STB Suspends Rail Mergers

Following four days of public hearings in Washington, DC, the Surface Transportation Board announced on March 17 that it had issued a decision directing large railroads not to pursue further merger activities until the STB has adopted new rules governing merger proceedings. The Board indicated that it would issue rules in 15 months.

The hearings were triggered by the announcement earlier this year that the Burlington Northern Santa Fe and the Canadian National railway systems intended to ask the Board to allow them to merge. The Board noted that "the railroad industry has consolidated aggressively in recent years, with only six large railroads remaining in the United States and Canada," and admitted that "merger implementation has not typically gone smoothly, and indeed the railroad industry and the shipping public have not yet fully recovered from the service disruptions associated with the previous round of mergers."

STB Initiates "Conrail Merger" General Oversight Proceeding

The "purpose of [this] proceeding will be to examine and review the progress in implementing the Conrail merger transaction and its various STB-imposed conditions," in connection with the STB's July 1998 decision allowing for the split and acquisition of Conrail Inc. by CSX Transportation and Norfolk Southern Railway Company. The STB is requiring both CSX and NS to submit progress reports regarding the merger transaction by June 1 and comments from all interested parties must be filed by July 14.

DOT to Revise Drug and Alcohol Testing Program

The U.S. Department of Transportation held three public listening sessions on its December 1999 notice of proposed rulemaking to revise its drug and alcohol testing procedures. The sessions were held March 20-21 in Washington, DC and March 28 in Los Angeles. Edward Wytkind, Executive Director of the AFL-CIO Transportation Trades Department, testified on behalf of the TTD's 29 affiliated unions, including the BMWE.

BNSF CEO Pay

From the Wall Street Journal, by Daniel Machalaba, March 30, 2000: "William Purdy recently got someone else's e-mail by mistake. But instead of returning it to the sender, he decided to open it up for the world to see. The mail, which contained names, job titles, salaries and Social Security numbers of several hundred employees of Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corp., was prepared by a consultant. It was supposed to go to someone at the railroad's BNSF.com. Instead, it went to Mr. Purdy's BNSF.org. Bad move.

Mr. Purdy is a longtime critic of Burlington Northern Santa Fe and maintains Web sites attacking the railroad on safety and other issues. A former locomotive engineer for the old Burlington Northern, Mr. Purdy believes that salaries at the railroad are too high and money could be better spent on new warning devices at railroad crossings. So he put the names and salaries on one of his Web sites. The railroad objected and Mr. Purdy withdrew the information the next day.

The Fort Worth, Texas railroad went to court in Minnesota to stop Mr. Purdy from publishing the information again. Mr. Purdy and his attorney argued that he had a constitutional right to do so. On Tuesday, a judge ruled that Mr. Purdy can publish the job position and salary information, but not the people's names or their Social Security numbers. Burlington Northern Santa Fe said it is 'pleased the court is protecting the sensitive private information.' Mr. Purdy plans to appeal."

VIA Rail Dumps Raw Sewage on Tracks

On March 8 BMWE Canadian Vice President Ken Deptuck wrote the Minister of Transport David Collenette in Ottawa to protest the "disgusting issue of VIA Rail's practice of discharging raw sewage on railway rights of way" and urgently requested the Minister's "attention in addressing this unacceptable practice." The BMWE has complained to the railroad and "VIA Rail's Vice President, Paul Cote," wrote Deptuck, "has responded to our correspondence indicating that they appreciate our concerns but the dumping of waste on the track does not represent a health hazard and also VIA Rail does not have the funding to correct this situation."

TTD Convention July 19-21, 2000

The Transportation Trades Department of the AFL-CIO was established in 1990 to dedicate most of its time and resources to providing a national voice for transportation unions and their members in the government affairs arena. TTD's second quinquennial convention, which marks its 10th anniversary, will be a time to celebrate its accomplishments in that area but also a time to plan strategies to further advance a unified agenda promoting good, safe and secure transportation jobs. "In the past 10 years we have demonstrated what we said when the Department was first created," says the Official Convention Call, "the interests of transportation workers across each of the modes are compatible and not conflicting."

