WIRELESS LOCOMOTIVE DOWNLOADS ALL OVER UP SYSTEM

There are over 3100 locomotives equipped with transmitters that automatically send the event recorder download to remote servers whenever they pass within range of one. These systems extract both Wabtec (pulse) and Quads (Q-tron) downloads.

The locomotives equipped are GE Dash -8s, GE Dash -9s, GE AC4400s, AC6000s, EMD SD90s, some EMD SD70s, and a fewEMD SD40s and SD60s. All RCL units are equipped with CATTRON and GE after 09/12/03.

As of January 01, 2004 there are 15 wireless download sites. North Platte NE., Kansas City MO., Green River WY,. Portland OR., Hinkle OR., Roseville CA" West Colton CA., El Paso TX., Houston TX, Denison TX., Coffeyville KS., Pine Bluff AR., Dexter MO., Denver CO. and Clinton IA.

WIRELESS DOWNLOADS

There are limitations with the wireless server. Servers have a download range of approximately one mile. Locomotives should be stopped but will download up to five mph. Download time is the same as a manual download, 10 minutes for Wabtec and about five minutes for Quads. Download process is a line-of-site process. Any interruptions of the line-of-site contact during the process will stop the download. Servers can only download one locomotive at a time. Servers will not download during the process of transferring downloads from local servers to the centralized database. Servers capture a default wheel size with the download. Download servers will display Omaha (Central Time Zone) time. EXCEPTION: Some units will reflect Greenwich Mean Time. You will need to use the Adjust Time feature to make your download reflect the correct time. For example, if you are in the central time zone, you will need to subtract six hours to make the titrie correct. (five hours during daylight saving time).

Wabtec downloads captured on the server will display two files, the .STA and .DAT files. These files are displayed one on top of the other. The Quads download will have one file when downloaded.

Before selecting the download for processing take note of the file size. A full download will contain 320KB, 512KB or 1024KB for Wabtec downloads and 256KB for Quads. Any numbers other than the ones listed above will indicate the server did not capture a full download. The size of the file, compared to the size of a full download will indicate how much of the download was captured.

When a download is transferred from the locomotive transferred first. Due to this, the data captured in the reference time taken from the server will be captured correct except for the time zone corrections that may server for 90 to 180 days.

to the server, the oldest data on the download is partial download will be older data. HO\':lever, the and the dates and times of the captured data will be need to be made. The download data will stay in the

ACCESSING WIRELESS DOWNLOAD

Double click on the internet explorer icon. Select Departments
Select Operating Practices Index.  Select wireless Base Stations - Event recorders Select wireless Download Menu.  Input TCS user ill and Password, click on Login.

ASK FOR PICTURE ID FROM FRA REPRESENTATIVES

It was announced by an FRA representative at SACP that individuals had shown a FRA business card to a crew and had ridden a train with them and asked numerous questions about operations and rules.  The FRA representative stated that these were not FRA personnel and that the only acceptable FRA credential has a picture ID and the background has a hologram with the FRA logo.  This particular representative claimed that railroad employees would trigger a citation if they failed to ask for credentials and if they do ask, a business card is not acceptable.  Please get the word out to your members.

 

Charles E. Hintz
Chairman, Iowa State Legislative Board
Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen
4608 Crestmoor Drive
Des Moines, IA  50310-3792
515-251-6378
cehintz@msn.com

 

NEW BLET SAFETY PREFORMACE AND SANITATION GUIDES MAILED TO THE MEMBERSHIP TODAY.

Each Member should be receiving a packet of information from the General Committee in our continuing effort to raise the level of professionalism of our craft.  The package will include a laminated Safety Performance Guide which will provide you pocket access to information routinely used in your daily activities as trainmen and engineers.  You will also be receiving a laminated Sanitation Guide (decision matrix) provided by Terry Briggs, the TSLB Chairman.  This guide will break down the complicated FRA regulations regarding sanitation requirements on locomotives.  By answering the questions and following the decision matrix flow chart, you can easily determine if the locomotive you are working on meets the FRA standards for sanitation.  The documents are being mailed to each member via US mail and are also available electronically by clicking on the below links.

 

COVER LETTER FROM GENERAL CHAIRMAN GORE

SAFETY PREFORMANCE GUIDE

SANITATION GUIDE (DECISION MATRIX)

   

NEW EXTRA BOARD ESTABLISHED AT LUFKIN TEXAS BY AGREEMENT

Zone 3 has ratified the establishment of a new extra board at Lufkin, Texas to protect the assignment in that area.  This new job will provide more jobs for that area and eliminate the need to deadhead engineers from Houston to Lufkin to protect extra service in that area.  You can view a PDF version of the signed agreement by clicking HERE.

