Archive for August 2020
26 BLET families win Hoffa scholarships for 2020-21 school year, including five $10,000 winners
INDEPENDENCE, Ohio, August 24 — Twenty-six BLET families have been awarded scholarships by the James R. Hoffa Memorial Scholarship Fund for the 2020-21 school year, including five $10,000 scholarship winners. The $10,000 awards are the highest honor bestowed by the Hoffa Scholarship Fund. There were five scholarships awarded in the $10,000 category:• Kaedon D. Tuomela,…
Read MoreLabor, passenger group asks STB to issue injunction in Metra-UP dispute
(Source: Progressive Railroading 08/21/2020) A coalition of labor and passenger-rail groups has written to the Surface Transportation Board (STB) in support of Metra‘s request for an injunction to require Union Pacific Railroad to continue operating commuter-rail service on three Chicago-area rail lines. Filed Aug. 18, the coalition’s statement notes that the STB determined earlier this month it would not rule on Metra’s…
Read MoreRail bosses tighten the screws on workers, representatives
CLEVELAND, Ohio, August 21, 2020 — As freight rail traffic levels rebound strongly from the economic slowdown caused by the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, railroad management has unleashed an unprecedented barrage of measures to manipulate recalls from furloughs, make already draconian attendance policies even more punitive, and interfere with union representatives who fight to protect their…
Read MoreClass I workforce continued to shrink in July
(Source: Progressive Railroading 08/20/2020) Class Is employed 117,230 people as of mid-July, down 0.95 percent from June and down 16.68 percent from July 2019 levels, according to Surface Transportation Board data. Five out of six employment categories logged month-to-month decreases. They were: maintenance of way and stores, down 2.18 percent to 19,550 employees; maintenance of way and…
Read MoreU.S. freight-rail intermodal volume inches up for second straight week
(Source: Progressive Railroading 08/20/2020) For a second consecutive week, U.S. railroads reported an increase in intermodal volume — a small bright spot in the nation’s still-declining freight-rail traffic compared with year-ago figures, according to Association of American Railroads (AAR) data. The railroads posted 278,210 containers and trailers for the week ending Aug. 15, a 1.9 percent increase…
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