SB 170-RAILROAD EMPLOYEE SALARIES AND WAGES  CHAIRMAN PHILLIPS announced SB 170 to be up for consideration. MS. WENDY WINDSKOOG, Director of External Affairs, Alaska Railroad Corporation, said: SB 170 accomplishes two very important objectives for the Alaska Railroad and its employees. It would be amending our statute, AS 42 to do two things - clarify that the Alaska Railroad falls under the Alaska Wage and Hour Act and also it would allow the members of the United Transportation Union and management the flexibility to negotiate an agreement that would allow the UTU employees to be paid on a salary basis rather than on an hourly basis. I'll give you a little bit of background. When we began negotiations several months ago with the UTU Union, we discovered that there was a real question whether the Alaska Railroad falls under the Alaska Wage and Hour Act. This was a little disconcerting to us, because we are exempt from the Fair Labor Standards Act, which is the federal law governing minimum wage and overtime protection for employees. The Railroad has always operated as though we are under the Alaska Wage and Hour Act and we would definitely like to see this clarified through our statute that we have that protection for our employees. That's the first part of the bill. The second part of the bill deals with some flexibility in our negotiations with the UTU Union. The exemption for UTU members provided by the bill would not leave the UTU members unprotected with regard to overtime and wage issues, because they are protected by the Hours of Service Act. That Act prevents excessive or unreasonable work hours by limiting the number of hours these employees can work to twelve hours a day and after that have to take some time off. They do have that protection. The other thing I would like to mention is why this bill benefits both labor and management at the Alaska Railroad. The UTU members would benefit from the exemption by having their pension plan enhanced. In exchange, the Railroad management would be allowed eventually to operate trains with a two-person crew rather than a three-person crew. This is where the industry is going in the Lower 48 with railroads. With some of the technical upgrades we are doing to the Railroad, we would be eventually able to operate with two-person crews. We get there through attrition, not by laying off jobs now, but as people retire, we would move in that direction… MS. WINDSKOOG said they have letters of support from several unions, both public and private. They have a verbal commitment from the AFL-CIO in support of the bill. However, she said they would like to change the effective date to immediate. MR. KEVIN BERGSGOOD, Locomotive Engineer, Alaska Railroad Corp. and State Legislative Director, United Transportation Union, said they support SB 170. SENATOR DAVIS made a conceptual amendment to add section 3 that would make an immediate effective date. There were no objections and it was so ordered. SENATOR DAVIS moved to pass CSSB 170 (L&C) from committee with individual recommendations. There were no objections and it was so ordered.