By Assistant President Arty Martin For more than 40 years, the UTU has been instrumental in improving job security, wages, benefits and safe working conditions. To achieve that success, the UTU has always relied on the membership to step forward to rebuild elected officers’ ranks — from the local through the UTU International president. Every [...]
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Younger members are our future
August 24, 2010
Filed Under: Amtrak/Commuter, Amtrak/Commuter News, Aviation, Bus, Bus News, Leadership Messages, News Tagged With: future, leaders, local office, members, membership, mentor
UTU DIPP: Above all, ‘peace of mind’
August 14, 2010
By General Secretary & Treasurer Kim Thompson We are all familiar with employers imposing unwarranted discipline and even dismissal on employees. A member survey by the UTU’s Rail Safety Task Force revealed that more than 50 percent of train, engine and yard workers cite supervisor harassment and excessive operational testing as distracting them from situational [...]
Filed Under: Amtrak/Commuter, Amtrak/Commuter News, Aviation, Bus, Bus News, Leadership Messages, News, Secretary & Treasurer Tagged With: DIPP, discipline, discipline income protection program, dismissal, Rail Safety Task Force
State of the union, 2010
August 6, 2010
By International President Mike Futhey Are things better now than they were three years ago? Have you witnessed an improvement in representation, union finances, internal procedures and management transparency since Arty Martin, Kim Thompson and I took office Jan. 1, 2008? Here are the facts: Union bank balances, after payment of expenses, improved in each [...]
Filed Under: Amtrak/Commuter, Amtrak/Commuter News, Aviation, Bus, Bus News, Leadership Messages, News Tagged With: 2010, Futhey, internal procedures, management transparency, representation, state of the union, union finances
UTU seeks collaborative safety, security plan
June 27, 2010
By UTU International President Mike Futhey The recent tragic, senseless and violent murder in New Orleans of CSX conductor Fred Gibbs, and wounding of the train’s engineer (a potential witness whose name is being withheld), accelerates an already urgent need for better workplace safety and security measures for rail, transit and motor coach facilities and [...]
Filed Under: Amtrak/Commuter, Amtrak/Commuter News, Aviation, Bus, Bus News, Leadership Messages, News Tagged With: conductor, CSX, Fred Gibbs, intermodal, murder, New Orleans, safety, security, terrorist, workplace safety
Fatigue, harassment, intimidation take toll
June 1, 2010
By International President Mike Futhey We all know that when one wants the truth from the iron horse’s mouth, we ask the rank-and-file membership. That is especially so when it comes to safety. I commend our Rail Safety Task Force for going directly to the membership with a survey whose results are reported in the [...]
Filed Under: Amtrak/Commuter, Amtrak/Commuter News, Leadership Messages, News
Retiring soon? Don’t be a fraud victim
April 19, 2010
By UTU GS&T Kim Thompson A recent article on the UTU Web site, headlined “Ponzi Scheme Targets Retired L.A. Bus Drivers,” reminded me of the pitfalls that our members can face in having a secure retirement. It seems you can’t watch the evening news, open a newspaper, or visit the Internet without hearing about identity [...]
Filed Under: Alumni Association News, Amtrak/Commuter, Amtrak/Commuter News, Aviation, Bus, Bus News, Leadership Messages, News, Secretary & Treasurer Tagged With: fraud, Kim Thompson, retire, retiring, victim
RLA designed to avoid strikes, lockouts
March 25, 2010
By Retired UTU GS&T Dan Johnson In the February issue of UTU News, it was explained that the Railway Labor Act (RLA) is purposely designed to encourage both sides to reach a mutually acceptable solution that keeps the trains running. Railroad contracts have no expiration date, but do contain a moratorium prohibiting either side from [...]
Filed Under: Amtrak/Commuter, Amtrak/Commuter News, Leadership Messages, National Rail Contract, News, Secretary & Treasurer Tagged With: contracts, Dan Johnson, NMB, Railway Labor Act, RLA
Health care reform: Now!
March 9, 2010
By UTU International President Mike Futhey I agree with President Obama regarding health care legislation: “Let us find a way to come together and finish the job for the American people.” We, as a nation, Democrats and Republicans, conservatives and liberals — patriots all — must find a way to make health care insurance easier [...]
Filed Under: Amtrak/Commuter, Amtrak/Commuter News, Aviation, Bus, Bus News, Healthcare, Leadership Messages, News
Union rep rules out of sync with times
February 10, 2010
By UTU International President Mike Futhey The National Mediation Board, which administers the Railway Labor Act, proposes changing the rules by which rail and airline employees choose labor union representation. The UTU supports the change. The NMB rules for representation elections now require a majority of employees eligible to vote actually cast a ballot favoring [...]
Filed Under: Amtrak/Commuter, Amtrak/Commuter News, Aviation, Bus, Bus News, Leadership Messages, News, Washington Tagged With: Employee Free Choice Act, National Labor Relations Board, national mediation board, NMB, Railway Labor Act
Workplace safety: Our highest priority
January 3, 2010
By UTU International President Mike Futhey What should have been a joyous holiday season ended all too tragically Dec. 29 with the death of 44-year-old UTU Local 1000 member Samuel Lundy in a switching accident in Minneapolis. He leaves behind a loving wife and three children. Brother Lundy was the eighth UTU member killed in [...]
Filed Under: Amtrak/Commuter, Amtrak/Commuter News, Leadership Messages, News Tagged With: dangerous jobs, death and dismemberment, injuries, Local 1000, railroaders, safety, Samuel Lundy, SOFA
