November & December 2001 Meetings

November 2006 Meeting

Here's What Happened at the Meeting on Monday, November 20 2006

Meeting was opened by President in due Form.

Members Attending – D. St. John, R. Etienne, S. Cordes, C. Nibbler, S. Barnes, H. Bailey, T. Reddish, B. Bocchi, A. Ortmeyer, R. Pratt, D. Beckwith, D. Haney, D. Ruiz, R. Collins, H. Allington, R. Huelle, W. Pelham, B. Pellens.

Minutes of the October meeting were read. No amendments were made. Motion to accept by Brother Nibbler, Seconded by Brother Allington. Motion passed.

Finances – We currently have 110 members. Due to late arrival of Sec/Treas there was not a formal finance report. There will be an inclusive end of year report at the next meeting.

Safety Rep – Terry Reddish would like anyone who has a carrier officer come to you and ask you to violate a rule to see what type of response they receive from other members of the crew, please let him or Rick know. This has happened in other areas of the NW. They have told us they have to find more stringent ways of ops testing. He talked about the movies that the carrier has been showing and asked if everyone has seen them. The floor was opened for questions. A number of months ago he and B. Knowles attended a Labor roundtable breakfast meeting. He would again like us to join this organization at a fee of $60. Motion by Brother Reddish for this division to join this organization, Seconded by Brother Haney. Motion passed on the floor.

Cab Committee – Dave Haney meet with the roundhouse recently and discussed the situation on getting the engines at T-6 and Willbridge serviced. Asked if they could get some kind of trash receptacle over there so they can get it off the engines. Also are looking at getting some supplies available. They say that they can not service engines on the main lines anymore so to have an engine serviced, you will have to cut it off and take it into the roundhouse. They floor was opened for discussion. We still are getting very few cab reports. These are necessary to fix the problems.

Local Chairman – The OE is gone as of last week. We need to watch this operation and make sure they aren’t doing any transfer work. They need to comply with all the rules also. Keep your eyes open.

Job 229 G – They are going to put an engineer on this job as there is too much business for a remote. They are also putting a new job on at T-6.

866 – They are going to re-bulletin this job as a 100-mile road switcher. We will keep an eye on this to make sure they don’t try to expand it to another yard road switcher. If you work this and anything funny happens, please let us know.

Assigned cars – Everyone is in agreement as to implementing the assigned car changes. Jobs will be re-bulletined soon. Target date 12-01-06. We will need to watch things for awhile to make sure it works right.

Vacation Allocations – The carrier didn’t argue with us this year as to allocations. They put the allocations into the computer without a fight. Allocations are increased from last year. Summer months will have 11 instead of 10. Thanksgiving and Christmas are increased. Will do vacation scheduling first part of December.

HOS relief inside Yard Limits – Carrier has a board award allowing them to use dog catch crews to dog catch trains that die HOS inside yard limits. This award lets crews finish the work of the road crew that died and then go do their original dog catch. Pierce has signed an agreement allowing this. The purpose was to prevent the carrier from attacking our 2B on other dog catches. Carrier implied they were going to go after that next. This means you can dog catch a train, then when you get back, if a train is dead HOS entirely inside yard limits, you can finish the work of that train. Compensation is basic day with OT after 8 hours total for the work. When you do this, try to find out what time the crew was due to expire. If possible – find out what time the train arrived inside the terminal. We may be able to prosecute time slips on this.

Vacations/PLDs being used for FML – Be sure to submit time slips each time one of your PL or Vac days are used for FML. Claims must include a complete statement of facts detailing the dates in question and which paid leave was involved. Wording on the claim should be: “This claim is being processed without prejudice to the organization’s position that the carrier’s revised FMLA policy is unenforceable because it was implemented unilaterally in violation of the carrier’s status quo and bargaining obligations under the Railway Labor Act and in violation of the Family and Medical Leave Act. The organization is litigating that issue in federal court. The carrier has refused to suspend the requirements of the contract. claims process to work until that dispute is resolved. Therefore, the organization is processing this claim at this time to ensure that the contractual requirements are satisfied in the event the court holds that the dispute must be resolved via the Section 3 processes of the Act.” If you don’t submit a claim, you won’t have any chance of getting these days back.

Claims – Due to the progressive lack of understanding by both Arbitrators and the Carrier, the following needs to be done when submitting penalty claims. When submitting penalty claims, be wordy and very explanatory on the ticket. If you run out of lines, hit “F8” and another set of lines will appear. Explain the moves being done as if talking to your children. Don’t use “built train”. When submitting penalties for the road switcher, explain fully what work was done. Give descriptions -–"doubled XX cars from track XX at XX, to XX cars on track XX and then to the main to make up train XXXXX. Air test train XXXX, depart XXX. Always have a start and stop time. Give locations. If dog catching inside terminal, give location where train was. Station, tracks and car counts for setouts. Be sure to describe fully how the setout was made (set XX cars to track XX at XX, back to main. Took power to.) Who authorized the work? Be sure to keep a train list or switch list. Be sure to give a copy of the working ticket, declined penalty ticket, delay report and 816. If your conductor doesn’t choose to fill out a delay report, do so yourself. Remember, the average penalty ticket at road switcher rate is around $200.00. It’s your money if you want it.

