Labor Community Rallies On October 6 For Beaten and Arrested ILWU Local 10 Members in Yolo County House Courthouse
A hundred ILWU Local 10 longshoremen, officers and other labor and community supporters were in Woodland at the Yolo County Courthouse on October 6, 2008 to protest the trial of Jason Ruffin and Aaron Harrison, two members who had been beaten and arrested on the docks of Sacramento. In August of 2007, after returning from lunch they were pulled out of their car by Yolo County police, maced and arrested for trespassing and resisting arrest.
After organizing a support campaign, the district attorney was forced to drop the charge of "trespassing" but they continue to press charges of resisting arrest against the two longshore workers. The absurdity of continuing this trial while the basis for the arrest in the first place has not missed the eye of legal experts and longshoremen alike.
The rally was chaired by ILWU Local 10 Business Agent Trent Willis and ILWU members attended from Locals 34, 17, 6 and the IBU-ILWU. ILWU Local 10 Executive Board member Clarence Thomas led off the rally and called for building support within the labor movement for the case and pointed out that ILWU Local 10 had strong history of solidarity actions including the May Day walkout against the war and repression against working people.

UK RMT Scotland Rail strike suspended after talks
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/scotland/7657523.stm
Page last updated at 22:17 GMT, Wednesday, 8 October 2008 23:17 UK
Rail strike suspended after talks
Rail journeys across the country were severely disrupted by the strike
A second 24-hour Scottish rail strike due to start at midday on Thursday has been suspended.
Following a nine-hour meeting with Network Rail and the conciliation body Acas, the Rail Maritime and Transport (RMT) union suspended the walkout.
An RMT spokesman said progress had been made and the union's executive would consider a full report before making a statement later in the week.
A total of 450 signal workers were due to take part in the strike action.
A 24-hour walkout on Tuesday severely disrupted rail services and caused traffic chaos throughout Scotland.
The row centres on rota changes and compulsory safety assessments.
We are pleased that strike action has been suspended and will continue to seek a negotiated resolution to this dispute
Network Rail
The RMT insists employers have failed to move on its demand to stop last-minute changes to rotas. Network Rail said it had made concessions on that issue but safety assessments remained the sticking point.

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-metrolink9-2008oct09,0,5017595.story
Freight railroads pledge to install advanced safety measures by 2012
Burlington Northern Santa Fe and Union Pacific, which share tracks with Metrolink, say the system's complexity may prevent a complete rollout by that date, however.
By Jennifer Oldham, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
6:47 PM PDT, October 8, 2008
Two freight railroads that share track with Metrolink commuter trains pledged Wednesday to install advanced safety measures in Southern California three years sooner than a new federal law would require -- with several caveats.
Burlington Northern Santa Fe and Union Pacific executives, who called U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) earlier this week to inform her of their decision, said the system's complexity may prevent a complete rollout by 2012.
Feinstein announced the agreement in Van Nuys during a state Senate hearing on rail safety called after the Sept. 12 head-on collision of a Metrolink train and a Union Pacific freight train that killed 25 people and injured 135.
"If [the safety system known as] positive train control had been in place on Metrolink on Sept. 12, I believe 25 people would still be alive today," Feinstein said.

United Airlines to lay off 414 at SFO-IBT Says "Its Another Low"
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/10/08/BUPH13D6Q6.DTL
United Airlines to lay off 414 at SFO
George Raine, Chronicle Staff Writer
Wednesday, October 8, 2008
United Airlines has told the union that represents its mechanics at San Francisco International Airport that it will lay off as many as 414 workers beginning Dec. 7, as part of its efforts to contain costs.
The workers will be shed in what is the second round of layoffs announced this year. The first round ended Friday, during which time 137 workers departed with an involuntary furlough, with recall rights, said Paul Molenberg, business agent for Teamsters Local 856 in San Bruno, one of two locals representing approximately 3,000 mechanics at the United Airlines Maintenance Facility at San Francisco International Airport.
United said in a statement released Tuesday: "As we reduce the size of our fleet and take actions companywide to enable United to compete in this challenging economic environment, we must take the difficult but necessary step to reduce the number of people we have to run our business."
The layoffs are part of the "ongoing effort to size the company appropriately," said United spokeswoman Robin Urbanski.

