Rail & Labor News from RWU
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Weekly Digest Number 26 - June 27th, 2023 | |
Welcome to the RWU Rail & Labor News! This news bulletin is produced and emailed out each Tuesday morning. We hope you find each week's news and information useful. If so, please share with co-workers, friends, and colleagues. If you like, you can sign them up to get all the news from RWU HERE. Or forward them the link. Note: If you read over this news bulletin each week, you will be sure to never miss the important news of what is going on in the railroad world from a worker's perspective!
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(Editor's Note: Editor's Note: RWU has built a relationship with the United Electrical (UE) workers union over the past decade. In addition to organizing highly exploited railroad crew van drivers, the union has represented members who build Wabtec - formerly GE - locomotives that are operated by railroad train & engine crews and maintained by RR shop forces across North America. RWU urges all members and supporters, all railroad workers, and all working people to get behind these brothers and sisters and support this important strike! Note - If you can make it to Erie, join the picket line and wear your RWU Strike T-shirt!) | |
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Workers at the Wabtec locomotive manufacturing plant in Erie, Pennsylvania, have walked off the job. Their demands get to the heart of bigger questions about the nature of work and the role workers can play in fights like climate change.
Around 6:00 p.m. on June 22, the verdict was in: this offer wasn’t good enough. Members of the UE locals overwhelmingly voted to reject the offer, and supplies were immediately taken out of Local 506’s union hall as members set up picket lines at the plant’s gates. With their rejection of Wabtec’s offer, the workers are now on strike.
June 24, 2023 Alex N. Press JACOBIN
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(Editor's Note: Despite using the RWU "strike!" logo, and referencing the struggle by rank and file workers to push for paid sick leave, the article unfortunately fails to mention RWU. Also, they are giving Biden way too much credit for the newly negotiated sick leave contracts between the Class Ones and the craft unions. Nevertheless, it is great to see that these news outlets are still covering rail labor issues now that the spotlight has moved elsewhere.) | |
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Some may remember that back in the fall of 2022 there was growing pressure from rail unions to call a national strike. With years of labor abuse by the major railroads, workforces slashed even as workloads grew, an industry focused on Wall Street not Main Street, and expired contracts with negotiations going nowhere, things looked grim.
June 23rd, 2023
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(Editor's Note: While rail unions and others might sing the praises of the Rail Safety Act proposed by a bi-partisan group of Senators, RWU has strong reservations regarding not so much what is in the bill but what it leaves out. And much of what is in the bill kicks the specifics down the road to a future DOT/FRA to determine, while other key segments allow for endless loopholes and waivers that could render some of the more important sections meaningless for rail workers. And already, the bill has been subject to significant amendment to water it down still further.) | |
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Each of the last 4 years, the railway industry has spent $25 million lobbying Congress, opposing new railway safety regulations. At the same time, they’re cutting corners, spending their profits on enriching wealthy shareholders instead of investing in safety and their workers.
The bipartisan Railway Safety Act is expected to get a full vote on the Senate floor this week. The bill would: Require new safety requirements for trains that carry hazardous materials including new rules to prevent wheel bearing failures, the #1 mechanical cause of derailments: Raise the fines on companies when accidents happen; Require two-person work crews on every train.
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(Editor's Note: In addition to new information coming forward about the unnecessary "vent and burn", new info came to light at the NTSB hearing in East Palestine last week regarding the train's length and makeup. Gradually, we are learning more about the tragic derailment. Juts as with the Lac-Megantic runaway wreck and explosion a decade earlier, the more the cases is scrutinized, the more obvious it becomes of the corporation's failures.) | |
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By TANYA SNYDER and IRIE SENTNER
06/22/2023 11:53 AM EDT
Updated: 06/22/2023 04:09 PM EDT
Beyond the size of the train, investigators are probing a variety of factors, including whether the overheated wheel directly responsible for the derailment was detected fast enough by track equipment.
