TTD in the news

Darrell Berkheimer Opinion The Aspen Times.

Yes, the recent federally-suppressed rail strike would have created economic chaos and cost Americans billions of dollars daily. But, have we neglected to identify the culprits that created reasons for the strike?

The forced settlement cheats many rail employees of needed sick leave and fails to adequately address bare-bones train staffing that created unsafe conditions.

My long-time interest in railroading dates back to the 1950s in my home county, where the steam era lasted longer than most places. And, that interest prompted me to build two HO-scale model railroads — the first in Pennsylvania and, later, a larger 15-by-19-foot model layout in my Montana home.

My interest in railroading continues today as I read reports on railroad conditions in the United States. For instance, the headline on one opinion story cited the United States as “a First World nation with a Third World rail system.”

Reported by Railfreight.Com.

The last few weeks in the United States have been quite chaotic when it comes to the future of rail workers. Since institutions have not seemed to find effective solutions for a collective agreement, rail freight companies in the country are taking it upon themselves to try and help their employees. Rail operator CSX Corp is changing its attendance policy to accommodate railway workers, who were recently denied paid sick leave by the government.

Reported by Michael Sainato for The Guardian.

Railroad workers and unions are ramping up pressure on the US Congress and Joe Biden to address poor working conditions in the wake of the recent move to block a strike when Congress voted to impose a contract agreement.

Workers and labor activists in America have criticized that action for undermining the collective bargaining process in the US and workers’ right to strike.

Reported by Joanna Marsh for Freightwaves.

Railroads and unions gave conflicting views during a hearing by the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) on a proposed rulemaking that would require freight trains generally to have at least two crew members in the locomotive cab. The agency is gathering public testimony through next week.

Here are some key issues that the railroads and unions addressed at the Wednesday hearing:

Mandating set crew size blocks innovative work configurations, say railroads
The railroads and the unions just ended a multiyear bargaining round for a new labor agreement, and one of the issues raised was the need to address work-life balance.

Reported by Josh Funk for AP News.

Railroad workers who are fed up with demanding work schedules and disappointed in the contract they received aired their frustrations this week at rallies across the country and in a leadership vote at one of their biggest unions.

Workers gathered in Washington D.C. and nearly a dozen other locations across the country Tuesday to emphasize their quality of life concerns and fight for paid sick leave after Congress intervened in the stalled contract talks earlier this month and imposed a deal on four unions that had rejected it. And thousands of engineers voted to oust their long-time union president although that result won’t be final until next week.

Reported by Marco Raimondi for RailFreight.Com.

The Transportation Trades Department (TTD) said that rail workers will rally in front of the US Capitol on Tuesday, 13 December, between 1 and 3 pm (GMT -5). The initiative will take place to address the issues within the freight rail industry that are causing general discontent among the workers. More solidarity rallies are scheduled all over the country as well.

The International Association of Sheet Metal, Air, Rail, and Transportation Workers’ Transportation Division (SMART-TD) is also organising solidarity rallies all over the country. More gatherings are in fact planned in Colorado, Illinois, Iowa, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Mexico, Ohio, Utah, and Wyoming.

Reported by Joanna Marsh for Freightwaves.

The drama about whether union members would go on strike has passed, with Congress passing legislation and President Joe Biden signing that legislation requiring all unions to ratify the labor agreement that union and railroad negotiators reached in September.

But the battle scars still remain and those scars must be healed in order for the rail industry not only to fully restore service levels but also to thrive and assume the role as a vital and necessary freight transportation mode.

“If railroads want to be serious about addressing these issues that the members so vocally stated were a problem during these past three years, that would be a welcome change. … If they want to start to build employee morale, they should proactively reach out,” said Greg Regan, president of the Transportation Trades Department, which is affiliated with the AFL-CIO.

Reported by Darrell Berkheimer for The Union. 

Yes, the federally-suppressed rail strike would have created economic chaos and cost Americans billions of dollars daily. But have we neglected to identify the culprits that created reasons for the strike?

The forced settlement cheats many rail employees of needed sick leave and fails to adequately address bare-bones train staffing that created unsafe conditions.

Reported by Peter Coy for The New York Times. (Opinion)

I haven’t operated a railroad since I got a Lionel train set for Christmas decades ago, but even I can see that something is wrong. Railroads in North America are struggling to keep trains moving. Shippers are furious over delays. Workers are unhappy about inflexible leave policies. Congress had to impose a labor agreement to prevent a nationwide rail shutdown, which might have started today.

You may have heard or read that a root cause of the problems is something called precision scheduled railroading. That’s not entirely true. In concept, precision scheduled railroading has the potential to benefit not just railroads but shippers and workers as well. Its first principle is to stick to a schedule for delivering freight, the way passenger trains stick to a schedule for delivering people. In short, “Do what you say you’re going to do.”

MSNBC Video.

President of the Transportation Trades Department of the AFL-CIO Greg Regan joins to share how the rank-and-file rail workers are reacting to the bill signed by President Biden set to avert a nationwide rail strike, which doesn’t include paid sick time.