http://railroadworkersunited.org/metrolink-crash-–-metrolink-crash:-opportunity-make-real-safety-improvements
The Metrolink Crash: An Opportunity to Make Real Safety Improvements
September 23, 2008
The recent crash of a Metrolink commuter train and a
Union Pacific Freight train should provide the impetus to make real
safety improvements which would reduce or eliminate the possibility of
such tragic wrecks in the future. More than two dozen people died,
including the engineer of the Metrolink train, and scores -- including
the crew of the freight train -- were injured, many critically.
The emerging, premature consensus over the following week was that the
engineer of the Metrolink train was preoccupied, texting and receiving
cell phone messages, when he should have been observing wayside signals
that would have informed him of the need to safely bring his train to a
stop. Wasting no time, the California Public Utilities Commission voted
to ban the use of a cell phone device while operating a locomotive. We
can expect such a law to become national in scope in the coming months.
But we miss the point – and the opportunity to create a safer railroad –

Bullish Union Busting Bosses Blamed For LA Train Wreck
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/10/03/BA9M13AMSM.DTL
Attorneys blame company in deadly train crash
Sue Doyle, Los Angeles Daily News
Friday, October 3, 2008
(10-03) 04:00 PDT Simi Valley, Ventura County -- Warning grieving families and injured passengers still reeling from last month's deadly Metrolink train crash to think about the future, attorneys are laying the groundwork for litigation stemming from the head-on collision that killed 25 people.
At two town-hall meetings Tuesday inside a Simi Valley hotel, lawyers spoke for two hours about a bullish corporate culture fueling the operator of Southern California's commuter rail system that they say leads to unsafe practices.
Metrolink officials knowingly send out trains with mechanical defects and encourage engineers to exceed speed limits and fudge record-keeping, all to avoid being late and reap lucrative financial bonuses for arriving on time, the attorneys said.
"Their chief concern is not what it should be," attorney R. Edward Pfiester Jr. said. "And that's the safety of their passengers."
His Los Angeles-based law firm, which set up public meetings Tuesday and Saturday, has represented people from Metrolink train crashes in Placentia in 2002 and Glendale in 2005.

Workers Liberty
http://www.workersliberty.org/story/2008/09/24/solidarity-3139.
Acid test for RMT as
key activist victimised
Tubeworkers: under pressure
Andy Littlechild, a well-known
local rep at Lillie Bridge and
activist on the “company council”
— the top relevant union body — was
suspended by the infrastructure company
Metronet on Tuesday 16 September, on
trumped-up charges.
The London Underground Engineering
and Fleet branches, and the RMT union
executive, have voted to ballot Metronet
workers for strike action. If Metronet is
allowed to get away with this, every union
rep across the network will be in danger.
The workers whom Andy directly works
with are reported as being very solid in
their determination to stop the victimisa-
tion. Success will depend on making sure
all workers across Metronet know the
issues. Leaflets are already being distrib-
uted to workplaces by reps and activists.
The spark was a local manager ’s arbi-
trary insistence on workers wearing hard
hats at all times. Andy was working on a
job with an agreed risk assessment not call-
ing for hard hats.
The manager wrote a new risk assess-

ILWU Local 10 Rally October 6th at Yolo County Courthouse Near Sacramento
Defend Local 10 Members Jason Ruffin and Aaron Harrison Beaten and
Arrested By Police.
Stop Racial Profiling! Drop The Bogus Charges!
6:00 AM: Buses leave ILWU Local 10 (400 North Point St. by Fisherman's Wharf).
8:00 AM: Rally in Woodland (near Sacramento)
On October 6, 2008 at the Yolo County Courthouse two ILWU Local 10
longshoremen, Jason Ruffin and Aaron Harrison, will go on trial. These
two brothers were beaten and arrested by police while returning to
work after lunch in the port of Sacramento on August 23, 2007. When
port security guards demanded they open the car trunk to be searched,
they called their union business agent to find out what their rights
are. New repressive (MARSEC) maritime security regulations was cited
in the assault, handcuffing, macing and arrest the two black union
members. They were initially charged with "trespassing" and "resisting
arrest". The "trespassing" charge was dropped. The video shows that
they did nothing wrong.
Sacramento police have a record of racist attacks on African American
and Mexican American youth. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU)

