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 [...]
By James A. Williams General Chairperson, LACMTA Contract negotiations are underway between the UTU and the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (LACMTA). As required by California law, the parties exchanged proposals prior to April 1, and, as also dictate [...]
By Bonnie Morr Alternate Vice President-Bus The UTU, other labor unions and the Transportation Trades Department (TTD) of the AFL-CIO are jointly tackling workplace training, discipline and other workplace safety and economic issues on behalf of school bus drivers. Nationwide [...]
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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