News Archive
Medicare Part B premium will rise in 2012
The Medicare Part B premium will rise by $3.50 monthly to $99.90 monthly beginning Jan. 1, according to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. This is the first increase in the Part B premium in two years. For Medicare participants who first enrolled in 2010 and 20 [...]
UTU PAC supports all UTU’s lawmaker friends
LaTourette WASHINGTON – While organized labor has more friends in the Democratic Party, and carriers have more friends in the Republican Party, there are many Republicans who are friends of organized labor – and the UTU’s bi-partisan approach to politics recognizes this. One [...]H&W enrollment return deadline nearing
Nov. 11 is the deadline for returning to Railroad Enrollment Services the annual health and welfare enrollment materials for railroad employees and/or dependents covered under the National Railway Carriers and United Transportation Union (NRC/UTU) Health and Welfare Plan. For [...]UTU S. Florida Tri-Rail agreement finalized
Previsich Operations center employees of South Florida Tri-Rail, who voted UTU “yes” early in 2011, have their first collective bargaining agreement in place. It provides for a signing bonus; an immediate wage increase, plus additional wage increases in 2012 and 2013; a 40-ho [...]
Alumni Association: The best $9 investment out there
By Carl CochranUTU Alumni Association Coordinator So you’ve invested 40 years of your life working on the railroad or with a bus or transit agency. You paid your dues – figuratively and literally – to your employer and to your union. Maybe you were an officer in your local, o [...]Safety advisory on autorack cars
A safety advisory on autorack cars has been issued by the Association of American Railroads. Some of these cars have been found to have cut convenience handles, ladder rungs and/or fasteners missing from these devices. Convenience handles are those handles mounted on end door [...]Federal charges target LIRR disability claims
A former president of a UTU local, a former Railroad Retirement Board employee, two physicians and six workers retired from Long Island Rail Road have been charged by the federal government with criminal fraud involving allegedly false Long Island Rail Road employee occupatio [...]Wrap up: Major rails’ 3d quarter 2011 profits
BNSF reported a 9 percent improvement in profit for the third quarter 2011 versus the third quarter 2010. The third-quarter operating ratio of 71.7 percent was slightly higher than the 70.8 percent for third-quarter 2010. Operating ratio is a railroad’s operating expenses exp [...]