Transportation News

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TWIC reforms moving through Congress

A Transportation Security Administration effort to help protect ports against terrorism was creation of a tamper-resistant biometric worker-access pass known as the Transportation Worker Identification Credential (TWIC) that is issued, in addition to maritime workers, to rail [...]

Wis. voters return labor-friendly majority to senate

Voters in Wisconsin appear to have returned control of the state senate to a labor-friendly majority, even though anti-union Gov. Scott Walker, anti-union Lt. Gov. Rebecca Kleefisch and three political extremist state senate candidates gained a victory in a recall election. T [...]

MOW workers on M&NA shortline ratify first pact

Turner UTU-represented maintenance-of-way employees on Missouri & North Arkansas Railroad, who chose the UTU as their bargaining representative in January, have ratified their first collective bargaining agreement. UTU Alternate Vice President Doyle Turner, who assisted w [...]

Funeral services set for slain LACMTA bus driver

Funeral services have been set for Alan Thomas, 51, a bus driver for the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority and member of Local 1563, who was murdered aboard his bus May 20 by a lone gunman. Services will be held Saturday, June 9, at 10 a.m. at the Secon [...]

Wisc. anti-union governor faces recall Tuesday

Voters in Wisconsin will decide Tuesday, June 5, whether to recall their anti-union Gov. Scott Walker, a recall election engineered largely by working families and union members after Walker successfully pushed state legislation to curtail collective bargaining rights of publ [...]

UTU VP’s niece ends life to escape bullying

Tori Nakol Swoape, a niece of UTU International Vice President Delbert Strunk, was, according to friends, a “beautiful” and “very bubbly” 15-year old high school sophomore. Tori committed suicide in May, the victim, say friends and family, of relentless physical and verbal bu [...]

Parliament ends 9-day CP Railway strike

OTTAWA – Some 4,800 striking Canadian Pacific Railway locomotive engineers, conductors and rail traffic controllers represented by the Teamsters Canada Rail Conference are returning to their jobs June 1 following final passage by Parliament of back-to-work legislation. The st [...]

Rail fatality in N.D.; amputation in Missouri

During the month of May, one UTU member was killed  in North Dakota in a rail switching accident, another was murdered on his bus route in Los Angeles, and another lost a foot in Missouri in a yard switching accident. On CP Rail (Soo Line) in Kenmare, N.D., conductor Robert J [...]

One-stop web address for rail health care info

Railroad employees and/or their eligible dependents covered under the national railroad medical, prescription drug, dental, vision, and life insurance benefits plans may now find information about those benefits on a single web page. The Railroad Information Depot webpage add [...]

Virginia SLD Walter Yeatts dead at 51

UTU Virginia State Legislative Director Walter W. Yeatts (UTU Local 971, Crewe, Va.) died unexpectedly Sunday, May 20. He had celebrated his 51st birthday May 12 and was a UTU member for more than 30 years, including service on Norfolk Southern and predecessor Norfolk & W [...]