TTD in the news

Reported by People’s World.

In just two weeks, thanks to federal infrastructure funds from legislation last year—and coordination by state, federal, and local officials plus round-the-clock work from unionists—the collapsed I-95 bridge in Philadelphia was replaced and reopened, thus solving a major transportation bottleneck in the Northeast U.S.

But if the House’s ruling Republicans have their way, in the transportation money bill they’re considering before Congress skedaddles out of town for its August recess, not only would the Philly repair not have been finished so fast, it might not have even begun.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senators Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) and Roger Marshall (R-KS) introduced the Reliable Rail Service Act to help address the unreliable service and high costs of rail shipping for American businesses. The legislation, which is supported by members of the agriculture industry, labor organizations, energy producers, and manufacturers, ensures the largest freight railroads provide American businesses […]

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Today, U.S. Representatives Tracey Mann (KS-01), John Garamendi (CA-08), Rick Crawford (AR-01), and Jimmy Panetta (CA-19) introduced legislation that would ensure that U.S.-grown commodities remain the cornerstone of international food aid. “America’s international food aid programs have enjoyed bipartisan support for more than 65 years because they are simple, effective, and they feed […]

Reported by Alexandra Skores for The Dallas Morning News.

Pilots and flight attendant unions are sounding alarms at an attempt in Congress to raise the mandatory retirement age for airline pilots by two years to 67.

The Securing Growth and Robust Leadership in American Aviation Act, which reauthorizes funding for the Federal Aviation Administration and aviation safety and infrastructure programs for the next five years, includes an amendment that would raise the mandatory retirement age for pilots from 65 to 67. House bill 3935 was approved by the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee on June 14 after a House subcommittee tacked on the amendment to alter the age commercial airline pilots have to step down.

Reported by Marybeth Luczak for Railway Age.

Removing Surface Transportation Board (STB) Chair Martin J. Oberman or failing to reappoint him “would undermine the significant progress the Board has made during his tenure,” Transportation Trades Department (TTD), AFL-CIO President Greg Regan wrote in a June 13 letter to President Joe Biden, which followed a May 17 request that Biden revoke Oberman’s chairmanship and elevate Robert Primus to the position by RootsAction, The Freedom BLOC and the Revolving Door Project (RDP), which describes itself as an organization that “scrutinizes executive branch appointees to ensure they use their office to serve the broad public interest, rather than to entrench corporate power or seek personal advancement.”

“We view Chairman Oberman’s vote to approve the merger between Canadian Pacific Railway and Kansas City Southern Railway as fundamentally anathema to the Administration’s revival of antitrust enforcement,” RDP reported May 17, when it published the letter to President Biden. “Pro-competition measures have been the backbone of Biden-era economic policy, with revitalized enforcement from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, Federal Trade Commission, Department of Justice, National Labor Relations Board, and more. Allowing greater consolidation in the rail industry, which was already highly noncompetitive with only seven significant companies, is a severe blow to the government-wide effort to unrig markets ushered in by President Biden’s Executive order on Competition.

By Ripon Advance News Service.

All cargo aircraft in the United States would be equipped with intrusion-resistant cockpit doors that remain locked while in flight under a bipartisan bill introduced on June 7 by U.S. Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-PA).

The congressman signed on as the lead original cosponsor of the Cargo Flight Deck Security Act, H.R. 3909, alongside bill sponsor U.S. Rep. Jesús “Chuy” García (D-IL) to restrict an air carrier from operating certain aircraft in all-cargo air transportation without meeting certain requirements for intrusion resistance, according to the congressional record summary.

Reported by Joanna Marsh for Freightwaves.

Rail labor groups are rallying around Surface Transportation Board Chairman Marty Oberman, saying calls to strip him of his position misdiagnose the root cause of the industry’s woes: operational challenges associated with precision scheduled railroading (PSR).

“We firmly believe that removing Chair Oberman or failing to reappoint him would undermine the significant progress the Board has made during his tenure,” said Greg Regan, president of the Transportation Trades Department (TTD) of the AFL-CIO, in a Tuesday letter to President Joe Biden.

Washington, D.C. – Today, Congressman Mark DeSaulnier (CA-10), along with Congressman Drew Ferguson (R-GA), announced the introduction of bipartisan legislation to ensure fair labor standards are upheld by all airlines operating in the U.S. The Fair and Open Skies Act (H.R. 4021) would increase the United States Department of Transportation’s (DOT) powers to regulate unfair business practices from […]

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, Congressmen Rob Menendez (D-NJ-08), Andrew Garbarino (R-NY-02), and John Garamendi (D-CA-08) introduced the Airline Employee Assault Prevention Act. This bipartisan legislation would protect passengers and land-side airline employees such as ticket agents and airport workers by fixing a jurisdictional issue that prevents the FAA from implementing plans that would provide assault protections. “Assault and […]

Rail labor groups are rejecting efforts by CPKC to extend and potentially make permanent a waiver that enables the Class I railroad from its Calgary, Alberta, office to dispatch trains at three locations near the U.S.-Canada border. Labor groups say allowing the waiver to become permanent would set a bad precedent and encourage other Class I railroads to use waivers as a way to evade safety regulations.

“CP’s request for a permanent waiver from these requirements, if granted, would not only degrade rail safety, but set a dangerous precedent that would open Pandora’s box to all sorts of similar requests to sidestep and undermine the regulatory process,” said a submission last week from the Transportation Trades Department of the AFL-CIO to Karl Alexy, who serves as associate administrator for rail safety at the Federal Railroad Administration.

CPKC (NYSE: CP) currently has a waiver that enables the railway to not be bound to comply with federal regulations requiring the dispatching of U.S. rail operations to occur on U.S. soil. That regulation was created following the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, according to 14 labor groups that signed the submission to FRA.