National Labor Relations Act
H.R. 800, a bill to amend the National Labor Relations Act was voted out of committee on February 14th. The bill would make organizing on-property unions easier through simple card checks, rather than secret ballots, provide for contract negotiation deadlines, giving the National Labor Relations Board power to seek injunctions against employers if they fired or threatened employees interfering with their right to organize. It would also impose fines for violating employees rights to organize. The bill has 233 co-sponsors, but Cheney has vowed that the President will veto the bill if it passes Congress. Another resounding endorsement by our labor unfriendly administration.
Fatigue
Hearings were held before the subcommittee on railroads on February 13th and 14th dealing with rail safety and rail security issues. Ed Rodzwicz, President of the Teamsters Rail Conference testified on fatigue, suggesting that at a minimum, fatigue needs to be addressed by counting limbo time as part of the hours of service, requiring a 10-hour call, and implementing basic fatigue counter-measures. He also addressed the issues of dark territory calling at least for the use of off-the-shelf switch position detection technology, which has been available for some time. In addition, both the Chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) and the FRA Administrator are asking Congress for the authority to allow the FRA to revise the 100-year old Hours of Service rules, stating that the current rules are not based on science related to fatigue.
Operator fatigue has been on the NTSB's most wanted list since 1990. Both rail unions and management are gingerly approaching changing the Hours of Service Act. The change could pose a problem for the Carriers because if limbo time is included in the Hours of Service, then the railroads, already stretched thin, would have to hire even more operating employees. Rail labor is concerned that if the Hours of Service Act is opened up to change, they may lose existing hard one legal protections.
There is not doubt this issue needs to finally be addressed to prevent the tragedies that have occurred on the railroad. Some of the easy ways the railroad could rectify the situation would be to make a better effort for accurate line up information. Something as simple as noting on the line up that a train is tied down and won't be run for 3 or 4 hours. They have satellite link ups to trains, so adding a comment line to existing information would be relatively easy and go a long way in reducing fatigue.
Tom Pontilillo, Director of Regulatory Affairs for the BLET also testified during the hearings. He testified on the fatigue issue and on rail security. One thing he pointed out is that the Transportation Security Administration spends $9 per airline passenger for security, but only $.01 cent for rail and mass transit passenger security even though five times as many people travel by rail and mass transit every day. He also remarked that most employees don't know what the security plan is for their railroad, and went on to say that pamphlets and 10-minute video presentations are no substitute for live drills on evacuation procedures, proper use of emergency escape procedures, and handling of hazmat, or knowing their roles and responsibilities within the railroad's alleged security plans.
Remote Control Operations
Last month that one of our Auxiliary MAL's spearheaded the effort to push through an RCO resolution in Page County, Virginia. The very next week, the City of Shenandoah, Virginia voted for a resolution, which will be formally signed next week. RCO Resolutions are already on the agenda for 3 other counties, so it looks like there will be a Resolution calling for FRA Regulation of RCO's coming for the State of Virginia in the not to distant future.
New Braking Technology
The FRA has held hearings regarding implementation of pilot projects to test the new Electronically Controlled Pneumatic (ECP) braking systems. This technology is intended to reduce stopping distances for trains and is seen as a safety improvement, which the BLET fully supports. Unfortunately, the Carriers are trying to pull a fast one, asking the FRA to waive several critical safety inspections not necessarily related to the testing of the new system. They are asking for waivers of the daily locomotive inspection, the requirement that 100% of the brakes must be effective and operating prior to departure, and standards for end of train devices, among others. Their requests amount to nothing more than labor cost savings.