Legislative Report
Jeffrey Johnson
legislative representative report
I attended the pennsylvania conference of teamsters
april 25 thur april 28 2010 in hershey Pa.The conference was very
productive .I was able to persuade Brother Robert Francis to release
contract info that our contract committee was seeking.
We are continuely making in roads into the teamsters policitical
network.This will be very helpful to us in the long run for thier numbers ,
passion and influence are impressive.This is the arena where we can
bring are concerns and agenda for support .They seem open to our
concerns and needs.
I approached Sen. Specter about support and funding of the
R8 newtown exstention lobby by the pennsylvania transit expansion
coalition (PA-TEC).This would bring more jobs in the engineers craft.
We heard from PA Senate majority leader Dominic Pileggi,
Dan Onorato candidate for governor
U.S congressmanTim Murphy ,Jonathan Saidel candidate for lt. Governor
Pa. Rep. Marc Gergely,Pa. rep. Bryan lentz ,Pa. Rep. John Yudichak, Pa.
Rep. Frank Dermody , Pa Sen. Jay Costa JR, Pa Senator Vincent
Hughes, Pa Attorney General Tom Corbett , Pa Treasurer Robert McCord
and many of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters top officers
including IBTGeneral President James P. Hoffa.
the 2010 teamsters resolutions
1. support of the IBT efforts to organize non-union brothers and to
protect our own union workers rights.
2.support of political action and voter registration
3.support of the employee free choice act
4.support of our troops in iraq and afghanistan
5.against the Privatization or sale of the PA Turnpike
6.support of bill S.3157 the create jobs &save benefits act bySen.
Bob Casey and H.R.3936 would help protect multi -employer pension
plans
7.support the D.G.Yuengling & son BOYCOTT
yuengling ,lord chesterfield ale,dark brewed porter,traditional
lager, light lager and original black and tan
8. against the proposed philadelphia soda tax it will cost teamster
good paying jobs and its and attempt to destroy the unions of the soda
industry .
9. support of the renegotiation of nafta annex 1 to eliminate the
the mexican tariffs by Peter DeFazio (D-OR)wrote a letter to u.s. sec.of
transportation Ray hood and U.S. trade rep. Ron Kirk calling for the
renegotiation of annex 1 of nafta .we should email our representiatives
and tell them to co-sign REP. DeFazio's letter
10.support of the seven springs organizing drive
may 10 I attended a pa -tec presentation to the upper moreland
council
for support of the r8 newtown expansion .we need to go on the website
www.R8Newtown.com sign the petition and contact our representatives.
Fraternally, Jeffrey Johnson
BLE Div 71 Alt. Legislative Rep.
The TWU strike and the resultant agreement ratified last week overwhelmingly by TWU City Transit workers has been a topic of interest for Division 71 engineers. At present time, I am working on costing out the new agreement, in order to allow our contract negotiating committee to see the total economic value of the TWU package over and above the wage increases and signing bonus gain. Another very important issue to us is the maintenance of our health insurance benefits without increased weekly deductions to our paychecks to pay for them.
The following is a very brief analysis on the wage increases, signing bonuses, and health care maintenance achieved by the TWU.
1). Wage increases: according to available information, wage increases for TWU members for the next five years are as follows: First year “0” percent, Second year 2.5%, Third year 3 % ,Fourth year 3%, Fifth year 35.
2). Signing Bonus: Funded purportedly by money “found” by Governor Ed Rendell, each TWU member will receive a signing bonus of $ 1,250.00 as soon as practicable after ratifi-cation of the agreement.
3). Health Benefits: The TWU will keep all current health benefits, including the lifetime prescription plan, at the status quote rate. There will be no paycheck deductions from TWU members additional to the 1% of their weekly wages
(based upon a 40 hour week). All of the above components of the agreement were in place before the TWU work stop-page on November 2.
The following issues, despite allegations by the Press and some politicians, were extremely important to the TWU and also to us.
