United Transportation Union

Buffalo and Pittsburgh Negotiations Continue

Negotiations continued with a target towards a new collective bargaining agreement for UTU members on the Buffalo and Pittsburgh Railroad. The UTU Negotiating Team met in Jacksonville, Florida, with officers and representatives of the Buffalo and Pittsburgh for another round of negotiations on Tuesday and Wednesday, July 19^th and 20^th. Members of the UTU Negotiating Team are General Chairperson John Lesniewski, Vice General Chairperson Steve Mavity and Local Chairperson (377) Harry Mahaffey. Representing the Buffalo and Pittsburgh are Raymond A. Goss, Senior VP, Jason C. Fuller, Manager, and G. J. Allard of Railway Labor Associates.

New Hire CSX Comprehensive Medical Plan Coverage Enhanced

Recently it was brought to the attention of the General Committee that a newly hired trainman on the south end of CSX, who was covered by the CSX Comprehensive Medical Plan during the first year of his employment, was being denied coverage for occupational injuries or illness. While the triggering event occurred on the southern end of the railroad, it brought to light certain deficiencies in the CSX Comprehensive Medical Plan that could affect our newly hired members as well.

NOTE: - On the B&O property new hires have the option of selecting the CSX Comprehensive Medical Plan or the NRC/UTU National Plan for their first year of employment. On the southern properties, however, enrollment in the CSX Comprehensive Medical Plan for the first year of employment is mandatory.

In order to address these shortcomings in the CSX Comprehensive Medical Plan the General Committee negotiated a June 23, 2010 understanding that provides newly hired B&O trainmen who opted for the CSX Comprehensive Medical Plan during their first year of employment with occupational injury/illness coverage under the National Plan at no cost to the employee. Furthermore, the understanding provides Life AD&D coverage to these employees under the National Plan administered by Met Life at no cost to the employee.

A copy of the June 23, 2010 understanding can be viewed here.

Northwest Ohio Factility at North Baltimore To Be Switched by UTU!

General Chairperson John E. Lesniewski announced today that the B&O General Committee has negotiated a series of four (4) agreements dated June 24, 2010 giving our UTU trainmen the work in the new North Baltimore, Ohio, CSXI facility being constructed (contingent upon passage of the tentative Northern Mid-Atlantic Agreement). This is a HUGE victory for our members and this Committee since most CSXI facilities in recent years have been contracted to a short line carrier (possibly non union) to switch. In fact, in this case also all preliminary data and presentations depicted the Evansville Western Railroad as performing the switching at the Northwest Ohio (NWO) facility.

Hopefully these agreements will set a pattern for the future.

Copies of the Northwest Ohio (NWO) Agreements governing the factility at North Baltimore, Ohio, may be viewed here.

Retirement With Less Than 30 Years of Service

For railroad employees with less than 30 years (360 months) of credited service, full retirement age, the earliest age at which a person can begin receiving railroad retirement or social security benefits without any reduction for early retirement, ranges from age 65 for those born before 1938 to age 67 for those born in 1960 or later, the same as social security. How much will this affect the annuity of employees retiring before full retirement age? If you are interested, I suggest you review the May 2010 publication of Railroad Retirement Board Labor Member V. M. Speakman, Jr. reproduced here.

Tentative NMA Coordination Pact Reached

As reported in a December 3, 2009 article on this website, under date of December 2, 2009, CSXT served notice upon our General Committee (GO-049), as well as the CSXT Northern District (former Conrail) General Committees of G. T. Casey (GO-081), R. C. McVeen (GO-619), W. A. Beebe (GO-663) and W. A. Wadowski III (GO-621), of their intent to “… consolidate and coordinate train operations, employees, and related facilities in the territory covered by the Northern District (former Conrail), and the territory covered by the Eastern District and certain contiguous parts of the Western District (former B&O), to create a larger territory for train operations, to be known as the Northern Mid-Atlantic District” under a single schedule agreement pursuant to Article I, Section 4 of the New York Dock conditions imposed by the Surface Transportation Board in Finance Docket No. 33388 (the acquisition of Conrail by CSX and NS).

Section 4 of the New York Dock protective conditions require that the Carrier negotiate an implementing agreement with the organization representatives involved before they effectuate a transaction which is subject to the conditions that would involve rearrangement of forces. If the parties are unable to reach a consensus on such an implementing agreement, Section 4 provides a timeline specific procedure for final and binding arbitration of the matter before the intended transaction can be placed into effect.

The December 2^nd notice CSXT served was quite concerning in that it expressed their intention to decimate the currently owned seniority rights of the affected members in favor of a “one size fits all” roster covering the entire Northern Mid-Atlantic area. Nevertheless, in that December 3^rd article the General Committee also urged all officers and members to remember the notice we received served as a starting point for our negotiations regarding the coordination, not the end product. We also cautioned members it was far too soon to panic or jump to conclusions in any direction; and pledged we would do everything within our power to protect the wages, working conditions and seniority rights of the members we serve from adverse affect as a result of this transaction.

