September 2006 Meeting

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

 Meeting was opened by President in Due Form.

Members Attending – D. St. John, R. Etienne, S. Cordes, S. Barnes, B. Knowles, T. Reddish, T. Jacobs, R. Collins, J. Bennett, D. Haney, H. Bailey, C. Ruza, J. McDaniels, R. Moore.

Minutes of the July meeting were read since there was no meeting in August. No amendments were made. Motion to accept by Brother Haney, Seconded by Brother Knowles. Motion passed. 

Finances – We currently have 111 members. We should be gaining more members over the next months. We have a list of personnel that wish to join and applications have been sent out.  The finances were discussed and bills were presented for payment. Motion to pay the bills by Brother Haney, Seconded by Brother Barnes. Motion passed.

Special Guest Paul Bovarnick – Paul urge’s everyone to get out and vote. Many of the issues important to labor along with those who support us are on the Ballot this year. Patty Murray is in a close fight and has been a great friend to railroaders. He asked us to support her in any way we can. No matter what ---- PLEASE VOTE.  There is also a move in our area to place extremely right wing judges who wish to change the laws and interpretations of them into office. Please be aware and be very informed before you vote for these positions. FMLA – there are still problems out there. If you want advise from Paul, he would like to see your application and he will look at them. You must be denied, fired or disciplined for these cases to be actionable. Insurance – Anyone with automobile insurance should look at increasing their Personal Injury Protection as high as you can. This insurance pays for lose of wages or injury to yourself or anyone in your vehicle. This insurance pays first. If you are underinsured you could easily be out with no income. Minimum is not enough; the amount you may save is not worth the loss you may have. He recommends a minimum of 50K on PIP and One million minimums for Uninsured and Underinsured Liability. This will help insure you against the loss of your house and belongings. 

Legislative Rep – Bill Knowles recently attended a Clark County Labor Roundtable meeting which included the Port and various labor and business people. He learned that the Port has been approved to open a methanol plant. When the carrier was approached on this they only wanted to know where he had gotten the information. He would like us to join this group at a cost of $60 per year. This would give the Legislative rep a great opportunity to network with other people we work with on a daily basis.

 Safety Rep – Terry Reddish talked about Cab Condition issues. An outbound crew sent a report to the mechanical desk about an issue that has not been forwarded to the cab committee. The committee can’t go after the roundhouse unless they have the information. Anytime there is an issue with the cabs; it needs to be reported! We can’t do anything about it if we don’t know about it. The committee is going to be doing a video here locally. They will be doing this next week over at 12th Street. We may be seeing this in the next few months. The FRA has taken the Railroads to task on their new systems as not being adequate.  We will let everyone know how this develops.  There has been testimony in Congress concerning fatigue and human error accidents. Again we will let you know more as this develops but both seem to be good news for us.

 Nominations for Officers.

 President opened the floor for nominations.

Third Alternate Delegate to the ND committee  -              C Ruzsa by H. Bailey, seconded by D. Haney.       

Second Alternate Delegate to the ND committee               E Taylor by S. Barnes seconded by H Bailey        

First Alternate                                                                   B Knowles by D. Haney seconded by S. Barnes    

Delegate to National committee                                        R Etienne by S. Barnes seconded by D. Haney      

Alternate Delegate to State Leg Board                             B Knowles by S. Barnes seconded by T. Reddish.  

Legislative Rep                                                                 J. McHenry by D. Haney seconded by S. Barnes.   

Chaplain                                                                           K. Fox by R Etienne, seconded by B Knowles            

Guide                                                                               S Barnes by D Haney, seconded by R Etienne             

Vice Local Chairman                                                           D Haney by S Barnes seconded C Ruzsa                         

                                                                                         R Jacobs by S Cordes seconded by T Reddish                 

                                                                                         H Bailey by D Haney seconded by S Barnes                   

Local Chairman                                                                  R Etienne by D Haney seconded R Jacobs                

Alternate Sec                                                                    D St. john by S Barnes seconded by D Haney          

Sec/treas                                                                           R Pratt by H Bailey seconded by W Knowles             

Vice President                                                                   C Ruzsa by S Cordes seconded by D Haney               

                                                                                          R Jacobs by R Etienne seconded by S Cordes

                                                                                           R Collins by D Haney seconded by S Barnes             

President                                                                             S Cordes by R Etienne seconded by C Ruzsa   

Nominations closed by Barnes seconded by Bailey.

Due to change in Secretary-Treasurer, the Budget and Audit committee will meet to audit the books of the Division after the December 18th meeting but prior to the January 15th.

Local Chairman –

Calling out signals. Please remember that it is only east of SP&S Jct. where you don’t have to call out block signals. Ops testing are being done at Hover. West of west approach signal to Washougal westward is other zone.

 Qualifying on Territory. Please be sure to ask for a pilot if you are required to go on territory you haven’t been on in the last 12 months. This includes North of Vancouver Jct. North. Don’t take extra work on territory you are not qualified on.

 Assigned cars. We have been waiting for the new Supt. to come to Pasco. Have told Jeep we need a meeting with both of them at first opportunity. We no sooner voted in the change when Hein was made a lame duck supt. at Pasco.

 Whistling at Crossing. Whistle if there is a whistle board. Regardless of time of night – give 15-20 seconds of blow. Your job may depend on it.

 XBD crews from Vancouver going east of Wishram. Please be sure to document and notify this committee any time you are sent east of Wishram for a dog catch, and called off the XBD for short turn around service.

 HOS Relief inside of Yard Limits – Carrier has a bad 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.

 Vacation/PLD being used for FML. This committee has seen very few tickets for having PL/Vac days used for FML. Suggest you copy and paste from home when filling these out. GCA says these are the types of claims they will keep for when the court ruling comes down. If you don’t fill out the claims, you won’t have any say so when the court ruling comes down our way.