Documents also released Thursday showed that a Norfolk Southern engineer who inspected the train before it derailed was rebuffed when he told a supervisor he was concerned about the train’s size and makeup, according to new information released Thursday by federal investigators
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(Editor's Note: Labor - including rail labor - should be going on the offensive with the wind at our backs. Too many labor "leaders" - including those of rail labor - are cautious, conservative, and timid. Why? There are a whole host of reasons. But regardless, we the rank and file members need to push them to be braver, more adventurous, more optimistic, and to actually LEAD!) | |
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Support for organized labor is soaring. Yet the biggest US union coalition endorsed Biden without asking anything in return
History’s greatest labor leaders have not been conservative pragmatists in search of marginal gain. They have been people whose outrage over the injustices of the present fueled them to accomplish things that others dismissed as unrealistic. Too much time spent inside of existing institutions seems to extinguish this spirit. The next generation of working-class heroes is out in the world right now – working. It will be up to them to force the labor movement to thrive in spite of itself, long after the “most pro-union president in history” is gone.
Hamilton Nolan June 21st. 2023
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(Editor's Note: One cannot help but wonder just what CPKC wants the U.S. government to hide from public view about the merger. The fact that these Robber Barons have the unmitigated audacity to even ask the government to keep things secret is very telling about their confidence and cockiness, to say nothing of their underhandedness and deceit.) | |
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In filings made with the STB last week, the three organizations said they're opposed to CPKC's latest request, submitted in a May 24 letter, to adopt a protective order for oversight proceedings and set up another category of confidentiality that would not allow other parties to view certain confidential information.
June 20th, 2023
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(Editor's Note: This new study looks at the additional fatigue that trainmen and engineers suffer as a result of long worked hours - often preceded and then followed - by long commute times at odd hours.) | |
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The Impact of Commute Times on the Fatigue and Safety of Locomotive Engineers and Conductors
Although a significant amount of fatigue-related research has been conducted in a wide range of settings, fatigue remains a major contributor to workplace injuries and fatalities. Safety-critical workers in the transportation industry, specifically the rail industry (e.g., locomotive engineers and conductors) are particularly vulnerable to fatigue due to the nature of the work (e.g., shiftwork, night work, irregular schedules) and job demands
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(Editor's Note: For decades Amtrak trains have been delayed illegally by freight trains. Now the law is apparently uniquivocally on Amtrak's side ... and yet still nothing happens.) | |
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Joanna Marsh Tuesday, June 13, 2023
Jim Matthews, president and CEO of the Rail Passengers Association, said in a recent website post that his group is still waiting for STB to move forward with Amtrak’s complaint, which was filed in December 2022. This complaint is significant because it’s the first complaint that calls upon STB to investigate why Amtrak is failing to meet customer on-time performance metrics. Amtrak uses portions of the Class I rail network to run passenger trains, and so Amtrak has argued its Sunset Limited service is directly impacted by UP’s service.
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(Editor's Note: This is sorely needed in order that the National Transportation Safety Board can carry out its mandate to properly investigate all train wrecks requiring a full independent investigation and recommendations.) | |
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June 16, 2023
The proposed Rail Inspector Safety Act calls for the authorization of $3 million in appropriated funding for each of fiscal years 2024 through 2028. The funding would remain available until it is spent, according to the bill text.
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(Editor's Note: This is a common sense modification to help assure such accidents do not continue to happen when using RCO. The carriers never should have been allowed to have an RCO operator riding on the platform of the locomotive while operating the controls on the box. It is tragic that, as always, it took the loss of a workers' life to cause the rule eliminating the practice to be promulgated. ) | |
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Carolina Worrell, Senior Editor June 20th, 2023
Following a Feb. 9, 2022, accident involving a BNSF Railway switchman who was struck and killed by a train during a switching movement in the railroad’s Denver, Colo., Globeville Yard, the Class I has adopted the following rule change: “when necessary to ride on the engine exterior, employees must not ride on platforms or walkways and must not ride on steps when coupling, and the train must not exceed 20 mph,” according to a National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) Railroad Investigation Report issued June 9, 2023.
