Rail & Labor News from RWU
| | Weekly Digest Number 34 - August 19, 2025 | | 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. Got a hot tip? Please forward the article and a link to raillabornews@gmail.com. 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! | | THIS WEEK'S RAIL AND LABOR NEWS | | Editor's Note: The FRA just canned RSAC... the only official space where railroaders, unions, suppliers, and regulators hashed out safety policies as equals. No explanation, no warning.. just a termination letter in the mail, traded in for the pretext of a “refresh” that reeks of contempt. RSAC wasn’t a rubber-stamp, it was a lifeline for frontline perspectives to shape real safety. Now that lifeline’s cut. When workers are erased from safety conversations, accidents stop being anomalies, they become inevitabilities. If FRA wants “refresh,” we insist on real safety, not cynical political theater | |
Trains Magazine / August 13th
The Federal Railroad Administration today disbanded its Railroad Safety Advisory Committee as part of a broader Department of Transportation push to bring federal advisory panels in line with a presidential executive order.
“These committees are long overdue for a refresh. Many have not held a single meeting in over a year, while others have not produced recommendations or advisory reports. Worse, some committees have lost sight of the mission, and have been overrun with individuals whose sole focus is their radical DEI and climate agenda,” a Department of Transportation spokesman said. “By updating the FACA committees’ membership, President Trump and [Transportation] Secretary [Sean] Duffy are refocusing these committees on what matters.”
The Transportation Trades Division of the AFL-CIO, an umbrella group representing railroad labor unions, said it was alarmed by the decision to disband the FRA panel.
| | Editor's Note: A misaligned curve on a Mississippi bridge sent 21 cars into the ditch last month, spilling more than 10,000 gallons of caustic lye. The crew was within the speed limit. The defects were “fixed.” And still the track gave way. Safety isn’t a line on a compliance form, it’s a living duty owed to every worker and every town along the line. Steel doesn’t fail on its own.. it fails when neglect gives it permission. | |
Progressive Railroading / August 13th
The National Transportation Safety Board last week published a preliminary report regarding the July 6 derailment of a CN train on the Grenada Railroad near Sardis, Mississippi, which resulted in a release of hazardous materials but no injuries.
Twenty-one mixed freight cars derailed on the south end of a 130-foot-long bridge. The derailed equipment included four tank cars, two containing sulfuric acid and two containing sodium hydroxide. One of the tank cars was mechanically breached during the derailment and released about 10,500 gallons of sodium hydroxide, the report states.
The train crew consisted of one engineer, one conductor and one Grenada Railroad pilot who was operating on the Grenada Railroad to bypass a track outage on CN’s Yazoo Subdivision because of a derailment that occurred the previous day in Glendora, Mississippi.
| | Editor's Note: This is an interview with RWU Co- founder Ron Kaminkow, commenting about the proposed Union Pacific- Norfolk Southern mega-merger. Brother Kaminkow was a Conrail engineer in the 1990s when that railroad was carved up between larger Class 1 railroads Norfolk Southern and CSX. Ron railroaded the Dearborn Subdivision West End of the Conrail main line into Chicago which became part of Norfolk Southern and immediately suffered a massive service failure and complete meltdown for more than a year as a result. | | Status Coup News / August 17th |
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Trains Magazine / August 14th
A Norfolk Southern train that derailed last month in Illinois — spilling hazardous materials and injuring two crewmen — occurred as the train rolled through a spring switch that had just undergone maintenance work, the National Transportation Board said today.
Eastbound NS train 167 derailed at 5:44 p.m. on July 18 near Browns, Ill., on the railroad’s Southern West District, the NTSB’s preliminary report said. The derailed cars collided with westbound 33K, which was holding in the adjacent passing siding. Two tank cars of molten sulfur derailed and breached, releasing some of their contents. Another tank car released about 15 gallons of denatured fuel ethanol.
The engineer trainee aboard the 33K was seriously injured when molten sulfur splashed on him, while the engineer sustained a leg injury, the NTSB said. The engineer trainee was treated on scene and later airlifted to a trauma center. The train’s conductor was not hurt.
| | Editor's Note: Virginia’s rail network stretches thousands of miles, and every carload that moves by rail instead of truck knocks roughly 3.4 big rigs off the road. That’s not just a stat.. it’s lives spared from wear, pollution, and congestion. But this gain only happens when public money is put where it belongs: maintaining infrastructure, supporting shortlines, and building industrial spurs. Trains don’t relieve highways on their own, they do it when the state invests in the commons. Rolling stock and rights of way are tools of connection and survival, not luxuries. Solidarity means fighting for rail as public good, whatever line you ride. | |
Virginia DRPT / July 15th
Virginia’s rail network extends over 3,000 route-miles with nearly 6,000 miles of track, covering all corners of the Commonwealth. Virginia’s freight rail network includes nine shortline railroads and two class-I railroads (Norfolk Southern and CSX), as well as Amtrak passenger rail service and Virginia Railway Express commuter rail service.
