Brotherhood of Railroad Signalmen

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About the BRS

BRS Directories:

National
Negotiations

Contact Information:

917 Shenandoah
Shores Road
Front Royal, VA 22630

Phone (540) 622-6522
Fax (540) 622-6532

General Information:
signalman@brs.org

Web: tme@brs.org

Address changes:
membership@brs.org

Join our email list:
membership@brs.org

RRB Pays Initial Extended
Unemployment Benefits Authorized
by Recovery Act Legislation

The U.S. Railroad Retirement Board (RRB) began paying temporary extended unemployment benefits on June 30 authorized by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA).

Final FMLA Remedy

The Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) arbitration panel has issued an award favorable to Rail Labor, this time on the remedy awarded to claimants’ whose paid leave was improperly substituted by FMLA leave.

Certain BRS members may be entitled to receive one day’s pay for each vacation and/or personal leave day they were forced to use instead of FMLA leave.

The remedy is the conclusion to a five-year long battle waged against BNSF, CSXT, NS, and UPS by the BRS and 10 other unions.

Group Policy GA-23111 —
New Enrollment Forms

Forms for new enrollment have been updated to reflect the new monthly payment rates for the various Plans under Group Policy GA-23111. These new rates are effective June 1, 2009, and are a result of recent renewal negotiations between UnitedHealthcare and the Cooperating Railway Labor Organizations.

New Group Policy GA-23111 Form

Brother John Pichalski, Jr.

Brother John Pichalski, Jr., 55, was killed on the afternoon of May 11, 2009, when he was struck by a tractor-trailer.

Brother Pichalski was making repairs at a railroad crossing damaged by an accident earlier the same morning. The crossing sustained heavy damage when a truck destroyed most of the lights and the crossing arm while trying to make a turn.

Brother Pichalski was repairing the wiring on the damaged electrical panel when a tractor-trailer making a very sharp right turn off Big Oak Road onto Township Line Road in Middletown, Pennsylvania struck him. The driver of the truck, a 56-year old New Jersey resident, remembered seeing Brother Pichalski before he made the turn, but did not realize that he had hit him. The truck driver was stopped at the scene and taken in for routine drug testing, as required in a crash involving a fatality. The location of the accident — Big Oak and Township Line roads in Middletown, Pennsylvania has apparently been the scene of many other accidents.

Brother Pichalski had placed orange safety cones around the perimeter of the work zone and he was wearing all of the proper safety equipment. Several other CSX employees were working further down the tracks at Lower Makefield and did not see the accident.

Brother Pichalski, a member of Local 230, worked for CSX Transportation as a Signal Maintainer headquartered in Langhorne, Pennsylvania. He had almost 35 years of service at the time of his death.

To send condolences to the family —
www.brucecvanarsdalefuneralhome.com

Supplemental Sickness Benefit Plans
Frequently Asked Questions

The Railroad Employees National
Health and Welfare Plan Announces
Effort to Collect Dependent Social Security Numbers To Comply With New Federal Law

The Medicare Secondary Payer statute and regulations contain a series of rules for determining whether Medicare is the primary payer for a person who has both Medicare and other health coverage. In order to satisfy these regulations, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), the federal agency responsible for administering health-related programs, has implemented new reporting requirements.

Consequently, The Railroad Employees National Health and Welfare Plan (The Plan) is participating in an all-out effort to obtain Social Security Numbers (SSNs) for all covered dependents (wives, husbands and children) in order to achieve compliance with these new reporting requirements. In addition, the Medicare Health Insurance Claim Number (HICN) will also be required for any dependent eligible for Medicare.

In order to get this initiative underway, Railroad Enrollment Services will begin mailing information to those members identified with missing dependent SSNs and/or HICNs. The members identified with missing dependent information should provide this information through a special direct mailing in early June.

Outlined below is a brief summary that will be included in the instructions you will receive from Railroad Enrollment Services:

• If The Plan records do not show a SSN for any given dependent, you will be asked to provide all nine digits of the number. For information on how to obtain a Social Security Number for a newborn child or newly adopted child, visit http://www.ssa.gov/pubs/10120.html.

• If any dependent is Medicare eligible, Railroad Enrollment Services will ask you to provide all digits and/or characters of the HICN.

• By July 15, 2009, the Social Security Number Reporting Form must be signed, dated and returned to Railroad Enrollment Services at the address provided in the mailing.

Please be assured that when Railroad Enrollment Services transmits the SSNs and/or HICNs to CMS, they will maintain all physical, electronic, and procedural safeguards that comply with federal standards to guard your personal information. For additional information regarding the new CMS federal law pertaining to this requirement, visit http://www.cms.hhs.gov/MandatoryInsRep/.

The Plan greatly appreciates your support in providing this information.

Joseph Szabo —
Confirmed FRA Administrator

The Senate confirmed UTU Illinois State Legislative Director Joseph Szabo to be the 13th administrator of the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA).

An informal oath-of-office ceremony is scheduled for Tuesday, May 5, 2009. A more formal swearing-in ceremony will be held at a date to be announced.

The FRA, an agency in the U.S. Department of Transportation, was created to promote and enforce safety throughout the U.S. railroad system, consolidate federal financial support for rail transportation, and support research and development to benefit rail transportation for passengers, railroad employees and the general public.

All Members Covered
by the National Dental Plan

(Freight Railroad and Amtrak Employees)

Aetna National Dental Plan
Corrects Coordination of Benefits Policy

The change applies only where Aetna is the secondary payer and the primary payer is another plan.

An audit of the National Dental Plan late last year revealed that Aetna was administering the coordination of benefits (COB) provision incorrectly when it was the secondary payer and the primary payer was another plan. As a result, effective January 1, 2009, Aetna began applying the COB provisions as spelled out in the Plan SPD.

