WASHINGTON, D.C. — Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels recently signed into law a bill that would give local county health and safety departments the authority to inspect so-called railway camp cars. These converted trailers are used to house railroad crews while on location repairing and rebuilding rail tracks and switches.
“The camp cars used for housing our members were disgusting and overcrowded,” said Jeff Bainter, Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employes (BMWED) legislative representative for the state of Indiana. The language in this bill gives the local community the right to inspect mobile or temporary housing of rail track maintenance workers.
“Norfolk Southern is the last remaining railroad in the United States to utilize camp cars,” said Fred Simpson, President of the BMWED and Teamsters International Vice President. “It””s appalling to us that our members have had to endure overcrowded sleeping quarters after having put in hours of relaying rail track. This bill is very good news for our members working in Indiana.”
The Indiana House of Representatives and the Indiana Senate passed the mobile camp car bills by overwhelming majorities. The state””s board of health will set up guidelines and the local communities will have the right to inspect and enforce the guidelines. The states of Virginia and Ohio, where Norfolk Southern still continues to use camp car housing, have pending legislation that would require similar health standards. Legislative representatives from the BMWED and the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen (BLET), including State Legislative Board Chairman Bill Verdeyen, worked together to educate lawmakers in Indiana about camp car conditions and they continue working for passage of similar legislation in other states.
“The unity of the BMWED and BLET in the Teamsters Rail Conference can and will continue to have significant impact on rail labor issues,” said John Tolman, BLET vice president and national legislative representative.
The BMWED and BLET are divisions of the Teamsters Rail Conference. The International Brotherhood of Teamsters was founded in 1903 and represents 1.4 million hardworking men and women in the United States and Canada.