Railroaders place to shoot the shit.

CLEVELAND, May 14 Railroad workers in Arkansas will now ride in off-duty vehicles with a greater peace of mind, thanks to the combined efforts of the BLETs Arkansas State Legislative Board, their counterparts in the United Transportation Union and the Union Pacific Railroad. The three parties recently collaborated to secure passage of a law to improve the safety of off-duty transportation vehicles.

In early March, Arkansas Governor Mike Beebe signed House Bill 1318 into law. The Safe Transportation of Railroad Employees by Contract Carriers Act establishes improved safety standards for drivers employed by railroad contract carriers as well as the motor vehicles they use to transport train crews to and from off-duty locations.

The new law mandates hours of service for van drivers, drug testing for drivers, inspections of the vehicles and maintenance on the vehicles. It also mandates liability insurance of $5 million dollars for each motor vehicle that transports railroad employees.

There arent many times you find two unions and the railroad working together, said Terry Todd, Chairman of the BLETs Arkansas State Legislative Board. But our issues and the UTUs issues were almost the same bad drivers, unsafe vans and a poorly-managed limo company.

Todd said the solidarity of the two unions helped to get lobbyists from the Union Pacific Railroad involved.

We brought our issues to the attention of the Union Pacific Railroad and showed them how unreliable their limo company was and how they were wasting money paying for services they were not getting, Todd said.

With the three parties united, it was just a matter of time before the legislation was passed.

We were unopposed on all votes, Todd said. This was for public safety.

Chairman Todd thanked James Hoskins, Legislative Representative of BLET Division 182 (Little Rock) and Robert Lindsay, retired Division 858 (Pine Bluff) Legislative Representative, for their work on the legislation. He acknowledged the assistance of the Arkansas State AFL-CIO and also thanked the BLET members and their spouses who made phone calls and sent e-mails to lobby their legislators regarding this issue.

A copy of the bill is on the BLET website at:
http://www.ble-t.org/pr/pdf/HB1318.pdf

Thursday, May 14, 2009
bentley@ble.org