Pennsylvania AFL-CIO enacts remote control safety measure
CLEVELAND, January 14 -- The Pennsylvania AFL-CIO has enacted a safety resolution that seeks to prohibit the operation of remote control locomotives in the state until safety practices are improved.
The Pennsylvania AFL-CIO joins 11 other AFL-CIO State Federations that have adopted similar resolutions calling for improved remote control safety. The Pennsylvania resolution was unanimously approved on January 5.
The measure came at the urging Brother Ken Kertesz, Legislative Board Chairman of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen in Pennsylvania.
The resolution cites the “hasty, unregulated implementation” of remote control technology and condemns railroad companies for failing “to adopt the operational practices most critical for employee and public safety recommended by the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA).”
The resolution seeks to prohibit the use of remote control technology until a thorough risk assessment has been conducted by an third party; until the FRA issues enforceable remote control safety regulations; and until railroad companies in Pennsylvania give proper notice to all city, county, municipal and State Emergency Planning Committees of their remote control operations and specify the locations where those operations will take place.
“The Pennsylvania AFL-CIO went above and beyond the call of fraternalism when they unanimously endorsed this important safety resolution,” Brother Kertesz said. “I offer my most sincere and genuine thanks on behalf of all railroad men and women who work and live in Pennsylvania.”
The Pennsylvania AFL-CIO is the 12th state federation to enact a remote control safety resolution. The other 11 State Feds are: Arizona, Texas, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Missouri, North Dakota, Nebraska, Wisconsin, Georgia and Illinois.
A copy of the resolution is available on the BLET website as a PDF:
http://www.ble.org/pr/pdf/paaflcio.pdf
Wednesday, January 14, 2004
bentley@ble.org
