilient service as a customer-centric, operations-driven organization.
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About Norfolk Southern
Since 1827, Norfolk Southern Corporation (NYSE: NSC) and its predecessor companies have safely moved the goods and materials that drive the U.S. economy. Today, it operates a customer-centric and operations-driven freight transportation network. Committed to furthering sustainability, Norfolk Southern helps its customers avoid 15 million tons of yearly carbon emissions by shipping via rail. Its dedicated team members deliver more than 7 million carloads annually, from agriculture to consumer goods, and is the largest rail shipper of auto products and metals in North America. Norfolk Southern also has the most extensive intermodal network in the eastern U.S., serving a majority of the country’s population and manufacturing base, with connections to every major container port on the Atlantic coast as well as the Gulf of Mexico and Great Lakes. Learn more by visiting www.NorfolkSouthern.com.
About SMART-TD
SMART Transportation Division is comprised of approximately 125,000 active and retired members who work in a variety of different crafts in the transportation industry. These crafts include employees on every Class I railroad, Amtrak, many shortline railroads, bus and mass transit employees and airport personnel. More information about the union is available at www.smart-union.org.
The SMART Transportation Division would like to remind members of the grassroots organizational meeting being led by Brother Arin Johnson of Local 194 (Elkhart, Ind.,) in Cleveland on May 3, 2023.
SMART-TD International officers and staff have been invited to attend the meeting and will have representatives on hand to participate in the discussion being led by Brother Johnson. The meeting will begin at noon EST at the SMART Sheet Metal Local 33 Building 12515 Corporate Dr., Parma, OH, 44130.
SMART-TD would like to clarify that the May 3 meeting in Cleveland is not part of the international’s training program. Rather, it is a coalition-building session organized and led by Brother Johnson, who has had success building on the best-demonstrated practices of the locals in Indiana through his meetings. TD leadership is supportive of his efforts and has encouraged him to expand the reach of his project to include meetings around the country. SMART-TD published an article on March 29 to promote the event and to give Johnson’s efforts a wider reach.
Charles “Al” Nowlin, a stalwart supporter of the union through and through and a multiple-term general chairperson for GO-569, passed away unexpectedly April 24. He was 68 years old.
“Al was a true brother to all of us. He was steadfastly dedicated to our cause and that of the labor movement in general,” SMART Transportation Division Vice President Brent Leonard said. “I always admired his kindness and true caring for those he represented and worked for, as well as his tenacious fight against the railroad carrier.”
Brother Nowlin joined the union in December 1973 after hiring on as a fireman for the Missouri Pacific at age 18. A member of Local 349 in Kansas City, he later was promoted to engineer and worked for the carrier’s successor, Union Pacific, for the duration of his career.
Brother Nowlin first became a union officer in his home local in 1978, winning election as a local chairperson. This began four decades of dedicated service as a union officer, eventually leading to his being elected as GO-569 chairperson and serving three terms before his retirement in December 2018.
Leonard recalled a story that Al’s wife, Phyllis, shared that summed up Brother Nowlin’s belief in the organization.
“When Al would meet non-railroad people, upon his telling them that he worked for the railroad, most often their response would be, ‘Wow, the railroad is a great job!’ Al’s response would be,’No, the railroad is a good job, with a GREAT union.’ “
Upon the occasion of his 35th year as a union officer, Brother Nowlin was honored at the 2013 Anaheim Regional Meeting by then-SMART General President Joe Nigro with a clock to recognize his service.
“Al was a man of strong faith and had incredible love for both his family and his union family,” Leonard said.
Brother Nowlin was a delegate to multiple UTU/SMART-TD conventions, a constant donor to TD PAC, served as a special organizer for the union, maintained membership in the SMART-TD Alumni Association and served as a mentor to union leadership while maintaining his labor activism even after his retirement.
“Al will be sorely missed by those who knew him,” Leonard said. “His legacy will be that future railroad employees will continue to be benefited from the work he did on their behalf.”
