Policy

In this NPRM, FTA requires that transit agencies receiving funds under 49 U.S.C. Chapter 53 and not regulated by another agency, develop and implement a Public Transportation Agency Safety Plan (Safety Plan). This NPRM establishes the core components that Safety Plans must contain, including methods to identify, evaluate, and minimize safety risk. Among other minimum components, Safety Plans must include training programs for personnel responsible for safety, and in certain cases, emergency preparedness and response plans. FTA requires that covered transit agencies develop their Safety Plans using a four-pillared Safety Management System (SMS) approach to ensure agencies’ unique needs are met.

In an era of heightened concerns over terrorist threats, Americans are acutely aware of the homeland security risks faced by our nation and specifically, our transportation system. Transportation labor has long been at the forefront of demanding the strongest federal measures to protect the transportation infrastructure and systems that have been terrorism targets. In the […]

On January 8, 2014 a United Airlines customer service representative was summoned to assist a passenger in the Ft. Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport. According to news reports, the passenger then unleashed an unprovoked and violent assault on the employee: punching her in the head, dragging her to the ground by her hair and repeatedly kicking her […]

With the December enactment of the Fixing America’s Surface Transportation (FAST) Act, Amtrak and our nation’s passenger rail network has received its first long-term reauthorization since 2008. The five year bill provides much needed funding stability for Amtrak to sustain its national passenger rail network. But now public officials and lawmakers on the state and […]

The Maritime Security Program (MSP) is a model federal program for efficiently leveraging taxpayer dollars to help meet the Department of Defense’s (DOD) sealift needs and to sustain a viable, U.S.-flag shipping industry. To keep this mission viable, Congress saw fit to increase the program’s authorization for the upcoming fiscal year. Unfortunately, the Obama Administration […]

During consideration of the surface transportation bill, the Fixing America’s Surface Transportation System Act (FAST), a coalition of anti-worker special interests unsuccefully pushed to undermine the collective bargaining rights of longshore workers. Their principal line of attack was to require the Department of Transportation’s (DOT) data collection agency – the Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS) […]

Over the last several months, Canadian Pacific Railway (CP) has made repeated offers to acquire Norfolk Southern (NS) to create a railroad stretching from British Columbia to the Eastern seaboard and Southeastern United States. Having experienced the wave of mega-mergers during the 1980s and 1990s that have left this country with only seven Class I […]

The record in the NAI proceeding shows that NAI is staffing its long-haul flights with flight crew based in Thailand and employed by non-European crew supply companies on employment contracts governed by Asia law: Singapore law in the case of pilots and Thailand law in the case of flight attendants. The record in that case further shows the terms and conditions of employment for those pilots and flight attendants are substantially inferior to those that apply to pilots and flight attendants employed directly by Norwegian or its subsidiaries. The Labor Parties showed that granting NAI either an exemption or a foreign air carrier permit would be inconsistent with the public interest standards set out in the aviation statutes and the provisions of the ATA, in particular, Article 17 bis.

On behalf of the Transportation Trades Department, AFL-CIO (TTD), I urge you to vote for the conference committee report on H.R. 22, the Fixing America’s Surface Transportation (FAST) Act. We commend Chairman Shuster, Ranking Member DeFazio, Chairman Inhofe and Ranking Member Boxer for finalizing a bipartisan and multi-year surface transportation bill that will create and sustain good middle-class jobs and make urgently needed investments in our transit systems, roads, bridges and passenger rail network.

On behalf of the Transportation Trades Department, AFL-CIO (TTD), I urge you to vote NO on the Tribal Labor Sovereignty Act (H.R. 511) when it is considered on the House floor. This bill would exempt all tribal-owned and operated commercial enterprises located on Indian lands from coverage of the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA), and deny critical labor protections to hundreds of thousands of workers, the majority of whom are not Native Americans. In addition to the over 600,000 tribal casino workers, this bill would cover mining operations, power plants, smoke shops, saw mills, construction companies, ski resorts, high-tech firms, hotels, and spas, stripping all workers in these commercial enterprises of their rights and protections under the NLRA.