If you are planning to retire in the coming months, you are sure to have concerns and many more questions. Understanding retirement benefits, Medicare and Medigap – and, especially, assuring you obtain all you are entitled to – is no simple task. There is help, however, and S [...]
(The following is a security alert from the UTU’s Rail Safety Task Force.) Rail security remains a constant threat to the nation’s railroads and our members. President Futhey wrote of this concern in a recent leadership message, “We need training to spot tro [...]
The maximum daily benefit rate payable for claims under the Railroad Unemployment Insurance Act increases to $66 from $64 in the new benefit year, which begins July 1, reports the Railroad Retirement Board. Benefits are normally paid for the number of days of unemployment or [...]
By UTU International President Mike Futhey The recent tragic, senseless and violent murder in New Orleans of CSX conductor Fred Gibbs, and wounding of the train’s engineer (a potential witness whose name is being withheld), accelerates an already urgent need for better [...]
By International President Mike Futhey Train and engine employees are the eyes and ears of every railroad, and most often the first to recognize threats and provide a response. The post 9/11 environment dangers now include foreign terrorist threats as well as home-grown threa [...]
Railroad retirement benefits are subject to reduction if an employee with less than 30 years of service retires before attaining full retirement age. While employees with less than 30 years of service may still retire at age 62, the age at which full retirement benefits are p [...]
When Art Anderson started working for passenger railroads, the Beatles were still together, and everyone still dressed up for work, according to the Chicago Sun-Times. “Things are a lot more casual these days,” said Anderson, 59, who retires next month after 42 ye [...]
UTU retiree John Hageman was recently re-elected to his fourth four-year term as city councilman in Fitzgerald, Ga. This is not surprising, since the 84-year-old Hageman’s forefathers helped found the town back in 1895. Fitzgerald is a town of about 9,500 residents in s [...]
A new benefit year for jobless and sickness benefits under the Railroad Unemployment Insurance Act begins July 1, 2010, the Railroad Retirement Board reports. Administered by the Railroad Retirement Board (RRB), this law provides two kinds of benefits for qualified railroader [...]
Employees at the nation’s largest rail yard, the Union Pacific yard in North Platte, Neb., can now voluntarily and anonymously report “close-call” incidents that could have resulted in an accident, but did not, without fear of sanction or penalty from their [...]
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