TTD in the news

“Heavy-duty truck driving is already a highly surveilled occupation; can you speak to the impact this has on workers, and ways that Congress can create policies that can balance a worker’s right to privacy with the fact that automated vehicle [AV] technology needs large quantities of image data to work effectively?” Rep. Lori Trahan, D-Mass., asked witnesses at the hearing before the Consumer Protection subcommittee of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce.

Greg Regan, president of the Transportation Trades Department, AFL-CIO, responded that the aviation industry should serve as a guide “in how they balance worker privacy with the necessary safety constraints that are inherent in some of the monitoring equipment in aircraft. We have struck that balance before so we can certainly do it here.”

Lawmakers are expected to make headway on President Joe Biden’s $2.3 trillion dollar infrastructure proposal this week, as Arkansas’ aging infrastructure made headlines with the discovery of a large crack in the Interstate 40 Hernando de Soto Bridge across the Mississippi River that led to its indefinite closure last week.

Ed Mortimer, vice president of transportation and infrastructure for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, said shipping and supply-chain disruptions will likely become more common if significant spending isn’t directed toward major transportation improvements.

A senior American labor union leader will tell U.S. lawmakers on Tuesday that the government should require human operators in all self-driving passenger services to take over in the event of an emergency.

Greg Regan, president of the Transportation Trades Department for the AFL-CIO, will tell a U.S. House of Representatives Energy and Commerce subcommittee that autonomous vehicles place “millions of jobs at risk” and any legislation to speed deployment of self-driving cars should not apply to commercial trucks weighing 10,000 pounds or more, according to his written testimony released by the panel on Monday.

Even as railroads are operating longer and longer freight trains that sometimes stretch for miles, the companies have drastically reduced staffing levels, prompting unions to warn that moves meant to increase profits could endanger safety and even result in disasters.

More than 22% of the jobs at railroads Union Pacific, CSX and Norfolk Southern have been eliminated since 2017, when CSX implemented a cost-cutting system called Precision Scheduled Railroading that most other U.S. railroads later copied. BNSF, the largest U.S. railroad and the only one that hasn’t expressly adopted that model, has still made staff cuts to improve efficiency and remain competitive.

Podcast Hosted by Paul Sweeney and Matt Miller for Bloomberg. Ed Mortimer, Vice President of Transportation and Infrastructure at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, and Greg Regan, President of the Transportation Trades Department for AFL-CIO, discuss the latest on infrastructure.

Emerging rail technologies got their chance to shine in a congressional hearing last week, but countering them were calls to invest in Amtrak and existing rail service.

Advocates for various new travel modes — including hyperloop and maglev, some of which are still years away from becoming reality — urged greater federal investment during the second half of a hearing before the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee’s Subcommittee on Railroads, Pipelines and Hazardous Materials.

The win by Uber and Lyft over their workers in a hotly contested—and expensive—California referendum last year, giving the firms absolute control over their drivers, shows the need for passing the PRO Act, says Greg Regan, president of the AFL-CIO Transportation Trades Department. Enacting it would bring those and other “independent contractor” workers under federal labor law protection, he states.

Without the PRO Act, those 10.5 million independent contractors must depend on “a hodge-podge” of state and local labor laws to protect their rights, pay, and the right to organize, he told Press Associates Union News Service in a telephone interview.

President Joe Biden’s American Jobs Plan calls for a major investment in EVs and electrified transit, with a focus on what a senior administration official described as “infrastructure for the future.” But the labor groups said as public transportation agencies forge ahead with plans to electrify their vehicles, transit workers, including operators and mechanics, are not being prepared to transition to an electric future away from traditional diesel-powered vehicles.

In an interview, ATU International President John Costa said only about 3% of the group’s membership is trained on the technology and how to maintain it safely, even as agencies increasingly turn to EVs. The differences between traditional vehicles and EVs include the different personal protective equipment required to maintain them, the use of rubberized tools and the difference in motors. Operators must also be retrained, as a new style of driving is required to reduce strain on the battery from braking, he said.

Democratic leaders on the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee introduced legislation Thursday that would require the transportation secretary to develop an aviation-sector plan for managing disease outbreaks.

The Healthy Flights Act of 2021 — introduced by Rep. Peter A. DeFazio (D-Ore.), the committee’s chairman; and Rep. Rick Larsen (D-Wash.), the aviation subcommittee chairman — also makes clear that the Federal Aviation Administration has the authority to impose requirements to protect passengers and airline workers during public health emergencies. In addition, it would require that people wear masks on airplanes and in airports, and that airline employees and some FAA personnel be given personal protective equipment during public health emergencies linked to respiratory diseases.

As reported by Kate Davidson and Amara Omeokwe for The Wall Street Journal President Biden’s $2.3 trillion plan to invest in infrastructure, clean energy and caregiving over the coming decade would be a boon for construction workers, truck drivers, electricians and home health aides. Both critics and supporters of the initiative say it will also […]