US Boss Labor Board Limits Political Strikes
http://labornotes.org/node/1921
Labor Board Limits Political Strikes
— Robert Schwartz
The massive immigrants rights marches in May 2006 may have been the largest political strike in U.S. history. Many were fired afterwards, and now the National Labor Relations Board’s general counsel says that’s OK. Photo: Jim West
An overlooked order by the Labor Board’s lead lawyer this summer dealt a serious blow to the rights of U.S. workers to protest government policies.
On May Day 2006, hundreds of thousands of immigrant workers walked off their jobs to protest restrictive immigration legislation. Some were fired, and brought complaints to the board. Ronald Meisburg, the National Labor Relations Board general counsel, responded by posting a directive on “political advocacy” this July that enables bosses to immediately fire employees who participate in work stoppages of a political nature.
The directive, as yet apparently unnoticed by both unions and labor lawyers, cannot be appealed.
Traditionally, workers around the world have used two kinds of walkouts to achieve their goals, economic strikes over workplace issues and political strikes directed at government policies.

http://www.itfglobal.org/news-online/index.cfm/newsdetail/2615
ILWU dockers back striking crew
26 September 2008
view larger image
Crew members on the Liberian flagged Cap Spencer were able to call off a strike in Long Beach this week after winning all their demands with the help of local dockworkers.
The crew contacted ITF inspector Stefan Mueller-Dombois, asking for help with wages and working conditions problems. As requested, he put them in touch with the authorities and also alerted fellow ILWU members that there were problems onboard.
Unable to resolve their problems the crew called a strike on Tuesday, which they announced by holding up notices saying ‘On Strike’ and ‘Low Wages and Conditions’. The dockers offloading the ship recognised these as a legitimate picket line, ceased operations and disembarked the vessel. Later that day with the ITF and ILWU’s help the crew were able to secure back wages, letters of indemnity and an ITF-approved Verdi agreement.
ILWU International Affairs Director Ray Familathe commented: "This sends a clear message that ILWU dockworkers support the efforts of seafarers to join unions and better their working conditions."

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-metrolink27-2008sep27,0,872717.story
Metrolink adds second engineer to some trains
Relief engineers will ride shotgun on some routes, in a move intended as an interim safety measure.
By Jeff Gottlieb, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
2:55 PM PDT, September 26, 2008
Under pressure to take safety measures, the Metrolink commuter rail agency has begun adding a second engineer to some of its trains.
Chief Executive David R. Solow, made the announcement today at a meeting of Metrolink's Board of Directors.
Remembering the victims of the...
Full coverage of Metrolink crash
He said the engineers will come from a pool of employees used to replace engineers who are on vacation, sick or out on training. Previously, when those members of the "extra board" were not running trains, they performed administrative work or collected fares.
The number of them riding shotgun will change each day, Solow said, depending on how many already are filling in as engineers.
"It's just an interim measure until we can find something permanent," he said in an interview.
There are 10 to 15 relief engineers a day, Solow said, and it is unknown how many will be available. They will be posted on routes near where they are permanently assigned.

Oak Harbor Freight Lines IBT 839 truckers protest at anti-labor policies at Pasco terminal
http://www.tri-cityherald.com/915/story/327491.html?mi_email=Tri-City Herald_PM+&+Breaking+News
Thursday, Sep. 25, 2008
Oak Harbor Freight Lines truckers protest at Pasco terminal
By Pratik Joshi, Herald staff writer
John Curtis drives trucks for Oak Harbor Freight Lines, but on Wednesday he wasn't behind the wheel.
The 16-year employee of the Auburn-based company was picketing with six other employees at the company's freight terminal in Pasco to protest what he called the anti-labor practices of Oak Harbor.
Pasco terminal workers, who are members of Teamsters Local 839, stopped work Monday night after the union and the company failed to reach agreement on medical benefits during contract negotiation talks. More than 500 union workers -- out of a companywide work force of 1,300 -- walked off the job in Washington, Oregon and Idaho.
This is the first strike in the privately owned company, which was started in 1916, and also has freight terminals in California and Nevada.
Oak Harbor wants workers to enroll in a company-sponsored medical plan and make them pay for it. Workers want to stick with the Teamsters medical plan. The company's proposal also will make it difficult for retired workers to get health benefits, workers say.

