Category: Front Page

New FRA rules strengthen protections for MOW workers, expands drug & alcohol testing
Separate rules increase protections, add Maintenance of Way workers to drug and alcohol testing policy WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of Transportation’s (DOT) Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) announced it has issued two final rules to better protect railroad employees [...]In honor and memory of our fallen heroes
During this upcoming Memorial Day weekend, let’s take an opportunity to remember that the simple freedoms we take for granted exist because of our brothers and sisters of the United States Armed Forces, who made the ultimate sacrifice in service to our country. Learn more abo [...]
AFL-CIO Releases Death on the Job Report
The AFL-CIO released its annual “Death on the Job Report,” marking the 25th year the organization has produced a report detailing the state of worker safety. Regulations have never been strong enough to fix all of the country’s workplace safety problems, but they help nonethe [...]
GP: Common issues: The heart of the matter
As is traditional at the start of a new year, our union—members and the organization that serves them—is looking ahead. Continued growth will add to our strength in the workplace and in politics, in 2016 and beyond. In this unusual political year, so much has already happened [...]
Momentum shifting in state battles
It’s not just federal elections that have an impact on working families. As we were reminded all too well in places like Wisconsin and Michigan, state and local elections can have far reaching consequences. For the past six years, working families have been placed on the defe [...]Rail-car plants get PLA, then Union Labor
SMART is part of Jobs to Move America (JMA), a coalition of six international unions and more than 40 major community groups. JMA works with officials, agencies, and businesses to make sure that the nation’s more than $5.7 billion in annual transportation manufacturing work i [...]SMART TD announces overflow hotel for Western Regional Meeting
SMART Transportation Division has announced the Mark Hopkins Intercontinental as the overflow hotel at the 2016 Western Regional Meeting in San Francisco. The room block for the Fairmont San Francisco is almost full, so we’ve arranged for the Mark Hopkins Intercontinental (lo [...]
Unity holds in long strike at Seattle Firm
For the past nine months, members of SMART SM Local 66 (Seattle, WA) have been battling in a labor dispute with Northshore Sheet Metal. This strike originally started with a dispute at the bargaining table over wage equalization, work preservation and language related to trav [...]