Anti-union Injunction blocks BMWED Covid Strike at Union Pacific
On Jan 8 a federal judge sided with the Union Pacific railroad to block a strike to protect rail employees’ health and safety. The Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employees Division of the Teamsters moved toward the job action under the Railroad Safety Act, to demand adequate Covid-19 protections for the workers who build and maintain the tracks and right of way.
Read moreCorruption Allegations Cloud Tentative Rail Labor Agreement
Allegations of insider-dealing and violations of fiduciary duty swirl around the top officers of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen (BLET-IBT), following a tentative labor contract they signed.
Read moreTeamster Rail Workers under Attack
Rail workers – including some 70,000 Teamster engineers, trainmen and track workers – are under a double attack coming from Washington DC. The Teamsters Union should be leading a fight back with other unions and with the public, to save passenger rail service in the USA.
Read moreRailroad Workers and Our Allies Must Unite in Support of Amtrak
On March 16th, President Trump released a blueprint budget that proposes to slash funding for the Department of Transportation by $2.4 billion, including funding for all Amtrak “long distance” trains, along with funding for dozens of transit expansion projects nationwide. In recent months, Trump has voiced support for massive investment in the nation’s infra-structure. Yet ironically, his first proposed budget not only fails to deliver, it guts funding for existing infrastructure.
Read moreRail Teamsters Vote Teamsters United
Fred Zuckerman and Teamsters United campaigned on a platform of fighting job elimination, outsourcing, and fighting for safety for rail workers and the public. Rail Teamsters responded.
Read moreCanadian Rail Strike Ends as Parties Agree to Arbitration
A strike by about 3,000 locomotive engineers and conductors at the Canadian Pacific Railway unexpectedly ended on Monday, its second day, as both sides agreed to arbitration. The announcement came about half an hour before a bill was to be introduced in Parliament ordering the members of the union, the Teamsters Canada Rail Conference, back to work.
Canadian Pacific said the “ramp-up process” to resume train service had begun. Though it could not say precisely how long that would take, a spokesman, Martin Cej, said “it will be fast.”
Click here to read more at The New York Times.
BLET President blasts CP for unsafe rail practices and threatening employees
Dennis Pierce, National President of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen and President of the Teamsters Rail Conference (U.S.), blasted Canadian Pacific Railway (CP) today for its growing culture of threats and intimidation toward its employees in the U.S. and Canada. Pierce commented following CP’s issuance of a letter to the BLET representatives on its U.S. operations, Soo Line and the Delaware & Hudson.
In those notices, CP threatened its U.S.-based locomotive engineers who work into Canada with disciplinary action, even termination, if they refuse to cross picket lines manned by their legally striking Canadian Brothers and Sisters belonging to Teamsters Canada Rail Conference (TCRC).
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Teamsters give CP Rail 72-hour strike notice
Teamsters Canada Rail Conference has given Canadian Pacific Railway 72-hour strike notice, meaning 3,300 locomotive engineers, conductors and other train workers could walk off the job midnight on Saturday.
Union president Doug Finnson is in Montreal this week negotiating with CP, with the help of federal mediation, but says the union has not made headway on issues such as working conditions.
Click here to read more at CBC News.
Rail Workers United vs One person crews
When American freight trains delivered cargo after World War II, the steam-belching beasts commonly had seven people aboard — an engineer, a conductor, up to four brakemen and a fireman.
Trains have since grown much longer, seemingly stretching to the horizon and often taking 20 minutes to pass through a crossing. And crews have been reduced in size — to five people in the 1970s and two in 1991. Now U.S. railroads want to put a single person in charge of today's huge locomotives, taking another step toward a future in which the nation's rail-cargo system increasingly could resemble toy train sets — highly mechanized networks run by computers or distant controllers.
Click here to read more.