Vice President Tolman testifies before Congressional Subcommittee

CLEVELAND, July 25 -- BLET Vice President and National Legislative Representative John Tolman testified today before the House Transportation & Infrastructure Committee’s Subcommittee on Railroads regarding human factors incidents in the railroad industry.

In his testimony, Vice President Tolman cited three key areas of concern to the BLET regarding human factors incidents. First, he underscored prior BLET testimony concerning fatigue, and the ways in which the industry’s rampant manipulation of the Hours of Service Act and governing FRA regulations contribute to this growing problem. Second, he addressed the nexus between inadequate training and human factor accidents. Third, he informed the Subcommittee of potential hazards inherent in some of the technologies that rail carriers say will eliminate human factor accidents.

NTSB report cites fatigue in fatal collision, hazmat release

Approximately three weeks ago, the National Transportation Safety Board adopted a report determining that the 2004 Macdona, Texas, collision and toxic chlorine release, which killed three people, was caused by a fatigued crew’s failure to respond to wayside signals. In the NTSB report, the crew was criticized for failing to effectively use off-duty time, thereby not obtaining sufficient restorative rest prior to reporting for duty. Union Pacific was criticized for train crew scheduling practices that created inverted crew members’ work/rest patterns.

“For many decades, then-prevailing industry practices worked to minimize or camouflage potential fatigue problems,” Brother Tolman testified. “Much larger crew sizes greatly reduced the likelihood that an entire crew would be working while fatigued. Moreover, collective bargaining agreements contained maximum mileage regulations — that were strictly enforced — under which a worker would be marked off for the remainder of the month when the maximum was exceeded.

“Over the past 60 years, technology has reduced crew size from five or six to two or three. Notwithstanding this fact, the supply of locomotive engineers, conductors and brakeman has not kept up with demand, creating enormous pressure on the industry to work crews above agreement-based mileage levels. The desire of railroad workers to improve, and not just maintain, their standards of living created similar pressure on unions to permit crews to continue working when those mileage levels were exceeded. As a result of these factors, smaller crews are working far more trips and miles than their historical predecessors.”

Limbo time regularly abused

According to Vice President Tolman, the changes in the rail industry have been compounded by “limbo time,” a system that is being abused by rail carriers and creating intolerable working conditions for train crews.

“The Hours of Service Act prohibits operating employees from working more than 12 consecutive hours in any 24?hour period, with limited exceptions,” Vice President Tolman said. “If a train cannot reach its destination within the 12 hours, the crew must stop in time to cease all work by the 12th hour, at which point they are considered ‘outlawed.’ A railroad that requires an operating employee to perform service covered by the Act beyond the 12th hour, unless the circumstances are exempted by statute, is subject to a civil penalty.

“Under current law, ‘time spent in deadhead transportation to a duty assignment is time on duty, but time spent in deadhead transportation from a duty assignment to the place of final release is neither time on duty nor time off duty.’ Thus, a crew who stops their train short of the destination terminal because they have ‘outlawed’ are in ‘limbo’ status with respect to the Hours of Service Act while deadheading from where they stop to their off-duty point.

“The history of the Act shows a pattern of abuse by carriers that continues to this very day.”

BLET compiling Hours of Service violations

Vice President Tolman told Congress that the BLET National Legislative Office is in the process of compiling examples of these abuses.

“Over the past nine months, we have received many thousands of reports of excessively long tours of duty,” Vice President Tolman said. “Our staff presently is assembling these data into a usable form, which we expect will be completed later this year. However, I can tell you that the preliminary information we have is shocking.”

According to data prepared by one of the four largest Class I railroads for the first six months of this year, on average, work tours for over 224 crews exceeded 14 hours every day. An average of nearly 103 crews a day work tours in excess of 15 hours, and over 46 and a half work tours in excess of 16 hours. Almost 20 crews every week for the first six months of this year had a work tour more than 20 hours long; that’s 12 hours of work followed by more than 8 hours of deadhead/limbo time.

In his closing, Vice President Tolman acknowledged that human factors incidents can be mitigated if proper steps are taken.

