Tag: Colorado State Legislative Director Carl Smith

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You see headlines celebrating new laws, and receive our union’s messages asking for letters to our elected officials, but how does your advocacy lead to new laws? Here’s how the pieces fit together.

EAST PALESTINE AND THE RAIL SAFETY ACT

After the Feb 3rd, 2023, derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, the Rail Safety Act was introduced in Congress. The act will regulate safety issues like train lengths, blocked crossings, and protect the FRA’s minimum crew size rule.

But federal laws often follow states’ examples. To protect everyone, we begin in each state, each with its own challenges and opportunities.

Here’s how it worked in Colorado.

It took a well-coordinated effort by SMART-TD and many other groups in order to get the Colorado rail safety bill across the finish line.

NEW LAWS TAKE HARD WORK AND OLD FRIENDS

Colorado’s State Legislative Director Carl Smith has lobbied for SMART-TD in the statehouse for years. The first step for Smith and the state legislative board was to draft a new bill. As part of SMART’s national network, he could put a Colorado twist on similar legislation from other states.

Even with the attention brought by East Palestine, Smith knew getting his bill passed would be a challenge. The 2023 legislature was mid-session, with little time left for debate and amendments. He met with the leaders of both the House and Senate to make his case, convincing Senate Majority Leader Dominick Moreno to sponsor the bill.

With Moreno’s support, Smith began refining the bill with industry and other key stakeholders. Creating a law that worked for everyone complicated things. As the clock started to run out on the 2023 session, Moreno recommended that Smith refine it over the summer, then reintroduce the bill.

SMART-TD BUILDS A COALITION

With more time to organize, SLD Smith was able to recruit others to his cause. As a member of the AFL-CIO Colorado Executive Board, Smith negotiated their support. Smith also connected with an old friend, the director of the Blue/Green Alliance, who signed on as an ally. Both organizations would provide invaluable lobbying muscle and research support.

BNSF’S TRAP: DEATH BY COMMITTEE

Over the summer, Smith developed the bill with advice from the Joint Transportation Legislation Review Committee. He learned that bills championed by this group are considered an easy win in the legislature, as members of both houses in the committee essentially preapprove the bills chosen to adopt.

Good news: By the end of summer, the committee had agreed to take up Smith’s rail safety bill.

Bad news: BNSF lobbyists, working behind the scenes, had manipulated the advice given to Smith. Instead of a sure thing, our bill would compete with a dozen other initiatives — things like free bus passes for schoolchildren or funding for repairs for neglected rural highways. The committee would only adopt five bills and BNSF was sure ours wouldn’t make the cut.

SMART-TD MEMBERS TIP THE BALANCE

BNSF underestimated our influence. Smith’s coalition continued lobbying the committee to select our bill, but it needed an extra push. The leader of the group, Rep. Ty Winter (R), represents the district with the largest number of active and retired SMART-TD members in the state. SLD Smith called for support, and our members rose to the occasion. As calls and letters rolled in, Winters realized his voters were paying attention and wanted the new law. He came around.

A LETHAL BNSF DERAILMENT CLOSES A COLORADO INTERSTATE. OUR BILL MOVES FORWARD

President Biden and Colorado Gov. Jared Polis were planning an unrelated speech in Pueblo, Colorado, just as the main road into the town was closed to clean up a BNSF derailment. The accident, with fatal results on the interstate below, reminded all that railroads deserve closer scrutiny.

The derailment happened Oct. 15, 2023. By the 23rd our bill, now known as House Bill 24-1030, had been selected for the 2024 legislative session.

GAME ON: SMITH EXPANDS HIS COALITION

With the AFL-CIO and the Blue/Green Alliance aboard, Smith began to assemble a larger coalition.

Friends from the Coalition of Professional Firefighters, American Federation of Teachers, Colorado Education Association and SMART Sheet Metal Local 9 joined. Smith also made a case to his contacts in Colorado’s powerful community of environmental groups. Conservation Colorado, the Sierra Club, Natural Resources Defense Council, Trout Unlimited and Green Latinos all agreed to back the cause.

While many of these organizations resist efforts to expand oil and coal production or to lay track through Colorado’s pristine wilderness, they are powerful allies in the fight for safer rail operations. They supported SMART-TD’s bill, then spread the word as momentum grew.

