Rail & Labor News from RWU
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Weekly Digest Number 7 - Month Date, 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: With assistance from RWU, Cincinnati citizens have mounted and all-out effort to stop this dastardly sale proposal of their publicly owned railroad to Norfolk Southern. As this issue of our weekly e-newsletter goes to press, Cincinnati citizens will be headed to the polls to decide. Lots of news has come out this past week. Check it out! | |
Kari Lydersen, 11/1/2023
But as Cincinnati residents prepare to vote on a Nov. 7 referendum necessary to complete the deal, as required by the state constitution, it’s becoming clear that the railroad behemoth and city leaders may not get their way. That’s because a groundswell of community organizing by union members, socialists and public rail advocates has built widespread opposition to the privatization deal, while tapping into growing awareness of both the rapacity of railroad corporations and the safety and labor struggles around freight rail.
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By Maddock Thomas / Nov 4
At its peak, Cincinnati Union Terminal served 216 trains per day—a far cry from the current Cardinal service that comes only three days a week. The mayor’s claim that owning the line makes no difference to restoring passenger service couldn’t be further from the truth. As the public owner of the line, Cincinnati can declare its right to run passenger trains over the tracks as a condition of the lease, just like Georgia did in its lease of the Western & Atlantic to CSX. If the railroad is sold to Norfolk Southern, that option slips away forever.
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Editor's Note: The fight to kill Amtrak never ends. All rail workers are encouraged to take action to ward off this latest attack! | |
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High Speed Rail Alliance / Nov 1
The House will vote this week on a bill (H.R. 4820) that will significantly slash funding for passenger rail! The House bill includes a 64 percent cut to Amtrak funding below the FY23 adopted levels and an 85 percent reduction to the Federal Transit Administration’s main capitalization program.
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Editor's Note: This latest antic on the part of Congressional Class One lackeys is truly absurd. The Class Ones have destroyed the fluidity of the rail network in the U.S. with ridiculously long and heavy trains, poorly maintained locomotives and cars, and the whole farce known as PSR. And they are moving just 21% of the freight they were moving in 2006! Yet, the problem is rooted in Amtrak's skeletal network of short little trains once or twice a day over just a handful of mainlines. Yeah, right.... We call Bullshit! | |
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Progressive Railroading / Oct 30
Transportation Trades Department, AFL-CIO (TTD) President Greg Regan last week wrote to U.S. Rep. Eric Burlison (R-Mo.) to oppose the lawmaker’s bill that would eliminate a federal provision that gives Amtrak trains the "right of preference" over freight trains on freight-owned track. Burlison introduced his "Freights First Act" earlier this year to address freight-rail service problems and speed up supply-chain delays. He blamed Amtrak’s "burdensome right of track mandate" as a reason for freight railroad bottlenecks that hurt the movement of consumer goods.
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Editor's Note: Months in the making, it has been worth the wait. RWU urges everyone to watch this important video on why the privately owned rail network is failing us and needs to be replaced with public ownership and worker control. | |
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RWU has a New Video on Public Ownership!!
Last year, Railroad Workers United (RWU) took the bold and innovative step forward to advocate for public ownership/control of the rail industry. Last winter, RWU contracted to produce a short (11-minute) film to assist in promoting the Campaign, to raise awareness and to build support for the national effort for rail in the public interest.
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Editor's Note: The NTSB hopefully will be listened to. PTC is a valuable tool but has some glaring omissions that can be corrected by new technological additions. The rail industry - who complained vociferously about being forced to implement PTC at all - will no doubt lobby hard to prevent these modifications from being mandated. Let's hope the FRA can stand up to the pressure and force the Class Ones to act. | |
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Progressive Railroading / Nov 2
The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) is calling on the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) to formulate a plan to incorporate "promising new technology" into the existing system that prevents certain train collisions. In its report, NTSB Investigators identified the safety issues with existing PTC systems.