“While it is true that one human factor caused accident is too many, it also is true that humans make mistakes,” Vice President Tolman said. “A well rested, properly trained and experienced crew, provided with technological assistance that supports — rather than replaces — their skill set is far less likely to be involved in a human factor caused accident that a fatigued, poorly trained, inexperienced crew. We fully support bringing the railroad into the 21st Century by improving performance in all three of these areas, leaving none behind.”

In addition to Vice President Tolman, the following individuals testified before the subcommittee: The Honorable Joseph Boardman, Administrator, Federal Railroad Administration; Robert Chipkevich, Director, NTSB: Office of Rail, Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Investigations; Dr. Martin Moore-Ede, M.D., Ph.D., Chief Executive Officer, Circadian Technologies, Inc.; Edward Hamberger, President and Chief Executive Officer, Association of American Railroads; W. Dan Pickett, International President, Brotherhood of Railroad Signalmen; Richard F. Timmons, President, American Short Line and Regional Railroad Association; and James Stem, Alternate National Legislative Director, United Transportation Union.

In his questioning, Representative John D. Barrow (D-GA) noted that employees are spread too thin to get effective amounts of rest.

“If staffing levels are inadequate, people are going to try to work too long and get too tired,” Representative Barrow said.

Representative Elijah Cummings (D-MD) asked whether the Hours of Service regulations are designed to protect workers and the general public. He also noted that the hours locomotive engineers spend on call is disruptive to their lives and puts them in danger. Representative Cummings compared the hours worked per month by locomotive engineers to those of truckers and airline pilots. Locomotive engineers can work a maximum of 432 hours per month, truckers can work a maximum of 260 hours per month and airline pilots can work a maximum of 100 hours.

In his testimony, Federal Railroad Administrator Joseph Boardman stated that 38 percent of all railroad accidents are caused by human factors, and acknowledged that fatigue was the cause of many of these incidents. He also noted that the Hours of Service Act was last amended 30 years ago, and since its last amendment, research has been done into the issue of that should help improve the regulations. He stated, however, that the FRA was powerless to help without assistance from Congress, the railroads and rail labor.

UTU Assistant Legislative Director Stem testified that he believed the FRA understands the problem, but said that action by Congress is now necessary to make changes in the industry.

For a PDF of Vice President Tolman’s testimony, go to: http://www.teamster.org/divisions/rail/pdfs/060725_tolmantestimony.pdf

Tuesday, July 25, 2006
bentley@ble.org

http://www.ble.org/pr/news/newsflash.asp?id=4333

© 2006 Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen
http://www.ble.org

NCCC Serves New Section 6 notice on UTU

Attached you will find a letter from UTU President Paul Thompson to all UTU General Committees and State Legislative Boards outlining their latest agreement proposal with the National Carrier Conference Committee. The NCCC is the bargaining agent for all the Carriers in national handling that is under the influence of the UP and BNSF railroads. It is my understanding that a similar document is to be presented to our bargaining team next month when they meet with the NCCC. Please read these documents carefully. This should tell every employee exactly what Union Pacific thinks we are worth. You need only review the Compensation section of the agreement to get the full brunt of their philosophy.

1. Compensation

A. General Wage Increases and/or other forms of compensation.

1. Wage freeze during the term of the agreement (no GWI’s etc) for all current employees.

Employees establishing UTU seniority after date of Agreement – full rate of pay set at 80% of full rate position on June 30, 2005

B. Cola

1. COLA under current UTU National Agreement eliminated on effective date of Agreement.

2. No Harris COLA for periods subsequent to moratorium in New Agreement.

What that means to everyone is that under this proposal there will be no general wage increases (GWIs) for anybody during the life of this outlandish proposed contract. This proposal is offered in the wake of record setting profits by both Union Pacific and BNSF in the second quarter of this year (UP increased NET Profit for the 2^nd quarter by 67%).

We as operating employees (all engineers and trainmen) should be outraged at Union Pacific snubbing their nose at the very people who are responsible for the record profits they are bragging to Wall Street about. You the employees who are hauling the freight that is responsible for those record profits in their eyes are not worthy of a raise.

Digest these documents fully so that you can understand the contempt your employer has for the job that you do.

