UTU 1168

By Kim Thompson
UTU General Secretary & Treasurer

Nobody spends someone else’s dollars as carefully as we spend our own.

The UTU International leadership is especially sensitive to the fact that members entrust us with their own hard-earned dollars, and every member rightfully expects their union to gain the most value for their dues money. We do not take this obligation lightly.

Since taking office in January 2008, we have instituted new cost controls and conservative investment policies that, even in the face of significant furloughs by rail carriers and problems in financial markets, have made the UTU more efficient and financially secure.

The International’s General Fund, as detailed in the most recent GS&T report, has grown since the Futhey administration took office almost 18 months ago -- from $2.1 million to $4 million, which is a 90 percent increase.

The General Fund pays for International operations, including employee wages and benefits, travel tied to assistance provided general and local committees of adjustment, and headquarters rent.

Separately, our strike fund has grown by 45 percent, to $2.7 million, and our convention fund is on track to have the necessary minimum on hand to pay traditional and contemplated costs of the eleventh quadrennial convention in 2011.

Total International funds have grown from $7.5 million, when we took office in January 2008, to more than $13 million, which is an increase of more than 70 percent. This is in the face of sharp carrier cutbacks of employees -- many being UTU members -- in response to a sour economy.

Among cost-cutting actions was the reduction of one full-time administrative officer in the Cleveland headquarters and redistribution of that work to headquarters staff and other International officers. We have gone from 15 full-time International officers to 11, which is more than a 25 percent reduction.

Travel expenses have been reduced by combining International officer assignments and assigning officers geographically closer to the committees they are assisting. Every travel expense is checked to ensure it is necessary and proper.

Our International funds are invested conservatively so they are available when needed without undue risk of principal.

Our investment advisers are paid directly for sound financial advice and do not profit by moving our money from one investment alternative to another, or as a percentage of short-term investment gains. As a result, our International finances have withstood the effects of this recession and associated financial calamities far better than most organizations.

The UTUIA, meanwhile, earned more than $300,000 from operations during the first quarter of 2009. The UTUIA remains strong with more than $23 million in surplus, as recently validated through an annual audit.

As for the DIPP, premiums exceeded claims for the first quarter 2009, which boosted the fund’s balance. We continue monitoring this fund, as claims are tied directly to the level of carrier discipline.

We have met -- and continue to meet -- with carrier officers to discuss what we consider to be arbitrary discipline that unjustifiably damages employee morale, impeding our ultimate goal of providing world-class transportation service.

At the local level, we are assisting local treasurers through workshops, individual assistance and the UTU University to better equip them to carry out their duties in managing their local’s funds.

The financial state of the United Transportation Union is strong and secure, and we intend to keep it that way through careful spending and improved productivity within every department and through every activity of the International.

UTU International President Mike Futhey and BLET National President Ed Rodzwicz signed the petition for the emergency order.

The request for the FRA emergency order applies to all train operations, including conventional and remote control yard switching operations.

Although the UTU has collective bargaining agreements in force with most railroads requiring at least one conductor on each train start, there currently are no federal safety regulations prohibiting use of one-person crews in yard or road operations.

One-person crew operations "have been nothing more than the industry's attempt to reduce operating costs to increase profits, at the expense of worker safety," says the UTU and BLET petition seeking the FRA emergency order.

The FRA is told in the petition, "The evidence shows that no conditions exist where a lone engineer or remote control operations are safe."

The need for such an emergency order, says the UTU and the BLET, is demonstrated by a May 10 accident on CSX in Selkirk, N.Y., which killed UTU-represented conductor Jerod Boehlke, who was working alone and using a remote control device.

"The workload associated with [remote control operations], while performing other safety critical tasks, demands too much of a single individual, including loss of situational awareness," says the petition.

There are numerous incidents of accidents, injuries and fatalities where railroads utilized one-person crews, and the injuries and deaths caused by remote and single-crew operations "have continued unabated since its inception in the early 1990s," says the petition. "This has been caused in part by the inaction of the FRA to a number of petitions filed both by the UTU and the BLET for emergency orders to prevent such operations.

The petition says that while the FRA has reviewed the safety aspects of one-person crews, it "has really done nothing affirmatively to assure the safety of the employees in such operations."

The UTU and the BLET also take "strong issue" with FRA conclusions that the safety records of remote control and conventional operations are "basically the same."

Pointing to a 2006 FRA report entitled, "Safety of Remote Control Operations," the petition for the emergency order says, "We believe FRA cooked the books here. Most of FRA's erroneous figures resulted from the formulas used for calculating the statistics. For example, by using the number of hours worked instead of FRA's use of yard switching miles for determining the data, the accident rate was 2.3 times higher for RCOs."

An emergency order prohibiting the use of one-person operating crews, including remote control operations, would take effect immediately upon issuance by the FRA.

Click here to read the petition for the emergency order.