http://railroadworkersunited.org/metrolink-crash-–-metrolink-crash:-opportunity-make-real-safety-improvements

The Metrolink Crash: An Opportunity to Make Real Safety Improvements
September 23, 2008
The recent crash of a Metrolink commuter train and a
Union Pacific Freight train should provide the impetus to make real
safety improvements which would reduce or eliminate the possibility of
such tragic wrecks in the future. More than two dozen people died,
including the engineer of the Metrolink train, and scores -- including
the crew of the freight train -- were injured, many critically.

The emerging, premature consensus over the following week was that the
engineer of the Metrolink train was preoccupied, texting and receiving
cell phone messages, when he should have been observing wayside signals
that would have informed him of the need to safely bring his train to a
stop. Wasting no time, the California Public Utilities Commission voted
to ban the use of a cell phone device while operating a locomotive. We
can expect such a law to become national in scope in the coming months.

But we miss the point – and the opportunity to create a safer railroad –

Bullish Union Busting Bosses Blamed For LA Train Wreck
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/10/03/BA9M13AMSM.DTL

Attorneys blame company in deadly train crash
Sue Doyle, Los Angeles Daily News
Friday, October 3, 2008
(10-03) 04:00 PDT Simi Valley, Ventura County -- Warning grieving families and injured passengers still reeling from last month's deadly Metrolink train crash to think about the future, attorneys are laying the groundwork for litigation stemming from the head-on collision that killed 25 people.

At two town-hall meetings Tuesday inside a Simi Valley hotel, lawyers spoke for two hours about a bullish corporate culture fueling the operator of Southern California's commuter rail system that they say leads to unsafe practices.

Metrolink officials knowingly send out trains with mechanical defects and encourage engineers to exceed speed limits and fudge record-keeping, all to avoid being late and reap lucrative financial bonuses for arriving on time, the attorneys said.

"Their chief concern is not what it should be," attorney R. Edward Pfiester Jr. said. "And that's the safety of their passengers."

His Los Angeles-based law firm, which set up public meetings Tuesday and Saturday, has represented people from Metrolink train crashes in Placentia in 2002 and Glendale in 2005.

Workers Liberty
http://www.workersliberty.org/story/2008/09/24/solidarity-3139.
Acid test for RMT as
key activist victimised

Tubeworkers: under pressure
Andy Littlechild, a well-known
local rep at Lillie Bridge and
activist on the “company council”
— the top relevant union body — was
suspended by the infrastructure company
Metronet on Tuesday 16 September, on
trumped-up charges.
The London Underground Engineering
and Fleet branches, and the RMT union
executive, have voted to ballot Metronet
workers for strike action. If Metronet is
allowed to get away with this, every union
rep across the network will be in danger.
The workers whom Andy directly works
with are reported as being very solid in
their determination to stop the victimisa-
tion. Success will depend on making sure
all workers across Metronet know the
issues. Leaflets are already being distrib-
uted to workplaces by reps and activists.
The spark was a local manager ’s arbi-
trary insistence on workers wearing hard
hats at all times. Andy was working on a
job with an agreed risk assessment not call-
ing for hard hats.
The manager wrote a new risk assess-

ILWU Local 10 Rally October 6th at Yolo County Courthouse Near Sacramento

Defend Local 10 Members Jason Ruffin and Aaron Harrison Beaten and
Arrested By Police.
Stop Racial Profiling! Drop The Bogus Charges!

6:00 AM: Buses leave ILWU Local 10 (400 North Point St. by Fisherman's Wharf).

8:00 AM: Rally in Woodland (near Sacramento)

On October 6, 2008 at the Yolo County Courthouse two ILWU Local 10
longshoremen, Jason Ruffin and Aaron Harrison, will go on trial. These
two brothers were beaten and arrested by police while returning to
work after lunch in the port of Sacramento on August 23, 2007. When
port security guards demanded they open the car trunk to be searched,
they called their union business agent to find out what their rights
are. New repressive (MARSEC) maritime security regulations was cited
in the assault, handcuffing, macing and arrest the two black union
members. They were initially charged with "trespassing" and "resisting
arrest". The "trespassing" charge was dropped. The video shows that
they did nothing wrong.

Sacramento police have a record of racist attacks on African American
and Mexican American youth. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU)

US Boss Labor Board Limits Political Strikes
http://labornotes.org/node/1921

Labor Board Limits Political Strikes

— Robert Schwartz

The massive immigrants rights marches in May 2006 may have been the largest political strike in U.S. history. Many were fired afterwards, and now the National Labor Relations Board’s general counsel says that’s OK. Photo: Jim West
An overlooked order by the Labor Board’s lead lawyer this summer dealt a serious blow to the rights of U.S. workers to protest government policies.

On May Day 2006, hundreds of thousands of immigrant workers walked off their jobs to protest restrictive immigration legislation. Some were fired, and brought complaints to the board. Ronald Meisburg, the National Labor Relations Board general counsel, responded by posting a directive on “political advocacy” this July that enables bosses to immediately fire employees who participate in work stoppages of a political nature.

The directive, as yet apparently unnoticed by both unions and labor lawyers, cannot be appealed.

