Here's What Happened at the Meeting on Monday, September 19 2005

Meeting opened by the President in due form.  

Members present: Brother's D. St. John, R. Etienne, R. Balkowitsch, T. Reddish, C Atwood, B. Knowles, D. Haney, S. Barnes, S. Hill, J. Bennett, H. Bailey, former member J. Hill and special guest P. Bovarnick. 

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

Finances:  Presentation of current status made by sec/tres. Current membership is 111 plus. The current balances of accounts were discussed. Motion to pay the bills by Brother Reddish, seconded by Brother Knowles. Motion passed.  

Safety Representative: Terry Reddish made a brief presentation. Apparently Pasco has decided to suspend all remote operations in their terminals. We believe they have finally come to the conclusion that they are not as efficient and flat don’t work.  A letter from the FRA was handed out which shows a study to put remotes on the main line would not be looked upon favorably at this time.  Will let you know if we hear more.  We have had several instances of bad toilets on engines.  We need to get documentation on these and turn them in.  Please make a stand and protect your fellow workers. Washington PUC does have regulatory power on this issue and reports should also be made to them. Discussion followed.

 Legislative Representative: Bill Knowles: Attended local SACP meeting. Have been told that the FRA will have less presence on this committee. The BNSF intends to form a new committee that will replace this. They have not put anything in writing at this point but we will let you know when we find out. The FRA may or not be at these meetings. He has also just finished the emergency evacuation plan for Vancouver. We are supposed to have these laminated and posted in prominent positions. They will also have contact numbers and local officer numbers. Please look for these and let us know if they need changes. The Wishram safety committee is having problems and it may be folded. If this happens any road issues will have to be handled here in the terminal. There is a possibility that de-fibrillators may be available for use in the yard. Also we are looking into CPR classes for all members. We would like to thank Bill for all the work he has done on the Emergency response plan. This is something that has taken allot of time and effort and if needed may save many lives.

Special Guest: Paul Bovarnick – FMLA does not distinguish between weekend days and weekdays. If they are not satisfied they must have an actual reason that can be defended to question your taking days off. If you have approved FMLA, they cannot request that you be re-evaluated if it is short of your stated time period. Simple harassment is hard to prove however actual penalization is a time when you should do something. If you have any questions concerning this please feel free to contact Paul. You must report any defects you find on equipment or infrastructure.  If any one gets hurt and there have been no reports of problems, it makes it very hard to pursue a legal case.

 Local Chairman:  T-6, still not a done deal yet. Will let you know as soon as we find out. 

Switching limits, this is still not for sure. Local management wants it but there are other forces higher up that are undecided. The organization has attempted to schedule meetings to discuss the issue as required by the agreements cited in their notice. We will put out any information we receive.  Let us know if local officers attempt anything in this regard. 

Floor opened for discussion and new business.

Rick wanted to remind everyone that the Health Fair will be Saturday the 24^th. Please attend if possible.

 Motion to close by Brother Haney, seconded by Brother Barnes. Motion passed

Here's What Happened at the Meeting on Monday, October 17 2005

Meeting opened by the President in due form.  

Members present: Brother's R. Etienne, R. Balkowitsch, T. Reddish, B. Knowles, D. Haney, S. Barnes, A. Ferguson, B. Black, J. McHenry, R. Bodenhamer, T. Jacobs

Brother St John was unable to attend, so there was no reading of the previous meeting minutes. There was no finance report.

Safety Representative: There are still issues with bad order toilets on locomotives. The Washington State PUC has jurisdiction over this issue as FRA says this is not an FRA violation. Water dripping on the floor is an FRA issue however.

Legislative Representative: SACP will cease to exist. A new format will come to pass without participation of FRA. This will be a company-labor committee.
The WSLB with Dr. Ricci wants to join the Teamsters Joint Council 28. He is looking to gain political clout with the joint council. The cost would be around $1.45 per member, but he says the WSLB would be able to absorb the cost until 2007 when they have their quadanual meeting. We have been told this joint council will have no contract negotiation authority. It appears the asset would be for Dr. Ricci to gain political prestige in representing the members. Currently this move is opposed by our GCA and National Committee. We have until January 7 2006 to vote on the issue.
Currently, the WSLB has the funds for their quadanual meeting in 2007.

Local Chairman:
T-6 Lease - Talks are still ongoing. It seems that one boss wants to lease it out, but another wants to wait, because he feels it's best to wait to see what the next national agreement brings before getting rid of a profitable property.
Attendance Guidelines - The Carrier has skewed guidelines, and alt. handling agreement to where it no longer follows the agreement or “policy” as posted. They are currently only allowing 1 alt. handling per year for attendance, and that’s if you haven’t had any attendance investigations in past 12 months.
FMLA-If an emergency arises, you can lay off FML and then fill out the paperwork as long as you do it in a timely manner. Please use the forms on our web site, or if you have no access, ask us. The Carrier’s forms are invasive, and not mandatory, and our forms are approved by the Govt. You may not be refused for taking FML once qualified, and you may not be disciplined for taking FML once qualified. Please be sure to renew your FML before it expires.
Switching Limits at Vancouver- Talks are still ongoing, and there are some other plans being discussed. The Carrier realizes that there is no way they can manage limits of that size. There is no concrete information, but perhaps they are looking at a roadswitcher? The next meetings are planned for December.
Whistle Rule- The new FRA whistle rule has been changed from a time span of 15-20 seconds to one of 15-25 seconds. Whee! Be aware that there are lots of Ops testing going on, and be sure to whistle at any Xing with a whistle board.
Fallbridge Reroutes- As expected, the carrier has failed to follow their own plan. A couple of small derailments caused some trains to be diverted our way, and they failed to tell us they would run everything our way on the weekend. They are still telling us they are shutting down during the week, but the trains keep coming. We added one turn to the pool
Vacation Scheduling- As usual, please don’t enter vacation requests in the computer. Be sure to turn your forms in by November 13, and be sure to ask for as many choices as you can if you can’t be sure of getting what you want.
Trains parked at Avery- Once again Wishram crews are taking trains out to Avery. Please provide engine numbers date and time when you see this. If you go by and see one, please leave me a note, or If you go out to get a train, and it’s at Avery, please leave me a note. These are our trains, and we are entitled to the claims if Wishram takes the train to Avery.
Grain Flips being called for “one or more”- It’s been noticed that some grain flips are being called for “one or more” trips, and this is not valid under our agreements. If you are called for a specific train, you can not leave the terminal again once you arrive. If they make you do that, leave me a note with the specifics, and the XBD will have a claim. You will also have a claim for violation of the automatic release rule. If you get a call slip telling you “one or more”, please leave me a copy of the call slip. The only train calls that allow “one or more” is a dogcatch with the symbol N.
Sharp shooting-Each one in our division knows the way XBD’s and the long pool work. Each one knows the proper arrival location at Vancouver, and each one in the long pool knows the restore rule. Anyone discovered to be creative in arrival times at Vancouver will be pulled off the XBD pending verification of arrival times. Anyone who allows their turn in the long pool to be placed where the turn doesn’t belong, and takes a call knowing this is not their proper place in the pool will be pulled off the board until their proper placement position gets back from Pasco. We only have each other out there. When we know the carrier is already at our throats, why are we be if we at each others throats?

Motion to close by Brother Barnes, seconded by Brother Haney. Meeting adjourned at 2:25