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President Obama Announces PEB 248 in NJT Dispute

July 21, 2015 On July 17, President Barack Obama signed an Executive Order creating a Presidential Emergency Board to investigate and to make recommendations for settlement of the current disputes between the New Jersey Transit Rail and the NJT Rail Labor Coalition.The Executive Order esta [...]

Canadian Prime Minister Launches Brazen Attack On Working Families

July 20, 2015 Using underhanded moves and tactics that would make only someone like Scott Walker proud, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, the Conservative Party leader, jammed a wide-ranging anti-union law through Parliament. The law forces unions – and nobody else — to disclos [...]

Investing for Jobs In Oregon

July 8, 2015 In Portland, Oregon, an age-restricted housing complex for lower income individuals will be modernized thanks to an investment from the AFL-CIO’s Housing Investment Trust (HIT). HIT announced $25.9 million of union and public pension funds would be going into the rehabilitat [...]

Long-term disability open enrollment begins June 29

June 29, 2015 Updated: July 20, 2015 The open enrollment period for the Long Term Disability (VLTD) Plan has been extended an additional 30 days. Transportation Division members will now have until September 30, 2015 to open enroll in the plan. Further policy details are being finalized an [...]

President Clinton Touts Partnership That Creates Jobs With SMART Investment

June 26, 2015 Former President Bill Clinton recently visited the Daily Show to about the Clinton Global Initiative, specifically noting the success of a joint program he used to partner with building trades unions such as SMART which invested in fund resources to create retrofitting jobs f [...]

Canadian Safe and Accountable Rail Act made law

June 24, 2015 Ottawa, Ontario – To enhance railway safety and make the rail industry and crude oil shippers more accountable to Canadians, the Honorable Lisa Raitt, Minister of Transport, announced that the Safe and Accountable Rail Act has received Royal Assent. “I am so pleased to [...]

Tags Canada Transportation Act, Lisa Raitt, Railway Safety Act, Safe and Accountable Rail Act, Transport Canada

Railroad Retirement spouse and widows' annuities

June 23, 2015 Railroad Retirement Act spouse and widow(er)s’ annuities (including divorced spouse, surviving divorced spouse and remarried widow(er)s’ annuities) are subject to reduction when social security benefits or dual railroad retirement annuities are also payable. Such [...]

Tags annuities, railroad retirement, railroad retirement annuities, spouse benefits

OSHA finds BNSF violated whistleblower protections

June 23, 2015 SEATTLE, Wash. – North America’s second-largest freight railroad, Burlington Northern Santa Fe LLC, must reinstate a train conductor and pay the man $536,063 in back pay, damages and attorney’s fees after a federal investigation found the rail operator retaliated [...]

Tags BNSF, Federal Railroad Safety Act, FRSA, OSHA, whistleblower

BNSF charging lower rates for new crude-by-rail cars

June 22, 2015 If you want to carry crude oil in an older railroad car, it’s going to cost you. Fort Worth-based BNSF Railway, the largest U.S. crude-by-rail carrier, is offering lower rates to lug oil in cars that meet the latest federal specifications issued in May. That means the vast ma [...]

Tags BNSF, DOT-111, DOT-117, oil train

SMART TD trainmen seal deal with Tacoma Rail

June 19, 2015 SMART Transportation Division-represented trainmen (Local 556 of Tacoma, Wash.) employed by Tacoma Rail have ratified a new six and one-half (6.5) year agreement by an overwhelming majority. The agreement provides for true parity for all trainmen, with the elimination of entr [...]

Tags Clayton Hoffman, Dave Wier, John Pace, Local 556, Shawn Merrill, Tacoma Rail, Trainmen