SEATTLE — SMART Transportation Division’s Washington State Legislative Board, represented by Legislative Director Herb Krohn, gave awards to a number of state legislators supportive of the union’s safety efforts at July’s regional meeting.
Receiving Golden Spike Awards for “exemplary leadership in advocating for legislation to protect the safety of both railroad workers and the general public” were state Sens. Steve Conway (D – Dist. 29) and Patty Kuderer (D – Dist. 48).
When receiving his award, Conway talked about the need for multiple-person crews on trains and the vital support crewmembers provide to first responders when a rail accident happens.
“We’re going to get that bill,” Conway said. “We’re going to get it passed.”
Kuderer, an attorney who worked on a number of railroad-related cases, is a “magnificent advocate” for rail safety, Krohn said, and had a hand in the state hearings regarding the aftermaths of both the 1993 Kelso accident and the 2015 Stampede Pass incident in which a train came apart during a blizzard.
In her speech accepting the award, Kuderer talked about how her grandfather, a union railroader, and later her grandmother could stay in their home after retirement thanks to a pension that unions fought for and protected.
However, the recent Janus v. AFSCME decision places those things in jeopardy.
“There’s direct evidence that unions work and they’re not the problem,” Kuderer said. “I think what we need to do is to fight fire with fire. The Freedom Foundation is not going to give up. The Koch brothers aren’t going to give up. Big money interests, they’re not going to give up. But we have something more than they have – we have numbers, we have people, and we need to communicate the message of the unions more effectively to people to make them understand why it’s important to be a part of it.
“Just know that here in Washington, we’re going to do what we can to continue to protect unions and working families,” she said.
State Sen. Steve Hobbs (D – Dist. 44) received the Washington State Legislative Board’s 2018 Senator of the Year award for support of rail labor and working to lead the state’s Transportation Committee.
“If you don’t remember about the people – the people that drive the buses, the people that are on the rail cars, the people that fly the planes – then you’ve missed the point about transportation,” Hobbs said. “Because transportation is not just about getting people from Point A to Point B or getting your product from Point A to Point B, it’s about connecting people, building relationships.”
State Rep. Mike Sells (D – Dist. 38) was given a Golden Lantern award as the 2018 Representative of the Year. Sells leads the Washington State House Labor and Workplace Standards Committee and has sponsored or co-sponsored “every piece of legislation that we’ve introduced on rail safety,” Krohn said.
Three state senators also were recognized for their advocacy and full support of TD legislation.
State Sens. Marilyn Chase (D – Dist. 32), Mark Miloscia (R – Dist. 30) and Hans Zeiger (D – Dist. 25) all were given awards for voting for 100 percent of TD safety legislation and for their 100% sponsorship or co-sponsorship records for all TD-supported legislation over the past six years.
In addition to Krohn, Assistant State Legislative Director Steve Mazulo of Local 855 and Darren Volland, legislative representative of Local 426, served as the host local committee for the meeting at the Westin hotel in Seattle.
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UTU General Chairperson Rich Draskovich (Union Pacific, GO 953) has been recognized by the National Mediation Board (NMB) for “a special achievement” in helping reduce the agency’s backlog of rail-labor grievances.
In presenting the award, NMB Chairman Harry Hoglander said Draskovich, on behalf of the UTU, and in concert with Union Pacific and CSX, provided “essential support, leadership, dedication and expertise” in helping the NMB launch a program to attract a diversified pool of 91 new rail arbitrators.
Draskovich served as a classroom instructor at a CSX facility and on three multi-facility tours of Union Pacific across Nebraska, explaining rail operations and craft assignments and skills to more than 255 potential new arbitrators who responded to a recruitment drive by the NMB.
The addition of qualified rail arbitrators is intended to speed further the determination of grievances that reach public law boards and special boards of adjustment created under provisions of the Railway Labor Act.
NMB arbitrators have been “overloaded with cases in recent years, and justice delayed is justice denied,” Hoglander said.
To assure new arbitrators understand the rail industry and rail culture, Draskovich helped to develop and initiate the training program.
Included in the training was the presentation of 33 examples of discipline and rules violations that typically might be heard by a railroad arbitrator.
In recent years, the NMB has reduced the backlog of grievances from more than 5,500 to around 300, with some 2,700 new cases being filed annually.
Rich Draskovich, right, with NMB Chairman Harry Hoglander