Transportation News

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Medco, Express Scripts now combined

Medco and Express Scripts are now one company managing the prescription benefit for those whose health care plans include Express Scripts or Medco. You should continue to refill your prescriptions as you normally would by using your current prescription drug ID card, member I [...]

Register for hazmat training programs

Rail worker training in hazardous materials and chemical emergency response will be offered in Portland, Ore., Sept. 24-28, and in Houston, Texas, Dec. 3-7. Sponsored by the National Labor College, the training focuses on the Occupational Safety and Health Administration and [...]

UTU member dead in Iowa switching accident

MASON CITY, Iowa – Trainman Georgiy Soloviyov, 35, became the fifth UTU member killed on duty in 2012 following a Union Pacific yard accident here early July 31. Mason City is some 130 miles north of Des Moines, near the Minnesota border. Soloviyov, of Stanhope, Iowa, and a m [...]

BNSF intimidation alleged to extend to witnesses

The UTU and the Sheet Metal Workers International Association (SMWIA), along with two other rail labor organizations, have filed a complaint with the Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), alleging BNSF has expanded its harassment and inti [...]

Every tool in use to protect members’ jobs, safety

Delivering on the theme of the 2012 regional meetings – “We will not back down” – UTU International President Mike Futhey told more than 1,000 attendees at the Memphis meeting how the UTU is using every tool available – negotiations, legislative and legal — to defend it [...]

Second quarter 2012 rail profits wrap-up

BNSF reported a 16 percent increase in profit for the second quarter 2012 versus second quarter 2011. BNSF’s second quarter 2012 operating ratio of 71.1 percent was a more than 3 percentage point improvement over second quarter 2011. Operating ratio is a railroad’s operating [...]

November election all about saving middle-class

If you’re part of a working family and attracted to some of the positions of the Tea Party, you had best check the bait for a barbed hook intended to reel-in labor unions, government-provided benefits such as Railroad Retirement, Social Security, Medicare and unemployment ins [...]

OSHA reiterates zero tolerance for worker retaliation

Here we go again – or should we say, again and again and again and again. This time it is Canadian National’s Illinois Central Railroad and short line Chicago, Ft. Wayne & Eastern Railroad that have been hit with more than $650,000 in sanctions by the Department of Labor’ [...]

Update on congressional funding for Amtrak

Here is an update on federal funding to keep Amtrak operating. The House of Representatives in June approved a transportation funding bill — for the 12-month fiscal year that begins Oct. 1 — that includes $1.8 billion for Amtrak (H.R. 5972). This is an almost $400 [...]

FRA, OSHA to coordinate safety complaints

Following almost 1,000 complaints from rail workers that they were improperly disciplined for reporting injuries or unsafe working conditions, the Federal Railroad Administration and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration have forged an alliance to bring more press [...]