Posts under “General Chairman (reports and correspondence)”
Exclusivity Thank You to Mr. Nelson
From Rob Newhouse
United Transportation Union
June 20, 2010
Mr. James Nelson
UTU General Chairman, GO-261
139 West Cook Street
Portage, Wisconsin 53901
Dear Sir and Brother,
I am writing to you to congratulate and thank you and International Vice President John Babler for your successful fight for UTU’s Exclusive Representation of train service employees on the Canadian Pacific Railroad.
Again, UTU and UTU-E demonstrate that they are both willing, and the only ones capable of representing ALL operating crafts on this Railroad. My question to the operating employees on Canadian Pacific Railroad is “what Union can and will represent you regardless of your craft, the UTU and UTU-E, or the BLE?” It is clear that the UTU and UTU-E are the only ones capable and willing to do so.
I have read all the correspondence from you, CP and what the BLE has posted. In carrier’s letter they finally agree that the UTU has exclusivity in representing train service employees, but “leave the door open” for the BLE to re-argue its tortured position. Again, BLE chooses not to fight for the working people or their members and takes the position that is “OK” to let the UTU handle the representation for free (letter posted by BLE General Chairman Michael Preister). Meanwhile, the BLE will pocket their trainmen members’dues dollars and do nothing for them. No surprise there!
As UTU Local Chairman, I will continue to fight for the operating employees rights because the real issue is policing our hard earned agreements. I see this time and time again, with the UTU leading the “charge” on-property during wage and rules negotiations only to have the BLE after-the-fact “me to” UTU’s hard work. A recent example is when you and Vice President Kerley negotiated an interdivisional agreement between Portage, Wisconsin and Winona, Minnesota. The BLE, after screwing up their Portage to St. Paul Pools jumped at the chance to sign the same agreement negotiated by the UTU. Another example of UTU’s dedication to the operating department employees occurred last month when you and Vice President Babler stood up for employees when the CP through a tortured interpretation of “equity” (which was never the issue) instructed ID crews to deadhead for no compensation. The BLE looked the other way while CP deadheaded engineers for free.
It is easy to see why the BLE is the carrier’s union of choice. All you have to do is look at their past history and day-to-day shenanigans. The fact that the BLE instructed their members to cross the UTU picket lines in 1994 really sends a clear message what they think about union members rights and their jobs. Granted, unions have their minor flaws, but when it comes down to the willingness to fight for workers’ rights and pay, this is the true test that distinguishes one union from the other. Being a UTU member for over 37 years, I have never been more proud of my “union of choice”.
Again, thank you and in solidarity I remain
Fraternally yours,
James R. Croft
James R. Croft
Local Chairman, UTU Local 590
E9256 Pebblebeach Drive
Wisconsin Dells, WI 53965
CC: Mr. M. B. Futhey, Jr., International President - UTU
Artie Martin, AP - UTU
John Babler, VP – UTU
Robert Kerley, VP - UTU
UTU Locals Canadian Pacific Railroad
Members, Local 590 - UTU
Posted in General Chairman (reports and correspondence) on 06.20.2010 11:53am
GC Report April May June
From Rob Newhouse
United Transportation Union
General Committee of Adjustment GO-261
August 10th, 2009
Dear Local Chairmen and Secretary/Treasurers,
I hope you are enjoying your summer, even though we are all working hard visiting our Sisters and Brothers in their various work and home locations. I haven't had the time to take any vacation this summer, but have had the marvelous opportunity to get close to our Membership through a number of onsite and offsite meetings. My lovely wife, Vickie, was able to travel with me to some of those meetings across portions of North Dakota and Wisconsin.
I'll try to recap some of the most important Union issues we've been handling over the last quarter; April—May—June 2009. As always, I welcome you to make input—just give me a call or an e-mail or send a letter. I can't be The Lone Ranger here.. .1 need your best advice and guidance all along the way.
Very sincerely,
James H. Nelson
1 (608)745-1700-Office go261 @verizon.net
GO 261 Quarterly Activity and Key Issues
North Dakota Rail Line Flooding As you know, we had some serious flooding in portions of Minnesota and North Dakota. Because the rail lines were unusable for a good three weeks, train freight was rerouted and some of our folks lost work hours. Connected to all this was that Members were not able to bring home a decent paycheck during that period. We immediately brought this issue to Labor Relations/Human Resources. This dispute will go forward. The carrier maintains that the action was taken as part of an emergency, but we contend that this weather-related incident does not rise to the level of being sufficient to override negotiated contracts.