REMOTE DERAILMENT PINE BLUFF

A Union Pacific remote control job (K043 YT35 B36R) went through a control point on the Jonesboro Subdivision, crashing into the side of a train on mainline track that was carrying hazardous materials. The remote control unit hit the freight train on the mainline, derailing 11 cars. The remote control unit was pulling over 100 cars and was operated by two junior employees (both were recently employed in early 2004).
Photos below 

BLET RESPONDS TO RAID ACCUSATIONS

BLET response to Paul Thompson July 16, 2004 Paul C. Thompson President - UTU 14600 Detroit Ave Cleveland, OH 44107-4250 Dear Mr. Thompson: This will acknowledge your letter dated July 13, 2004, wherein you stated that since being elevated to International President of the UTU you have repeatedly done all you could to make peace with BLET. You suggested a review of the BLE/UTU Merger document to determine if the concerns of the BLE membership could somehow be addressed. You further state that my response to your proposal was that peace is impossible unless the UTU joins the BLE in an affiliation with the Teamsters. In actual fact, my reply to your suggestion was that the BLE has now merged into IBT by a favorable vote of 81% of the BLE membership. The BLET is a member of the IBT Rail Conference and that any discussion would now have to include the IBT. I offered to set up a meeting between UTU and IBT representatives to determine if any common ground for additional discussions could be found. BLET did not request to be a part of the proposed meeting. You refused to meet. In the same discussion, you related several concerns about IBT, to which I said that a meeting may allay what appeared to be personal concerns you have with IBT. I also suggested you survey the UTU membership to determine if they are interested in UTU opening discussions with IBT. A suggestion you also refused. At that time, while you were not receptive to a meeting with IBT, I did not believe you had drawn a line in the sand on the issue. Now I find at the end of your July 14, 2004, web page post titled "UTU responds to unprovoked BLE&T raid," a quote attributed to you at the UTU regional meeting in Boston which does appear to draw a line in the sand. The quote is "Not in my administration will we ever become a member of the Teamsters organization." Given your stated position on an affiliation with IBT of which the BLET is now a part, you leave the UTU membership without hope of being represented by the strongest transportation union in North America, unless they join the BLET. Your members know that the UTU’s failure to join together with other rail unions has seriously undercut the collective strength of all rail labor at the bargaining table. Your members know that the Teamsters Union has a well deserved reputation for getting good contracts for its members in the transportation sector, from United Parcel Service to the major freight companies, to air freight, to carhaul, and elsewhere. And your members know that the Teamsters Union is committed to re-establishing strength and solidarity in rail labor through the recent merger with the BLE, the pending merger with the BMWE and IBT’s overtures to other rail unions. IBT has guaranteed to preserve the autonomy of these proud organizations while supporting them in their fight to regain strong contracts for their members BLE members overwhelmingly approved the merger with the Teamsters. A recent poll shows the vast majority of BMWE members support a similar merger. When you tried to raid the Teamsters/BLET General Committee at Canadian Pacific, your own members turned against you and voted for Teamsters/BLET representation. Again, I challenge you to conduct an impartial poll of your members to ascertain if they want to be part of the new Rail Conference within the Teamsters. Your letter is a fabric of misrepresentations and half-truths, which was obviously written in a spirit of desperation on your part, accusing the BLET of raiding the membership of the UTU. We do not consider offering trainmen the opportunity to join the BLET as an act of raiding. While the BLET is not raiding the membership of the UTU, I assume that your desperation may be fueled by the fact that in the last several months more than 1,500 former UTU members have seen the wisdom in joining the BLET and recognizing the strength that the Teamsters bring to rail labor. I find it outlandish that the UTU would accuse any other union of raiding in view of the fact that the UTU leadership found it necessary to disaffiliate itself from the AFL-CIO to avoid the sanctions involved in its raiding of this organization. Do you remember the UTU’s effort to destroy this organization back in 1997 through what has become known as its "Bosnian Amendment"? Do you remember the petition filed by former UTU President Charles Little in January 1998 with the National Mediation Board attempting to get the Board to rule that a single craft existed on the Union Pacific Railroad and force a representation election on that property? Do you remember the petition filed with the National Mediation Board by the UTU in 2001 for a single craft determination and a representation election on the Kansas City Southern Railroad? Do you remember the "war chest" created at the 1999 UTU convention to destroy the BLE? If you do not remember those efforts on the part of the leadership of the UTU to destroy the BLE, you should remember the most recent effort of your Legislative Department to get a bill introduced in the House of Representatives which would require the National Mediation Board to conduct a survey of all railroad employees described in the first division of Section 3 (h) of the Railway Labor Act to determine the membership of those employees in any labor organization? The bill would require the NMB to certify for each rail carrier as a representative of the employees described in Subsection A of that rail carrier, the labor organization with the greatest number of members who were surveyed under this proposed bill. I am enclosing a copy of this proposed bill for your reference. And last but by far not least, UTU, after committing more than once to work with the BLE on remote control, entered into a letter of intent with the carriers conference to grab remote control work for so called UTU represented employees while the BLE was in the middle of its International Convention. Your allegation that the Van Wart Study Commission of 1982 was a result of the strike by the BLE is completely untrue. UTU voluntarily accepted the recommendation for creating "the Study Commission" before the BLE strike of 1982. The findings of that study commission, in part, eventually led to the disastrous 1985 UTU Halloween Agreement. Former UTU International President Charles Little even admitted that the 1985 Halloween Agreement was probably one of the biggest mistakes the UTU ever made. That agreement resulted in almost 20 years of substandard pay for operating employees in the railroad industry. Another point in your letter described the successes of the UTU in negotiating national agreements. In looking at the last four UTU negotiated national agreements, I would be embarrassed to describe those agreements as successes. I doubt that UTU members would characterize those agreements as anything other than failures. You continue to tout the UTU’s "zero cost health care option" in your latest agreement. The latest numbers available indicate that less than .5 percent of UTU members have chosen this option for their health care plan because they understand that if they get sick or become injured, this plan will cost them thousands of dollars. While the most recent UTU national agreement did address the post-85 pay issue, it also created a new sub class of operating employee through entry rates that we will have to deal with in future negotiations. Teamster/BLET have organized a dozen new shortlines since we started discussing our merger. Each year the Teamsters Union organizes more than 10,000 new workers through NRLA and NMB administered elections. During the latest National Master Freight Agreement the IBT "got the hammer back," forcing freight employers to once again recognize the right to strike even during the term of the contract. The Master Freight Agreement has had no negative effect on freight railroads. The IBT fought Overnite for three years until the IBT was betrayed by a federal court decision that came out of Overnite’s home town in Richmond, Virginia. Even so, Overnite had to spend hundreds of millions of dollars opposing IBT. And, because of IBT’s aggressive campaign, Overnite employees saw their wages increase by more than $5 per hour and now enjoy many other improvements. It is interesting that you raise Central States Pension Fund, since nothing at Central States could affect rail employees who are, as you point out, covered by Railroad Retirement. The problems at Central States are no different from those affecting hundreds of other pension funds as a result of the adverse equity markets in 2000-2002. IBT is working hard with the government, employers and pension experts to preserve good Teamster pensions and to solve these problems. Mr. Thompson, it’s easy to throw stones and spread disinformation to mislead, but that will not help rebuild Rail Labor. The reality is that everyone knows that Rail Labor is in crisis and that unity and solidarity are the only way forward. We call on you to put aside the rancor and look at what is best for the members of UTU and Rail Labor as a whole. Very truly yours, Don M. Hahs President Enclosure Cc: Advisory Board (w/enc.) All BLET General Chairmen (w/enc.) All BLET State Legislative Board Chairmen (w/enc.) All Rail Chiefs (w/enc.) Friday, July 16, 2004 bentley@ble.org http://www.ble.org/pr/news/newsflash.asp?id=3968 © 2004 Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen http://www.ble.org