http://www.sacbee.com/101/story/1264325.html
RT refuses to release probe in worker's death
By Tony Bizjak - tbizjak@sacbee.com
Published 12:00 am PDT Thursday, September 25, 2008
Two months after a Sacramento Regional Transit maintenance worker was killed by a light-rail train, the cause remains a mystery to the employee's frustrated widow.
Forty-year-old Troy Schafer was walking on the tracks in North Sacramento, grease gun in hand, lubricating rails when the train struck him from behind.
Regional Transit investigated the fatality – including conducting a re-enactment – but officials refuse to disclose what they say are preliminary findings.
"We're not willing to release it yet," RT chief operating officer Mark Lonergan said this week.
RT officials say they first want to see what the California Public Utilities Commission determines in its own assessment of the incident. The California Occupational Safety and Health Administration is conducting a separate investigation.
The Bee has filed a Public Records Act request for RT's crash report.
Donna Schafer said agency officials were vague when they spoke to her this week about her husband's death.
She said she has seen the report, but said it doesn't have much detail, and does not contain a conclusion on what caused the crash. It says the operator didn't see her husband, she said, but doesn't say why.

LA Metrolink Bosses Avoided Unionization By Massive Contracting Out Of Jobs And Services
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-metrolink20-2008sep20,0,7639167,full.story
Metrolink runs on shoestring budget in complex environment
Many services are contracted out and more than half its track is shared with freight trains. Even some board members say they lack expertise on some of the problems the system faces.
By Steve Hymon, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
7:52 PM PDT, September 19, 2008
The commuter rail service known as Metrolink -- Southern California's only true regional mass transit carrier -- gets little money and even less political respect.
It is guided by a part-time board weighted with officials from small cities across five counties, which chip in to cover Metrolink's expenses and connect their local transit networks.
Unlike the larger Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which has billions of dollars to run light rail lines, a subway and buses across Los Angeles County, Metrolink operates on a relative shoestring.
The agency has about 200 employees -- the MTA has more than 9,000 -- but hundreds more work for subcontractors. To save money Metrolink contracts for items as varied as uniforms and internal audits as well as its train engineer and maintenance staffs.

Stand Up For ILWU 10 Members Jason Ruffin and Aaron Harrison
Drop The Bogus Charges Now!
On October 6, 2008 in Woodland, California, Yolo County Courthouse two young Local 10 ILWU Black longshoremen, Jason Ruffin and Aaron Harrison, will go on trial. On August 23, 2007, these two unionists were beaten and arrested while calling their union business agent to find out what rights they have on the docks. Although they had already been on the docks prior to lunch the police used the increased repressive (MARSEC) maritime security regulations to assault these union members. They were initially charged with "trespassing" and "resisting arrest" but the "trespassing" charge was dropped. The video shows that they did nothing wrong.
The Sacramento police and Yolo County sheriff's department have a record of racist attacks on African American and Mexican American youth. They recently ordered a court room closed on a murder case to prevent the family and public to attend the hearings. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is defending these youth against unconstitutional police measures. The defense of these unionists is critical not just for them, their families and ILWU but all transport workers and all organized labor and working people. Transportation workers face the brunt of this repressive legislation including the TWIC cards which are now being used to fire workers who have past criminal records and to target port truckers, many of whom are immigrants.

Overworked Rail Workers Causes Fatigue: Probe looks at whether Metrolink engineer's split shift played part in deadly crash
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-trainfatigue18-2008sep18,0,6972242.story
Probe looks at whether Metrolink engineer's split shift played part in deadly crash
Robert Sanchez began work Friday before dawn, took a midday break and was supposed to have finished at 9 p.m. Experts say such schedules can lead to fatigue, and thereby threaten safety.
By Dan Weikel, Rich Connell and Robert J. Lopez, Los Angeles Times Staff Writers
September 18, 2008
Federal investigators are trying to determine whether back-to-back, split-shift workdays that began before dawn and ended at 9 p.m. played a role in a Metrolink engineer's failure to heed warning lights in last week's crash that left 25 people dead.
Engineer Robert M. Sanchez's regular five-day workweek was spread over nearly 53 hours, according to authorities. He would have been near the end of that schedule Friday afternoon when his train sped through a red light and collided head-on with a Union Pacific freight train.
Robert Sanchez's split shift
Train's engineer received, sent text...
Metrolink engineer sent, got text messages on day of crash, investigators say

