Railroaders place to shoot the shit.

Although the Rail Safety Improvement Act of 2008 contemplated implementing agreements to be in place in order to coordinate the new law with governing agreement rules, the carriers have largely resisted doing so.

This means that the new regulations will become effective without modification of collective bargaining agreements on most properties.

Instead, the carriers have filed a lawsuit asking a federal court to permit them to violate existing collective bargaining agreements with the UTU and the BLET. A link to information on that lawsuit is provided below.

General chairpersons have kept the door open to negotiations as the carriers gain experience with the new regulations, and it is still contemplated that the carriers will come to the negotiating table and implementing agreements will be achieved.

UTU officers at all levels of the organization will also be communicating during implementation of the hours of service changes to share their experiences, concerns, ideas and recommendations for appropriate handling of the carriers' violations or abuse of the new regulations.

Note that the Federal Railroad Administration has issued an interpretation of the new hours of service regulations and asked for comments prior to making those recommendations final over the next few months. A link to those interpretations is provided below.

The UTU will continue to keep members informed via a special Web page link from the UTU home page at www.utu.org, and provide updates via immediate e-mail alerts to those signed up to receive such alerts. To sign up, click on the following link: Register for E-mail Alerts.

In the meantime, members should contact their state legislative directors for additional information on interpretation of the new regulations; and their local or general chairpersons for information on filing claims for violations of their respective collective bargaining agreements.

Click on the following link to read a summary of the new hours of service regulations:

What the Rail Safety Improvement Act of 2008 states

Click on the following link to  read the FRA's interpretation of the new hours of service regulations. (A second link is provided within that article to read the full FRA 47-page document.)

FRA interprets hours-of-service changes

Click on the following link to read about the lawsuit filed by carriers asking a federal court to permit them to violate existing collective bargaining agreements with the UTU and the BLET.

Carriers ask court okay to violate contracts