A celebration of Brother Nowlin’s life will occur Monday, May 15 at the Episcopal Church of the Redeemer, 7110 Route 9 Highway, Kansas City, Mo. 64152. Visitation is scheduled 5:30 to 6:30 p.m. with services to follow at 6:30.
A reception of coffee and dessert will follow the service.
Under the Budget Control Act of 2011, and a subsequent sequestration order to implement mandated cuts, Railroad Retirement Board-administered unemployment and sickness insurance benefits were reduced by a set percentage that is subject to revision at the beginning of each fiscal year. In December 2020, in an effort to minimize the effects the COVID-19 pandemic was having on the rail industry, Congress passed the Continued Assistance to Rail Workers Act (CARWA).
This legislation temporarily suspended the sequestration, and railroad workers who were eligible for unemployment and sickness benefits from RRB went back to receiving the full dollar amount of their benefits. This legislation was intended to be temporary, relieving out-of-work rail employees during the pandemic, and its language stated that the suspension of the benefit cuts would end 30 days after the date the COVID-19 state of emergency was terminated.
On April 10, 2023, President Biden officially declared the end of the COVID-19 pandemic emergency by signing House Joint Resolution 7. The 30-day clock to the reinstatement of the RRB benefit cuts runs out next month.
To avoid these cuts, the Railroad Employment Equity and Fairness (REEF) Act was introduced April 20 in the House by U.S. Rep. Jan Schakowsky (Ill.-District 9), a chief deputy whip and a senior member of the House Budget Committee, alongside Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (Pa.-District 1), Rep. Rick Larsen (Wash.-District 2), Rep. Don Bacon (Neb.-District 2), Rep. Chuy Garcia (Ill.-District 4), and Rep. Pete Stauber (Minn.-District 8). U.S. Sens. Deb Fischer (R-Neb.), Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), and Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), introduced the bill in the Senate.
The current RRB daily rate for unemployment is $85 and pays out five days weekly for biweekly payment of $850. After the emergency relief’s expiration, the daily rate for unemployment will become $80.15 daily for a biweekly total of $801.50. This bill will reduce the payment of our out-of-work brothers and sisters by $48.50 per pay period.
Sickness benefits paid to an employee within six months from the date last worked for a reason other than an on-the-job injury are also subject to regular Tier I Railroad Retirement taxes, resulting in a further reduction of 7.65%. Applying the 5.7% reduction to these sickness benefits will result in a maximum two-week total received of $740.23.
If these cuts seem aimed at the most-vulnerable population within our union, that is because they are. The sequestration for unemployed, sick, and injured railroaders benefits that the pandemic relief temporarily eliminated already has been done away with for other federal retirement plans. This clawing-back of funds, implemented 12 years ago, is literally only applicable to the Railroad Retirement Board. Allowing the CARWA Act to fall off the table accomplishes nothing other than taking a $50 bill out of the hands of our out-of-work brothers and sisters every other week while they are struggling to bridge the gap until they can get back to the rails.
This sequestration is out of date, and unfairly targeted at our profession. Please follow the link provided to make your voice heard to protect the hard-working men and women in your crew base when they are in financial difficulty.
State Senate has rail safety bills regarding two-person crews and train length before it
Michigan State Legislative Director Donald Roach served as a primary source as The Detroit News published articles this week (subscription required to read) centering on two pieces of rail safety legislation in the state Legislature.
Donald Roach
After reviewing the circumstance of derailments and details of recent rail accidents in the state, the piece highlighted the renewed focus on the need to examine freight rail safety in the wake of the East Palestine, Ohio, derailment.
S.B. 100 would codify the long-standing standard and safe rail practice of requiring two operating crew members aboard a train. S.B. 139 places a-length limit of 7,500 feet on trains.
“Any time if there’s an incident along the rail, whether it be a pedestrian strike, or a car in a crossing, or there’s trespassers along the way, the conductors are always the first responders,” Roach told the Detroit News. “… They could be walking back to a fire. They could be walking back to just a set of wheels on the ground. It could be anything.”
State Sen. Erica Geiss, who introduced both the train-length and crew-size legislation, told the Detroit News that she expected the state Transportation Committee to consider these bills this spring.
