Transportation News

Visit the digital archive of the SMART-TD News (PDFs)

UTU Alumni offers Alaskan cruise, tour

The UTU is offering the members of the UTU Alumni Association the vacation of a lifetime — an 11-day excursion to Alaska — at a group-tour price that is hard to beat. This tour includes a seven-day cruise up the Inside Passage, a flight to Fairbanks and a two-day [...]

Railroaders to picnic in St. Petersburg, Fla.

Retired member Joe Alenduff is again organizing an annual picnic for railroaders in the St. Petersburg, Fla., area. The event, scheduled for Saturday, March 20, will run from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. at Shelter 15 in Ft. DeSoto Park in St. Petersburg. Coffee and iced tea will be fur [...]

Alumni member George Harris: Still going strong

Meet George M. Harris, a UTU Alumni Association member and lifetime member of Local 1518, Indianapolis. Brother Harris, 94, started railroading April 24, 1937, and retired Dec. 7, 1981. He worked as a conductor for the New York Central, Penn Central and Conrail. He also serve [...]

Union rep rules out of sync with times

By UTU International President Mike Futhey The National Mediation Board, which administers the Railway Labor Act, proposes changing the rules by which rail and airline employees choose labor union representation. The UTU supports the change. The NMB rules for representation e [...]

FRA revises engineer certification rules

WASHINGTON — Revisions to locomotive certification rules (49 CFR Part 240), effective Feb. 22, 2010, were issued by the Federal Railroad Administration Dec. 23, 2009. Among the revisions: Prohibits the practice of re-classiyfing any type of engineer’s certificatio [...]

RRB fesses up on customer service

The following questions and answers discuss the Railroad Retirement Board’s performance in the key areas of retirement applications, survivor applications, disability applications and payments, and railroad unemployment and sickness benefit applications and claims durin [...]

Wild West tour deadline nears

The sign-up deadline is nearing for the UTU Alumni Association’s “Pioneer Adventures of the Old West.” This eight-day adventure starts in Phoenix May 9, 2010. It includes Sedona, Ariz., and the Montezuma Castle National Monument; a ride aboard the Grand Cany [...]

Workplace safety: Our highest priority

By UTU International President Mike Futhey What should have been a joyous holiday season ended all too tragically Dec. 29 with the death of 44-year-old UTU Local 1000 member Samuel Lundy in a switching accident in Minneapolis. He leaves behind a loving wife and three children [...]

National rail contract negotiators named

The UTU national rail contract negotiating team has been named by UTU International President Mike Futhey, who will serve as the UTU’s chief negotiator. Other members of this bargaining round’s negotiating committee include Assistant President Arty Martin; Interna [...]

Rails withdraw staffing & consolidation proposal

A month after the UTU filed a lawsuit in federal court to block a railroad demand to bargain over “staffing and consolidation,” the carriers have withdrawn that demand from their Railway Labor Act Section 6 notices. In a letter to UTU International President Mike [...]