BROTHERHOOD OF RAILROAD SIGNALMEN LOCAL 20

The next regular meeting of BRS Local 20 will be held Saturday, April 12, 2014 at 9:00 A.M. at the Comfort Inn & Suites, 6169 Reve Court, Hwy. 61 South, Ft. Madison, IA. Reservations may be made by calling 319-372-6800. We will also be holding a special meeting on Tuesday, March 18, 2014 following the safety certification class at the Best Western Plus Timber Creek Inn, located in Sandwich, IL. The address is 3300 Drew Ave. We are planning on having the meeting 30 minutes after the safety class end. Here are the minutes from our last meeting held February 22, 2014 in Chillicothe, MO.

The meeting opened at 8:30 a.m. with 16 members and 2 guests present. It was reported we have $46,122.38 in checking and c.d.’s in the amount of $21,631.06 in our treasury. Minutes from our previous meeting were read and approved.

Joe Baker reported the following: An investigation involving a track and time following a train, that resulted in a level “s” and 3 year probation. Joe also dealt with 2 vehicle accidents that both ended with a formal reprimand and waiver. He also had an issue involving a member out of his limits on a track warrant, resulting in a level “s” with a one year review. Joe also discussed the provisions of “protection on other than main track”.

Nate Estes reported the following: A claim was finally paid for section forces working on a pole line issue. Nate said there is an appeal on a claim involving a supervisor working in a bungalow wiring, with members dropping shunts. He also discussed issues with the telecom department doing signal’s work on radios and IMG’s. Nate also had a good discussion with the ongoing issues concerning cable locating and the portable generator claims.

Jerry Moore reported the following: An injury to a member in November, who will hopefully be back to work in March. Jerry also discussed a member cited for a critical decision failure for fouling the track without authority, resulting in a level “s” and 3 year probation. He had another failure on a member who had a track and time and fouled the wrong track. Jerry also reported on the issue of the poor hotel conditions our members have to endure. We have to document this and report it to the company as well as a union official. Jerry closed with a mention of human caused activation failures, and the importance of keeping up to date on the signal rules and instructions.

Craig McLaren had this to report: Be sure to have a trouble ticket opened to get paid for calls and service. They are auditing this on a regular basis. He also had an issue with contractors hired in the Chicago area to clean switches with the BMWE. There was a rules qualified man with them, but with maintainers being sent home, and mobile command centers set up, few tickets were generated, so it’s extremely difficult to keep track of potential time claims. Craig also had an issue with some assistants at signal school who got snowed out on a Tuesday, resulting in having to make up the time on Saturday. They should be paid for Tuesday as well as Saturday at straight time.

General Chairman Mike Dake discussed the following: Contract talks are approaching, hopefully everyone has returned the questionnaire mailed out by Grand Lodge. Signal department is planning on hiring approximately 300 people due to attrition. The cell phone policy has been modified to allow us to use them while working under the proper track authority. Mike also discussed the pay policy of paying a second meal period after 10 hours is worked at the overtime rate. The word is the company is still installing the drive cameras, as well as the telematics boxes on our trucks. Mike touched on the lodging issues as well, he also discussed the importance of our union and what it has done for our members.

Grand Lodge V.P. West Mark Ciurej discussed the following: The extremely heavy traffic we are experiencing and the time frame to do our testing. We must not take short cuts, we can’t stress this enough. There are approximately 11,800 members nationwide and Grand Lodge finances are in great shape, as is the railroad retirement fund. Mark also talked about trying to form a coalition with the other unions to present a united front to the railroads on our upcoming negotiations, especially in the area of healthcare issues. Grand Lodge is still working on the job responsibility study. Chances are in the near future there will be some type of signalman certification in place. Mark closed with a talk about activation failures at crossings, and the importance of taking our time and testing properly, and taking no chances.

New business: We decided to try an extra meeting in the year, to try to reach as many members as possible. We decided to have this meeting March 18 in Sandwich, IL. following the safety certs class. It was also approved unanimously to amend By-Law Article VI, section 2. It is proposed to now read, “Membership fee shall be $200.00 for new members, and must accompany the application”. What we are doing is dropping the $1000.00 initiation fee for someone hired at the rank of signalman or above. We will have the final vote on this change in Ft. Madison, April 12. The meeting adjourned at 1:35 p.m. I hope to see you in Ft. Madison, and those of you at the safety certs in March I hope you can make to the special meeting. As always, if you would like to receive the update by email I would really appreciate it. Check out our website, brslocal20.org for news as well. Nate has a survey concerning meeting attendance on the members only section of the website. Check it out and respond, it’s anonymous. Also, if you could sign up with Ken Strickland to receive the General Committee newsletter it would be greatly appreciated. His email is brskes@att.net.

Fraternally,

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