THE WHEELS OF GOVERNMENT TURN SLOWLY

H.B. 24-1030 was among the first bills accepted in the 2024 session, and one of the last to make it to Gov. Polis. Along the way Smith helped the bill through multiple hearings, revisions, and delays.

Hostile lobbying from Union Pacific softened the bill, who threatened to sue the state if the bill passed. They claimed that federal rules regarding train length, blocked crossings, trackside detectors and union access to private property conflicted with the bill. Whether UP would win the lawsuit or not, an active lawsuit with the state would take years to resolve. This would prevent the state from negotiating much-needed regional passenger rail with UP, which is a top priority for the Governor’s office.

“While the bill we passed isn’t exactly the bill we started with, the future office of rail safety will be an additional tool to provide a safe workplace for SMART-TD members and a safer community for Colorado citizens. The office will collect valuable data on long trains, trackside detectors, blocked crossings and rail accidents, which we can then use for stronger rail safety legislation in the future.” Smith said.

HB24-1030 was signed into law by Colorado Gov. Jared Polis in a signing ceremony on May 10, 2024. SMART-TD’s battle continues.

ONE STEP AT A TIME

Colorado is one step closer to responsibly managed freight rail, and the nation is one step closer to the Railway Safety Act. Incremental wins like these, sometimes years in the making, would not be possible without SMART-TD and our members. Our state legislative directors have the tenacity and the connections to get the job done, as Colorado’s win shows.

Each new law results from a similar fight for our members. Our legislators step up wherever railroads choose to put profits above safety, and operating efficiency above respect for the communities where they operate.

Anyone who makes a career out of running the rails or drilling track lists in the yard has qualities that are hard to find in 2024. Rail workers are throwbacks to a time when hard work, dignity, and the ability to improvise and overcome were valued.

Not only are the men and women who make up our State Legislative Boards in touch with the working conditions they want to improve, but they have also made it in the world of railroading. That speaks to the qualities a person has at their core. When they roll into any state house in the country, they bring more than our message with them. They bring our swagger and our ingenuity, too.

One of the best examples is our State Legislative Board in Colorado. This group has been on the cutting edge of this organization and has been taking the state house in Denver by storm.

Carl Smith, SMART-TD’s state legislative director in Colorado, has 12 years of experience in his role and a team of legislative representatives (LRs) around him as hungry for improvements as they are effective.

Gov. Jared Polis signs Colorado’s rail safety bill H.B. 1030 on May 10, 2024.

This win creates oversight that should put safety first

Smith’s team in Colorado pushed their state to become among the first in the country to adopt 2PC, and succeeded for the members of SMART-TD yet again in their fight for the Colorado Rail Safety Act.

The act (H.B. 1030) is a comprehensive rail safety package that will provide protection for our members in the Mile High State and set a precedent for what we can achieve nationwide. It combines policies that proved successful in other states, and reads like a SMART-TD highlight reel:

  • Creates the Colorado Office of Rail Safety monitoring the following throughout Colorado:
    • HazmatTrain lengthRail operationsTrack conditionsMechanicalSignal systems
    • Blocked crossings
  • Doubles the number of rail safety inspectors in the state
  • Reinforces the role of SMART-TD and all rail labor organizations in investigations,
  • Provides for training for first responders,
  • Reinforces whistleblower protections for railroad workers,
  • Regulates the placement and enforcement of wayside defect detectors.

Why we do it

On May 10, 2024, Gov. Jared Polis signed the Colorado RSA into law. When the ink dried on his signature, it cemented yet another win for Smith, Colorado’s Legislative Board, workers’ rights, public safety, and common sense.

SMART-TD wants to thank and congratulate SLD Carl Smith, the Colorado Legislative Board, and, most importantly, our Colorado members. We appreciate your fight for this bill, and your victory will pave the way for a heightened level of safety for thousands of your brothers and sisters far beyond the borders of your state.

This victory was not gift-wrapped for SMART-TD. Railroad lobbyists and the legislators they have in their camp threw more than one curveball at Brother Smith and his legislative board, which we’ll get into in a future article. The professionalism of this group of LRs is an excellent example of what this organization is capable of!