 

UTU INTERNATIONAL LEADERSHIP AT IT AGAIN

CLEVELAND, July 9 -- The United Transportation Union is at it again, seeking another backdoor attempt to raid membership of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen. Right now, the UTU is looking for someone to sponsor legislation in the U.S. House of Representatives that would force the BLET into an all-out war on the nation’s railroads. The proposed bill would allow the National Mediation Board to conduct an election of all locomotive engineers, conductors and trainmen who work for Class 1 railroads. Based on this election, the NMB would certify a single union to represent all the workers. According to the proposed legislation, the single surviving union would be the union with the most members at the time the election. Currently, the UTU has slightly more members than the BLET. The bill does not have a sponsor and has not been assigned a bill number. However, BLET lobbyists in Washington, D.C. are still working to make sure it stays that way. This backdoor attempt is similar to the “Bosnian Amendment” the UTU attempted to pass in 1997 and the single operating craft idea first introduced in 1998. “The UTU is at it again,” said BLET National President Don Hahs, “trying to take by force what it cannot have any other way. When given the opportunity to voluntarily merge with the UTU in 2001, our membership overwhelmingly voted no. Apparently, some people just can’t take ‘no’ for an answer.”
A copy of the UTU proposal is at:
http://www.ble-t.org/pr/pdf/hrnmb.pdf
bentley@ble.org

COMPUTER SANFU CAUSES IMPROPER WEIGHT ON DRIVER PAYMENTS

Click HERE to view the BLET Timekeeping Memo News on this issue.