Before the error was discovered, Aetna had been paying 100% of its reasonable and customary rate, minus the amount paid by the primary policy. The correct method is for Aetna to pay the difference, if any, between the primary plan’s benefit and what Aetna would have paid if it had been primary. If the Aetna benefit is the same or less than the primary plan’s benefit, Aetna pays nothing, as provided for in the SPD.

This change does not apply where a husband and wife are both covered by the National Dental Plan.

FRA Calls for Help

While we have made outstanding progress together in improving the rate of safety-related accidents, injuries, and fatalities over the past decade, 2008 was one of the worst years for employee on-duty fatalities (other than train accident or highway-rail grade crossing fatalities), with 19. If we do not turn back this trend, we will shatter that record; a record that none of us will cherish. With only 3 months behind us in 2009, the industry has already witnessed seven fatalities in both the operating and non-operating crafts. That is why we are asking all rail employees for their help in reversing this trend.

Rail Safety Bill Summary

The Rail Safety Improvement Act of 2008, commonly referred to as the Rail Safety Bill, was signed into law last October. The new law is the most comprehensive rail safety legislation the industry has seen in more than three decades.

Rail Safety Bill Summary (.pdf)

CSXT Fails to Address Harassment and Intimidation

On January 16, 2009, The Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) issued a three page letter to Michael Ward, CSX Transportation’s (CSXT) President and Chief Executive. The letter is in reference to the Harassment and Intimidation Investigation Report dated March 2008.

The report is based on an extensive yearlong investigation of CSXT involving more than 70 formal complaints. Findings from the investigation revealed an atmosphere of harassment and intimidation that dissuaded CSXT employees from reporting their injuries and illnesses.

In the January 16 letter, the FRA told Ward that the agency's "comprehensive audit" of CSXT's accident/incident recordkeeping and reporting "revealed a number of regulatory violations, including the failure to report employee injuries." As for harassment and intimidation, the FRA said CSXT "was not acting in compliance" with existing federal regulations and its own promises to reform.

"It is clear that CSXT has failed to adequately address its culture of harassment and intimidation [and] the problems previously addressed have not yet been corrected," said the FRA.

Workers at the World's Largest
Meatpacking Plant Choose UFCW

Workers at Smithfield Packing in Tar Heel, North Carolina, chose union representation with the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union (UFCW). Workers voted 2041 to 1879 for a voice on the job.

When workers have a fair process, they choose a voice on the job, said UFCW Director of Organizing Pat O’Neill. This is a great victory for the Tar Heel workers. I know they are looking forward to sitting down at the bargaining table with Smithfield to negotiate a contract. The UFCW has constructive union contracts with Smithfield plants around the country. Those union contracts benefit workers, the company and the community. We believe the workers here in Tar Heel can achieve a similar agreement.

Ronnie Ann Simmons, a veteran of 13 years at the plant said, We are thrilled. This moment has been a long time coming. We stuck together, and now we have a say on the job.

Workers at 26 Smithfield-owned facilities around the country already have UFCW representation.

The UFCW represents more than 1.3 million members in the U.S. and Canada, including 250,000 workers in the poultry and meatpacking industries.

Union Victory in FMLA Arbitration

A three-person arbitration panel reached a unanimous decision that the nation’s four largest railroads, which control a large portion of U.S. intercity rail freight traffic, no longer may require employees to substitute paid vacation and/or paid personal leave for unpaid leave under the Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA).

The BRS and 11 other rail labor organizations challenged the carriers, who agreed in July to arbitrate the issue.

Under the FMLA, employees may elect to take up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave to deal with a family emergency, or a personal serious health condition.

The arbitration award becomes effective December 16, at which time the carriers must "immediately discontinue" the invalidated provisions of their FMLA policies.

There is also a provision allowing follow-up proceedings to determine a monetary remedy for those who have taken FMLA leave and had to substitute paid vacation or paid personal leave for this time-period.

Arbritation Board — Opinion and Award (FMLA)

National Health and Welfare Plan

The annual rate renewal meeting for the Railroad Employees National Health and Welfare Plan (the "Plan") was held on October 28, 2008, at which time premium rates for 2009 were established. Rail Labor, as a Joint Policyholder, participates in the annual rate-setting meeting on an equal footing with the railroads.

Rail Safety Bill Signed into Law by President

OCTOBER 16, 2008, WASHINGTON — President Bush signed into law the Rail Safety Improvement Act of 2008.

This is the most comprehensive rail safety bill in more than 30 years. The Senate passed the bill on October 1 by a 74-24 vote (Senator Barack Obama voted "yes," and Senator John McCain voted against the safety bill).

Major provisions of the Rail Safety Improvement Act

Benefit Improvements

The Brotherhood of Railroad Signalmen is pleased to announce that members covered by the 2007 National Freight Agreements will soon have a significant health insurance benefit improvement. Effective November 1, 2008, office visit co-pays for Nurse Practitioners, Physician’s Assistants, Physical Therapists and Chiropractors will be lowered from $35 to $20. In addition, a new supplemental discount program will soon be applied to charges for out-of-network services that should result in considerable participant savings.

UnitedHealthcare GA-23111
Open Enrollment

UnitedHealthcare will hold open enrollment under GA-23111 in November and December 2008. Individuals eligible for coverage under one of the GA-23111 plans will be accepted for coverage without any requirement of good health or limit for pre-existing conditions. Enrollment will be for coverage effective January 1, 2009. Only applicants who mail their completed enrollment forms in November or December 2008, will be considered for open enrollment. The next opportunity for open enrollment will be in November/December 2010.

IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT
from UnitedHealthcare — Open Enrollment