GEL Staffing This is not a new issue, but we're not letting it lie still. UTU Vice President John Babler, Local Chairman Bob Hill and I met May 20th with the US Senior Service Area Manager of Operations , Terry Bagaus and his team. Years ago, UTU forcefully argued that 20% of workforce should be held on the GEL. We realize that this is not a small cost for the carrier, but it is the only way to fairly ensure our Members are compensated to stand by the telephone and be ready to a two-hour notice call to report to work. The carrier argues that they are maintaining a proper GEL listing, but we feel as though the 20% is not being calculated properly. For example, we believe that not all yard and road extra starts are being counted. The typical negative result is the GEL being entirely exhausted. When that happens, our Members are contacted and told to report to work in a matter of hours when they were never expecting a telephone call to work in the first place.
Federal Rail Safety Bill This important Bill became effective in mid-July. We all know the implications—our Members were limited to 276 hours per month with a further stipulation that no one could work more than six days in succession. The whole idea was to beef up safety and make sure that trainmen were not overworked and tired—this could definitely lead to valid safety problems. The very obvious solution was to put more people to work—and we eyed the listing of 200+ of our Members that were on furlough since early March, 2009.
Well before the Bill became effective, we started raising the issue forcefully and were rewarded with CP returning a good 94 of the furloughed people back to full-time status. We consider this a BIG WIN and a tremendous move forward for our Members.
National Mediation Board SUCCESS!! Accompanied by VP John Babler, we attended a Board session in Phoenix in early May. We brought some 20 cases forward and several cases were totally exonerated. This is important for a number of reasons: It means UTU is demonstrating that it is willing for fight for their members. Further, it helps protect Members' work records from improperly-applied discipline. Last, in many cases, financial sanctions our Members have suffered in the past are corrected. In one case, we were able to return loss wages BACK TO THE MEMBER of $4,500. In all, we were able to "take back" some $12,500 in financial punishment leveled by the Carrier. We understand the Carrier has to operate a meaningful program in Labor Relations, but we must correct the record when they don't understand the problem or are working with incorrect facts. Last, with these 20 cases now judged, we have only 15 discipline cases remaining from the stack of approximately 110 that were languishing in this office at the time of my arrival as your GC in April, 2007.
"What's Next, Jim??" My main drive is to work with our Members and the Carrier to fully whittle down our folks presently on the Furlough List. These folks have more than paid their dues and need to get back on the job. The next thing is that I'll attend the next National Mediation Board meeting (set August 18th) with VP Robert Kerley and we expect to fully reduce our "waiting cases" to a level of zero. Last, I've got an important meeting in New Orleans along with all of you Local Chairmen (and Sec/Treas) that can attend—we'll all learn more about the Federal Rail Safety Bill.
Jim Nelson
Posted in General Chairman (reports and correspondence) on 08.21.2009 11:52pm
Quarterly Report January, February, March 2009
From Rob Newhouse
Dear Local Chairmen and UTU Brothers and Sisters,
Glad to be able to present a few topics to you on this Quarterly Report. Our goal is to "lean forward" on behalf our Union Members to ensure they get fair treatment. We would rather focus on "proactive" actions such as negotiating wide-ranging contracts that yield greater safety measures, commensurate pay, and even more effective work practices so our people can deliver the kind of quality work we're known for, at the same time protecting Union Members from ill-advised but proposed carrier initiatives.
On the other hand, a great portion of our job is to carefully examine trending in disciplinary cases. What I'm trying to do is to defend our UTU Members and ensure even-handed treatment in all instances. We'd rather educate our people along the way rather than have the carrier make examples of folks.
As we get into our discussion below, I want you to realize I inherited a fair number of disciplinary cases which have been dragging on for several years. I don't blame anyone for this and each individual case is different than the next. Just the same, I want to reach resolution for this backlog in an intelligent way but not just settle cases hastily—our people need a fair hearing.