Editors are entitled to take liberties with what they put in their columns. This is not new to the editorial pages, and the SMART Transportation Division (SMART-TD), the nation’s largest freight rail union, is never shy about expressing its opinion, either. But there is a distinct difference between an intelligent editorial based on facts and an unhinged hit piece on a public figure with different views than your newspaper’s.

On April 24th, the Denver Gazette and owner Phil Anshutez, who also has ownership ties to the Union Pacific Railroad in addition to former ownership of both the Southern Pacific Railway and the DRGW Railroad, crossed that line.

SMART-TD Colorado State Legislative Director Carl Smith
SMART-TD Colorado State Legislative Director Carl Smith

Omitting the fact that this newspaper is owned by a man who has owned up to 6% of the UP is not a crime. It is noteworthy and shaky from a journalistic and editorial perspective. Mr. Anshutez, like every American, has freedom of speech as given to him by the First Amendment of the United States Constitution. This right entitles him to publish whatever he would like without being punished by imprisonment. It does NOT, however, entitle him to publish unfounded, ignorant statements about the SMART Transportation Division’s leaders without receiving a response.

The editorial “Radical bill seeks to regulate trains” targets Colorado House Bill 1030 and, more personally, myself. I serve as SMART-TD’s Colorado State Legislative Director and am the “union boss” referred to. I also have worked on the railroad since 1995.

What has Anshutez angry is that the bill’s goals are to limit train length in a state that famously features the Rocky Mountains as well as to clarify that union representatives have the right to be on-site and involved during investigations of rail accidents. Anshutez and his editorial board said these provisions were “concocted by union bosses, who fund Democratic campaigns to give them more power and control over what they don’t own.”

The first part of this statement and the last part are 100% true. The SMART-TD’s Legislative Board think our crews should not be doubling up five tracks and pulling 14,000-foot trains through mountains on 2% grades. Nobody denies that. And when our members are involved in a derailment, and the company is investigating to determine the cause, you are damn right SMART-TD has a dog in that fight. We believe wholeheartedly that workers have the right to be represented during any investigation to make sure they don’t become the railroad’s scapegoat for management’s failings.

Additionally, Anshutez is correct in saying that we (SMART-TD) don’t own the railroads. If we did, they wouldn’t be the hot mess they are today. Any reasonable railroad worker would not ask another to risk personal safety or that of the communities they travel through to make a few extra dollars for Wall Street investors to pad their dividend. Management, on the other hand, would if it saw a self-serving benefit — similar to an editorial being written at the behest of the owner of the publication.

The rest of the Gazette’s column is both ridiculous and false. There’s a clumsy comparison of our rail safety bill to Jim Crow laws. It concludes with a dire warning about taking free speech away from “wedding artists.” In the midst of the disjointed ramblings, rail labor and HB 1030’s rail safety provisions enter the mix as do pleas to prevent corporate victimhood. The column was long, with no rhyme or reason for how it was built — much like the trains UP and BNSF send to run through the mountains of Colorado with a hope and a prayer that it would stay together and reach a successful conclusion without breaking apart to please the boss and live to work another day.

As for the allegation that this bill is being pushed by “radical legislative Democrats” and that it was “concocted by union bosses, who fund Democratic campaigns,” Anshutez, the railroads’ and the Associations of American Railroads’ agenda come clear.

Labor — the people who do the work — are the driving force behind this legislation. But make no mistake, the people whom this union represents, cannot be confused with radical leftists. This union is very clear that we support candidates on both sides of the aisle. We classify office holders and candidates as “With us” or “Against us,” not Republican or Democrat. W’s and A’s matter. D’s and R’s do not in our organization.

We don’t have time to waste on blanket ideology, and our members are all over the political spectrum. SMART-TD endorsed Republican U.S. Sen. Mike Braun for the governor’s race in Indiana recently, and we have a higher percentage of our PAC dollars going to Republicans than other unions, even within rail labor.

A bill similar to HB 1030 is gathering momentum in Nebraska as we speak. By the Denver Gazette’s logic, Nebraska must also be run by “radical legislative Democrats!” Either that or, much like Colorado, this bill is what happens when SMART-TD has good leadership in place who push for legislation based on common sense that makes our members safer on the job.

