-- Many changes primarily in the yard and with some local along many rumors. Although some of the shany talk does have some truth to it, do NOT believe everything you hear. Join on March 27th at 1800 for our monthly meeting to get the truth and have your questions answered.
-- A message our SMART state legislator rep. Kameron Saunders
"All,
HB 742, our 2 Person Crew Bill was heard in committee yesterday. Gary Pedigo, State Director BLE, and I, testified in favor of the bill. UPRR and BNSF both testified against the measure. I think things went well. We presented the facts and the railroad gave "their version” of the facts. As normal procedure, the bill was left pending in committee and could be voted on as early as next week.
I appreciate all of you that made calls to the committee members offices. It really makes a difference when we go in to an office and they say “oh yeah, we’ve gotten some calls from our district about this legislation”. If any of you have not done so, please reach out to your State Representative and let them know that you support this bill. Here is the link to find who represents you:
It is extremely important to make sure our voices are heard!
Thank you for all your help and please pass this along to your contacts.
Kamron T. Saunders
State Legislative Director – Texas
SMART TD (formerly UTU)
512 E 11th ST, Ste. 200
Austin, TX 78701
It only take a minute or two to make that phone call and/or email to our Texas representative to please support HB 742 - two person crew. Lets do our part.
-- Brothers and Sisters,
The International has created an online form for our membership (members from other unions may use the form as well) to report technology failures, specifically PTC, Trip Optimizer/Leader, and telemetry. The reason for this form is rather simple; the railroads love to say that "no data" exists to show that two-person crews are any safer than a, one-person crew or autonomous operations. The reason being is simply because America uses little to none of those types of operations, and, therefore, no data can exist.
We all know that the systems fail. And we all know that our trains would not move safely if not for the professionalism and dedication of our membership. This form will give us the ability to present the realities of modern railroading and the need for human intervention; specifically, two-person crews.
The data received from this reporting will be used to strengthen our efforts to legislatively mandate the use of, a minimum, of two person crews in Texas, and the nation.
Please use this link to report any failures of technology you may encounter and provide as much information as possible.