July 2004 Meeting
Here's What Happened at the Meeting on Monday, July 19, 2004
Meeting opened by the President in due form. Brother St. John was not present, due to unavoidable circumstances.
Members present: Brother's and Sister’s R Balkowitsch, R. Etienne, Dean Richardson, Kris Atwood, Bill Knowles,
Kelli Taylor, Marc Taylor, Merlin Fischer, and Retired member Monte Siebold.
Minutes of the June meeting were waived
Financial Report - Due to the absence of the Secretary Treasurer, the financial report was not made. A motion to pay the bills was made by Brother Richardson, and approved by Brother Atwood.
Legislative
Rep:
There was no report from the Legislative Rep. this month
Local Chairman:
1.
New Garbage train assignment - A new garbage train
is coming down to go to Roosevelt. This train will run in the pool for a time to
see if the schedule is regular enough to make a regular assignment out of it.
It’s possible that this train may be run the same as the daylight garbage flip
to Wishram.
2. GCA Meeting - Was held the week of June 28 2004. Dennis Pierce was reelected by acclamation. Brothers Wilson, Bratka, and May were all reelected by acclamation again. Brothers Don Helander, Trick Olsen and Charlie Sheets were each elected as alternates to the GCA.
3. LE&CMPA – Job insurance fund is offering to allow anyone who chooses to transfer their existing job insurance to them to carry over any job insurance seniority they now have. This means those that transfer may start off with full benefits, depending on how long they were with their previous insurance fund..
4. Trainmen Joining BLET - There are currently around 1300 new trainmen in the BLET since the merger. Each locomotive engineer will receive 5 pamphlets in the mail soon. These are to be passed out to our brothers and sisters who don’t know about BLET.
5. Reporting Emergency Brake Applications – A crew has been cited for failure to report an emergency brake application. The ABTH rules require that we report any emergency application that occurs during our tour of duty. This even applies if we have a dynamiter in our train. Please comply. It’s not worth getting in trouble over. It’s their rules – we simply follow them.
6. Alignment Control Couplers – Current rules require that we know if the engines in our consist are equipped with alignment control couplers or not. We are allowed by rule to have only one locomotive that is not equipped with alignment control couplers in our consist. This unit is to be the 2nd out motor in the consist. Since no computer will tell if any of these old locomotives are so equipped, you will need to ask the roundhouse to come out and look at them. The only way to tell is to look in the coupler housing and see if the drawbar has “ears” on each side, limiting the amount they can go to the side of the housing. Please comply.
7. BN-ATSF Transfer Agreement - There was more discussion about this proposal. The agreement was created to allow the opportunity for those wishing to cross a formerly impenetrable barrier. This agreement will allow those engineers wishing to go from BN to ATSF and from ATSF to BN. Their seniority will remain intact on their home district, and they would take the date of their first trip (paid or unpaid). Any employees in current LETP’s would, upon successful completion of their training, be placed ahead of those transferees. This agreement would close the loop holes in certain merged seniority districts where ATSF engineers can work on BN property. The agreement was voted on and passed 7 for, 1 against. There were also 4 proxy votes for this agreement. This means, the agreement passed 11-4. This division will vote AYE on the proposed agreement.
8.
Resolutions
passed at the GCA meeting included –
·
Attempt
agreement calling for held away until 1hour prior to train departure.
·
Attempt agreement to allow HAHT after legal rest.
·
Attempt agreement to allow more job/income
protection.
·
Attempt agreement to require A/C units on lead.
·
Attempt agreement to allow for higher
certification pay.
·
Attempt agreement to allow internet access at
AFHT.
·
Attempt agreement to allow 1 hour pay for
inspecting locos.
·
Attempt agreement to allow larger footwear
selection.
·
Attempt agreement to allow better 401k plan.
·
Attempt agreement to allow extra pay for those
who stay marked up on weekends.
·
Attempt agreement to allow differential in pay
for night hours.
·
Attempt agreement to allow release of forced
engineer in another zone if release letter on file, and younger engr. demoted in
adjacent zone.
·
Attempt agreement to allow lodging per diem for
forced engineers.
·
Attempt agreement to allow for DP pay.
·
Attempt agreement to allow for interest to be
paid by carrier for claims cut for no reason.
·
Attempt agreement to allow for booking additional
rest. I.E. up to 24 hours.
·
Attempt agreement to allow up to 20 AL days.
9. NetSim – Be sure to be on time for your NetSim session. If you are late, they won’t let you take the simulator. Don’t forget the written test part too. If the NetSim is broken on a day you had to come in, be sure to document it with a carrier officer in order to be paid properly.
10. RCO observations - Please keep complaints coming in.
Floor was opened for discussion.
Again, this Division voted to skip the August meeting. Our next scheduled meeting will be September 20 at 1:00 pm
Motion to close by Sister Taylor, seconded by Brother Richardson. Motion passed. The meeting was closed.
August 2004
There was no meeting in August due to summer vacations.