Get Updates


TTD in the news

Automated Truck Pilots Abound Despite Safety, Labor Obstacles

By Admin

As reported by Keith Laing for Bloomberg News

Labor leaders say that lawmakers need to address the impact on safety and the workforce before allowing automated trucks to be widely used.

“We would be naive to think we could stop technological advancement. That’s never been our goal,” said Greg Regan, president of the AFL-CIO’s Transportation Trades Department. “But we have to make sure it’s implemented in a safe way and we have to make sure that we’re also looking at the economic impact of deployment.”

John Samuelsen, international president of the Transport Workers Union, said in a statement that Congress will have to grapple with the impact of self-driving technology on commercial drivers.

Read More

Hawaii Avoids Port Backups With Help From the Jones Act

By Admin

As reported by Kirstin Downey for Honolulu Civil Beat

Amid the Covid-19 pandemic and as news reports describe the plight of foreign seamen marooned aboard abandoned ships elsewhere in the world, the Jones Act has given Hawaii extra insulation.

Greg Regan, president of the Transportation Trades Department of the AFL-CIO, said railroads cut 20% of their workforces between 2014 and 2019 and reduced their fleet of locomotives to save money, leaving themselves without adequate capacity or enough workers to convey goods smoothly when business rebounded. Trucking companies replaced union drivers with independent contractors, he said, and many of those workers dropped out when bottlenecks at the ports made their work unprofitable.

Read More

Biden Looks to Chip Away at Supply Chain Snarls

By Admin

As reported by Steven Overly for Politico

Long-term fixes will require major changes to how supply chains are operated and regulated, labor and industry officials say. Now that attention is shifting away from an imminent holiday crisis, they are leaning on Biden to address long-standing issues related to workers’ rights, market competition and insufficient logistics technology.

“We will not have solved this problem when there are no boats sitting idle off the coast of our country and when we’re not overloaded with containers in yards and in warehouses,” said Greg Regan, president of the AFL-CIO’s Transportation Trades Department. “The problem is only going to be solved if we deal with the structural issues here, and I have faith that this administration is going to do that.”

Read More

Senate Panel Examines Supply Chain Disruptions

By Admin

As reported by Eugene Mulero for Transport Topics

Greg Regan, president of the Transportation Trades Department at AFL-CIO, reminded senators of the role of labor: “The pursuit of a more efficient supply chain cannot be an excuse to eliminate or deconstruct critical regulatory safeguards, such as fatigue protections, or to water down carefully crafted training and qualification requirements.”

Read More

Shuler Elected AFL-CIO President

By Admin

As Reported by Marybeth Luczak for Railway Age

Shuler is the first woman to lead the AFL-CIO (American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations), a federation of 56 unions and 12.5 million members. She served previously as the Secretary-Treasurer and Chief Financial Officer, which she took on in 2009, at the same time Trumka became President.

The Executive Council also elected United Steelworkers (USW) International Vice President Fred Redmond to succeed Shuler as Secretary-Treasurer; he is the first African American to hold AFL-CIO’s No. 2 spot. Tefere Gebre will continue as Executive Vice President.

Greg Regan, President, and Shari Semelsberger, Secretary-Treasurer, of the Transportation Trades Department, AFL-CIO (TTD), issued this statement on the new officer elections:

“On behalf of millions of frontline transportation workers and the unions that represent them, we congratulate Liz Shuler and Fred Redmond on their unanimous election as president and secretary-treasurer, respectively, of the AFL-CIO.

Read More

Business, labor groups endorse bipartisan infrastructure deal

By Admin

As Reported by Alexander Bolton for The Hill The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the AFL-CIO and a group of other prominent business groups on Thursday endorsed a $1.2 trillion, eight-year bipartisan infrastructure framework endorsed by President Biden and a group of Senate moderates. The joint endorsement by business and labor groups that are often opponents […]

Read More

Federal Watchdog to Study Freight Rail Safety Following Motherboard Investigation

By Admin

As Reported by Aaron Gordon for Vice The Government Accountability Office will launch an investigation into precision scheduled railroading, a business philosophy embraced by North American freight rail companies that a Motherboard investigation revealed has radically slashed safety measures in the name of profit. The study was requested in May by the chairs of the […]

Read More

Transit Workers Risk ‘Great Ambush’ Without Federal Investment in Training, Labor Leaders Say

By Admin

As Reported by Chris Teale for Smart Cities Dive Advancing legislation in Congress gives transportation labor leaders hope for creating a national training center for transit workers that could help them prepare for using new technologies and bringing future generations into the sector. The Investing in a New Vision for the Environment and Surface Transportation […]

Read More

Labor unions have a new point man on infrastructure

By Admin

Greg Regan took the helm of the AFL-CIO’s Transportation Trades Department in the worst of circumstances but with the best possible preparation.

The circumstances: In the midst of a global pandemic that threatened his members’ jobs and lives, Regan’s boss and mentor, Larry Willis, died tragically in November after succumbing to injuries from a bike crash.

The preparation: Willis’s leadership and trust, which gave Regan and the team Willis had carefully put together the confidence to step up when the moment demanded it.

Read More

Increased road deaths prompt calls for improved vehicle tech

By Admin

Amid skyrocketing road deaths in the United States, members of Congress emphasized at a hearing Tuesday the role autonomous vehicles (AVs) can play in improving safety but called for other technology to be implemented in the short term.

Lawmakers remain determined to encourage faster AV development and deployment and to legislate on the nascent technology. But with advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) available to help reduce serious crashes, automakers must offer that technology as standard, some said.

Read More