November 2004 Meeting

 Here's What Happened at the Meeting on Monday, November 15 2004

Meeting opened by the Local Chairman, President not present due to illness.

Members present: R. Etienne, D. St. John, C. Marsh, R. Huelle, W. Boomgaarden, J. McHenry, D. Green and B. Knowles.

The October minutes were read by the Secretary.  Motion to accept as read by Brother Boomgaarden, Seconded by Brother Marsh. Motion approved.

Financial Report:  We currently have 110 members and 1 trainman.  We just received this morning the paperwork from the international, so payments to the Int. GCA and WSLB were estimated. Bills were presented and floor opened for discussion. Motion to pay the bills by Brother Huelle and seconded by Brother McHenry. Motion passed.

Legislative Rep: The WUTC committee has not met yet. Brother Knowles will attend when this happens and report as to the results. The Carrier’s have been putting enormous pressure on these people and they may be wavering at this point. Only time will tell.

Local Chairman:

Roll by’s – There have been some failures for not performing roll by’s. The engineer is responsible to call the train and inform them of the roll by. You do not have to get off the train. You are not responsible for the conductor to do his job, but you must do yours.

Section 6 notices are out - Copies of the notice were available for everyone. The BNSF has expressed the desire to withdraw from national handling. This is not the final word and we shall see what happens.

Shared values - The carrier is rolling this out soon. It is a way to address safety concerns. Also way to bridge barriers between the carrier and the organization. More info to follow. We are interested in safety, so let’s see what it’s all about. Follows same principle of current closed loop safety process.

Vacation Allocations - Continuing problem with allocations. BNSF wants to reduce slots again. We had no problems with staffing jobs last year. We never had all demoted engineers set up at this location. We have appealed to the GCA for assistance. We will probably do vacation scheduling in early December.

Maintenance Fees - There are currently no plans to have Maintenance Fees here. It should only be in areas where UTU has instituted fees. The UTU slant is to blame the BLE for fees, but that is a LIE. We should not have a problem here as we have no issues on this currently with the UTU at this location.

Locomotive Cab Conditions – When inspecting engines, be sure to inspect toilets. If you have a b/o toilet, you must allow carrier to try to fix it. Claims for CC won’t be valid without carrier specifically refusing to fix problem. Empower yourself. Make sure you have ample water and crew packs. With locomotives left at Willbridge or Lake Yard, be sure everything works and you have all the supplies needed. If not equipped, don’t take it. Don’t let the carrier force you out of town without them refusing to fix the problem. If FRA defects, don’t take the locomotive out of either Vancouver or Pasco.

Held away in Pasco - Currently, we are sending reports to carrier almost daily about the Held away problem. Currently, BNSF has multitude of reasons, none of them are valid. We will continue to bombard them with facts and figures, trying to embarrass them into fixing it.

Claims for Arbitraries when deadheading on assigned cars - Carrier is no longer paying arbitraries when deadheading on assigned cars. Be sure to give me the tickets and any info needed. It is essential to know which assigned car the claim is for. Please be sure to note your assignment on the ticket in the FE column.

Bare Tables at Avery – Carrier is parking bare tables at Avery again. Wishram is not authorized to go to Avery to put train together. This work belongs to our XBD. If you either take one and leave it there, or see one there, be sure to get the engine number and leave it for me. This way I can track the train call when Wishram gets the call, and put in a claim for our XBD. 

Make whole pay – If you put in for make whole, and don’t get paid, or get paid wrong, be sure to let us know right away. Payroll has been spanked recently on their lack of make whole abilities.

Floor was opened for discussion.

Motion to close by Brother Green, seconded by Brother Huelle. Motion passed. The meeting was closed.

December 2004 Meeting

There was no meeting in December 2004 due to the holidays and vacation scheduling conflicts.