 Claims. In order for a claim to be processed the following is needed: Copy of working timeslip, Copy of decline timeslip, Copy of delay report, Copy of 816 showing what was earned on that day of claim. Claim should also state a time of the violation. Purpose is to prevent stall tactics by LR in conference. This is the new tactic, be anal and stall.

 Excessive on Duty times. This committee is asking carrier to explain why crews are on duty 15 or more hours. Their reply is they don’t have a delay report. We would like to have a copy of the delay report for any crew on duty 15 or more hours. This way we can demand an explanation and they can’t say they don’t know. 

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 rest, your 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 item you work until dead at OT, and if any time left in the shift, that time at straight time. See this committee for further explanations.

 Swapping pool car positions or XBD cycles. This committee has drafted a side letter for approval along with the Avery Agreement to allow for the L/C to request the occasional pool car position or XBD cycle swaps. Currently Crew says no agreement – no swap. This side letter will provide the agreement necessary to allow the change. Changes will not be excessive, and will only be done with the L/C approval. 

The floor was opened for discussions. 

Motion to close meeting by B. Knowles, seconded by T. Reddish. Motion passed. 

Meeting adjourned at 1530.  

 

October 2006 Meeting

 

Here's What Happened at the Meeting on Monday, October 16 2006 

 Meeting was opened by President in Due Form.

Members Attending – D. St. John, R. Etienne, S. Cordes, B. Knowles, T. Jacobs, R. Moore, C. Nibler, K. Atwood, R. McCartney, B. Black, M. Cousineau, W. Pellens. 

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

Finances – We currently have 111 members. We should be gaining more members over the next months. We continue looking at personnel to join and application have been sent out.  The finances were discussed and bills were presented for payment. Motion to pay the bills by Brother Atwood, Seconded by Brother Moore. Motion passed. 

Special Guest Steve Thompson – Mr. Thompson is a partner at Kirklan and Folawn. He talked about accumulative trauma injuries. An injury that occurs due to the continuing damage caused over and over again with your body not able to recover. This also includes hearing loss. Sitting in a seat under vibration in a continuous environment until your disk collapses. He then gave a brief presentation on this issue. Most importantly, COMPLY with all the rules concerning injuries. If you are injured on the job, MAKE SURE YOUR DOCTOR KNOWS THIS IS NOT WORKERS COMP! You have the right under FELA to doctor patient confidentiality. That is not true under Workers Comp. The Railroads are attempting to convince all doctors that we are covered under workman’s comp. And they will keep copies of all records they collect and may use them YEARS down the road. The statutes of limitations for FELA are three years from the time of the incident.

 Legislative Rep – Bill Knowles reports that the legislative committee is attempting to put some legislation into play forcing state agencies to fully comply with all laws in effect. They are going to be putting in dwarf blocks for westbound movement out of Pasco. They apparently can't move large blocks so will try to make this work. He gave printouts with the endorsements for the state election this November. We will make copies of this available. He will be at the Wishram safety meeting next week and will report what is happening there at the next meeting. There will be a turnover in the State Legislative board this year. It looks like we will get some good people in to replace them, so doesn’t look to bad. 

Local Chairman –  

Assigned cars - We have a tentative meeting set up next week. We hope to convince the new Supt. to allow the changes. Have met Mr. Ruby Jr., seems like a decent person. Time will tell. 

Whistling at Crossings - Whistle if there is a whistle board. Regardless of time of night – give 15-20 seconds of whistle. They are checking for 15 seconds before entering Xing.

 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.

 Vacations/PLDs being used for FML – This committee has seen very few tickets for having PL/Vac days used for FML. Suggest you copy and paste from home when filling these out. GCA says these are the types of claims they will keep for when the court ruling comes down. If you don’t fill out the claims, you won’t have any say so when the court ruling comes down our way. 

Claims – In order for a claim to be processed the following is needed: Copy of working timeslip, copy of decline timeslip, copy of delay report, copy of 816 showing what was earned on that day of claim. Claim should also state a time of the violation. Purpose is to prevent stall tactics that are being used by LR in conference. Their new tactic of be anal and stall.

 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.

 Swapping pool car positions or XBD cycles – This committee has drafted a side letter for approval along with the Avery Agreement to allow for the L/C to request the occasional pool car position or XBD cycle swaps. Currently Crew says no agreement – no swap. This side letter will provide the agreement necessary to allow the change. Changes will not be excessive, and will only be done with L/C approval.

 Shoving car violations – Carrier continues to rack up violations on shoving rule. We don’t want to be part of those violations. Before moving you need three things; who’s watching, how are they watching the shove, and how far is the shove. Insist on the ½ + 1 and the 25ft and “stop”.

 Vacations – Vacation request forms are out. Please be sure to get them back by November 12. As always, please don’t enter your requests in TSS.

 Calling the NOC – There is too much calling the chief asking to be flipped back to Vancouver. Anyone working the 201 pool has agreed to work ID service. This means portal to portal. If one doesn’t want to go to Pasco, get out of the Pool. It’s embarrassing to have the carrier show how many of our engineers are asking to be flipped. New position of the carrier will be if you ask to flip – and are granted – you will only be paid one way. If they decide to flip you – that’s their decision. If you take a train to Wishram, don’t ask to go back to Vancouver. Expect to go to Pasco. If you have something planned the next day, lay off. Don’t expect them to flip you.

 Health Fair – Thanks to all who helped. And thank you to all those who came and participated.

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

The floor was opened for discussions. 

Motion to close meeting by Brother Nibbler, seconded by Brother Jacobs Motion passed. 

Meeting adjourned at 1530.