Neighboring Ohio passed and saw a two-person crew signed into law at the end of March.
That being said, SMART Transportation Division Colorado State Legislative Director Carl Smith didn’t want Fritz to go without a little something to remember his legislative committee by. But rather than going with the cliché of getting Fritz a ritzy timepiece and a handshake, he rented a digital billboard truck to track Fritz around Colorado for four days in early April.
As Fritz took the executive business car around Smith’s state, he was escorted by the billboard truck that showed rotating signs that featured several messages regarding Colorado’s rejection of Precision Scheduled Railroading (PSR), such as “Our Mile-High State Doesn’t Need 3 mile-long trains!” and, “It can happen here too!” with pictures of the derailment and hazmat spill in East Palestine, Ohio. Messages on the truck’s rolling billboards included a QR code that could be scanned by anyone who saw it and took people directly to the SMART Legislative Action Center, where people could support national rail safety legislation.
In these photos courtesy SMART-TD Local 202, an advertising truck appears in various locations in Colorado showing messages concerning rail safety.
The truck made several stops mirroring Fritz’s Mile High State tour. First, the truck went to the Rocky Mountain Train Show at the National Western Complex in Denver. Per the train show’s website, this event averages 11,000 attendees as the largest train show west of the Mississippi River. SLD Smith had the truck there both days of the show and prompted many discussions among the train enthusiasts in attendance.
The truck stayed in Denver over the weekend but did not only target the good people attending the show. It also made its way to three governmental functions. On Saturday, the truck and its messages could be seen circling Colorado’s statehouse as legislators were holding a rare weekend session. Additionally, the truck’s presence was felt at the Colorado Democratic Assembly meeting in Denver. On Saturday evening there was a large gathering of legislators and dignitaries at what is called the Colorado Obama Gala which features the former president and all the press that naturally follows him. As you might have guessed, Smith made sure SMART-TD’s anti-PSR message crashed that, too.
On April 3, Fritz and his entourage took UP’s business train to LaSalle, Colo., for a meeting. If they thought not being in Denver would spare them the presence of Smith’s billboard truck, they were undoubtedly disappointed that it had made the 50-mile journey north to greet them in LaSalle.
On April 4, Fritz held a legislative breakfast meeting on the business train. Brother Smith and his truck made sure they made their presence felt their too. UP’s attempt to get these legislators’ undivided attention was disrupted by the Smith’s inconvenient reminder that there are real-world consequences attached to the empty rhetoric of the rail carriers and their lobbyists try to sell.
The graphics for the signs were put together in house by SMART-TD’s PR staff, and the cost for the truck was shared between the Colorado State Legislative committee, Local 202 out of Denver and other local boards of adjustment.
This effort on the part of the Colorado Legislative Committee was not all about making departing CEO Fritz and co. aware of SMART-TD’s objections to the way they run a railroad, and the public awareness the truck created throughout the state has an additional purpose.
Brother Smith has a three-pronged bill to be introduced in the halls of Colorado’s Legislature. His bill looks to directly undo some of the basic problems our faces in the era of PSR. The legislation has not been assigned a bill number yet, but seeks to limit train lengths, regulate the use of hot box defect detectors in the state and bring about penalties for the carriers to discourage blocked crossings.
Getting his box truck in front of as many Colorado voters, and news cameras as possible was a unique and creative kickoff to Smith’s campaign to get this important legislation the momentum it needs.
SMART-TD wants to thank Brother Smith, Local 202, and all the men and women who made this possible. We look forward to reporting on the progress of your bill as it makes its way through the process of becoming the law of the land in the great state of Colorado, and we hope you never stop fighting for our members!
Paid sick leave has been the goal of railroaders for decades. It is not only the quality-of-life issue that defines our industry, but also a validation of the dignity of our profession. As you can tell from the photograph attached to this article, we are not the first generation of railroaders who have felt strongly about this topic. For a railroad to function safely, carriers know providing sick days is essential, yet the executives opt to pay themselves huge bonuses and engage in profitable stock buybacks with the money it would take to provide it. Instead of being accommodating to the labor forces toward their basic human needs, management tends to extend their appreciation to those who do the work by handing out hats and trinkets on occasion. To pour salt in the wounds, they have also tightened their attendance policies to unreasonable expectations over the years to force employees, out of duress, to go to work when sick.
