June 19, 2013

Do programs produce safety, or manipulate reality?

Mike Futhey

By Mike Futhey, SMART Transportation Division President –  Throughout my career as a union officer, I have experienced every type of carrier safety program imaginable: from official company “snitches” to complex, overly burdensome and intrusive research, to innovative, cooperative, joint ventures. Employees need a program to know the program du jour. When programs fall by the [...]

State of the union: ‘Stronger than ever’

Futhey pointing; Mike Futhey; Futhey, Mike; Pointing

International President Mike Futhey SAN ANTONIO — Stronger protections for members, improved finances, successful organizing drives and superior wage and benefits agreements characterize the United Transportation Union in 2011, International President Mike Futhey told some 600 attendees in his state-of-the-union report at the first of two 2011 regional meetings here June 22. “Before this administration [...]

UTU, TRRA seek anti-terrorist training grant

Bruce Feltmeyer; Feltmeyer, Bruce; International Employee

The UTU and the Terminal Railroad Association of St. Louis (TRRA) are jointly seeking an anti-terrorist security grant from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). If the grant is approved — with a DHS decision expected in August — the UTU and TRRA will collaborate on a three-year project to train front-line TRRA employees to [...]

We are fighting for safer crew vans

By UTU International President Mike Futhey In a horrendous March accident in Kelso, Wash., a conductor trainee and a locomotive engineer were killed when the carrier-provided shuttle van in which they were riding was struck by a moving train at a private highway-rail grade crossing. A second conductor was critically injured and the van driver [...]

Mother of UTU International president dies

Futhey, Coy Marie; Coy Marie Futhey

MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Coy Marie Bradshaw Futhey, age 89, mother of UTU International President Mike Futhey, died April 3 in a nursing home here. She was active in the Auxiliary of the UTU and its predecessor, Brotherhood of Railroad Trainmen, and served as president and legislative representative for UTU Auxiliary Lodge 755 in Memphis. Active [...]

State of the union, 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 [...]

Not today. Not tomorrow. Never!

SAN FRANCISCO — In response to UTU International President Mike Futhey announcing the flawed merger attempt with the Sheet Metal Workers International Association “dead,” some 800 UTU members at a western regional meeting here July 8 responded with thunderous applause, foot-stomping, cheering and whistling. “There will not be a merger today. There will not be [...]

Predictable crew schedules not radical

By UTU International President Mike Futhey For more years than I care to count, we having been telling the carriers that if we couldn’t come up with a mutually acceptable solution at the bargaining table to the problem of availability policies and train-crew fatigue that we were going to ask Congress to impose a solution. [...]

Futhey administration: Year 1 report

Almost a year has passed since Mike Futhey, Arty Martin and Kim Thompson took office. They ran on a platform of specific promises, including full disclosure. Following are Futhey administration promises and results, so far: Promise #1: Restructure the International by reducing the number of International officers in Cleveland,and providing the most possible assistance to [...]

Obama: The choice for working families

By International President Mike Futhey Remember back in grade school, when we were given a page with four pictures on it — a dog, a cat, a horse and an apple — and told to identify which one of the four didn’t belong? Imagine, instead, a page with these four pictures: a paycheck, a health-care [...]