Public Law Board 7210
UTU Vice President John Babler and I presented 19 discipline cases for adjudication before National Mediation Board referee Robert Richter on January 22, 2009. These cases all dated from 2002 through 2006. One dismissed case for a Conductor from Milwaukee was overturned and he was returned to service pending passing a company physical. Two other discipline cases were overturned; one case had a five-day and another a ten-day suspension, both were engineer claims. We have another Public Board set up for May 5, 2009 with 14 additional cases pending. These cases date between 2006 and 2008. We happily note that when Board action has been rendered, the six-year backlog of discipline cases will be over. Again, we've studied each case and will press for fair and logical outcomes—and will ensure that our good Members are supported.
What About Last Year?
This case backlog wasn't just begun last January—actually; we began the process in April, 2007, fully two years ago. We've argued over 100 discipline cases before tribunals with some very good success. Notably, two improperly dismissed Brothers, one from ND and the other from IL. received return to service settlements in 2008. Simply, two good and experienced men are now back in our ranks, performing effectively for our customers, and again supporting their families.
Case Handling—This Time "Rule Violations"
The next step is to handle the backlog of 62] contract rule violations dating from 2003 to 2006. We will try to knock this list down with tough negotiations over a day-and-a-half—it will be tough. Rule Violations can be classified into various "groupings" of infractions. Things like missed break periods, improperly managed work, forces, faulty crew scheduling, etc. Addressing these violations are important to us Union Members because if we don't take the carriers to task, it renders our Contract meaningless. We're slated to meet with the carrier April 15 and 16th 2009. We're going to try to make a sensible determination on every violation at the lower level but if we can't decide properly on each case, we'll forward up the remaining disputed violations to the National Mediation Board for a decision. I would prefer that we settle these matters now as the NMB action could take as much as another year. Concurrently, we want to take much more immediate attention to Rule Violations in the future so these matters don't languish.
"Furloughs"—Some Call Them "The F Word"
We understand the economic climate, but we're keeping close tabs on the rising number of furloughs. We've tracked approximately 90 cases of furloughed trainmen so far on the CP Soo Line. We were able to implement "Stand By" furlough status at several locations, however, but even this sensible option (because of the pay) has been pulled back by the carrier.
There are a couple of things we're doing now to lessen this negative impact. First, we are seeking an additional agreement to protect our newly-hired employees' seniority date. The new agreement would extend the one-year seniority clause to two years. This would protect the new hires' seniority just in case this economic downturn lasts longer than anticipated. Under the 1985 agreement, if you have fewer than three years seniority and don't work for over one year, you will be removed from the seniority roster. We want our folks to stay on the seniority roster and NOT have to go through an expensive and needless retraining session (refresher orientation is fine, though) when and if they return to service following the furlough.
Exclusive Representation
Some folks have asked me about BLET, the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen. I just want to point out that this group, out of Cleveland, does not have standing within the Canadian Pacific's Milwaukee/Soo territory for trainmen. In short, they have their members and we have ours within UTU. Thus, under the Railway Labor Act and existing UTU agreements, they cannot interpret UTU collective bargaining agreements or intercede with our Members. The UTU agreements with our carrier are quite clear and our Brothers and Sisters need to know this—as well, we'll press the point home to the carrier once more. It is in everyone's interest to know who they're dealing with. And the only two 'players' in this are CP Milwaukee/Soo and the UTU.
Concluding Words...
I know we're making progress—I can easily measure the disappearing case backlog and we're already doing some preliminary planning for the Contract Negotiations that will take place later this year. But, the important part is that YOU, our faithful Union Membership, needs to be connected to UTU. You all have sensible "hands-on" experience and can offer insight and wisdom to your Local Chairmen. Our Local Chairmen are smart and without exception are interested in your input and feedback. I depend on their sage advice and comments every day— but if they understand what's on your mind, they can better help ME guide UTU in a direction that makes the most sense. Please think about it. Of course, everyone is free to call me, but I encourage you to work "through the chain-of-command" and kick over your thoughts with your Local Chairman. You can be sure your thoughts will be heard and properly acted upon—and later feedback returned to you if you solicit it. Again, thanks for your hard work, your cheerful support, and your solid ideas, Brothers and Sisters.
James Nelson
UTU General Chairman
Posted in General Chairman (reports and correspondence) on 05.22.2009 7:50am