The first dispute was over whether SEPTA would have the right to unilaterally increase worker contributions for their medical benefits within the next five years if premiums were increased significantly due to Health Care reform legislation. The potential for taxing cer-tain on health insurance policies and/or mandating that expensive additional benefits be included in existing policies increases the possibility significantly increasing insurance pre-miums. SEPTA wanted the right to increase employee contributions in order to pay for increased policy costs, while the TWU rightly held its ground and said “no”. In the end, the agreement contained language that protects all TWU members from reduc-tions in current health care coverage, as well as from having to contribute more per week for their coverage, for the life of this agreement. This was a big victory for the TWU, and good for us, as the “pattern” entitles us to the same protections.
The second issue, although it does not directly pertain to Division 71 engineers, involved the TWU member’s pensions. The TWU felt that SEPTA had historically underfunded their members’ pension fund while adequately funding the more lucrative pensions of management. They insisted on a “forensic” audit (usually reserved for criminal investigations) to determined where the pen-sion funds went. In the end, the TWU agreed not to demand an audit of this type contractually, but to seek an audit through their pension board members and political/legal avenues. The agreement increases the pension cap per year from % 27,000.00 to $ 30,000.00 per year for TWU retirees, while increasing contribution costs to 3.5% of income while working. This issue may be an important one to us, depending on the cost increase to SEPTA for this pension enhancement with increased contributions. We would certainly want the equivalent value of any TWU pension enhancements for our mem-bers, even though we do not have a “SEPTA” pension plan.
Finally, it appears that work rule changes benefitting either side were not significant, although we will investigate their impact when we get more details of the agreement. This is important in that SEPTA cannot claim that significant work rule concessions “paid” for TWU increases or enhancements, or have any basis to demand work rule changes from us. All in all, I think Willie Brown, TWU 231 President, and his negotiating team did an excellent job in obtaining a fair contract for his members, given the regional and national economic climate. Although the (0) in the first year is certainly not accounted for in the $ 1250 signing bonus, since it doesn’t compound and hurts higher wage employees, the increases in the remainder of the contract allow us to demand increases for our members of at least as much. Health benefits were protected well, with no employee contribution increases throughout the life of the agreement, and their lifetime prescription plan was maintained despite its large expense and significant projected cost increases. It was encouraging to see the TWU stick up for their rights, and remain steadfast during the six day work stoppage, despite a hostile press and threats by area legislators.
Although not perfect, the TWU agreement provides us with an acceptable base from which to start our serious contract negotiations with SEPTA.
Fraternally, Tom Dorricott
BLE Div 71 Legislative Rep.
SPO #43 and SPO #74 Violation of 49 CFR 229.119 in the winter
With the winter months approaching we would like you to review the rules regarding the opening of the Engineers Door at Center City Stations ( see sidebar on page 2 ) and also the SPO requirement to not by-pass the trainline door control, by inserting a key at other than the conductor’s controlling location. Below is the pertinent excerpt from the Federal Law. 49CFR, Part 229.119 Cabs, Floors and Passageways which describes the minimum requirements for the heating arrangement in the operating cab. “The cab shall be provided with proper ventilation and with a heating arrangement that maintains a temperature of at least 50 de-grees Fahrenheit 6 inches above the center of each seat in the cab.” The key requirement of this section is “MAINTAINS A TEMPERATURE OF AT LEAST 50”, therefore making it impos-sible, on days when the outside temperature falls below 50 degrees, for the cab heaters to perform such a task with an open door in the cab. Locations such as 30th Street, Suburban Station, Temple U, University City and any other high level platform, where a door on the head end could be opened to allow the temperature to fall below 50 degrees, would be in violation of the CFR. If a SEPTA manager orders you to open the door under theses conditions contact an Officer. SEPTA cannot violate the Federal Requirements with their operating rules and we are prepared to send a formal com-plaint to the FRA if any SEPTA manager violates this federal law.