In short, Anshutez and his newspaper have no idea what they are talking about.

HB 1030 has momentum in this session based on being chosen as one of five priority bills by a bipartisan committee made up of both House Representatives and Colorado Senators known as the Transportation Legislation Review Committee (TLRC).

The difference between this Colorado Subcommittee and the owner of the Denver Gazette/railroad shareholder is that the committee is made up of people with years of experience in transportation issues whose goal is to better the lives of the people of the state. The Denver Gazette’s goal is to sell newspapers and ad space to companies. Anshutez wins when railroads such as UP and BNSF.

That editorial moves the ball toward those goals. For the worker, the public and the supply chain at large, not so much.

Carl Smith has been the SMART Transportation Division’s state legislative director for 12 years.

BNSF and UP have made a solid investment in lobbyists in Colorado and they’re getting their money’s worth.

In 2023, SMART-TD Colorado State Legislative Director Carl Smith put forward a solid railroad safety bill to the Legislature that your union wholeheartedly supported. Brother Smith has been SLD for 11 years now and knows how to do his job in the statehouse effectively for our members, getting two-person crew legislation successfully in 2019. His experience told him that the best ally he could have to carry the bill was Senate Majority Leader Dominick Moreno.

Colorado’s Legislature is only in session for 120 days every year. Accordingly, they have a limit on how many bills any state rep or senator can put forward. Smith getting SMART-TD’s Rail Safety Act sponsored by the Senate Majority Leader was a major win for us and for railroad safety as a whole. But then Moreno got less and less enthusiastic about pushing for our bill as the session went on.

Eventually his office told Smith that they thought our legislation was a perfect fit for a bipartisan select committee — the Transportation Legislation Review Committee (TLRC) — focused on transportation bills. Our union was glad to hear that because it is a bipartisan committee with members from both the House of Representatives and the Senate and when bills are selected for support from the committee, they have a history of being unstoppable in the following years legislative session.

It all sounded promising. But shortly after diverting the bill to this group, Sen. Moreno abruptly resigned and accepted a high-ranking position on the staff of Denver’s new mayor.

Last month, Smith and his legislative board were given their opportunity to present their argument as to why their Rail Safety Act was worthy of the TLRC’s support. At this meeting, they found out that they had about a 33 percent chance of successfully making it through a gauntlet while competing against 13 others bills to become one of five bills endorsed by the committee.

It turns out the mastermind who put our rail safety bill into this competition wasn’t Moreno. It was the BNSF lobbyist who gets $80,000/month from the railroad to pull slick maneuvers like this one and kill railroad safety projects. This discovery was the part in this “Scooby Doo”-style caper where Brother Smith pulled the mask of the bad guys, and it turned out to be the Railroads and their lobbyists.  

The bills that SMART is now competing against include easy-to-get-behind items like child-seat safety, free public-transit passes for students and even state highway repairs. What BNSF, UP and their high-paid lobbyists have created a scenario where they don’t have to actively campaign against the value of a rail safety bill. That would create bad press for them and an obvious pressure point for SMART-TD and the rest of rail labor to call them out. Rather than lobbying against our bill, all they need to do is campaign FOR all the other bills. It is almost impossible to create bad press for themselves for supporting improvements to safety in children’s car seats! They just have to prop up five of the other 13 bills and never have to do the work of opposing SMART’s message on long trains, blocked crossings and the rest of the commons-sense protections we’ve been advancing.

On the positive side, Brother Smith has informed the international office that Colorado’s RSA has made it through the first hurdle of this competition. Fourteen bills that were presented in June were narrowed down to 10 finalists on Aug. 21st. Colorado’s rail safety bill is still standing.

The remaining 10 finalists will be cut to five winners and five losers October 3. We are asking for the support of all our members in the State of Colorado to reach out to the 20 members of the TLRC. Let them know that you are a Colorado voter and taxpayer who stands on the side of railroad safety.

Please follow the link provided to our Legislative Action Center to submit a prewritten comment to your legislators. They need to know that we are aware of what is going on and that we are keeping track of who supports our mission of rail safety and who does not.

