Transport Workers Solidarity Committee

http://www.asahi.com/english/Herald-asahi/TKY200912050155.html

No charges again for ex-JR West chiefs
THE ASAHI SHIMBUN

2009/12/5PrintShare Article
KOBE--Prosecutors on Friday decided for the second time not to indict three former West Japan Railway Co. presidents over the April 2005 train derailment that killed 107 people.

Prosecutors said Masataka Ide, Shojiro Nanya and Takeshi Kakiuchi were not aware of the dangers of the curve on the JR Takarazuka Line where the accident took place.

However, the three will be forcibly indicted by a court-designated lawyer if eight or more members of an 11-member inquest committee decide they should be indicted.

The panel concluded in October that the three should be charged with professional negligence resulting in death and injury on the grounds that they failed to order the installation of a new automatic train stop system.(IHT/Asahi: December 5,2009)

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2009/dec2009/mbta-d04.shtml

Boston mass transit system report exposes widespread safety dangers
By John Marion
4 December 2009
A report on greater Boston’s public transportation agency—the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA)—details the near bankruptcy of the system and the dangerous effects of inadequate budget on safety and service. The review was ordered by Governor Deval Patrick and released November 1.
David D’Alessandro, the report’s author, made headlines upon its release by stating that sections of the subway are so in need of repair—the tracks are separating from the underlying concrete slabs—that he would not ride on them out of fear of derailment.
The MBTA, or the “T,” is the fifth-largest mass transit system in the US, measured by ridership. Each day hundreds of thousands of working people from more than 150 communities use its 187 bus routes, four subway lines and 14 commuter rail lines. According to the MBTA Advisory Board, 73 percent of Massachusetts residents live in the cities and towns served by the T.
Greater Boston’s public transportation system—in the form of rail lines, streetcars, elevated rails and subways—is also one of the nation’s oldest. Some commuter rail lines date to the early 19th century. Streetcar congestion in downtown Boston led to the establishment of subways. What was once the Tremont Street Subway, which opened on September 1, 1897 in downtown Boston, is the oldest stretch of subway operating in North America.

LA Metrolink engineers union sues to block surveillance cameras in locomotives
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2009/10/the-union-representing-metrolink-engineers-today-filed-a-federal-lawsuit-to-halt-the-video-surveillance-systems-recently-inst.html

Metrolink engineers union sues to block surveillance cameras in locomotives
October 20, 2009 | 12:33 pm

The union representing Metrolink engineers today filed a federal lawsuit to halt the video-surveillance systems recently installed in all of the commuter rail line’s locomotives.

Metrolink installed cameras as a direct response to the deadly 2008 Metrolink crash in Chatsworththat killed 25 people and apparently involved an engineer who earlier had been text messaging on his cellphone.

Metrolink officials said the purpose of the video recording, which cost $1 million to install in all locomotives, was to ensure that engineers adhered to agency bans on cellphones, text messaging and allowing unauthorized passengers in the cab.

However, Paul T. Sorrow, acting president of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen, called the cameras an “invasion of privacy" that violated federal law as well as the terms of the union’s contract with Metrolink.

Solidarity With BART ATU1555 Worker: TWSC Backs BART ATU 1555 Members-Your Fight Is Our Fight

The decision of the the BART members of ATU 1555 to strike to protest an imposed contract and major economic, work and benefits is not just about BART ATU members. Using the pretext of the economic crisis, management and employers are using this to weaken and destroy the organized labor movement. Once accepting concessions where does the treadmill end. At the same time the managers are making a killing and have even recruited some former union officials to represent them.

The coordinated attack on public workers and their pensions in California and nationally is not a mistake or accident but is the plan of every union buster in the country.

All transportation workers in California need to support the picket lines and invite strikers to your union meeting to get support from your local.

Also if any movement is made to break the strike with police and national guard we have to take action like that that was taken 75 years ago. The murder of two longshore/maritime strikers were murdered and the city ws shutdown as 80,000 workers marched down Market St.

Now is the time to throw these concession contracts back in the face of management. BART WORKERS FIGHT IS OUR FIGHT!