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(Editor's Note: The regional and shortline sector of the rail industry remains largely unorganized. Rail labor needs to come together as one to organize these properties and make them union. Of course that is no easy task when you have 12 seperate and divided unions in the field, all delineated by craft. One more reason for a united "Railroad Workers Union".) | |
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Genesee & Wyoming Railroad Engineering Services Illegal Retaliation Against New BMWED Members Will Not Stand!
Published: Jun 16 2023 1:35PM
Genesee & Wyoming’s Railroad Engineering Services (RES) blatantly retaliated against more than 30 employees who recently certified and joined the Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employees Division of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters (BMWED).
BMWED has filed suit in U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida Jacksonville Division where G&W RES is headquartered, alleging that the targeted elimination of more than 30 positions on a traveling tie gang on May 25, 2023 was explicitly intended to intimidate and eradicate those most vocal union supporters within the company.
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(Editor's Note: When RCO was introduced a generation ago, it was promised by the union and the company that the practice would only be used in yard operations. So much for that. The BLET and SMART-TD must unite and fight against this insane expansion to the road.) | |
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JUNE 15, 2023 | Railroad Safety, Remote Control, UP
By Eddie Hall, BLET National President
This commentary appeared in The Houston Chronicle, both in print and online, on April 26, 2023
It’s absurd that government regulations allow for operators with joy sticks to remotely control these bombs across Houston road crossings. It’s unbelievable that Union Pacific, and the other self-regulated railroads, have chosen not to use a certified locomotive engineer in the cab of these trains.
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(Editor's Note: Here we go again. A minor increase in freight movement demand - in this case finished autos - and the Class One rail network is not up to the task. More PSR at work for you. Cut, cut, cut! In the words of new CSX CEO Joe Heinrichs, "At best we have strained relations with every single key stakeholder except investors. And most of our key stakeholders hate us." Add the auto industry to that list now.) | |
A shortage of rail cars used for transporting finished automobiles is delaying deliveries from automakers' factories to U.S. dealerships, various news media have reported in recent days.
June 20th, 2023
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(Editor's Note: It is good to see that, one-by-one, the unions are coming out in favor of the bill ... but RWU wishes they would take the opportunity to be constructively critical of its shortcoming, its loopholes, waiver options, and other drawbacks. ) | |
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IAM and IBEW support provisions related to locomotive and rail car inspections
Two aspects of the bill that interest IAM and IBEW in particular are ensuring that there are no time constraints placed upon rail car and locomotive inspections and calling for specialized workers to conduct inspections, as opposed to having operating crews or untrained crafts carry out inspections.
Joanna Marsh Wednesday, June 21, 2023
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(Editor's Note: It is about time! God and everyone should be allowed to know what hazardous materials these trains are carrying, especially once they leave the rails. Dah! As for Amtrak officials signing the "safety pledge" of "Operation Lifesaver" I somehow doubt that would have prevented the wreck of the Southwest Chief in Missouri last summer. A law forcing BNSF to cut brush that made it difficult for motorists to see trains coming at 90 MPH at an unprotected crossing might have though.) | |
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Prospects for Amtrak: Forces Helping and Hindering Expanded Passenger Rail Service in the US
Wednesday, June 28
2023 09:00 AM in Pacific Time
Description: Webinar hosted by the Society of Government Economists and the Transportation Research Forum-Washington Chapter
Speaker: Jim Mathews, President and CEO of the Rail Passengers Association
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Wednesday, June 28th
8pm Eastern / 7pm Central / 6pm Mountain / 5pm Pacific
You must register to participate
Description: UPS workers have just voted by 97 percent to authorize a strike of 350,000 workers on August 1, if that's what it takes to win a stronger contract. Teamsters for a Democratic Union (TDU) is helping UPS workers organize grassroots actions, unite around the union's contract demands, and be ready to strike. Join an online briefing with UPS workers and TDU members to hear about what we are fighting for and what's at stake for the labor movement and the working class. Find out how you can stand with UPS workers and support the contract campaign and grassroots organizing at UPS.
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Weekly Derailment Department | | | | |