In Colorado’s House District 47 alone, there are over 300 SMART-TD members. The representative in that district, Ty Winter, is on the TLRC. Representative Winter, when asked by SMART-TD for his support for the legislation responded in writing by saying that, “A major concern MY STAKEHOLDERS’ have with this bill is that it significantly cuts the train length; reducing the train length will substantially cut profits, burdening these companies.”   

Colorado members, we absolutely need to remind Rep Winter who his “STAKEHOLDERS” are. We work, live and pay taxes in this state and in his district. WE are his stakeholders — not the carriers, not the railroad bosses like Katie Farmer and Jim Vena of the bloated owning class, and not the lobbyists who make more in a month than our new hires make in a year!

Lance Fritz, president and chief executive officer of the Union Pacific Railroad, is on his way out the door after announcing in late February that he will vacate his office by the end of 2023. Though there is no publicly announced date for his departure, his hand is on the ripcord and he’s preparing to deploy that golden parachute.

That being said, SMART Transportation Division Colorado State Legislative Director Carl Smith didn’t want Fritz to go without a little something to remember his legislative committee by. But rather than going with the cliché of getting Fritz a ritzy timepiece and a handshake, he rented a digital billboard truck to track Fritz around Colorado for four days in early April.

As Fritz took the executive business car around Smith’s state, he was escorted by the billboard truck that showed rotating signs that featured several messages regarding Colorado’s rejection of Precision Scheduled Railroading (PSR), such as “Our Mile-High State Doesn’t Need 3 mile-long trains!” and, “It can happen here too!” with pictures of the derailment and hazmat spill in East Palestine, Ohio. Messages on the truck’s rolling billboards included a QR code that could be scanned by anyone who saw it and took people directly to the SMART Legislative Action Center, where people could support national rail safety legislation.

In these photos courtesy SMART-TD Local 202, an advertising truck appears in various locations in Colorado showing messages concerning rail safety.

The truck made several stops mirroring Fritz’s Mile High State tour. First, the truck went to the Rocky Mountain Train Show at the National Western Complex in Denver. Per the train show’s website, this event averages 11,000 attendees as the largest train show west of the Mississippi River. SLD Smith had the truck there both days of the show and prompted many discussions among the train enthusiasts in attendance.

The truck stayed in Denver over the weekend but did not only target the good people attending the show. It also made its way to three governmental functions. On Saturday, the truck and its messages could be seen circling Colorado’s statehouse as legislators were holding a rare weekend session. Additionally, the truck’s presence was felt at the Colorado Democratic Assembly meeting in Denver. On Saturday evening there was a large gathering of legislators and dignitaries at what is called the Colorado Obama Gala which features the former president and all the press that naturally follows him. As you might have guessed, Smith made sure SMART-TD’s anti-PSR message crashed that, too.

On April 3, Fritz and his entourage took UP’s business train to LaSalle, Colo., for a meeting. If they thought not being in Denver would spare them the presence of Smith’s billboard truck, they were undoubtedly disappointed that it had made the 50-mile journey north to greet them in LaSalle.

On April 4, Fritz held a legislative breakfast meeting on the business train. Brother Smith and his truck made sure they made their presence felt their too. UP’s attempt to get these legislators’ undivided attention was disrupted by the Smith’s inconvenient reminder that there are real-world consequences attached to the empty rhetoric of the rail carriers and their lobbyists try to sell.

The graphics for the signs were put together in house by SMART-TD’s PR staff, and the cost for the truck was shared between the Colorado State Legislative committee, Local 202 out of Denver and other local boards of adjustment.

This effort on the part of the Colorado Legislative Committee was not all about making departing CEO Fritz and co. aware of SMART-TD’s objections to the way they run a railroad, and the public awareness the truck created throughout the state has an additional purpose.

Brother Smith has a three-pronged bill to be introduced in the halls of Colorado’s Legislature. His bill looks to directly undo some of the basic problems our faces in the era of PSR. The legislation has not been assigned a bill number yet, but seeks to limit train lengths, regulate the use of hot box defect detectors in the state and bring about penalties for the carriers to discourage blocked crossings.

Getting his box truck in front of as many Colorado voters, and news cameras as possible was a unique and creative kickoff to Smith’s campaign to get this important legislation the momentum it needs.

