November/December 2000

The voting results for a days off extra board at Vancouver were: A 7-3 board was approved by members at Vancouver. The count was 36 for and 11 against. The vote for an 8-3 board was 19 for and 15 against. As soon as the GCA drafts the paperwork and gets Labor Relations to sign the agreement, the extra board jobs will be put up for bid. Hopefully this will happen by the end of the year.

The results on the vote for an extra board at Albany Or were 41 for and 14 against. Again, as soon as the GCA gets the agreement drafted and signed, the board will be established and bulletined.

Ballots for Division Officers are in the mail. Please be sure to vote. Also, please be sure to follow the instructions carefully in order to make your vote count. Ballots that do not follow the instructions will be voided by federal law. Please make your vote count. If you do not vote, you have no place to complain.

Ballots for changing our Legislative Representative State are also in the mail. Please be sure to return those ballots.

The carrier has agreed to changing the OE assignment to a 5 day assigned pool with Sunday and Monday off. As soon as the paperwork is done, the jobs will be re-bulletined.

Under no circumstances should any employee sign a general or blank release of medical information if injured while on duty. Also, under no circumstances should any employee allow themselves to be maneuvered into a position where they are alone with carrier officers while discussing any on the job injury. You have the right to representation, and you have the right to restrict your medical data. DO NOT let the carrier browbeat you into signing anything!

President:	Ron Balkowitsch.
Vice President:	Scott Cordes
Sec/Treas:	Dennis St. John
Alt Sec/Treas:	Kevin Howard
Guide:	Skip Barnes
Chaplin	Al Chavez
Delegate to ID	Rick Etienne
1st Alternate to ID	Ron Balkowitsch
2nd Alternate to ID	Dave Haney
Deleg. Legis. Board	Bill Knowles
Alt to Legis.. Board	Daryl Kautz
Local Chairman	Rick Etienne
Local Comm. Adj.	Harvey Bailey Dave Haney

The reason for the reduction in weekly allotments is because the carrier decided that they would base their numbers on a division wide, all-craft need. They succeeded in doing what the UTU International has failed to do. They have blurred the craft lines to the point where they no longer exist. Allocations for locomotive engineers were reduced for two factors: 1. The carrier doesn't have enough ground personnel to fill all positions. 2. The carrier doesn't wish to go through the excruciating process of recalling furloughed personnel. When questioned as to how many locomotive engineers were furloughed, the answer was zero, but that doesn't matter. When questioned as to what the responsibility of locomotive engineers at Vancouver Wa. in regards to number of ground employees was, the answer was "The carrier has the right to fill all positions. In other words, your vacation allocation was reduced because the carrier ran out of ground personnel in Klamath Falls, and they seem to be able to restrict seniority by keeping engineers demoted to fill these positions, rather than hiring new people. Evidently, this local committee was unable to convince the higher Organization that this was blurring craft lines and allowing the carrier to restrict seniority for locomotive engineers because of the need to keep demoted engineers. Here are the vacation schedules.

The agreement has been signed, and will go into effect on January 16, 2001 at 0001. Bids will go out 7 days prior to the implementation date.

The agreement for the Albany extra board is still being drawn up. It should be signed by the first part of January 2001.

Due to opposition by some regarding a change in the OE pool to an assignment with Sunday and Monday off, This issue has been put on hold. Those desiring a change should bring the issue up at a future division meeting.

This committee has put together a compact disc with all of our agreements, side letters, historical information, board awards and many other items. They are available to any member with a computer. Send me an e-mail or a note requesting one, and I will see you get one.

We will attempt to get a guest speaker to appear next month to discuss FELA and FMLA. We would encourage as many as possible to attend.

Remember, when filling out an F-27 because of a personal injury, be careful in filling in the sections concerning

Be careful when filling out these forms. Once filled out, they cannot be changed.
Also, remember you do not need to sign a blanket release for medical information. You may restrict the information to just that information relating to the current injury. BE CAREFUL OF WHAT YOU SIGN! If in doubt, ask for your representative to be called.

The carrier is very serious about the 7 deadly sins. You need to be vigilant. You need to work as a team with your crew and make sure each person is complying with the rules. Don't jeopardize your job because of laxness. Remember to follow the rules in regard to those issues you are responsible for. Ignorance will be no excuse.

The vote on what state will be our state legislature as been decided. We will move to the State of Washington. Also, our office will be moving upstairs in a short time. We now will have a bigger office with more space to work. The room number will be posted soon.