FRA seeking update of work / rest laws

The Washington Times (D.C.)
July 26, 2006

FRA seeking update of laws

BY Marie Tyler

The amount of time railroad employees can work without rest is based on laws created in 1907, but the industry and Congress are struggling to move them into the 21st century.

Rail industry leaders from government agencies, unions and associations met with lawmakers yesterday to discuss the role human error plays in rail safety and potential changes to the standards that many leaders see as outdated and ineffective.

The 99-year-old measure has kept the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) from "making use of almost a century of scientific learning on the issue of sleep-wake cycles and fatigue-induced performance failures," FRA administrator Joseph H. Boardman told the House Transportation and Infrastructure railroads subcommittee yesterday.

The hours-of-service law, last amended in 1969, limits rail workers to 12 hours of work followed by eight hours off duty, then 12 hours of work, a process that can continue perpetually, according to Mr. Boardman. With this schedule, the worker will suffer from fatigue, which will compromise his ability to perform his duties.

"The NTSB has identified fatigue as a causal or contributing factor to at least 14 major rail accidents since 1984," Mr. Boardman said, adding that many more, less-severe accidents have been tied to human error in tired crews.

The NTSB cited a reduced amount of sleep as a factor in the Nov. 3, 2004, Metrorail accident at the Woodley Park-Zoo/Adams Morgan station.

Human factor accounted for 38 percent of train accidents from 2001 to 2005, according to the FRA.

The federal law limits the FRA's ability to regulate and enforce the number of hours rail employees can work. Other agencies in the Department of Transportation can regulate the number of hours workers can perform their duties.

The National Transportation Safety Board found that airline pilots may work 100 hours each month, truck drivers may work 260 hours, and large-ship personnel may work 240 hours. Railroad engineers may work 432 hours, out of the 744 hours in a month.

However, 95 percent of rail employees are on duty less that 250 hours per month, according to the Association of American Railroads.

Efforts to change the measure failed in 1994, 1998 and 1999 because of pressure from industry, government and unions.

Attempts to change the laws have failed because "the labor and business side have a vested interest in keeping things the way they are," said Bob Chipkevich, director of the Office of Railroad, Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Investigations for the National Transportation Safety Board.

Employees want to work as many hours as they can and do not want to be forced to stop close to home, even if they have reached their limit or are tired, he said.

Fatigue was the most-discussed cause of human error at the hearing, as industry executives and experts cited long hours, the ability to be called for work at any time, inconsistent scheduling, overworked and undersized crews as several of the causes.

For TE&Y Employees

Payroll Registers Include New Features

Payroll recaps provided to train, engine and yard (TE&Y) employees have a new look beginning this month. The registers, which are mailed to employees with paychecks and direct deposit slips, have been reformatted to make them easier to read and understand.

The recap now provides a daily breakdown showing the various allowances and arbitrary payments. Totals are provided for each day, as well as for the pay period, so the employee can easily see his or her actual earnings.

Non-taxable items, such as meals, lodging and auto mileage, are separated from taxable compensation.

The new format reports declination records for claims made by an employee that are not allowed.

"Employees will be able to identify their daily compensation much easier with this new format," said Tim Holmes, manager-timekeeping support.

Brian Schlueter, senior project engineer-Union Pacific Technologies, said Timekeeping asked that redundant totals and headings be removed from the recap.

"The programming changes we made condense the format of the register, which saves paper and adds additional readable space to the form. Employees also will notice that page numbering will appear correctly," he said.

The payroll recap changes are effective with first half of July earnings, which are paid at the end of the month. Employees with questions about the new form can call the Timekeeping customer service line at 866-623-4267 or company line 591-3267.

The payroll register change does not affect employees who participate in ePayroll.

ePayroll is a secure, paperless system that provides employees with confidential online access to their pay information, including paystubs and payroll registers. It also allows employees to change their W-4 withholding information, modify direct deposit elections and view W-2s online. Payroll registers and paystubs are available online three to seven days earlier than pay detail sent via U.S. mail.

More than 9,000 active agreement employees are now signed up for ePayroll.

To enroll in ePayroll employees can select the ePayroll link on the left navigation of the Employees site home page, click on "you can learn more about ePayroll here" link and then go to "How do I enroll in ePayroll."