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Update on
Railroad Retirement Legislation
Senate
ignores threat of White House veto
UTU-BLE Merger Update
Rutter
Named New FRA Head
New DOT
Drug and Alcohol Testing Program
New Basic
Daily Rates and Extra Board Guarantees
Weekly
Legal Advice "The Diesel Exhaust
Threat"
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August
2001
Update
on Railroad Retirement Legislation
CLEVELAND, July 26, 2001
Thanks to the efforts of BLE, GIA and
other Rail Labor lobbyists, H.R. 1140,
the Railroad Retirement and Survivors'
Improvement Act of 2001, has been placed
back on the Suspension Calendar today.
However, more effort is needed to force
it to a vote by early next week.
All BLE and GIA members are asked to
contact their Members of Congress and
also those members on the following list
and ask them to move H.R. 1140 from the
Suspension Calendar to the floor for a
vote.
Please contact the following members of
the Republican Congressional leadership
and ask them to support the bill:
* Speaker, J. Dennis Hastert (R-IL)
Phone: (202) 225-2976 or FAX: (202)
225-0697
* Majority Leader, Dick Armey (R-TX) at
(202) 225-7772
* Majority Whip, Tom DeLay (R-TX) Phone:
(202) 225-5951 or FAX: (202) 225-5241
Other Members of the House may be
contacted by calling the Capitol
switchboard at (202) 224-3121 and asking
for the Representative by name.
Yesterday, House Budget Committee
Chairman Jim Nussle (R-IA) announced that
he was opposed to the bill for budgetary
reasons and attempted to keep it from
moving forward to a vote. However, a
grassroots effort from Rail Labor put it
back on the calendar.
Senate
ignores threat of White House veto
WASHINGTON, July 26
.c The Associated Press
The Senate ignored a White House veto
threat and voted Thursday to back tougher
safety standards than President Bush
wants for Mexican trucks entering the
United States.The bipartisan 70-30 vote
blocked aRepublican filibuster -
procedural delays - aimed at forcing a
weakening of the standards included in a
transportation spending bill.
UTU-BLE
Merger Update
CLEVELAND, Ohio (July 27, 2001)
The BLE Advisory Board met Friday and
will continue meeting this weekend over
the subject of endorsing the UTU-BLE
merger document that both unions already
have agreed to submit to their respective
memberships for ratification. UTU
International President Byron A. Boyd,
Jr., said he is "cautiously
optimistic" that the BLE advisory
board will endorse the merger document.
Rutter
Named New FRA Head
BNSF Today - July 26, 2001
Allan Rutter has been confirmed as the
next head of the Federal Railroad
Administration. Prior to coming to
Washington, Rutter served as
transportation policy director in the
governor's office in Austin, Texas.
Previously, he was deputy director of the
Texas high-speed rail authority, and a
state budget analyst. Rutter succeeds
Jolene Molitoris who left the agency in
December. A date when Rutter will be
sworn in has yet to be set.
New DOT
Drug and Alcohol Testing Program
July 24
New Department of Transportation
procedures for workplace drug and alcohol
testing program become effective Aug. 1,
2001.
The new procedures are required for all
transportation modes – highway, air
and rail. Persons collecting urine
samples for drug and alcohol testing are
required to:
Explain the basic collection procedure to
the employee, including showing the
employee the instructions on the back of
the Custody and Control Form (CCF).
Direct the employee to remove outer
clothing (e.g., coveralls, jacket, coat,
hat) that could be used to conceal items
or substances that could be used to
tamper with a specimen. The collector
must direct the employee to leave these
garments and any briefcase, purse or
other personal belonging with the
collector or in a mutually agreeable
location. The employee must be advised
that failure to comply with directions
constitutes a refusal to test.
If the employee asks for a receipt for
any belongings left with the collector,
one must be provided.
The employee must be allowed to keep his
or her wallet.
