BROTHERHOOD OF RAILROAD SIGNALMEN LOCAL 20

The next regular meeting of BRS Local 20 will be held Saturday April 20, 2013 at 8:30 a.m. at the Stoney Creek Inn, Quincy, IL located at 3809 East Broadway. Reservations may be made by calling 217-223-2255.

Following are brief minutes from our last meeting held in Chillicothe, MO March 9, 2013.

The meeting opened at 8:30 with 15 members and 2 guests present. Previous minutes were read and approved, and a treasury balance of $ 86,791.63 in checking and c.d.’s in the amount of $ 21,554.67 was reported. So the good news is, it looks like we will pass our top tier amount of $ 103,593.00 at the end of the quarter, resulting in a month’s free dues. What I plan on doing is charging half the normal rate for March and April.

Nate Estes reported on the following: a previous claim for 4 hours was settled involving MOW forces removing retired crossing equipment, a member getting out of his limits of a track and time, resulting in a waiver, level “S” and 1 year probation, and the new pay code 7 and 7P.

Jerry Moore reported on the following: the electronic device policy, a couple instances of the wrong maintainer being called on trouble tickets, the “drive cams” that are coming, and SACP. Jerry reported the UTU lost a lawsuit concerning these cameras, so now it looks like we are getting them. Jerry also discussed the strict enforcement of the seat belt policy, as well as an issue concerning a maintainer being called from a couple territories away to fuel generators when the regular maintainers in that area were available. He also reported the 3 new local chairmen will be attending training at Grand Lodge March 15 and 16.

Joe Baker reported on the following: the companies hard nose approach to crew members without CDL’s. Joe also discussed using proper pay codes and the heavy use of audits by the company on our time reporting. He also discussed the recent troubles with supervision and PTC construction crews.
Craig McLaren reported on the following: a waiver was signed for a member who was fouling the track without authority, resulting in a level “S” and 1 year review. He also discussed rule 47D, hold pay for crews, as well as rule 13C, travel time for fixed crews on rest days and holidays. Craig also discussed the 20 day period to have a job put on bulletin after changes have been made to a territory, (rule 28).

Vice General Chairman Kelly Portlock reported on the following: computerized auditing is in full force. He also discussed the importance of members contacting local chairmen before signing waivers, and have some help reviewing them before signing off on them. A new safety program called approaching others is in the works as well. Kelly also mentioned the alternative handling that we had in the past for certain discipline issues is probably gone for good.

Grand Lodge V.P. Mark Ciurej discussed the following: a state by state based AFL-CIO membership program that addresses labor concerns on the state levels of government. More on this to come. He also discussed a plan in the works for a national right to work law, which would be disastrous to labor. Mark discussed crossing activation failures, and the human causes of them. He stressed the importance of taking our time to properly test our equipment, and take no short cuts. A “responsibility” study in ongoing, hopefully something good will come from this resulting in wage improvements. The FRA has notified the BRS we may be subject to certification in the future, similar to the UTU and BLE. Mark mentioned the federal whistle blower act, and said there is a 180 day period to file a claim on it. He stressed if there is ever any question on this, we need to contact our FELA lawyers.

In closing I would like to say this company is playing hard ball. The drive cams, upcoming electronic monitoring of our vehicles, audits, gps monitoring of our movements and so on is growing daily. It will probably never go away. All we can do is remain vigilant in our duties, play by the rules, take our time and protect ourselves. It’s their ball and their game, obviously the u.s. constitution doesn’t mean shit in a multi-billion dollar industry. I would like to remind everyone to sign up for this letter to be sent via e-mail. The general committee newsletter can be sent via e-mail as well. Contact Ken Strickland at brskes@att.net. I hope to see a lot of you in quincy.

Fraternally,
Ed Leeson
RFS Local 20
309-202-1260
brslocal20@comcast.net