OCTOBER 2015 NEWSLETTER President Message Orders: P2, P3, and P7 are all running well into 2016 and will be building cars past our contract end on June 24th 2016. P5 and P1 will end production of Tank cars around the middle of November. P5 will convert to Gondola cars for an order of 600 units which should begin production of a sample car by mid December. The executive were told by the company that there will be a layoff at that time of about 500 members plant wide. I would like to remind members that in times of layoff the Action Centre at the Union Hall is there for you to use. They can assist you in filing an EI claim, Help you seek alternative employment with their updated Job Board and even get you into training courses free of charge. This service is always available to you whenever you need it and I encourage any affected members attend at 1031 Barton St. East on the main floor for more information. A meeting is being planned that any affected member should be present at. Please see page 6 of this newsletter for directions on when this will occur. We will keep you posted as to any changes or orders, as they are reported to us by the company. This years Labour day march and picnic was a great success and was our best turnout ever. I wish to thank all those that helped organize and volunteer their time for this event. Many hours were spent, working late into the evenings and on weekends rebuilding our new float. Our Negotiation Committee recently met to discuss some items to get us started. Our first goal was to get out a leaflet to the members asking what they would like to see in the next contract. Although we collected most of the responses on the same day we handed them out we offer until Friday October 30th 2015 as a deadline to hear what you have to say. Response forms can be dropped off at the hall until end of business on that day. If you did not receive a leaflet there are many available at the hall. The Committee wishes to remind everyone that they should fill out their own response as we add up a total of the requests to see how important an issue is to the membership as a whole. I have made initial contact with an outside lawyer as requested by the members at our last membership meeting. We provided him with information that we want a legal opinion on and requested a report on his findings. We will report what we can once we have a response. The company has contacted us for a meeting regarding details of our pension. We are currently working out a date to meet with them. We expect this to happen within the next month. The committee is meeting again on November 18th 2015 to compile what we have learned and decide our next course of action. We are also booked for a Negotiations training course the first week of December to get us better prepared to represent you when we finally sit at the table with the company. If anyone has any concerns on any issues please contact the hall at 905-544-3554. In Solidarity, Steve Weller NATIONAL STEEL CAR INVOLVED IN WAR EFFORTS RAILCAR As WW1 was raging in Europe, National Steel Car produced over 1.75 million shell forgings for eighteen-pounder guns and 250 Travelling Kitchens for the British War Office. This was followed by the production of 500 limbered wagons, 1588 wagons for the Republic of France and 3,300 wagons for Les Chemins de Ferdu Nord. National Steel car also built MANUFACTURING 4,500 two-axle Artillery Standard wagons to be used in France for the Hudson’s Bay Company. During WW2, the NSC plant produced over 20 million artillery shells, ranging from shells for 3.7 caliber guns, to shells NEWS for twenty-five pound field artillery. At the beginning of the war, NSC was the largest single producer of shells in the Allied war effort, as well as being involved in aircraft. In 1938, NSC acquired a hayfield in Malton Ontario, next to the Toronto Airport, and built a 50,000 square foot Regulatory boost for rail tank car manufacturing facility. Initially this new plant produced 700 Anson airplanes. Following this order, the Malton plant built 225 Westland Lysander airplanes, which were used to fly spies into France. Additionally, eighty center sections makers could be short lived and wings for the Handley Page Hampdens, twin engine bombers for the Royal Air Force were manufactured. Oil railcar makers hoping for a lasting boost in demand from tougher North American safety standards may be in The Malton facility also manufactured parts for other aircraft including the Harvard, Yale, Hurricane and Martin for a disappointment. Marauder Planes. In 1942, the company built production facilities for the Lancaster Heavy Bomber. A total of 430 Factors including volatile oil prices and a loophole allowing shippers to keep running older cars could leave rail car Lancasters were built in NSC facilities. Sadly there are only two air worthy Lancasters left in the world, and one of makers like Trinity Industries Inc and Greenbrier Co with a capacity glut, once initial orders for cars that comply them you can see every year at the Hamilton Airshow, and is operated and cared for by the Canadian War Plane with tougher safety rules are filled, analysts and industry officials said. Museum at the Hamilton Airport. Investors cheered safety standards issued in early May after a string of deadly accidents involving trains hauling crude oil. The U.S. rules call for retiring by 2025 older tank cars that lack safety features such as thicker hulls, shields to protect the ends of each car, and pressure-relief valves. Canadian rules are similar, but not harmonized with the U.S. ones. The order backlog for tank cars hit record levels of over 52,000 in the first quarter. At current production levels, it would take five quarters to fill that demand. KeyBanc Capital Markets analyst Steve Barger estimates the rules could push the price tag for a tank car to $160,000, up from $130,000. The top tank car manufacturers are a mixture of publicly-traded and private companies. Trinity is the market leader, followed by Greenbrier and American Railcar Industries Inc, then privately-held National Steel Car, Union Limbered wagons build in 1915 Anson airplane built by NSC around 1938 Westland Lysander airplane built by NSC 1942 Tank Car and a number of smaller operators. Robert Pickel, senior vice president for marketing and sales at National Steel Car, said about 140,000 tank cars Over 2000 NSC employees fought in WWI, WWII, and the Korean war. could be affected by the new rules. But he described the industry's outlook as "very fluid and changing" thanks to low energy prices. The Cenotaph At National Steel Car Was constructed in 1998, and is the 'UNPROVEN AND UNRELIABLE' last war monument erected in North America to date. "They all have to be modified to one degree or another," he said. "The question is how many will be replaced or retrofitted." This memorial commemorates the lives of 87 employees that went to war and lost their lives during World Wars I and II and during the Korean War. Leasing companies will have to decide whether to buy new cars or spend up to $60,000 refurbishing 20-year-old tank cars or $10,000 on year-old models, Pickel said. A motif encircling the memorial is carved in a 4 tonne block of stone. It Resistance from railroads to new technology is one risk to future demand for the tank car makers. depicts the transition of workers from industry to war and back to industry. The U.S. regulations mandate electronically controlled pneumatic brakes, which trigger all axles simultaneously The carving of this piece alone, using both modern air tools and traditional rather than one at a time as in the current design. The requirement should bolster brake makers Westinghouse Air chisel and maul, took four weeks. Brake Technologies Corp and Knorr Brake Company, but the prospects for a jump in orders are cloudy given major Full size drawings of the historic "Sword of Sacrifice", to be carved on the railroads' firm opposition. The electronically controlled brakes "remain unproven and unreliable," No. 2 U.S. railroad BNSF's Chief Executive cross on the face of the memorial, were provided by the Commonwealth Carl Ice said in a speech Wednesday at the annual meeting of the National American Rail Shippers Association. War Graves Commission, Maidenhead, England. This attention to detail was Another potential problem for rail car makers is a loophole in the new U.S. regulations that could allow many older to comply with the directive that the memorial was to be historically cars to stay in service. correct. This also applied to the Army, Navy, and Air Force emblems. The Transportation department rules apply only to trains with "a continuous block of 20 or more tank cars loaded with a flammable liquid or 35 or more tank cars loaded with a flammable liquid dispersed through a train." A list of names and rank of those killed in action was prepared and 'TOO MUCH CAPACITY' transferred to patterns, utilizing traditional script, for carving into panels on the memorial. "With this massive capacity overhang, we could see a pricing war," Aeppli said. A DOT spokesman said the rules are aimed at long trains hauling crude out of the Bakken shale formation in North Dakota.