SMART-TD wants to thank Brother Smith, Local 202, and all the men and women who made this possible. We look forward to reporting on the progress of your bill as it makes its way through the process of becoming the law of the land in the great state of Colorado, and we hope you never stop fighting for our members!

Colorado Gov. Jared Polis signs H.B. 1034 on March 21, a law making two-person freight crews required on the state’s rails.

On March 21, 2019, Colorado Gov. Jared Polis signed legislation into law that requires that all freight trains in the state are operated by a crew of at least two individuals.
The signing of H.B. 1034 caps a massive effort by SMART Transportation Division members that spanned years in the face of carrier opposition.
“It was a long haul and took a lot of time and energy on the part of many, many people,” Colorado State Legislative Director Carl Smith said. “Our concerted efforts did pay off, and it will ensure that the state’s railways stay safe with two crew members in each freight train’s cab.”
Smith and the Colorado State Legislative Board had an earlier two-person crew bill die in the state Senate in 2016, but tenaciously renewed their efforts early this year by gathering a broad group of supporters that included members from the six TD locals in the state, retirees, the Colorado AFL-CIO, Colorado Professional Firefighters, Conservation Colorado and American Federation of Teachers.
H.B. 1034 was first introduced by state Reps. Tom Sullivan and Daneya Esgar on Jan. 4, passed committee and was initially passed, 39-23, on Feb. 5 by the full House. State Sen. Jessie Danielson was the bill’s prime sponsor in the Senate, where it passed, 19-15, on Feb. 25 after amendment. The House passed the amended bill again March 4 by an identical 39-23 vote, putting the bill on Polis’ desk.
Smith

“Without these legislators’ understanding of the importance of this issue to the safety of our state’s railways, this would not have been possible,” Smith said.
Also helping the cause was strong public recognition by Colorado residents and legislators that train crew size is a safety-oriented issue.
On Jan. 9, the Colorado State Legislative Board released the results of a survey that showed strong support among Coloradans for a law requiring two-person crews. The survey, conducted Jan. 2 – Jan. 5, asked 550 random Colorado residents older than 18, using both cell phones and landlines, about issues centered around railroad safety. The results showed that 77 percent of Coloradans said that, given the chance, they would vote in favor of a two-person crew law.
A website (www.corailsafe.com) established by the state legislative board and a coalition of TD members and members of other unions also assisted in spreading understanding about the importance of the two-person legislation in Colorado, which joins Arizona, California, West Virginia and Wisconsin as states that have legislation requiring two people to operate freight trains.
“I am very pleased that Colorado has adopted this sensible requirement,” SMART Transportation Division National Legislative Director John Risch said. ”This is a matter of public safety, plain and simple. Freight railroad operations are complex and often entail the transport of highly hazardous materials; two crew members are vital to ensuring that these trains are operated safely and that our communities are secure.”
The Colorado law takes effect July 1.

Two-person freight crew safety legislation is one step closer to becoming law in Colorado with the state Senate’s passage of House Bill 1034 (H.B. 1034).
After its 19-15 passage on Feb. 25 in the Senate, the bill is on the desk of Democratic Gov. Jared Polis for consideration after a successful March 4 reconciliation vote in the House.
Polis has three options — signing the bill to make it state law, vetoing the bill or not signing the bill. If he chooses not to sign the bill, it will then become law after 10 days of inaction.
“We need to let the governor know that this is a grassroots effort with the safety of the public in mind,” Colorado State Legislative Director Carl Smith said.
Through the process, members in the state, as well as their families and friends, have been instrumental in supporting the efforts of the Colorado State Legislative Board to get the two-person crew bill through the Legislature and onto the governor’s desk.
Help is needed one more time for that final push. Members, their families and friends in Colorado all can voice their support for the legislation by following the link below:
Show your support for the Colorado two-person crew bill.
Smith said that he is optimistic that Polis, who as a U.S. representative was a co-sponsor of the 2017 Safe Freight Act legislation, will support the bill once he hears from SMART members, their families and anyone else in the state who is concerned about rail safety.
H.B. 1034 first passed the Colorado House on Feb. 5 by a 39-23 vote.