If you have shortages, you should first contact the Timekeeping Shortage Hotline to correct the problem.

800-877-0309 or 8 - 997-2121

SHORT-TERM DISABILITY INSURANCE COMING IN OCTOBER

CLEVELAND,June 24 —— Members of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen will soon be able to take advantage of a short—term disability program obtained by the National Division through MetLife. The effective date of the plan is October 1. However, those who become disabled after July 1 will be able to collect benefits after October 1. The benefits are not retroactive to July 1. Participants will receive benefits for the period in which they are disabled up to the maximum of 52 weeks.
The benefit rate is $402 per week for up to 52 weeks. This benefit level is guaranteed for three years from October 1, 20O4 The plan’s premium is paid for by the railroads participating in the last national Contract. Some of the plans details are as follows:
• Engineers and Trainmen actively employed by a participating railroad are eligible to receive benefits under the plan if they are disabled on or off the job while assigned to a classification covered by a BLET collective bargaining agreement. Full—time representatives and employees of the BLET are also eligible to participate.
• MetLife will not offset benefits received by a participant under the Railroad Unemployment Insurance Act or under a disability retirement from the Railroad Retirement Board against benefits paid under the insurance contract.
• Surgery that is recommended by an employee’s physician as an element in a continuing course of treatment, or is intended to improve and/or facility an employee’s performance of an essential function he regularly performs iniiis occupation, shall be a covered condition under the Plan and not considered “elective surgery.”
• Participants are not required to provide proof of insurability and preexisting conditions are not taken into account in determining eligibility for payment of initial claims.
• Employers may not offset benefits paid under the Man against an award paid to an employee under the Federal Employers Liability Act.
BLET National President Don M. Hahs lauded the plan, which was mandated by the last national contract.

“This is definitely a step in the right direction toward providing our members much—needed protection in the unfortunate event they should become disabled and can’t provide a living for themselves and their families.
President Hahs also commended Vice President Lee Pruitt and Special Representative Jim Bradford for the work they did in establishing the plan.

“They did an excellent job in finding the best plan available for the dollars available,” President Hahs said.

BLET members with questions on this new Plan should contact:
Dennis Simmerman
BLET Director of Research and Benefits Liaison
Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen
1370 Ontario St., Mezzanine
Cleveland, OH 44113—1702
To download a PDF copy of the file right click HERE and select save target as.

2 1/2% PAY RAISE DUE EFFECTIVE JULY 1, 2004.... STEP RATES ELIMINATED JULY 1, 2004 ON UNION PACIFIC

-----Original Message-----
From: FORRESTEEBERSOLD@UP.COM [mailto:FORRESTEEBERSOLD@UP.COM]
Sent: Wednesday, June 30, 2004 2:20 PM
To: All BLET General Chairmen
Subject: BLE - T Rate and Step Rate Increases

The most recent National Agreement provided that all TEY employees who were hired on or before July 1, 2004 would have their step rates waived effective July 1st. On the morning of July 1st, the step rates for affected employees will be increased. Those increases should be completed by noon. We will repay all slips for July 1, 2004 for the affected employees after we close the last half of June payroll. This repayment process will be completed by close of business on July 9, 2004. If there any questions regarding shortage of pay because of step rate percentage issues, we would ask the individual employee not to call the Timekeeping Customer Service Center before July 9, 2004.

Also the National Agreement provided for a rate increase of 2.5%. All relevant BLE - T rate schedules have been updated and will be effective July 1. For those runs that are either "trip rated" or "flat rated" the increase will not be completed until after the close of the last half June payroll. The same would apply to individual classes of time that are subject to increases. The repayment process outlined for step rates will
also be used for reprocessing timeslips in the affected run areas. Again we ask individual employees not to call the Timekeeping Customer Service Center before July 9, 2004 regarding pay shortages due to rate increases in the "trip" or "flat" rated areas or classes of times that are subject a general wage increases.

If you have any questions about the process please do not hesitate to call me about them. Please feel free to do so immediately.

Forrest E. Ebersold
Team Leader, System Development and Support
Timekeeping Operations
Union Pacific Railroad
Phone (402) 997-2127
Fax (402) 233-2274