Rail Workers Weekly News Digest
Number 7 - May 7th, 2019
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Below is a series of article compiled over the previous week.
They are of interest to railroad workers
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2019-7 Article 1
Amtrak’s New Direction Hurts Workers, Rural States
The recently formed Amtrak Service Workers Council - which includes the Transportation Communications Union (TCU/IAM), Transport Workers Union (TWU) and UNITE-HERE - has issued a Report which condemns the direction that new CEO Richard anderson andf his team are taken the company in.
Read more ...
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2019-7 Article 2
Record Profits at CN
Despite extreme and prolonged cold temperatures that prompted shorter trains in portions of the first quarter,
CN
registered solid financial results with strong top-line growth in the period,
the Class I reported yesterday
.
Revenue climbed 11 percent to a first-quarter record CA$3.5 billion, diluted earnings per share (EPS) rose 8 percent to CA$1.08, operating income increased 5 percent to CA$1.08 billion, net income grew 6 percent to CA$786 million and volume ratcheted up 1 percent to a record 1.4 million units compared with Q1 2018 results.
Read more ...
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2019-7 Article 3
Senators Urge Amtrak To Continue Support For Routes Connecting Rural Communities
WASHINGTON, D.C.
―
U.S. Senators Tom Udall (D-N.M.), Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.), Michael Bennet (D-Colo.), Pat Roberts (R-Kans.), Cory Gardner (R-Colo.), Jerry Moran (R-Kans.), Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.), Joe Manchin (D-W. VA.), Dick Durbin (D- Ill.), Jon Tester (D-Mont.), and Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) are calling on Amtrak to continue service to rural communities in New Mexico and across the U.S. by investing in long-distance and state-supported routes.
Read more ...
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2019-7 Article 4
Proposed Cuts to Amtrak National Network Make No Economic Sense
On each previous occasion when Amtrak eliminated interregional trains to “cut losses,” the action had the opposite result. In 1979, when the company cut four interregional routes; in the mid-1980s, when it eliminated the Pioneer and Desert Wind; and again in the early 1990s, when then-CEO Tom Downs, on the advice of Mercer Management Consulting, cut frequencies of long-distance routes, Amtrak’s corporate loss and subsidy requirement in subsequent years rose rather than fell.
More recently, when the White House budget for FY2018 proposed eliminating all interregional services because, as Amtrak often claims, they purportedly lose gobs of money and don’t serve many customers, Amtrak’s then-CEO, Wick Moorman, told Congress, in writing, that such a step would increase Amtrak’s corporate loss and subsidy requirement by $423 million. Graham Claytor once told an open meeting of the Rail Passengers Association (at the time, NARP) that the interregional trains were “operating in the black.” This has been true for decades.
Read more ...
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2019-7 Article 5
Maine AFL-CIO Is First to Support a State-Level Green New Deal Bill
Maine lawmakers will hold a hearing today for “An Act to Establish a Green New Deal for Maine” —
a new climate and jobs bill
that has the notable support of Maine’s AFL-CIO, the first state labor federation to endorse a Green New Deal-themed piece of legislation. The bill calls for 80 percent renewable electricity consumption by 2040, solar power for public schools, the creation of a task force to study economic and job growth, and a commission to help facilitate a just transition to a low-carbon economy. Its backing from a coalition of over 160 labor unions offers an instructive lesson for other states looking to build union power to tackle a warming planet.
Read more ...
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2019-7 Article 6
PSR News: Union Pacific to Close Major Intermodal Terminal
OMAHA, Neb. – Union Pacific is simplifying its intermodal terminal network to improve service in Chicago, which will result in idling the Global 3 terminal in Rochelle, Ill., along with the Canal Street Container Depot. UP currently operates six intermodal facilities in and around the Railroad Capital.
“Many of our ramps handle a mix of domestic and international business. Operating six facilities with a variety of equipment at each creates complexity for Union Pacific (equipment issues, additional switching), as well as our customers (complex drayage arrangements and vendor management), creating a greater likelihood of supply chain failure,” Kenny Rocker, UP’s executive vice president of marketing and sales, writes in a customer update on Thursday.
Read more ...
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2019-7 Article 7
What Is A Good Faith Belief?
We all know that “reporting in good faith a hazardous safety condition” is protected activity under
Section 20109 of the FRSA
. But what does “good faith” mean? Is it just the employee’s subjective belief, or must it also be objectively reasonable?
The cases are tending toward requiring both, and
March v. Metro North Railroad
is a recent example. There, the district judge found FRSA Section (b)(1)((A) requires both a subjective and objectively reasonable belief there was a hazardous condition. But in
Frost v. BNSF Railway
, the 9th Circuit confirmed that when answering that question, the focus always must be on the worker, not the railroad.
Read more ...
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2019-8 Article 8
What is the Green New Deal? -
Since the 2018 midterm elections, the “Green New Deal” — a comprehensive approach to addressing climate change that would create millions of new jobs — has gained both visibility and popularity, as well as a certain amount of controversy.
Like the original New Deal in the 1930s, the Green New Deal is not a single piece of legislation. The federal resolution introduced in February sets out the goal of meeting 100 percent of the country’s energy needs from renewable sources in the next decade, and commits to using the transition to create good, union jobs. Even if passed, additional pieces of legislation will be needed to implement these goals.
Read more ...
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2019-7 Article 9
Labor & Climate News from the
Labor Network for Sustainability - #29
Railroad Workers United is affiliated with this organization as we hope to push for a just transition for workers in a "green" future.
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Railroad Workers United
Solidarity -- Unity -- Democracy
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