YouTube - UK RMT Bob Crow on London Underground Strike (new edit): 10.6.09 RMTV
Bob Crow on London Underground Strike (new edit): 10.6.09 RMTV
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wm2gHGV5W3Q&feature=channel_page

RMT members on London Underground walked out on 48-Hour strike on June 9, 2009 in protest at compulsory redundancies and an unfair pay offer. Union general secretary Bob Crow talks about the dispute. www.rmt.org.uk

YouTube - RMT Annual General Meeting 2008
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B2U1xZAM7VI&NR=1

, 2008
(less info)
Keynote speeches from lead officers and fraternal guests at the Annual General Meeting of the RMT union, held at Nottingham, England in June 2008.

Speakers:

John Leach, RMT President (0:06)
Gerry Doherty, TSSA (1:16)
Ramdan Abdel-Hameed El-Gendy, Egyptian Railway Workers Union (2:48)
Leif Sande, Industry Energy, Norway (3:34)
Joe O' Flynn, SIPTU, Ireland (4:25)
Puspawarman Dan, Indonesian Railway Workers Union (5:48)
David Cameron, Teamsters, USA (6:34)
Ion Radoi, Metro Workers Federation, Romania (7:08)
Bob Crow, RMT General Secretary (7:51)

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/12/business/worldbusiness/12trams.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=streetcar&st=cse&oref=slogin

November 12, 2008
European Tram Makers to Gain From U.S. Streetcar Push

By JOHN TAGLIABUE
PARIS — America may have invented the streetcar, but Europe perfected it.

As gas prices soared and dozens of North American communities sought to reintroduce electric streetcars as an alternative to diesel buses, Europe’s tram builders were some of the biggest beneficiaries.

Now, as the administration of President-elect Barack Obama contemplates an infrastructure expansion to keep Americans working through a severe slowdown, trams may be one of the building blocks of economic revival and energy efficiency.

“Trams were invented by the Americans,” said Jean-Noël Debroise, vice president for product planning at Alstom, the French streetcar builder that is selling its sleek Citadis tram to cities like Houston and Toronto. “It’s a big market,” he said.

European companies like Alstom, Siemens of Germany, AnsaldoBreda of Italy, CAF of Spain and Skoda of the Czech Republic will be at the head of the line. They, along with non-European companies like Bombardier of Canada and Kinki Sharyo of Japan, are among the leading suppliers of streetcars, which are also known as light rail vehicles.

LA MTA may have to cut commuter service due to AIG bankruptcy and privatization schemes
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-transit18-2008oct18,0,3698748.story

MTA may have to cut commuter service
It may not be able to keep trains and buses running if it has to quickly pay investors in AIG-related lease-back deals.
By Steve Hymon and Martin Zimmerman
Los Angeles Times Staff Writers

October 18, 2008

The next potential victims of the nation's credit crunch: nearly 1.5 million people who ride buses and trains each weekday in Los Angeles County. Transit officials say riders could soon be facing serious service cuts.

That's because the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority might have to quickly come up with hundreds of millions of dollars to pay investors under terms of deals it made involving American International Group, the troubled financial and insurance giant.

"I've lost a lot of sleep over this," said Terry Matsumoto, the chief financial service officer and treasurer for the MTA. He said it was "absolutely" certain the agency would have to cut service if the deals sour.

The problem, Matsumoto said, could extend beyond the MTA to other large transit agencies that entered into similar deals between the late 1980s and 2003, when tax laws were changed to discourage such transactions. Among those is Metrolink.

BART train kills SEIU 1021 inspector on tracks in Concord
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/10/15/BA2V13GOTJ.DTL

BART train kills worker on tracks in Concord
Rachel Gordon, Demian Bulwa,Carolyn Jones, Chronicle Staff Writers
Wednesday, October 15, 2008

(10-14) 15:49 PDT Concord -- Three agencies are trying to determine why a BART inspector walking on tracks in Concord was fatally struck from behind by a train that normally would have been traveling on the opposite track.

At the time of the accident Tuesday between the Concord and Pleasant Hill stations, BART had assigned trains headed in opposite directions on the San Francisco and Pittsburg/Bay Point lines to a shared track. The regular track for trains headed eastbound was closed for routine maintenance, said BART spokesman Linton Johnson.

The BART inspector, 44-year-old James Richard Strickland of Concord, was walking on the active track when he was hit by a train carrying passengers about 9:30 a.m.

"Under normal circumstances, the train would have been coming at him, not behind him," Johnson said.

"The train operator heard a thud and immediately stopped the train," Johnson said. As is routine, the operator was tested for drugs and alcohol and placed on paid administrative leave while the investigations continue.

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.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.