On behalf of the Transportation Trades Department, AFL-CIO (TTD), I ask you to sign the bipartisan letter being circulated by Senators Mazie Hirono (D-HI) and Roger Wicker (R-MS) requesting the fully authorized level of $300,000,000 for the Maritime Security Program (MSP) in the FY 2020 Transportation, Housing, and Urban Development appropriations bill.
The United States is in the midst of an opioid epidemic, affecting hundreds of thousands of Americans across race, gender and socio-economic status, and the devastation to our communities has been profound. Transportation workers are not immune from drug and alcohol abuse and are rightfully held to higher standards through federal testing requirements because of […]
Driver fatigue presents one of the greatest safety threats to commercial bus and truck drivers, their passengers, and the people with whom they share the roads. This problem will not go away without further action by the federal government and the rethinking of the current deregulatory approach. In fact, the number of people killed in […]
The United States Postal Service (USPS) and its hundreds of thousands of hard working employees provide an integral and irreplaceable service, delivering mail via almost every mode of transportation to every community in the nation, and helping to keep our economy running. It does so without the use of taxpayer funding, and despite Washington’s unceasing […]
Automation is certain to impact every sector of transportation and its workforce. From automated vehicles on the ground and ships at sea, to unmanned aerial vehicles and the myriad applications of robotics, the pace and complexity of new technologies under development are significant.
America’s federal surface transportation program supports the world’s largest economy across a complex, multimodal network, inclusive of nearly 9 million miles of road, more than 600,000 bridges, and public transportation systems that support about 10 billion trips annually.
The beginning of the 116th Congress was marred by one of the most self-defeating legislative escapades of this century: the 35-day partial government shutdown. This shutdown, the longest in history, wreaked havoc on our transportation system, forced federal workers and contractors to stay at home or work without pay, and cost our economy billions of dollars that we will never get back. In the aviation sector alone, the strain placed on air traffic controllers, FAA safety inspectors and system specialists, and Transportation Security Officers (TSOs) undermined the safety and security standards that we know are critical to this network. Asking these and other federal workers to go without pay for over a month, not knowing when their next paycheck would come or how they would provide for their families, is simply unacceptable.
150 years ago this May 10th, Leland Stanford put the finishing touch on one of our nation’s crowning infrastructure achievements: the completion of the First Transcontinental Railroad. The workers who built the railroad would likely have been unable to imagine the vast, interconnected transportation network we enjoy today, complete with cars, highways, subways and air travel. Yet as we approach the sesquicentennial of the Golden Spike, rail remains a vital part of our transportation network and an important economic driver.
At a time when working people are turning to collective action to amplify their voice at a level not seen in years, and as our economy remains plagued by seemingly immovable wage inequality, federal officials should pursue policies to protect the rights of employees to come together and bargain collectively. Instead, two of the three members of the National Mediation Board (NMB) are taking the exact opposite approach at the expense of aviation and rail workers covered by the Railway Labor Act (RLA). In early 2019, the NMB proposed a rule intended to make it easier to remove unions from worksites already represented and covered by a collective bargaining agreement. While board members in favor of the rule talk about the need to ensure “freedom of association among employees,” we know this is just another attempt at union busting and has no place in any serious discussion about how to grow and support good middle-class jobs.
In 2017 alone, 10,615 victims of human trafficking were identified by reports to the National Human Trafficking Hotline. When traveling, those victims may appear fearful, anxious, or submissive. They may show signs of physical abuse, exhaustion, or confinement; or simply present poor hygiene. Often, they will not handle their own travel documents and will avoid contact with other travelers or authorities. While these indicators of human trafficking may go unnoticed by the general public, well-trained transportation workers are in a powerful position to see what is hidden in plain sight.