| The
United Transportation Union’s Illinois Legislative Board
The United Transportation
Union was founded in 1969 through amalgamation of four of the
nation’s oldest labor unions—the Order of Railway
Conductors, founded in 1868; the Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen
& Enginemen, dating from 1873; the Brotherhood of Railroad
Trainmen, dating from 1883; and the Switchmen’s Union of
North America, formed in 1894. The Railroad Yardmasters of America,
which was established in 1918, voted to affiliate with the UTU
in 1985.
Although each union
represented a different class of railroad worker, the founding
organizations shared a common set of goals that today’s
UTU still upholds: fair wages, essential benefits, and protection
of the health, safety and quality of life of America’s railroad
employees.
In the early years
the railroad unions pursued these goals through two strategies.
Strikes against the carriers gradually achieved higher wages and
shorter working hours. A strike by the ORC in 1907 led to the
first hours-of-service agreement, which limited railroad workers
to 16 hours on duty out of 24.
And fraternal insurance
programs run by the unions partially compensated rail workers
and their families for the alarmingly high rate of workplace deaths
and injuries that characterized the early rail industry. Boiler
explosions, derailments, collisions and switching accidents were
common, as were “railroad widows” and “railroad
orphans.” With death and injury rates so high that no private
insurance companies would cover rail workers, only the union insurance
programs protected these survivors against financial ruin.
As the struggles of
the early years began to pay off in larger paychecks and secure
retirement benefits established by the 1934 Railway Retirement
Act, the UTU’s predecessor unions began to balance dramatic
tactics such as strikes with more sophisticated and diversified
strategies.
Today’s UTU offers
its members four distinct yet coordinated departments: collective
bargaining to make sure workers are covered by a contract with
the employer; a legal department to enforce workers’ rights
under law; a fraternal insurance department that maintains family
financial security in time of need; and a legislative department
that mobilizes government to pass and enforce laws protecting
worker health, safety and rights.
The UTU has one of
the most extensive and effective legislative organizations in
the labor movement. National directors are located in Washington,
D.C., and Ottawa, Ontario, and each is assisted by a staff widely
respected for its professionalism in moving needed legislation
and blocking legislation hostile to the interests of working people.
In the U.S., 49 of the 50 states have their own UTU Legislative
Boards, each made up of local Legislative Representatives and
headed by a Director. The Canadian provinces have a similar structure,
except that each board is headed by a Chairperson.
Because rail transportation
is an industry with substantial operations in every state except
Hawaii, the UTU’s efficient interlocking of local, state
and federal legislative organizations enables the union to mount
broad, powerful, coordinated campaigns that reach virtually every
member of every legislature. Because of its “reach,”
as well as its professionalism, the UTU’s legislative organization
has become widely respected in the labor movement.
Among the federal laws
passed or amended because of UTU action are: the Railway Labor
Act, the Railroad Unemployment Insurance Act, the Railroad Retirement
Act, the Federal Employers’ Liability Act, and the Mass
Transportation Act. Additional legislation passed by the respective
state and provincial legislatures provides railroad employees
with many health, safety and economic safeguards not enjoyed by
employees of other industries, particularly those that lack union
shops.
Illinois is a major
center of UTU legislative activity because Illinois is one of
the busiest states in the North American railroad network and
has one of the largest populations of railroad employees. With
nearly 8,000 route-miles of track, the second-longest network
in the nation, Illinois is the only state or province served by
all four U.S. Class I carriers plus both of the Canadian Class
I roads. Those carriers interchange freight not only with one
another but with more than 50 short lines and switching railroads
in the state. Amtrak operates 50 trains a day through Illinois,
and the Metra system serving the six-county Chicago area is the
nation’s largest commuter rail operation outside of New
York.
Making sure the employees
of these railroads receive appropriate representation in state
government—and at the national level as well--is the responsibility
of the UTU’s Illinois Legislative Board. The Board is made
up of 38 Local Legislative Representatives, one from each UTU
Local in the state. The Board meets every four years to elect
a Director, an Assistant Director, and an Executive Committee
consisting of Chairman, Vice Chairman and Secretary. While the
Executive Committee establishes and monitors policy, the Director
is responsible for the day-to-day operations which implement the
policies established by the Committee.
State Legislative Director
Robert W. Guy and Assistant Legislative Director Robert Blomgren,
conduct an ongoing dialogue with members of the Illinois General
Assembly and the U.S. Congress. Meeting frequently with key legislators
and their aides, Guy and Blomgren make sure lawmakers understand
the needs of working railroaders and their families so that legislation
to protect union members can be turned into law. Guy and Blomgren
also use the Board’s Web site to familiarize members with
legislators’ voting records to assure election support for
lawmakers who support public policies that directly benefit railroad
workers.
The Illinois Legislative
Board also works closely with state and federal regulatory officials
to make sure that existing laws protecting railroad workers are
enforced.
For example, the Illinois
Administrative Code mandates that railroads must provide members
of train crews with clean and sanitary locker rooms in which to
change clothes, as well as to shower. When--as frequently happens--railroads
in Illinois fail to maintain their crew quarters according to
law, the Illinois Legislative Board gathers evidence and files
Formal Complaints that enable state regulators to fine railroads
and order them to bring their crew facilities into compliance.
This activity has led not only to the rehabilitation of many deteriorated
crew buildings but to the replacement of several older buildings
with totally new, modern facilities.
On the federal level,
the Illinois Legislative Board regularly files complaints with
the Federal Railroad Administration on issues such as Hours of
Service violations, carrier under-reporting of on duty injuries,
or railroad officials instructing crews to ignore safety regulations.
The Legislative Boards tracking, reporting and documenting of
such incidents has resulted in the FRA’s levying of numerous
fines against offending carriers.
Other activities of
the Illinois Legislative Board include working with state officials
to draft rules assuring that railroads maintain safe walking surfaces
for employees who work “on the ground” around moving
trains, and making sure that shuttle vans used to transport railroad
crew members to their assignments are maintained in a safe mechanical
condition and operated safely by their drivers.
Despite substantial
progress over the years, railroading remains one of the nation’s
more hazardous occupations. The dramatic days of massive labor
walkouts and railroad shutdowns may have faded from the American
landscape, but the struggle for workplace safety, workplace cleanliness
and worker dignity goes on behind the scenes. In the offices of
state and federal elected officials and in the administrative
chambers of the state and federal governments, the staff of the
UTU Illinois Legislative Board strives daily to secure the full
protection of the law for its 10,000 members and the families
who depend on them for their fair share of the American dream.
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