Transportation News

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UTU member personally aides striking Teamsters

SAN ANTONIO — For the scores of Teamster Union members in their fourth week on the picket line here in a strike against Pioneer Flour Mill, times are tougher than usual. UTU Local 756 (UP, San Antonio) Chairperson John Dunn understands the hardship, and as so often occu [...]

Two nominated to NMB; await confirmation

WASHINGTON — Democrat Harry Hoglander has been nominated by President Obama for a fourth three-year term — this one to expire in June 2014 — on the three-member National Mediation Board, which administers the Railway Labor Act. Earlier this year, Obama nomin [...]

Great Lakes flight attendants ratify pact

Great Lakes Airlines flight attendants represented by UTU Local 40 have unanimously ratified a four-year agreement. The UTU represents some 300 flight attendants and pilots on this regional airline based in Cheyenne, Wyo., and with hubs in Albuquerque, N.M.; Billings, Mont.; [...]

T&E headcount continues slow climb back

Train and engine employment on the nation’s major railroads rose again in April and is more than six percent higher than one year ago, reports the U.S. Surface Transportation Board. The 62,872 train and engine workers employed by Class I railroads in April is still almo [...]

Amtrak CEO testifies on subsidies, security

WASHINGTON — Amtrak President Joseph Boardman told the Senate Appropriations Committee May 17 that Amtrak will never “be able to cut costs enough on long-distance trains to make them profitable. It becomes more a question of policy whether we are going to have bor [...]

Disciplined finance management has paid off

By General Secretary & Treasurer Kim Thompson Just as you balance your personal checkbook and compare income to expenses in making decisions where to spend and where to save, we at UTU International make similar decisions with your dues. Accepting responsibility to protec [...]

Pay, benefits keys to better bus safety

By Calvin StudivantAlternate vice president, Bus Department Fatigue management was a topic of significant importance earlier this month at a National Transportation Safety Board forum I attended in Washington, D.C. The troubling news from the forum is that non-union bus opera [...]

Former NFL player secure in NS cab

Football season is long over. The New York Jets never made it to the Super Bowl. National Football League players are locked out by their owners. The upcoming football season could be in jeopardy. And how about Norfolk Southern conductor and former Jets defensive back Keith F [...]

Two Border Patrol agents die in Ariz. train mishap

GILA BEND, Ariz. — A westbound Union Pacific freight train hit a U.S. Border Patrol SUV here May 12 as two Border Patrol agents, reportedly chasing suspected undocumented immigrants, suddenly entered an unmarked private crossing in their unmarked SUV as the train approa [...]

UTU driver uninjured in fatal Texas bus crash

VICTORIA, Texas — UTU member and Valley Transit bus operator Guadalupe Ruiz escaped injury May 12 when his bus was sideswiped by a pickup truck near here. Ruiz is a member of UTU Local 1670, Laredo, Texas. The Associated Press reports that one of the bus passengers was [...]