Traditionally, workers around the world have used two kinds of walkouts to achieve their goals, economic strikes over workplace issues and political strikes directed at government policies.

http://www.itfglobal.org/news-online/index.cfm/newsdetail/2615

ILWU dockers back striking crew

26 September 2008

view larger image
Crew members on the Liberian flagged Cap Spencer were able to call off a strike in Long Beach this week after winning all their demands with the help of local dockworkers.

The crew contacted ITF inspector Stefan Mueller-Dombois, asking for help with wages and working conditions problems. As requested, he put them in touch with the authorities and also alerted fellow ILWU members that there were problems onboard.

Unable to resolve their problems the crew called a strike on Tuesday, which they announced by holding up notices saying ‘On Strike’ and ‘Low Wages and Conditions’. The dockers offloading the ship recognised these as a legitimate picket line, ceased operations and disembarked the vessel. Later that day with the ITF and ILWU’s help the crew were able to secure back wages, letters of indemnity and an ITF-approved Verdi agreement.

ILWU International Affairs Director Ray Familathe commented: "This sends a clear message that ILWU dockworkers support the efforts of seafarers to join unions and better their working conditions."

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-metrolink27-2008sep27,0,872717.story

Metrolink adds second engineer to some trains
Relief engineers will ride shotgun on some routes, in a move intended as an interim safety measure.
By Jeff Gottlieb, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
2:55 PM PDT, September 26, 2008
Under pressure to take safety measures, the Metrolink commuter rail agency has begun adding a second engineer to some of its trains.

Chief Executive David R. Solow, made the announcement today at a meeting of Metrolink's Board of Directors.

Remembering the victims of the...

Full coverage of Metrolink crash
He said the engineers will come from a pool of employees used to replace engineers who are on vacation, sick or out on training. Previously, when those members of the "extra board" were not running trains, they performed administrative work or collected fares.

The number of them riding shotgun will change each day, Solow said, depending on how many already are filling in as engineers.

"It's just an interim measure until we can find something permanent," he said in an interview.

There are 10 to 15 relief engineers a day, Solow said, and it is unknown how many will be available. They will be posted on routes near where they are permanently assigned.

Oak Harbor Freight Lines IBT 839 truckers protest at anti-labor policies at Pasco terminal
http://www.tri-cityherald.com/915/story/327491.html?mi_email=Tri-City Herald_PM+&+Breaking+News

Thursday, Sep. 25, 2008
Oak Harbor Freight Lines truckers protest at Pasco terminal
By Pratik Joshi, Herald staff writer
John Curtis drives trucks for Oak Harbor Freight Lines, but on Wednesday he wasn't behind the wheel.

The 16-year employee of the Auburn-based company was picketing with six other employees at the company's freight terminal in Pasco to protest what he called the anti-labor practices of Oak Harbor.

Pasco terminal workers, who are members of Teamsters Local 839, stopped work Monday night after the union and the company failed to reach agreement on medical benefits during contract negotiation talks. More than 500 union workers -- out of a companywide work force of 1,300 -- walked off the job in Washington, Oregon and Idaho.

This is the first strike in the privately owned company, which was started in 1916, and also has freight terminals in California and Nevada.

Oak Harbor wants workers to enroll in a company-sponsored medical plan and make them pay for it. Workers want to stick with the Teamsters medical plan. The company's proposal also will make it difficult for retired workers to get health benefits, workers say.

http://www.sacbee.com/101/story/1264325.html

RT refuses to release probe in worker's death
By Tony Bizjak - tbizjak@sacbee.com
Published 12:00 am PDT Thursday, September 25, 2008

Two months after a Sacramento Regional Transit maintenance worker was killed by a light-rail train, the cause remains a mystery to the employee's frustrated widow.

Forty-year-old Troy Schafer was walking on the tracks in North Sacramento, grease gun in hand, lubricating rails when the train struck him from behind.

Regional Transit investigated the fatality – including conducting a re-enactment – but officials refuse to disclose what they say are preliminary findings.

"We're not willing to release it yet," RT chief operating officer Mark Lonergan said this week.

RT officials say they first want to see what the California Public Utilities Commission determines in its own assessment of the incident. The California Occupational Safety and Health Administration is conducting a separate investigation.

The Bee has filed a Public Records Act request for RT's crash report.

Donna Schafer said agency officials were vague when they spoke to her this week about her husband's death.

She said she has seen the report, but said it doesn't have much detail, and does not contain a conclusion on what caused the crash. It says the operator didn't see her husband, she said, but doesn't say why.

LA Metrolink Bosses Avoided Unionization By Massive Contracting Out Of Jobs And Services
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-metrolink20-2008sep20,0,7639167,full.story

Metrolink runs on shoestring budget in complex environment

Many services are contracted out and more than half its track is shared with freight trains. Even some board members say they lack expertise on some of the problems the system faces.
By Steve Hymon, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
7:52 PM PDT, September 19, 2008
The commuter rail service known as Metrolink -- Southern California's only true regional mass transit carrier -- gets little money and even less political respect.

It is guided by a part-time board weighted with officials from small cities across five counties, which chip in to cover Metrolink's expenses and connect their local transit networks.

Unlike the larger Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which has billions of dollars to run light rail lines, a subway and buses across Los Angeles County, Metrolink operates on a relative shoestring.

The agency has about 200 employees -- the MTA has more than 9,000 -- but hundreds more work for subcontractors. To save money Metrolink contracts for items as varied as uniforms and internal audits as well as its train engineer and maintenance staffs.