Transportation News

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Quadrennial convention update for delegates

The UTU International is receiving questions about the quadrennial convention, Aug. 8-12, at the Westin Diplomat, Hollywood, Fla. Delegates will receive, by early April, a packet explaining room reservation procedures and other convention details. Room reservations will be ha [...]

Record profits, but UP opposes PTC costs

On the same day (Jan. 20) Union Pacific reported record fourth quarter and record calendar year 2010 profits, UP Chairman Jim Young said he is headed to Washington to meet with President Obama’s economic advisers to oppose a congressional mandate that railroads implemen [...]

Female first on railroad of 9/11 heroes

UTU member Patricia Smith, a conductor with the Port Authority Trans-Hudson Railway (PATH), has been elected general chairperson (GO 795, Local 1413, Jersey City, N.J.) — the first female general chairperson in the 103-year-history of PATH. A subsidiary of the Port Auth [...]

Key congressman urges private sector HSR

WASHINGTON — There is a lot of talk, hope and hype about high-speed rail in the United States, but savvy policy analysts, planners and economists expect only a very few of those projects to move forward in the near future. One such project high on the list of pragmatist [...]

Rail, transit and bus together in St. Paul

Decades ago, the chairman of New York Central Railroad complained that while freight could move cross country without being transferred from one boxcar to another, transcontinental passengers often had to change trains in Chicago. Even today, on Amtrak, passengers must change [...]

Two Senate friends of labor to retire

WASHINGTON — Two friends of labor — Democratic Senators Kent Conrad (N.D.) and Joseph Lieberman (Conn.) — say they will retire at the end of the 112th Congress in 2012. Conrad is completing his fifth six-year term; Lieberman completing his fourth six-year te [...]

A railroad quiz: Remember when?

When we talk about Class I railroads (the largest of railroads with annual freight revenue of at least $378.8 million), most of us can name the carriers in a matter of seconds. They are BNSF, Canadian National, Canadian Pacific, CSX, Kansas City Southern, Norfolk Southern, an [...]

Amtrak contract talks: January 2011 update

The following update on Amtrak negotiations is from UTU General Chairperson Roger Lenfest (GO 769), who is the UTU lead negotiator. The UTU International is not participating in the talks. Under the UTU’s guarantee of craft autonomy, the International participates in on [...]

NLRB to sue anti-union states in federal court

WASHINGTON — The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) says it will sue Arizona, South Carolina, South Dakota and Utah, seeking to invalidate those states’ recently passed constitutional amendments prohibiting workers in the private sector from saying “union [...]

Mid-January national negotiations update

Following an eighth negotiating session in mid-January with the National Carriers’ Conference Committee (NCCC), UTU International President Mike Futhey said, “We continue to make progress through interest-based bargaining toward developing a common framework recog [...]