Here's What Happened at the Meeting on Monday, November 17, 2003

Meeting opened by the President in due form.

Members present: Brother's D. Haney, D. St. John, R. Etienne, C. Nibbler, T. Reddish, Sister C. Ruzsa, Brothers Pratt, T. Jones, D. Green, T. Jacobs, R. McCartney, B. Knowles, Atwood, Bailey, Kautz and Sister Taylor.

Minutes of the October meeting were read. Motion to accept as by Brother Haney, seconded by Brother Nibbler. Motion approved.

Reports of Committees:

Budget Committee: No report made. Will attempt to have a budget completed for next meeting.

Finances: Presentation of current status made by sec/treas. Current membership is 108 plus one trainman. The current balances of accounts were discussed and several questions were asked from the floor. The bills due for payment were presented and discussed. Motion to pay the bills by Brother Haney, seconded by Brother Reddish. Motion passed.

Legislative Report- Brother Nibbler talked about what is happening on the Legislative front. Fatigue and lineups are a problem and we are trying to get information about bad lineups. Several incidents have happened recently and we need documentation for it.

Safety Representative Terry Reddish - Flue shots are available. Please make use of this option. Discussion followed. There have been several incidents with people actually running RCO's from the cab. We need to document this as all these will be used in the future. Discussion followed.

Local Chairman: The following topics were discussed:

Workplace violence bulletin was discussed. Please be aware that the company is taking this seriously. It would be to everyone's advantage not to joke around about those sort of things. Nasty reactions by the carrier would ensue.

Special Meeting in December - we would like to have a special meeting in December to take a vote on the proposed on property agreement. Would like to be able to have an all day meeting combined with the regular meeting on December 15^th. There was discussion on this and no objections were noted. It was determined that the next regular monthly meeting on Dec. 15 would be adequate for the business at hand.

BLE-IBT Merger - Ballots need to be in by Dec.4, please make sure these get in.

Vacation Requests - Should be in by now. They are having a big fight now with allocations and believe they are going to cut two to three slots for all weeks. The GCAs are fighting this now and we will let you know. Currently, the carrier has blinked, and new allocations will be negotiated.

Problems with Crew calling - Be sure to document any problems with crew. Note the time of day you call for having tapes pulled. Be sure to document when VRU doesn't allow you to do something. If you are forced to do something against our agreements, document and notify this committee.

7am Vacation Markups - should be in effect now, this only applies to the pools and extra boards. This agreement will not apply to the following:

• Those who started their vacations at 0001, and their jobs were changed during the vacation.
• Those on regular assignments.
• Those on regular yard jobs.
•  Discussion followed.

Unsafe condition Reports - Many complaints about the vans - no unsafe reports have been received. We can't prove or process these reports without documentation. OE Interchange - unsafe, again we are not getting any reports on this but we have been in discussions with the carrier on this. At this time best course is to stop short and determine the position of the switch.

National Agreement - The tentative national agreement is out and handouts were provided. The LC led everyone through this agreement and explained each section. Discussion followed. Please be aware that the national agreement and the Alternative Compensation agreement have ballots that require mailing back by December 22, 2003. The on property agreement is a divisional vote, and this division will be taking the vote of the members at the regular monthly meeting on December 15, 2003. Please plan to attend. They are in html format and pdf format for downloading. You will also get them in the mail. Please VOTE!!!!

Motion to close by Brother Jones, seconded by Knowles. Motion passed.

Here's What Happened at the Meeting on Monday, December 15, 2003

Meeting opened by the President in due form.  

Members present: Brother's D. Haney, D. St. John, R. Etienne, R. Balkowitsch, C. Nibler, M. Taylor, Sister K. Taylor, Brothers R. Collins, J. Bennett, R. Pratt, E. Taylor , Sister C. Ruzsa, Brothers W. Cacas, P. Fahey, H. Bailey, G. Miller, T. Jacobs, B. Knowles, D. Kautz and W. Pelham.  

Minutes of the November meeting were read. Motion to accept as by Brother Nibbler, seconded by Brother Pellham. Motion approved.  

Brother's Reams and Knowles were dispatched to collect the ballots from the post office. Board of tellers appointed to count ballots. Brother's Reams, Jacobs and Kautz agreed to serve. Counting of ballots begin.  

Reports of Committees:  

Finances:  Presentation of current status made by sec/tres. Current membership is 109 plus one trainman. The current balances of accounts were discussed. The bills due for payment were presented. Motion to pay the bills by Brother Haney, seconded by Sister Ruzsa. Motion passed.   

Legislative Report- Discussed several issues then the floor open for discussion on topic of safety concerns anyone may have. Vans and RCO's were the main topics of discussion. If you have any problems with these issues please document them; we cannot process these with out paperwork! There is a new ops testing program from the NOC and there has been a crew from Seattle cited for non-compliance of calling signals. They listen to the radio and double check the speed through timing your train between the signals. They are going to be out in force and will be looking especially for calling block signals. Be aware. If you have a conductor that refuses to comply you can stop your train and request he comply.  Also be aware the FRA is looking to hold engineers personally responsible for not blowing the whistle for road workers. The Max fine could be as much as $2000.00 for a willful violation. Expect to be tested on this one too. If you see any violations by the maintenance of way people we need to document that also. Several incidents were discussed.  

Local Chairman:

The following topics were discussed:

·         National Agreement - Alternate Compensation, the votes need to be in today.  We should know the results soon.

·         BLE-IBT Merger - Passed. Now we wait to see what happens.

·         Vacation Requests - they will be worked on Tuesday and Thursday. Should have them out by next week. They have tried to cut all allotments but we saved all but one week in the summers.

·         Whistling for roadway workers - Again the feds have threatened to fine individual engineers. Whistle both before and through the limits. Only stop after you have passed all the workers.

·         FMLA - carrier has served notice of intent to use PL and vacation days for when employees lay off FMLA. This is a federal thing and there is nothing the union can do about it this is not an agreement but federal determination.

·         On Property agreement. The agreement was read again by the LC. The floor was opened for discussion. Question put to the members - Should we vote for or against the current on property agreement.

       Yes - 21, No - 2. Based on the vote this division will vote in favor.

 Counting of ballots completed, Brother Reams read the results as follows:

Report accepted.

 Floor opened for discussion and new business.

 Motion to close by Sister Taylor, seconded by Brother Pelham. Motion passed.