BLET Wisconsin State Legislative Board

Brothers,
 
After many months we may finally have some movement on AB 314. on Feb 24 a meeting was held with Sen. Jeff Plale (Chairman of the Commerce, utilities, energy and rail committee) and we were promised a committee hearing by him sometime in the next two weeks. Although negotiations with the railroad lobbyists forced us to remove the notification of emergency responders portion of the bill I am happy to report that the sections involving railroad worker training and safety remain intact. We as an executive board are convinced that the passing of this bill, even in it’s negotiated form, will go a long way in protecting all rail workers when weed spraying time comes. We will keep you posted on the progress of the bill in the coming weeks. Please continue to check the web site and local bulletin boards for more information as we will certainly be needing everyone to call their State Senator/ Reprensentative in the future to express the importance of this proposed legislation. Any questions feel free to contact Chairman Dimond or myself. Until then work safe!!
 
Fraternally,
 
Paul Aird
1st vice Chairman WSLB

I would like to begin this legislative update by first thanking WSLB Chairman Dimond for his work in getting this website up and running. Hopefully you will find it a usefull and informative tool in regards to what’s going on with your Legislative Board.

I am very pleased to announce that the current legislation we have been working on has made great progress in the last few months. To start from the beginning I must look back to spring of 2008. Chairman Dimond and I were approached by BMWE Legislative Chairman Mike Kozaira in regards to working some sort of legislation dealing with the yearly problems of railroad weedspraying. After doing some research and checking current state and federal regulations we discovered that although the management of vegetation on railroad property is required, there is no regulation regarding the application of these chemicals. As we all know year after year we are exposed to these herbacides/pesticides with little or no warning as to the health dangers they represent.

To begin finding a solution to this problem we began with using proposed legislation that had been introduced in several other states. We began gathering support from our friends in Madison and in June 2009 AB 314 was officially introduced to the State Assembly. Rep.Louis Molepske Jr. and his staff worked with us extensively and authored the bill for us. Along with 13 other State Rep. and 5 State Senators the task of gaining enough support to pass this legislation began. A public hearing was held in July and after hearing the concerns with this bill a meeting was held with the representatives of the railroads and after discussion an agreement was reached that resulted in the ammended verion of AB314 as seen today. Following these ammendments the bill was passed from the Assembly Committeee (natural resources/ 14 yea 0 nay) to the assembly floor for discussion and vote. Finally in late Sept. the proposed legislation recieved a floor vote and passed with a margin of 69 yea – 26 nay. From there the proposed legislation was moved to the Senate side and is currently being examined by the committee on Commerce, Utilities, Energy, and Rail. At this time we are hopeful a public hearing will soon be held so we can get this important piece of legislation moving forward and passed into law.

To read AB314, find your legislator, or just look around to see what else is going on in Madison check out the Wisconsin legislature website.I will put out another update as soon as we see some movement on this bill. Any questions, comments, or ideas please contact Chairman Dimond or myself. Work Safe!!!

Fraternally,

Paul Aird
1st Vice Chairman
WSLB