Called for yard job outside working window – If you are called outside the normal working times of the job and it’s not because of you rest, you are on duty and pay times go back to the original start of the shift, (0730, 1530, 2330). If you are called late because of not being rested, your pay starts when you get there. If they hold you over for a new job, you are entitled to the first 8 hours of the first job at straight time; the remainder of time you work until dead at OT, and if any time left in the shift, that time is at straight time. See this committee for further explanations.

Shoving Car Violations – We continue to have members cited for the shoving rule. Be sure to follow the rules. Your employment may depend on it.

Booking Rest on the XBD – Please be sure you don’t book 12 hours rest unless you’ve worked 10 hours minimum.

Santa Steam Train coming on 12-16-06, plan to bring the kids or grandkids. There will be Santa, candy and hot drinks. The SP&S 700 will be there too. A good time for all.

The floor was opened for discussions.

Motion to close meeting by Brother Huelle, seconded by Brother Barnes Motion passed.

Meeting adjourned at 1425.

December 2006 Meeting

Here's What Happened at the Meeting on Monday, December 18 2006

Meeting was opened by President in Due Form.

Members Attending – D. St. John, R. Etienne, S. Cordes, D. Haney, T. Jacobs, T. Reddish, J. McHenry, C. Gunther, K. Atwood and retired member Wes.

The president asked for volunteers to count the ballots for officers. T. Reddish, K. Atwood and J. McHenry were appointed for the count. Recess was take while the count was done and the floor was opened for discussion. Total ballots received was 72, six of these were not countable. There were two positions that were disputed, the results are as follows: Vice President, Russ Collins 20 votes, Todd Jacobs 19 Votes, C Ruzsa 27 Votes. Vice Chairman, Local Committee of Adjustment, H. Bailey 37 votes, D Haney 35 votes, T. Jacobs 35 votes. H. Bailey is elected and we will have to have a runoff election between the two in accordance with the constitution.

Minutes of the November meeting were read. No amendments were made. Motion to accept by Brother Jacobs, Seconded by Brother Atwood. Motion passed.

Finances – We currently have 110 members. Secretary made presentation on current finances. The bills were presented for payment. Motion by Brother Haney to pay the bills, seconded by Brother Jacobs. Motion passed. There was discussion of when the audit for change of Secretary. It was decided that we would contact the Dept of Labor and request them to do a audit. Dennis will check into this and try to get it done ASAP.

Safety Rep – Terry Reddish says there was a nice letter sent from Rose and Doug Jones thanking every one for the great job during the storms. No injuries and the freight still moved. Doug Jones will be in the terminal tomorrow.

Local Chairman – Assigned Cars – In order to allow crew members to go to the respective boards in Pasco, new boards had to be created. This allowed for the 51,52 and 53 boards. All engineers desiring those jobs need to put them on their job selection sheet. When jobs were moved to the pool, it became apparent that crews would be unable to book 8 hours uninterrupted rest at Pasco. Entire pool would have to have it. 8 hour uninterrupted rest rule prohibits that at AFHT. There are complaints about the pool having to wait for these jobs to go to work. This was all talked about prior to the voting. Those crews always went to work at those times, but their trains didn’t show in the pool lineups. The only change is the 52/62 car, which used to go to work around 0100-0230 now goes to work a little earlier.

Job 229 G – They are going to put an engineer on this job as there is too much business for a remote. They are also putting a new job on at T-6.

Vacations/PLDs being used for FML – Be sure to submit time slips each time one of your PL or Vac days are used for FML. Claims must include a complete statement of facts detailing the dates in question and which paid leave was involved. Wording on the claim should be: “This claim is being processed without prejudice to the organization’s position that the carrier’s revised FMLA policy is unenforceable because it was implemented unilaterally in violation of the carrier’s status quo and bargaining obligations under the Railway Labor Act and in violation of the Family and Medical Leave Act. The organization is litigating that issue in federal court. The carrier has refused to suspend the requirements of the contract claims process until that dispute is resolved. Therefore, the organization is processing this claim at this time to ensure that the contractual requirements are satisfied in the event the court holds that the dispute must be resolved via the Section 3 processes of the Act.” If you don’t submit a claim, you won’t have any chance of getting these days back.

Shoving Car Violations – We continue to have members cited for the shoving rule. Be sure to follow the rules. Your employment may depend on it.

Booking Rest on the XBD – Please be sure you don’t book 12 hours rest unless you’ve worked 10 hours minimum.

Santa Steam Train coming on 12-16-06, plan to bring the kids or grandkids. There will be Santa, candy and hot drinks. The SP&S 700 will be there too. A good time for all.

The floor was opened for discussions.

Motion to close meeting by Brother Huelle, seconded by Brother Barnes Motion passed.

Meeting adjourned at 1425.