On April 3, however, the tentative agreement reached between SMART-TD General Committee GO-049 and CSX is a tremendous step forward for T&E personnel on the CSX Northern Mid-Atlantic District. The tentative agreement synopsis is as follows:
Provides five paid sick with option to convert two personal days to paid sick days.
Unused sick days are converted to cash at the end of the year with the option to defer those payments into a 401(k)
Incorporates the current 2023 CSX Revised Attendance Policy (the most lenient policy at CSX in decades) as a component of the CBA and only subject amendments under the provisions of the Railway Labor Act.
Provides improved work/rest initiatives with the formation of a Joint Labor/Management Committee to implement “Smart Rest” options, which could provide for up to 24 hours off between tours of duty.
Settles a long outstanding issue on displacement and utilization of employees in displaced status
Permits train service employees, when practicable, to drive themselves or their own crew within defined terminal switching limits under limited conditions.
“We thank CSX CEO Joseph Hinrichs and Executive Vice President Jamie Boychuk for exhibiting flexibility and working with our union in a collaborative manner in reaching this tentative agreement,” SMART Transportation Division President Jeremy Ferguson said. “This serves as a vital first step to giving T&E personnel the paid sick time they deserve, and I am hopeful this accommodation will be soon be extended to the employees working under the jurisdiction of the other General Committees at CSX as well.”
As noted in past SMART-TD articles and mainstream media concerning the national rail contract negotiations, labor made it clear to the hedge fund managers who run our country’s rail corporations that we are no longer willing to accept hollow attempts to make us feel like valued members of their Fortune 500 companies. SMART-TD leadership, along with the other 11 rail labor organizations, stated clearly that it was time to address the ridiculous gaps in our work/life balance.
By no means was 2022 the first time that railroad workers have pointed out the lack of sick days as a problem. For years we’ve been told that it doesn’t fit the railroad business model as they sell service to their shippers which requires a 24/7/365 operation to meet demands. The unique dependency on crew availability to keep railroads running has been used to justify carriers’ on-call work cycles and inordinately long workdays, leading to the inability for railroaders to be present for family events and holidays. The irony to the operational necessity is that railroads have reduced their labor head-count year-over-year to increase profits and simply force those left to work more and not allow them to take time off, even when sick.
In 2023, the world’s media has a newfound awareness of the struggles of the railroad work force along with the dangerous working conditions. With wall-to-wall news coverage of derailments and communities waking up to the evils of Precision Scheduled Railroading (PSR), carriers find themselves in the position of needing to prove to the American people that they are not monsters and that their industry is capable of responsibly self-regulating as they have since the 1800s. Through the hard work and persistence of SMART-TD and your activism, railroads have begun to recognize the humanity of their workforce.
In the past two weeks, SMART-TD has seen Norfolk Southernand Union Pacific begin withdrawing their Section 6 notices pursuing single-employee crews. NS has even gone as far as to implement a new plan that, among other things, reduces the length of their trains (for now) to 10,000 feet.
Many interesting questions come from the idea of conductors driving their crews. One is whether CSX will be able to require conductors to pick up other crews while in the company vehicles. The answer to that is a definitive no. If this TA is ratified, the conductor will only be responsible for transporting the members of his/her crew to perform duties associated with that conductor’s train or duties. In short, the conductor position will not be used as additional cab drivers to be dispatched throughout CSX’s yards. According to GO-049 General Chairperson Rick Lee, this proposed change has received positive feedback as our members will be in charge of their safe transport within terminals, thus not left up to a low-cost taxi vendors or disgruntled railroad managers forced to haul crews in addition to their management duties.