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Progressive Railroading / Nov 1
Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employes Division (BMWED) members at Iowa Interstate Railroad (IAIS) ratified a new collective bargaining agreement yesterday. "This agreement gives [IAIS members] a huge step in the right direction with an unprecedented wage package of an average of 28.1% over a four-year deal," said BMWED BSD General Chairman George Loveland.
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Editor's Note: This is a no-brainer. Trains carrying hazardous materials simply must be transparent, their contents and the whereabouts in the train made available within seconds to forst responders. The wreck at East Palestine should make this crystal clear. | |
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Progressive Railroading / Oct 31
A coalition of 13 attorneys general is calling on federal regulators to adopt a federal rule that would require railroads to make available information on hazardous material loads to emergency responders. The proposed rule, Hazardous Materials: FAST Act Requirements for Real-Time Train Consist Information, would expand communications between railroads and emergency first responders.
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Editor's Note: While it sounds good in theory, is this just more PSR cost-cutting job elimination, with focus on short-term profits? Yes, most rails would argue that there are way too many useless managers, but will these cuts really do what they are in theory designed to do; i.e. "“focus on empowering employees on the front lines to drive decision-making"? | |
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Josh Funk / Nov 1
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Union Pacific is trimming the ranks of the railroad’s management employees as part of the new CEO’s push to eliminate layers of bosses involved in decision making. The railroad, based in Omaha, Nebraska, said Wednesday that it is eliminating less than 5% of its roughly 5,600 management jobs.
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Editor's Note: After all of the handwringing about short-staffing, delayed trains, Amtrak tardiness, shipper disatisfaction, lack of maintenance and inspection and all the rest, one might hinbk that employment numbers would be on the up and up. Not .... | |
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Joanna Marsh / November 02
The average number of employees working for the U.S.-based operations of the Class I railroads for the first three quarters of 2023 is roughly flat to lower compared with the same period in 2020, according to data collected by the Surface Transportation Board. The railroads aggressively sought to restaff their ranks in 2022, in part because of pressure from regulatory officials who believed there might be a link between lower head count levels at the railroads and subpar rail service.
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Editor's Note: Organizing continues apace by East Palestine residents and advocates to tell the behind-the-scenes story of the train wreck and disaster last winter. RWU encourages all rail workers to tune in to the screening of this documentary. | |
Join us for a free virtual screening of the short, eye-opening new documentary film, Small Town Explosion: What Really Happened in East Palestine? followed by a Zoom Q&A with the filmmaker, Maya Lily, Beyond Plastics’ Appalachia Director, Jess Conard, and Hilary Flint of East Palestine Unity Council.
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NEWS FROM AROUND THE LABOR MOVEMENT | |
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BMWED News / Nov 6
The UAW Strike May Be a Watershed for the US Labor Movement. The UAW’s strategy — striking all of the Big Three at once, but escalating gradually by beginning at a few worksites and calling out more over time to ramp up pressure — is unprecedented in the union’s history.
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Editor's Note: The Auto workers have won a major victory and point the way forward for organized labor and the working class. Rail workers especially have a lot to learn from this contract fight as we move into another round of national bargaining next year. | |
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By Jake Johnson
With three historic tentative agreements in hand after six weeks on strike, the United Auto Workers is looking to galvanize the rest of the U.S. labor movement by calling on other unions to align their contract expiration dates with the UAW's—a move that would give workers maximal leverage at the bargaining table and the ability to strike together, if necessary.
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Editor's Note: It is not all gravy. While things are definitely moving in the right direction, organized labor must take bold initiatives, think outside the box, and help facilitate this new wave of worker discontent that is sweeping the country. | |
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October 31 / Michael Sainato
Recent union contract gains against a backdrop of decades of union decline, worsening wealth inequality and broken labor laws. Labor law reform efforts to improve worker protections to organize unions such as the Pro Act have stalled in Congress, with little to no support from the Republican party despite public support for unions bridging across partisan lines.
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Weekly Derailment Department | | | | |
