The Voice of Transportation Labor
BNSF reported a 9 percent improvement in profit for the third quarter 2011 versus the third quarter 2010. The third-quarter operating ratio of 71.7 percent was slightly higher than the 70.8 percent for third-quarter 2010. Operating ratio is a railroad’s operating expenses expressed as a percentage of operating revenue, and is considered by economists to be the [...]
HAVRE, Mont. – Two unidentified BNSF crew members were injured here Aug. 28 when their 93-car freight train derailed, reports the Associated Press. The injuries were described as “not life-threatening.” The eastbound train from Spokane, Wash., to Minneapolis reportedly left at least one of three locomotives and numerous freight cars on their sides. There was [...]
FRAZER, Mont. — A BNSF conductor and UTU member, along with a BNSF engineer, were killed late Friday night, Aug. 19, when the crew van in which they were riding was involved in a two-vehicle collision on Highway 2 just east of here in eastern Montana. This was the eighth UTU member fatality in 2011, and [...]
KANSAS CITY, Kan. — A BNSF Railway yard worker, Thomas F. Bleyenberg, a member of UTU Local 5, Kansas City, Mo., was killed Mon., Aug. 15, when he became trapped between two rail cars at the carrier’s Argentine Yard here. Bleyenberg was working a two-person remote control assignment with a third student-operator, according to reports. Bleyenberg, [...]
TULSA, Okla. — A BNSF employee and UTU member was killed in a yard accident here Aug. 4 when a vehicle in which she was riding was struck by a flatcar during a hump operation, according to the Oklahoma Highway Patrol and reported by the Tulsa World newspaper. Deborah Ann Beeler, 39, of Claremore, was pronounced [...]
A Wisconsin Central conductor has won a whistle-blower complaint against the carrier – collecting more than $125,000 in compensatory and punitive damages – for unlawful harassment and intimidation as the result of reporting an injury. This was the third successful whistle-blower complaint filed against a railroad in recent months for violation of a worker’s rights under the [...]
GREAT FALLS, Mont. — Two unidentified BNSF crewmembers – a conductor and engineer — were injured near here July 19 when their 110-car train, with three locomotives, ran into the rear of a stationary and unoccupied maintenance train, reports the Associated Press. The injuries were said not to be life-threatening. The freight train was enroute [...]
A mining and natural resources company, Oxbow Carbon and Minerals, has filed an antitrust suit against BNSF and Union Pacific, alleging the railroads have illegally fixed freight rates, in violation of the Sherman Antitrust Act, “to gouge customers.” Oxbow mines and ships coal and petroleum coke. The lawsuit, before the federal District Court for the [...]
MINERAL SPRINGS, N.C. — CSX conductor Phillip E. Crawford Jr., 33, and locomotive engineer James Gregory Hadden, 36, were killed early May 24 in a rear-end collision here involving two CSX freight trains, according to news reports. Mineral Springs is some 30 miles south of Charlotte. Crawford was a member of UTU Local 970, Abbeville, [...]
Notified you are under investigation? Wish to file a grievance? Membership rights question? Click on the “Membership Toolbox” for your answer. … (Read more)
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The Federal Railroad Administration has issued a new report on the status of fatigue among railroad industry employees. In 2001, the FRA began examining the fatigue status of safety-critical railroad employees by using logbooks to collect work and … (Read More)
The dates and locations of the 2013 UTU regional meetings are: July 1-3: Boston, at the Westin Boston Waterfront July 29-31: Anaheim, Calif., at the Hilton Anaheim Members and attendees can now register online for a UTU regional meeting, as well … (Read More)
