The UTU and the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen also have petitioned the Federal Railroad Administration for an emergency order to prohibit the use by railroads on one-person operating crews, including remote control operations.)

SAFETY ALERT NO. 1

UTU members working in single-person operations are strongly encouraged to question any order by a railroad official to perform any activities that may result in an injury, loss of limb or life -- short of insubordination. 

If your request to be relieved of such a task is denied, please immediately contact your local chairperson, general chairperson, local legislative representative or state legislative director for further handling.

In doing so, document these actions as soon as you are able, providing as much information as possible, including witnesses, times, dates, locations and names of all involved.

Following is the proper procedure to handle any types of incidents you feel cannot be safely accomplished by a one-person operation:

1) Call for help, such as a utility employee, who can perform the function (i.e. change the knuckle, adjust the draw bar) while the RCO operator maintains control of the RCL transmitter (belt pack) and provides three-step protection.

2) If help is not available, notify management that you are concerned the function you are being required to perform is unsafe, and that you would prefer not to perform the function.

3)  If the carrier official (supervisor, manager) insists that you perform the unsafe function anyway, tell him/her you feel this would place your personal safety in jeopardy and ask that they reconsider your request.

4) If the carrier official denies your request, perform the function as instructed, taking every safety protection available, including:

a) Making sure everyone working on both ends of the yard knows where you are, and that you are about to be on your own under or between cars on the track and without blue-flag protection.

b) Make sure the belt pack is set to prevent the locomotive from moving.

c) Secure cars on a cut located on the oppose side of where the locomotive is attached (to prevent rollback).

d) Keep a constant eye and ear out for any movement whatsoever.

e) Keep the belt pack on, to ensure the man-down feature is operable (or as near as safely possible without creating a tripping hazard), just in case it's needed.

5) After being required to perform the function, report these occurrences to you local legislative representative, safety chairpersons and local chairpersons.

In solidarity,

UTU Rail Safety Task Force

Greg Hynes, UTU assistant Arizona state legislative director
Steve Evans, UTU Arkansas state legislative director
Jerry Gibson, UTU Michigan state legislative director
Scott Olson, UTU Arizona state legislative director

For more information on the UTU Rail Safety Task Force and its mission, click here:

http://www.utu.org/worksite/rail_safety_taskforce/safety_taskforce_home.htm