Union on strike against Wheeling and Lake Erie Railway

More than 100 members of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen cited contract safety violations as the reason they went on strike Friday morning against the Wheeling and Lake Erie Railway.

Roughly 17 pickets were standing in front of the terminal on both sides of Wabash Avenue since 5 a.m. holding signs that said, ?LOCOMOTIVE ENGINEERS ON STRIKE? and ?TRAINMEN ON STRIKE.?

The workers said they walked off the job and would be picketing in shifts of about 15 or so to bring attention to their claims that the railway manned a train on Sept. 13 with only a manager when the collective bargaining agreement between the union and the railroad requires that both a conductor and an engineer be on a train.

?It?s a hazard to the general public,? said Robert H. Linsey, general chairman.

Linsey also said in a written statement provided at the site that the union took the action in defense of its contract with the company.

?We don?t want to affect anyone else?s livelihood,? said Lonnie J. Swigert, of Uhrichsville, local chairman of Trainmen. ?We?re fighting for our own (livelihood). It all comes down to safety for us.?

The members say the collective bargaining agreement also was violated twice before in March and in May 2011. The company was given a formal warning by the union at that time, Linsey said.

?We?ve had a dialog with them,? Linsey said. ?They haven?t paid heed to our concerns.?

To illustrate the seriousness of the violation, Linsey said it is possible to move a train with only one person at the controls, but just like piloting a Boeing 737 plane, it is safer to have two people running the train and in some instances it is essential. ?

?We?re just seriously concerned with what the general public has been exposed to,? he said.

The written statement from the union said that picket lines were posted at seven sites across Ohio and Pennsylvania, including the terminal in Brewster and one in Canton Township, which the union said cripples the entire railroad?s operation.

?Linsey said the BLET is open to talking with the company and has a draft of an agreement for the company to sign to ensure the violation doesn?t happen again.

Phone messages left Friday for Wheeling and Lake Erie Railway were not returned.

Wheeling and Lake Erie is the largest railroad based in Ohio and operates a fleet of 62 locomotives, according its website, www.wlerwy.com. The service area is concentrated in eastern Ohio and western Pennsylvania and includes 840 miles of track from Toledo to Hagerstown, Md.

Freight includes pulverized limestone, frac sand, paper, grain and food products, lumber, chemicals and plastic resins, steel products and petroleum products, the website states.

Source: http://www.cantonrep.com/news/x1803831494/Union-on-strike-against-Wheeling-and-Lake-Erie-Railway?rssfeed=true

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Sony unveils PS Vita TV set-top box for $100

Video games

Yannick LeJacq NBC News

15 hours ago

Sony

Sony surprised gamers on Monday when it announced a new piece of PlayStation hardware, the PS Vita TV, designed to compete with media devices like Apple TV and "microconsoles" like the Ouya.

In a surprise move Monday, Sony unveiled a cheap set-top box that will let users play PlayStation Vita games on their TV sets along with a slimmer, faster Vita, both due out this fall.

In a move that's already drawing comparisons to Apple TV, Sony's newest piece of hardware, the PS Vita TV, bridges the gap between the company's pricier high-end gaming hardware and the world of multi-purpose media streaming.?

Like Apple TV or Google's new Chromecast device, the PS Vita TV is tiny both in its physical size (measuring just 6 x 10 cm, it's about the size of a pack of cards) and its sub-$100 price tag. The unique proposition Sony brings to the table, however, is that unlike these competing gadgets, the Vita TV also comes with an impressive library of video games.?

So far, Sony has only announced plans to release the PS Vita TV in Japan, where it also said it will not be introducing the PlayStation 4 until February 2014. Despite the gap in timing, however, the company said it thinks the new device will bring added value to the PS4 ecosystem by allowing users to stream content from the PS4 onto another TV if they're fighting with family members for screen time, and will also act as second Vita system for multiplayer gaming.

While Sony said that the Vita TV will support some 1,300 games to start, it will not be universally compatible with all PS Vita games since it uses the company's DualShock 3 controller, which lacks some of the Vita's bells and whistles like touch-enabled screen and back panel. The PS Vita TV will also support regional Japanese video services including Hulu, Tsutaya TV, Nico Nico Douga, and the company's own Video Unlimited, and will also offer Vita-like apps for social media and e-reading.

Seeing as Sony recently announced that the PlayStation 4 will officially arrive Nov. 15 and that the company is also dropping the starting price of the PS Vita by $50 to $199, the timing of the PS Vita TV's announcement might seem peculiar. But Michael Pachter, a game industry analyst at Wedbush Securities, told NBC News that the new device could help generate interest in the Vita from gamers and game developers alike.

"I think it?s intended to keep the Vita relevant, encourage more games for Vita, and have a multi-functional use in the home," Pachter told NBC News.

Piers Harding-Rolls, head of games at IHS Electronics and Media, agrees, telling NBC News that Sony is making the new device to compete not just with Google and Apple, but also to secure its position in the TV-based gaming space against up-and-coming competitors like Ouya and PlayJam, whose smaller and cheaper "microconsoles" threaten to usurp the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One's position atop the console gaming food chain. And when it comes to games, Sony has a key advantage against all of these competitors: decades of experience.

"Where Sony's device differs from the independent competition is in its extensive back catalogue of games, its entertainment offering, the strength of the PlayStation brand and its interoperability with other consoles in Sony's lineup," Harding-Rolls told NBC News.

Sony also announced a new version of the PS Vita that's 20 percent thinner and 60 percent lighter (219 grams, or slightly less than half a pound) than the original version. At $200, the new version doesn't change much about the actual hardware or performance of the Vita except to add another hour to its battery life, bringing the total to six, and making it available in six new colors: white, black, blue, yellow, pink, and olive green. The company is also cutting the price of the Vita's propriety memory cards in Japan and introducing a new 64GB card, up from the current maximum of 32GB.

The new PlayStation Vita launches in Japan on Oct. 10, Sony said, with no details about an international release. The PS Vita TV launches on Nov. 14 for ?9,954, or roughly $100. The company will also offer a bundle that comes with a DualShock 3 controller for ?14,994, or about $150.?

Yannick LeJacq is a contributing writer for NBC News who has also covered technology and games for Kill Screen, The Wall Street Journal and The Atlantic. You can follow him on Twitter at @YannickLeJacq and reach him by email at: Yannick.LeJacq@nbcuni.com.

Source: http://feeds.nbcnews.com/c/35002/f/663301/s/3101dc6d/sc/5/l/0L0Snbcnews0N0Ctechnology0Csonys0Eunveils0Eps0Evita0Etv0Eset0Etop0Ebox0E10A0A0E8C1111440A3/story01.htm

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