TTD Rail Labor Division Supports Coston for ARC

On March 29, the TTD Rail Labor Division member chiefs wrote Senator Thomas A. Daschle expressing their strong support for James Coston for appointment to the Amtrak Reform Council should there be a vacancy. Coston has a long history with Amtrak, working as a reservations agent after high school and then as a station agent and baggage handler to help pay for college and law school. As a teenager he founded the Twentieth Century Railroad Club which grew to become Amtrak's biggest customer for group tours and chartered excursion trains in the 1980s. For the past 20 years, Coston has been a successful attorney in Chicago concentrating on equipment leasing and finance. He has maintained, however, his ties to the railroad industry and Amtrak specifically and is well known for his strongly held views about the importance of a national passenger rail system. "Clearly, Mr. Coston has a demonstrated commitment to preserving national passenger rail service in this country," wrote the RLD, and "as a former Amtrak employee, we believe [he] is uniquely suited for a position on the ARC, and that he will represent the interests of Amtrak workers as well."

7 Days in June - Restoring Workers Right to a Voice @ Work

When working people, their unions and their communities join together in public forums to share their goals and hopes for a voice at work, their efforts are strengthened. Time and time again, workers have shown they can overcome employer hostility when the public gets involved and urges a free choice about joining a union. Broad public support helps embolden co-workers to fight for the freedom to join a union. During 7 Days in June in 1999, 15,000 people across 38 states spoke out for the freedom to choose a union in hearings, forums, rallies and outreach to the news media. At events around the nation, working people spoke a common theme: to have a voice at work means higher living standards, stronger communities and better products and services. 7 Days in June this year - June 10 to 17- will be bigger and better as expanded activities focus community attention on the faces, voices and stories of working families who are struggling to improve their lives.

America Still Needs A Raise

"America still needs a raise," said AFL-CIO President John J. Sweeney in a statement applauding Senator Ted Kennedy's effort to increase the minimum wage. "While Congress has been wasting time for the past two years playing political football with the minimum wage, millions of child care workers, teacher's aides, cooks, janitors, airport security guards and other low-wage workers keep falling further and further behind. Work should be a bridge out of poverty, but far too many people go to work each day knowing that their paycheck will not cover their most basic needs."

On March 9 the U.S. House of Representatives, by a vote of 246-179, passed a Democratic plan to raise the $5.15 minimum wage to $6.15 in two steps by April 2001, one year earlier than the wage increase backed by leaders of the GOP-controlled House. The wage was last raised in 1997. But GOP leaders who oppose an increase have set the bill up for a veto by linking the $1 an hour increase in the minimum wage with a $123 billion tax cut targeted toward business and the affluent, setting up an election year confrontation with President Clinton.

"Their minimum wage proposal is a meal ticket for their fat-cat friends," said House Minority Whip David Bonior, D-MI. In the Senate, Senator Kennedy, a resolute and tireless advocate for increasing the minimum wage, has proposed "a clean bill" which the "AFL-CIO strongly supports," said Sweeney. "The solid victory in the House for a two-year minimum wage increase should shame Republican senators into abandoning their outrageous ploy to dilute the increase by spreading it over three years. The Kennedy bill is what America's workers deserve - a clean bill with a reasonable increase."

Social Security and Medicare Trustees' Reports

On March 30 the Trustees of the Social Security and Medicare systems announced that the solvency of the trust funds of each of those systems has been extended. Government experts now project that Social Security will be able to pay full benefits for 37 years, three years longer than predicted last year. Medicare is expected to have enough resources to cover full benefits until 2023, eight years longer than reported in 1999.

Social Security Earnings Cap Repealed

On March 22, the Senate, by a vote of 100 to 0, voted to allow Americans who want to keep working once they turn 65 to collect their full Social Security checks - no matter how much money they earn. The Senate vote followed by three weeks similar House legislation which also passed unanimously. Until now, people age 65 to 69 who continue to work have reduced their Social Security benefits by $1 for every $3 they earn above a certain level, currently $17,000 a year.