The collector must not ask the employee
to remove other clothing (e.g., shirts,
pants, dresses, underwear), to remove all
clothing, or to change into a hospital or
examination gown (unless the urine
collection is being accomplished
simultaneously with a DOT
agency-authorized medical examination).
The collector must direct the employee to
empty his or her pockets and display the
items in them to ensure that no items are
present which could be used to adulterate
the specimen. If nothing is there that
can be used to adulterate a specimen, the
employee can place the items back into
his or her pockets. Employees must allow
the collectors to make this observation.
New
Basic Daily Rates and Extra Board
Guarantees
Effective July 1, 2001
Guarantee’s – Extra Boards
Craft Half Month Year
Engineer $2,683.60 $5,367.20 $64,406.40
Conductor $2,400.76 $4,801.52 $57,618.24
Brakeman $2,251.91 $4,503.82 $54,045.84
Switchman $1,644.29 $3,288.58 $39,462.96
Basic Guarantee Day
Days in Half Amount
13 $206.43
14 $191.69
15 $178.91
16 $167.73
Basic Daily Rates
The following basic daily rates were in
effect starting July 1, 2001. The
changes are due to the applied COLA.
Through Freight Rate $151.69
Local Freight Rate $152.25
5-day Yard Rate $161.74
Weekly
Legal Advice
STRAIGHT
TRACK, A HOEY, FARINA & DOWNES
NEWSLETTER
The
Diesel Exhaust Threat
James L. Farina, Partner
Hoey, Farina & Downes
info@felahfd.com
Tel Toll Free: 1-888-425-1212
Despite being widely known for a number
of years, the dangerous health effects of
diesel exhaust are only just beginning to
be acted upon by various industries. In
May, the Bush administration decided to
leave in place regulations proposed by
President Clinton that strengthened
diesel exhaust regulations in the mining
industry. On July 5, in support of the
regulations, the Labor Department
announced a new sampling program that
will determine the current levels of
diesel particles in that industry.
Of course, the health threat posed by
diesel exhaust is not limited to mine
workers. A recent claim we brought on
behalf of a trainman against his
railroader employer illustrates this
fact. After years on the job working in a
confined railroad control tower, the
trainman developed severe and completely
disabling lung and breathing
problems.
R E L A T E D
L I N K S
OSHA Report on Diesel
U.S. EPA:
Review of the National Ambient Air
Quality Standards for Particulate Matter:
Policy Assessment of Scientific and
Technical Information,
April 1996
American Lung Association
Natural Resources Defense Council
Health Effects Institute (HEI): Diesel
Emissions and Lung Cancer: Epidemiology
and Quantitative Risk Assessment, Report
of the Diesel Epidemiology Expert Panel.
June 1999. PDF files (9/16/99)
Full report/
Executive Summary
HEI: Diesel Exhaust: Critical Analysis of
Emissions, Exposure, and Health Effects.
April 1995. Executive Summary
Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease
Registry: Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbon
(PAH) Fact Sheet.
Sept 1996
National Institute for Occupational
Health and Safety: Carcinogenic Effects
of Exposure to Diesel Exhaust. 1988
EPA:
Health and Environmental Effects of
Particulate Matter Fact Sheet,
1999
Federal Judicial Center:
Reference Guide on Epidemiology
[Go to Publications /Evidence ]
Under the Federal Employers’
Liability Act (FELA), however, the
railroad is required to compensate only
for damages caused by its own negligence.
The trainman correctly believed that the
railroad had negligently exposed him
continuously for years to locomotive
diesel fumes, toxic chemicals, dust and
stagnant second-hand smoke in the
unventilated control tower where he
worked.
In fact, the Occupational Safety and
Health Organization (OSHA) agrees with
what the trainman full well knew:
railroad workers who are exposed to
diesel exhaust (as well as bridge and
tunnel workers, loading dock workers,
truck drivers, garage workers, farm
workers, and longshoring employees) face
adverse health effects ranging from
headaches to nausea to cancer and to
respiratory disease.