Perhaps the most important question from this development is this: If it is, in fact, possible to run a Class I railroad when employees have the “luxury” of being allotted sick days, why has this basic human dignity been held from us by management for so long? If we are doing away with the premise that railroads can’t function if their transportation employees aren’t duty bound to answer the bell every time they are called to work, then why aren’t all railroaders afforded the same treatment across all crafts and carriers?
Progress in the railroad industry has always been incremental, but the fact is that professionals in every other industry, with much more standard schedules and far more time off work, get paid sick leave. Rail workers need and deserve the same.
The new tentative agreement obtained by GO-049 has blazed a trail, poking a hole in the premise that operating crews can’t get sick time. It is precedent-setting that for the first time in the existence of American railroading that paid sick time will be afforded to transportation employees at a Class I railroad. This is a fact that we all need to take a moment to celebrate. But we also need to look at this development as a call to action to achieve paid sick leave for all of us, not just half the crew base in a slice of the country for 1/7th of the Class I carriers.
With matters as important as this one, it is pivotal to get the details correct. If President Ferguson, his administration, or GC Lee’s team was willing to settle for less than what our members deserved on the paid sick leave front, the opportunity was there. But what was important for our brothers and sisters in this historic decision was that we needed to get as much for the members as possible since the negotiation would set a precedent and needed to fit the work lifestyle of our T&E membership. It is hard to overstate the service GC Lee, Vice President Jamie Modesitt, and all others at GO-049 have done for conductors of all carriers with this negotiation. If this agreement is approved, it’ll be a standard-bearing precedent. We must continue the push to be fairly compensated for the essential work we do. Pending the ratification vote, this needs to be the new standard for agreements going forward.
SMART-TD is deeply grateful for GC Lee’s leadership as they have not only made us proud but have also honored the work of the railroaders in the picture featured along with this article and all those men and women upon whose shoulders this union is lifted.
In Washington state, TD State Legislative Director (SLD) Herb Krohn has led the charge to gain protected unpaid time off for rail workers so, like most other workers in our nation, we don’t have to work while sick and can take leave to care for sick loved ones without fear of employer discipline and termination.
This legislation simply protects all railroad employees who mark off duty for their own health, the health of family members, fatigue or medical appointments. It protects railroaders for up to 90 unpaid days per year for these scenarios free from discipline or termination by railroad company employers.
Herb Krohn is SMART Transportation Division’s Washington state legislative director.
“The goal of this legislation is to provide job protections for railroaders to allow us all to be able to take care of ourselves and our loved ones without fear of discipline or losing our careers, not just to be a nameless cog in the wheel of the corporate money- machines of the railroad industry,” Krohn said.
Although ESSB 5267 would allow absences totaling up to 90 days each year, it does have some limitations. The first is that a carrier can request doctors’ notes for absences longer than five days in a row. Employees then have 30 days to provide the document to ensure workplace protections. Secondly, no use of time longer than 15 consecutive days is protected by this law, so employees who need additional time must request medical leaves of absence or FMLA.
Brother Krohn is known throughout SMART-TD as an innovator when it comes to the legislation he’s advanced in Washington state. The verbiage he has used for two-person crew legislation, among many other key issues, has widely been a template or best-demonstrated practice to guide SLDs’ progress around the country. As he’s achieved success, SMART-TD hasn’t been the only party that has taken notice.
BNSF, Union Pacific, and the short-line railroads of Washington have sent an army of consultants and lobbyists to counter Brother Krohn’s influence in Olympia. This is where our members come into play.
But this week, the fate of 90 available days of sick leave is on the line. Rail lobbyists have circled the wagons and likely are doing everything they can to influence your representatives with their bottomless checkbooks so they can continue to discipline and terminate rail workers for unpaid absences.
SMART-TD members need to apply the same influence with their voices. It’s time for us in the rail community to stop wishing “someone” would do something about our lack of time away from work, and start being that “someone.”
Please consider sharing any adverse experiences you’ve had regarding carriers’ attendance policies by calling them or emailing them.
With either method, letting your voice be heard and reminding them that your support at the ballot box should be taken into consideration will influence their vote on this important piece of legislation more than the carriers’ empty arguments can!
