SMART Constitution Complete and Available Online

We are pleased, as your General President and Transportation Division President, to present the first SMART Constitution and Ritual to our membership. This is a milestone for both the former Sheet Metal Workers’ International Association and the United Transportation Union th [...]

ITI completes installation of TotalTrack in all U.S. JATCs

TotalTrack, the database system that puts all apprentice and training journeymen information in one place, has been installed in all U.S. training centers. Developed by the International Training Institute, TotalTrack simplifies the work of instructors and training coordinato [...]

Red Wing recalls 42 styles of safety footwear

Red Wing Shoes has recalled 42 styles of steel toe safety footwear.  A defect in the steel toe cap may result in the cap failing to meet voluntary industry safety standards and may not withstand impact. The footwear was sold between December 2012 and November 2013. There are [...]

FRA to rule on in-cab train cameras

Two U.S. senators say a federal rail safety agency plans to propose a rule regarding the installation of video cameras aboard trains to monitor drivers and record accidents. Sen. Charles Schumer, of New York, and Richard Blumenthal, of Connecticut, said Sunday that they had b [...]

Senators call for review of oil shipments by rail

WASHINGTON Two Senate committee chairmen asked the secretaries of transportation and energy on Thursday to take “prompt and decisive action” to resolve recent safety problems with crude oil transported by rail. A series of fiery derailments, including a deadly wreck in Quebec [...]

LaHood to co-chair Building America's Future

Two former leading U.S. transportation officials who left the Obama administration in recent months were named on Wednesday to new private-sector posts. Ray LaHood, the former U.S. Secretary of Transportation, will join a Washington, D.C-based advocacy group, where he will pu [...]

Keolis wins MBTA commuter rail contract

The Massachusetts Department of Transportation’s board of directors today unanimously voted to accept the T’s recommendation that Keolis, a French rail company, take over operation of the state’s commuter rail system, winning the state’s largest operating contract in history. [...]

Railroading’s big oil boom

On Dec. 30, BNSF Railway executive chairman Matthew Rose told the Dallas Business Journal that his sprawling 32,000-mile railroad would move 1 million barrels of crude oil every day by the end of 2014, nearly a seventh the total amount that was produced in the United States i [...]

Sen. Heitkamp pressures for rail crash information

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Heidi Heitkamp called on the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) to release information on its inspections of the rail where a train recently derailed in North Dakota. Noting that four derailments have occurred in the Casselton area in nine y [...]