3500 UK London bus strikes’ carnival atmosphere creating "mobile strikers’ karaoke"
http://www.socialistworker.co.uk/art.php?id=15990
Posted: 6.05pm Tuesday 16 September 2008
News
London bus strikes’ carnival atmosphere
Bus workers at the Metrobus garage in Orpington joined the pay strikes on Friday of last week (Pic: » Guy Smallman)
by Esme Choonara
Around 3,500 striking London bus workers brought many garages and routes to a standstill on Friday of last week.
Workers in the Unite union employed by First struck for two days – their second strike over pay in a fortnight. They were joined on the first day by 1,000 Unite members at Metrobus.
There were pickets of up to 100 drivers at every striking garage. Strikers brought flags, gazebos and barbecues to create a carnival atmosphere.
Some First reps even toured the picket lines with a loundhailer and music – creating a mobile strikers’ karaoke.
The hoots and waves of support from passing drivers employed by other companies gave a sense of the growing mood over pay on the buses.
At every garage workers spoke about how their pay has fallen behind rising prices. Many drivers said they are forced to pay essential bills with credit cards each month.

http://www.chieftain.com/articles/2008/09/12/news/region/doc48ca294068117658549405.txt
Published: September 12, 2008 03:01 am | No comments posted.
Font Size:
Fired school-bus driver files lawsuit
Lawyers for a Salida man claim he was discharged in violation of the Constitution and state law.
By ROBERT BOCZKIEWICZ
THE PUEBLO CHIEFTAIN
DENVER - Attorneys for the Colorado Education Association are representing a fired Salida school bus driver in a newly filed lawsuit against Salida School District R-32-J.
The lawsuit alleges Superintendent John Rouse violated state law and the Constitution by firing Marshal Dyer because of his union efforts on behalf of the district's bus drivers.
Dyer's lawsuit describes what Dyer contends was a history of hostility from Rouse directed at the Salida Educational Support Professionals Association, an employees' union. The professional association is affiliated with the state education association, another union organization.
Dyer alleges Rouse's anti-union hostility was a key factor when the superintendent fired him on Jan. 18.
The lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court in Denver. The defendants are the district and Rouse. The lawsuit claims Dyer's firing violated his First Amendment constitutional right of association because the firing allegedly was "in retaliation for his advocacy of classified staff employees in the district."

http://www.tcrc295.com/Sept_16_2008.htm
Controls to curb rail crashes may be years off
Published: September 16, 2008
Source: Associated Press
Printer friendly version
LOS ANGELES — Federal officials said Monday that it could take five years or more to put an early-warning system in place across the country to prevent the kind of rail collision that killed 25 people here Friday and left more than 130 injured.
The accident, a head-on rush-hour collision between a Union Pacific freight train and a Metrolink commuter train in the San Fernando Valley, has revived demands for “positive train control.”
That is a catch-all term for systems that use satellites, transponders and other devices to track trains and automatically stop them if they ignore red lights or encounter other trouble. Those systems are in limited use, on 240 miles of track including high-speed sections of Amtrak’s Northeast Corridor, and are undergoing tests on an additional 2,600 miles of track in 16 states.
Metrolink said it used an automatic emergency braking system on a high-speed section of its tracks in suburban southern Orange County, but not on the segment where the crash occurred.

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-airport17-2008sep17,0,2890638,full.story
LAX workers seek better pay and benefits
Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times
Nicholas Gonzales waits for a passenger at LAX. Wheelchair attendants can receive videotaped instructions and on-the-job training, but some say the training isn’t sufficient.
Union leaders say pressing demands has risks, but they are optimistic despite the economic downturn.
By Dan Weikel, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
September 17, 2008
As a baggage runner and low-level security official, Maria Romero has worked for three years in the army of blue-collar functionaries who help keep the airlines operating at Los Angeles International Airport.
The 41-year-old mother of three says she earns $11.25 an hour, searching aircraft cabins and lugging passenger bags from screening checkpoints to ticket counters at the Tom Bradley International Terminal.
But Romero can't afford health insurance, and like many of the other ID checkers and aircraft cabin searchers at LAX, she says she has not been formally trained in emergency procedures or in how to recognize suspicious items and fake driver's licenses.
Romero is one of thousands of workers at LAX seeking more pay, health benefits and training from contractors who supply the airlines with janitors, security workers, baggage runners, aircraft cabin cleaners and attendants for passengers with disabilities.