National
Association of State Highway and Transportation Unions
2008 Annual Convention
The National Association of State Highway and Transportation Unions
(NASHTU) 2008 Annual Convention was held on April 28th to 30th, 2008 in
Washington D.C. The conference was a great opportunity for Chapter 1804
to discuss Union issues with State Department of Transportation
employees from all over the country from New York to Alaska. The
conference discussed how even though we come from unique geographic
areas our problems are not so different.
A panel consisting of Congressional Staff Members were the first
presenters of the conference. The
Congressional Staff Members work for Congressional Representatives and
Senators that stand on the House Committee on Transportation and
Infrastructure, the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works
and Senate Banking Committee. The staff members are the people
who research and advise the Representatives and Senators on the
issues. These speakers were very informative on the issues in
Congress that affect our union. The largest issue that faces our
union is the authorization of the new Transportation Bill scheduled for
September of 2009. In 2009, the Environmental Defense Fund
projects a $29 Billion deficit just to maintain our current
infrastructure. The Gas Tax has not increased since 1993 at
$0.18/gallon. However, inflation has increased the cost of
maintaining our transportation system. The discussion gave an
enlightening view of the Congressional perspective on the
transportation system.
Ed Wytkind, President of the Trades Department, AFL-CIO gave a rousing
speech on the importance of the 2008 political campaign and the
implication for State Transportation Workers. Please check out
the following website for more information.
Click
here.
Jack Basso, Director of Management and Business Development, American
Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO)
spoke about AASHTO views on the Reauthorization of the Transportation
Bill. In the new Transportation Bill, there is a need to evaluate
projects funded by the bill to assure that the projects are a necessary
component of the National Transportation System.
The Professional Engineers in California Government presented a
documentary about the collapse of the IR-580 Bridge due to an
overturned gasoline tanker. The bridge was the main connector in
the San Francisco Bay area. CALTRANS and their contractor rebuilt
the bridge in 26 days. Please check out the following website for
more information.
Click
here.
A panel which included JayEtta Hecker, Director of Physical
Infrastructure Issues in the Government Accountability Office and
Phineas Baxandall, U.S. Public Interest Research Group discussed the
privatization of the transportation facilities. The privatization
seems to have more negatives than positives. The States receive a
large amount of funding initially. However, in the existing
examples of privatization there is a lack of governmental over-site on
the companies. These companies can file bankruptcy and leave the
facility in ruins. New Jersey and Rhode Island studied the
Privatization of State Services and can be found in the attachments
listed in the table above.
Nancy Humphrey, from the Transportation Research Board, discussed the
Potential Impacts of Climate Change on U.S. Transportation. Ms.
Humphrey gave a very interesting and alarming look at how fast climate
change is occurring and the negative effects on our transportation
system. This will cause every one of us to change the way we work
on our transportation system. Please check out the following
website for more information.
Click here.
On the second day, discussions informed the attendees of the two pieces
of legislation NASHTU has created. HR 2485 Bill will require
public employees to perform the inspection on all state and local
transportation projects. HR 3621 requires state and local
transportation agencies to prepare a cost-benefit analysis and to
assess the past performance histories of contractors prior to
outsourcing transportation services to private contractors. Please
check out the website below for more information. NASHTU
requested that the members lobby these two bills to their local
Congress men and women. The NASHTU Member gave lessons on
Lobbying on Capital Hill. Chapter 1804 and OCSEA members lobbied
the two bills with Ohio Senators Sherrod Brown’s and George
Voinovich’s Office. We spoke with staff member to describe
the bills and the benefits to the State Government and union
members. We gave several examples of issues we have seen
first hand in Chapter 1804 and all over Ohio. We also suggested
that if the bill could not be passed into law, then they should be
included in the re-authorization of the Transportation Bill.
Please read the bills at the link below and contact your Congress men
and women.
Click here.
