WASHINGTON — Jeremy Ferguson, president of the International Association of Sheet Metal, Air, Rail and Transportation Workers-Transportation Division (SMART-TD), has been named to the Surface Transportation Board’s Railroad-Shipper Transportation Advisory Council.
Ferguson, who joins the RSTAC as an at-large member, has nearly 30 years in the rail industry, having begun his career as a conductor.
“Since joining the Board, I have been a proponent of labor being represented on RSTAC, one of the Board’s most important advisory committees,” STB Chairman Martin J. Oberman said in a statement announcing Ferguson’s appointment. “The Board and the members of RSTAC could have greatly benefited from rail labor’s perspective in recent years as the Board and industry stakeholders have grappled with serious service issues across the freight rail network and the exacerbation of those problems caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. A labor voice on the committee would have provided us with an essential perspective on the causes and potential solutions to the significant degradations of rail service and would have ensured that we understood, firsthand, the fundamental role working men and women have in the essential functioning of the rail network and the problems those workers have faced as a result of the pandemic and working conditions at their railroads. I am confident that Jeremy will fill that crucial role going forward.
“I am committed to giving rail labor a seat at the table, and I am delighted to appoint Jeremy to the at-large position on RSTAC.”
The advisory council advices the STB chairman, the Secretary of Transportation, and congressional committees on issues of significance to small shippers and small railroads, such as railcar supply, rates, competition, and procedures for addressing claims. More on the council is available here.
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