BLET acts to halt video surveillance
CLEVELAND, October 20 — The Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen (BLET) has taken legal action in State and Federal Court in California to halt Metrolink’s illegal audio and video surveillance of its members inside locomotive cabs.
“While cell phone use is alleged to have contributed to the fatal Metrolink collision of September 12, 2008, installing video cameras inside the locomotive cabs is an invasion of privacy,” said Paul T. Sorrow, Acting President of the BLET. “In fact, video cameras in the cab are an ineffective deterrent to cell phone use and there are far less intrusive and less expensive measures readily available that actually would prevent such use to accomplish Metrolink’s purported goal of improving safety.”
Instead of video cameras, the union is proposing a cell phone jamming system that blocks all incoming and outgoing cell phone calls and texts, and can alert others of the attempted cell phone use from the locomotive cab.
On October 16, the union filed a multiple count complaint in the U.S. District Court for California’s Central Division, and another multiple count complaint in the Superior Court of California, County of Los Angeles. Named in the suits are Metrolink parent, the Southern California Regional Rail Authority (SCRRA), and Metrolink, along with Veolia Transportation, Inc., and its subsidiary, Connex Railroad, LLC, which provides operating crews for Metrolink commuter rail service.
The Federal lawsuit charges the installation of video cameras inside locomotive cabs violates the Railway Labor Act. The cameras were installed in violation of the railroad’s collective bargaining agreement with the BLET.
SCRRA/Metrolink and Veolia/Connex failed to meet, confer and bargain in good faith over the installation of the cameras, or to discuss the potential use/abuse of recorded video images and audio sounds captured by the system.
The union also states that the installation of cameras violates federal wire tap laws as well as the Federal Rail Safety Act of 1970.
The BLET further asserts that Federal law pre-empts Metrolink’s attempted safety and policy making efforts. Shortly after the fatal crash of 2008, the Federal Railroad Administration — the primary rail safety regulator in the United States — addressed the issue of locomotive engineer cell phone use by issuing Emergency Order No. 26, which prohibits the use of cell phones inside locomotive cabs, except under narrow circumstances.
In the state court, the BLET asserts that the video monitoring system is a “severe breach” of the State of California’s constitutional right to privacy, and further states that it violates the due process rights of BLET members, the California Labor Code, and that SCRRA/Metrolink lacks rulemaking authority under California law.
“Our goal is to protect the safety of the traveling public while also enforcing the contractual and privacy rights of our members,” BLET Acting President Sorrow said. “A cell phone jamming device would be more effective in prevention, less costly for taxpayers, and less invasive of the privacy of our members.”
“We will work closely with federal and state rail regulators to permanently solve the problem as quickly as possible. We also hope that these lawsuits force Metrolink to operate constructively and within the law as a problem solver, rather than offering ineffective and expensive solutions. Instead of being driven by political expediency, Metrolink needs to consider a realistic solution to the problem that does not rely upon a huge waste of existing limited tax funds” Sorrow added.
Headquartered in Cleveland, Ohio, the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen is a Division of the Teamsters Rail Conference, International Brotherhood of Teamsters. The BLET represents 55,000 professional and hard working locomotive engineers and trainmen throughout the United States.
Tuesday, October 20, 2009
bentley@ble.org