The General Committee is now proud to announce that we have fulfilled our pledge. After numerous meetings and negotiating sessions with CSXT since the December 2^nd notice, and with the much valued assistance of UTU Vice President John Previsich, a tentative agreement has been reached for the Northern Mid-Atlantic Coordinated District. That document was released on Tuesday, May 25, 2010 to B&O Eastern/Western and former Conrail Northern District Local Chairmen. Informational conference calls with these local representatives followed on Tuesday, May 25, 2010, and Wednesday, May 26, 2010.

Message to Local Chairmen on LCAT Claims Handling

(Vice General Chairperson Jeremy R. Ferguson primarily handles the claim appeals in the GO-049 office. What follows is a message from VGC Ferguson regarding the status of older claims residing in the LCAT system and our office.)

What is the status with our claims in LCAT?

Many of you may have possibly noticed that your LCAT claims have not received any attention or status changes in the “Claim State” since being input for the years of 2007 thru 2009. Our office has received some input from concerned local chairmen and hopefully this will address any questions or concerns you may have. The most common statement is: “they are skipping over the claims because they are answering the 2010 claims but I have all these claims from 2007-2009 that are not being touched!”, and basically that is true.

Now realistically here is where the position of your “claim state” is actually at: Nothing can really change with those claims to our satisfaction unless they are in a “paid” or “agreed to arbitrate” status and quite frankly Labor Relations and our office does not have the time to go back 3 years and start making sure every claim is in its proper LCAT state because we would then never get to the 2010 claims until 2013. That viscous cycle would never end so we are handling them in whatever current state they are in, to include those still in “appealed to LR”.

Disability Application Process

From time to time this office entertains questions relative to the eligibility requirements and process for an employee to apply for a disability annuity from the Railroad Retirement Board.

Attached here for our members' benefit you will find an article published in April 2010 by U.S. Railroad Retirement Board Labor Member V. M. Speakman, Jr. that clearly answers these questions.

Returning Members - Welcome Back to the UTU

Recently the General Committee office has received numerous inquiries as to how an employee seeking to return to the UTU (now belonging to the BLET) would go about having their BLET dues stopped to join the ranks of the UTU once again.

Updated instructions have been sent to each Local Treasurer with regards to the “Certified Mail Revocation of Payroll Deducted BLE Dues” form used by employees seeking to transfer their membership back to the UTU from the BLET. Employees seeking to return to the UTU from the BLET should use these updated forms in the future as there is a new CSXT contact person – Pat Muttillo.

The letter and forms can be viewed and copied here.

Judging from past experience, the General Committee recommends that the “Certified Mail Revocation of Payroll Deducted BLE Dues” form be sent to the BLET Treasurer “Certified Mail with Return Receipt Requested” in case there is a dispute in the future as to when the BLET treasurer was advised of the member’s intent to transfer back to the UTU.

How The New Healthcare Bill Will Affect You

(What follows is a reprint from an important UTU International website article published today, March 22, 2010.)

The historic healthcare reform bill that President Obama will sign into law has provisions that affect UTU members and retirees. Notable provisions, as reported by The Washington Post, The New York Times and Reuters, include:

EMPLOYEES OF CARRIERS OFFERING HEALTHCARE INSURANCE: For the overwhelming majority of UTU members whose employers provide healthcare insurance, there will be minimal, but meaningful, changes: 1) The lifetime cap on benefits will be eliminated; 2) employees, their spouses and children with pre-existing conditions, or new illnesses, cannot be dropped from coverage; and, 3) insurers must allow children to remain on their parents' policy until their 26th birthday.

EMPLOYEES OF SMALL CARRIERS: As small-group premiums are higher than premiums for larger employer groups, small businesses will be able to buy insurance coverage for employees through the legislation's created "insurance exchange," and the employer may be eligible for a tax credit to cover a significant share of the healthcare premium expense.

The insurance exchange will consist of regulated insurance marketplaces administered by individual states, in which small businesses and those without employer provided healthcare insurance may shop for, compare and buy healthcare insurance meeting federal standards.

Railroad Retirement Information Available - March 2010

A list of Railroad Retirement Board Informational Conferences conducted by Labor Member V. M. Speakman, Jr.'s office can be accessed here.

Railroad Retirement Board Labor Member Speakman's monthly publication for March 2010 with important benefit information can be accessed here.

A list of Railroad Job Vacancies published by Mr. Speakman's office dated March 2, 2010 (which may be of interstest to some of our furloughed members) can be accessed here.