Studies have shown that exposed workers
have an elevated risk of lung cancer,
some evidence of risk of bladder cancer,
and workers also may experience
dizziness, drowsiness, headaches, nausea,
decrement of visual acuity, and decrement
in forced expiratory volume, according to
OSHA. Diesel exhaust has been implicated
as a cause of reactive airway disease,
and tests have shown it to be toxic,
mutagenic and carcinogenic.
According to the EPA, numerous studies
have linked diesel exhaust to cancer, the
exacerbation of asthma and other
respiratory diseases. Dozens more studies
link airborne fine particle
concentrations – such as those in
diesel exhaust – to increased
hospital admissions for respiratory
diseases, chronic obstructive lung
disease, pneumonia, heart disease and
death.[Read the EPA report]
Why Is Diesel Such A Threat?
The weight of scientific authority rests
with the causal finding that the tiny
particles present in diesel exhaust
penetrate deeply into the recesses of a
person's lungs (most diesel particles are
less than 1 micron in size; 1,000 microns
= 1 mm).
Simply put, once lodged deep in the
lungs, diesel particles tend to remain
there rather than being cleared from the
body, which causes them to be
particularly hazardous. In contrast,
larger particles are captured by the fine
hairs and mucus in the nose and throat
and are more quickly and easily cleared
from the body by sneezing, coughing, or
swallowing.
These super-small diesel exhaust
particles are particularly dangerous
because they are coated with a mixture of
chemicals such as polycyclic aromatic
hydrocarbons, nitroaromatics, benzene,
dioxins, and other toxicants.
Diesel engines spew out 100 times more
particles than gasoline engines for the
same load and engine conditions. Because
they are embedded so deeply in the lungs,
the diesel particles in effect lengthen a
railroader’s exposure to the
toxicants in diesel exhaust. For these
reasons, a February 1998 U.S. EPA draft
report indicated that even low level
exposure to diesel exhaust is likely to
pose a risk of lung cancer and
respiratory impairment.
OSHA estimates over one million workers
in America face these risks on a daily
basis. [Read the report]
Meanwhile, Back At The Control
Tower…
On our advice, the trainman challenged
the railroad for carelessly maintaining
the control tower, and negligently
failing to provide a safe working
environment.
After much legal maneuvering by the
railroad, and after an extensive
development of the trainman’s
medical file, we were able to positively
show that he develop a serious and
debilitating disease that caused great
pain and suffering, and caused him to
lose a significant portion of his working
life as a result of the railroad’s
failure to provide safe working
conditions.
The trainman recovered financially for
his injuries, but will never recover
physically. The real tragedy is that his
debilitating disease might have been
avoided if the steps now being taken in
the mining industry had been taken by the
railroads when awareness of the problem
first arose decades ago.
What You Can Do To Protect Yourself
Understanding the detrimental health
effects from diesel exhaust ought to be a
priority for anyone working on the
railroad. Experts recommend that if your
job causes you to have an increased
exposure to diesel exhaust, you should
consider implementing basic hygienic
precautions, including:
* Wear personal protective gear.
* Remove and wash your work clothes as
soon as you arrive home to prevent
contaminating your home with exhaust
particles.
* Don't eat while in areas of exhaust
exposure.
* If you are a smoker, quit
smoking.
* Discuss your concerns with the health
and safety officer at your site of
employment.
Understanding of the precise link between
diesel exhaust and pulmonary and other
diseases in railroaders is growing
stronger by the day. In turn, this will
lead to a work environment for
railroaders that better safeguards their
health, their livelihood, and the
well-being of their families.
William McMahon, HF&D summer
associate, contributed to the research
and writing of this article.
To contact Hoey, Farina & Downes:
Tel: 1-888-425-1212 or 312-939-1212
Fax: 312-939-7842
Email: info@felahfd.com
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