The state of Colorado is one step closer to having a two-person crew law on the books. After a third reading of House Bill 1034 (HB19-1034), a vote was taken on the house floor Feb. 5, and the bill passed with a vote of 39 – 23.
“We are glad the Colorado House of Representatives care about railroad worker safety and community safety for the citizens of the state,” Colorado State Legislative Director Carl Smith said. “We are confident that the state Senate will hold the same beliefs.”
On Jan. 9, the Colorado State Legislative Board released the results of a survey conducted by DFM Research on behalf of SMART TD showing that Coloradans held strong support for two-person crews. The survey, conducted Jan. 2 – 5, 2019, asked 550 random Colorado residents about issues centered on railroad safety. The results showed that 77 percent of Coloradans said that they would vote in favor of two-person crews if given the chance.
Click here to follow the progress of HB19-1034.

SMART Transportation Division Colorado State Legislative Director Carl Smith reports that efforts by some state legislators to advance a Right to Work For Less bill were stopped in committee.
By a 6-3 vote, members of the state House’s Colorado House State, Veterans & Military Affairs Committee voted to postpone the bill indefinitely, effectively killing it.
It was the second time in two years that politicians in Colorado tried to undermine the right to union representation in that state, Smith said.
He said that many SMART members from both TD and sheet metal sides turned out Jan. 24 in Denver to have their voices heard by legislators.
The bill, this time known as HB18-1030 “Prohibit Discrimination Labor Union Participation,” was primarily sponsored by state Rep. Justin Everett and state Sen. Tim Neville, both Republicans.
Ten additional representatives and two additional senators also were signed on as sponsors of HB18-1030. The representatives were Perry Buck, Stephen Humphrey, Timothy Leonard, Kimmi Lewis, Patrick Neville, Kim Ransom, Lori Saine, Kevin Van Winkle, Dave Williams and Cole Wist.
The senators were Chris Holbert and Vicki Marble.
SMART TD members in Colorado are encouraged to vote accordingly the next time they see these politicians’ names listed on the ballot.

SMART Transportation Division Colorado State Legislative Director Carl Smith reports that legislators in his state are again considering a Right to Work For Less bill.
This is the second time in two years that politicians are attempting to undermine the right to union representation in that state, Smith said. The bill, this time known as HB18-1030 “Prohibit Discrimination Labor Union Participation,” is scheduled to be heard in the Colorado House State, Veterans & Military Affairs Committee at 1:30 p.m. Wednesday, Jan. 24.
“Last year, we were able to provide excellent testimony and pack the room to defeat this bad legislation and send a strong statement on our thoughts about the bill,” Smith said.
Smith again asks members to unite to provide a strong turnout in opposition to this attack and is seeking SMART TD members in his state to testify before the committee in Denver.
To sign up, visit this link: https://goo.gl/forms/JhLmxn5Q9h4Dycyr2 or email Smith at ColoSMARTUnion@gmail.com.
The goal of this type of legislation ultimately is to reduce your wages – to take money out of your pocket and to further line the pocketbooks of businesses at your expense. Right to Work For Less bills are falsely portrayed by their corporate-friendly backers as anti-discriminatory or as preserving individual rights. In reality, this kind of legislation is a thinly-veiled attempt to bust unions, to jeopardize union members’ livelihoods by making workplaces more dangerous and to maximize business profits by paying you less.
In 2008, Colorado voters were on our side and overwhelmingly rejected a ballot initiative that tried to install Right to Work For Less legislation in the state.
But since then, Smith said, misguided anti-union legislators have continued to introduce Right To Work For Less bills.
In this latest attempt, Colorado Rep. Justin Everett and state Sen. Tim Neville, both Republicans, are the primary sponsors. Everett’s office phone number is 303-866-2927. Neville’s is 303-866-4873.
Ten additional representatives and two additional senators also are signed on as sponsors of HB18-1030.
The representatives are Perry Buck, Stephen Humphrey, Timothy Leonard, Kimmi Lewis, Patrick Neville, Kim Ransom, Lori Saine, Kevin Van Winkle, Dave Williams and Cole Wist.
The senators are Chris Holbert and Vicki Marble.
Once we have come together to crush this legislative attack on our union and others, SMART TD members in Colorado are encouraged to remember this betrayal and to vote accordingly the next time they see these politicians’ names on the ballot.