We’re building strong momentum in the areas that matter

As the president of the strongest labor union in the transportation industry, I can honestly tell you that unique and important issues come to my attention daily.

No issues are as pressing to the well-being of this union and its membership as safety, the strength of our contracts/agreements, the education of our local officers to serve you, and the overall health of this union as an organization.

Without a doubt, SMART-TD is at an important crossroads with all these core issues.

I have made no secret about my and this organization’s level of concern regarding the epidemic of violence against our bus and transit members. This disturbing, and frankly disgusting, trend has churned up from coast to coast. There is much to be done, but in 2024, SMART-TD and our Bus and Transit Assault Prevention and Safety (BTAPS) Committee have made significant strides to protect our men and women.

General Chairperson John Ellis and his GCA-875 team have led a charge in Los Angeles with two significant improvements on this front for thousands of members. First, they achieved an agreement with the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transit Authority (LACMTA) to install full-coverage partitions to keep our members shielded from passengers on their bus. GCA-875 also accomplished a major victory when they successfully advocated for LACMTA’s board to create its own in-house security force focused on system safety. These two improvements will keep workers and riders alike significantly safer in years to come!

Building on this momentum, SMART-TD’s National Legislative Department has done an outstanding job of leveraging the union’s talent from across the country and harnessing it to further conversations on our issues in Washington, DC. The department hosted two events that have been tremendously successful. The first, in May, was Railroad Day on the Hill, and the second was this union’s first-ever Bus/Transit Day on the Hill on June 25.

Both brought local leaders from across the country to Capitol Hill to discuss the important legislative concerns held by SMART. The firsthand experiences our brothers and sisters shared with these officials and their staff were invaluable to our cause! Minds definitely changed in our direction as a result of the work we did. I want to thank all of the state legislative directors, general chairs, local officers and our BTAPS Committee for prioritizing these events and showing up with preparation and passion. Your efforts were more effective than you could know, and I appreciate each and every one of you!

As this union looks to the future, we are quickly approaching 2025 and the beginning of the next round of national negotiations for our Class I freight rail members. I would like to remind all our members that our union is dedicated to a bottom-up organizational model.

Our negotiating team and I, as president, aren’t able to advocate for quality-of-life improvements that we are not made aware of. It is my hope that each affected freight rail local throughout our union has distributed my personal request to all members to propose what they would want to see prioritized in our Section 6 notices. We are as strong as our collective members, and silence does no one any favors. We need to hear from you about the contract that you will work under for the next five years. Please participate by offering your proposals in any of the following ways:

Email (preferred): Section6@smart-union.org

Mail: SMART-TD President, 6060 Rockside Woods Blvd. N., Ste. 325, Independence, OH 44131

In addition to our need to keep our members out of harm’s way and push for the best contracts we can get, we also focus on educating our officers at all levels. These efforts, through Regional and National Training Seminars, keep our local chairs/presidents/legislative reps and secretary & treasurers up to date and ready to defend.

I would be remiss if I didn’t take this opportunity to thank every officer and member who came to Cleveland in early July for our NTS. Your input was pivotal for your brothers and sisters, and the enthusiasm at this training was contagious!

Summer is a busy time for all of us and is always full of distractions. No matter what you have on your plate this summer, please be sure to concentrate on your safety and that of your coworkers.

We are our brothers’ and sisters’ keepers. In the transportation industry, that could not be more true.

Jeremy R. Ferguson
President, Transportation Division