Freight rail is crucial to Virginia’s economy, moving tens of millions of tons of goods every year and connecting businesses to the national rail network and to global markets via the Port of Virginia. Additionally, commuter and passenger rail in Virginia moves millions of people every year and continues to grow.
| | Editor's Note: RWU is proud to hold an Executive Board seat on the Eugene V. Debs Foundation Board of Directors. Please consider making a donation to the Eugene V Debs Foundation to help maintain the Debs Museum and to keep the legacy of this great rail union organizer and leader alive. And should you wish to attend the Annual Awards Ceremony on October 24th, contact Mark Burrows at potashpuller55@gmail.com to reserve a seat. Senator Bernie Sanders will be accepting the award this year. RWU has booked twenty tickets and still has openings! Price is $85/seat. | |
Debs Foundation
The officers and directors of the Eugene V. Debs Foundation are pleased to announce that on Saturday, October 25, 2025, the Debs Award will be presented to Senator Bernie Sanders. Sen. Sanders is serving his fourth term in the U.S. Senate after winning re-election in 2024. His previous 16 years in the House of Representatives make him the longest serving independent member of Congress in American history. A longtime Debs supporter, Senator Sanders produced one of the first documentaries on Debs. He has consistently mentioned Eugene Debs as one of his political heroes, along with Dr. Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. and President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, all “standing with working families.”
| | Editor's Note: This interview with Phil Longman examines the whole question of the railroads' "common carrier obligation" and how a properly functioning robust national rail system that is properly regulated could possibly be the solution to numerous economic and social problems. | |
Solutionary Rail / August 9th
Phillip Longman is Senior Editor at Washington Monthly and Policy Director at the Open Markets Institute. He has also written for publications like Foreign Affairs, the Atlantic, and the New York Times Magazine.
Last October, Phil published the essay “Train Drain: How deregulation and private equity have gutted the U.S. freight rail system—and with it, the promise of America’s industrial renewal”. In a pair of follow-up pieces in January and June of this year, Phil expanded the argument to include other modes of freight and passenger transport.
Phil's thinking is deeply aligned with the vision behind Reconnect America, making this one of the most valuable conversations we have published thus far. Stay tuned to hear more from Phil in the weeks ahead.
| | Editor's Note: Shuster was born into politics and rail... his father was the infamous Bud Shuster and the district they both represented includes Altoona, the company town of the Pennsylvania Railroad. | |
Politico / August 15th
Union Pacific Railroad Company hired former Rep. Bill Shuster and a team of lobbyists from Squire Patton Boggs last month to support the railroad’s proposed acquisition of fellow freight rail giant Norfolk Southern, according to a newly filed disclosure.
— Shuster, who retired from Congress in 2019 after 18 years in the House and six years as the chair of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, will provide “strategic advocacy in support of creation of America’s first transcontinental railroad,” per the filing. That’s the same nomenclature Union Pacific has used to describe the intended merger with their competitor to the East of the Mississippi River.
— In addition to Shuster, the account will be handled by Tommy Andrews, a first-term Trump special assistant for legislative affairs, David Schnittger, a longtime John Boehner aide who ended his House career as deputy chief of staff in the speaker’s office, and Rebekah Sungala, a former Shuster aide.
— The hiring appears to be the first directly tied to the $85 billion merger that, if approved by the Surface Transportation Board, would see Union Pacific become the single largest railroad company in the country.
| | NEWS FROM AROUND THE LABOR MOVEMENT | | Each week, RWU includes a few articles about advances and developments in the larger labor movement that are of interest to railroad workers. Got an artcile to submit for possible inclusion next week? Email it along to raillabornews@gmail.com. Thank you! | | Editor's Note: This article reminds us that the strength of working people has never come from benevolent politicians or distant benefactors, but from our own hands, our own dues, and our own unity. It tells the story of ordinary folks who built durable organizations not by waiting for funding, but by knocking on doors, collecting quarters, and standing together until they won. The lesson is simple and hard: movements that rely on outsiders collapse when the money dries up, but movements rooted in members endure. What’s described here is a blueprint for how working people can build power in their shops, neighborhoods, and communities.. power that cannot be revoked with the stroke of a pen. For railroaders, the relevance is plain: our safety, our schedules, our very livelihoods will only be defended if we organize across lines and make the union not a name on a card, but a living force in daily life. This is not theory.. it is practice tested, victories earned, and a reminder that the only secure foundation for progress is the solidarity we build ourselves. | |
The Forge / August 12th
We are in a mess right now. Labor and community organizations are under attack. A cascading list of Executive Orders, cancellations of government funding, attacks on non-profit status, and arrests of union leaders and immigrant organizers may be just the beginning. The Supreme Court’s recent court decisions giving Trump legal carte blanche to do whatever he wants may also include the complete destruction of the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) and other progressive reforms of the past 90 years. Some foundations and other progressive funders are decreasing funding when they should be increasing their support. These attacks are destroying our ability to organize when we need it most.
But there’s a way out: we need to build mass community-based unions and we need to do it now. By community unions, I mean unions that organize not only in the workplace but in the community and use community organizing models, tactics, creative dues collection, and strategies to organize and grow. These would be distinct from unions that solely organize within the limits of the NLRA and National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) election procedures and state labor relations acts.
Some workers’ centers –– community-based nonprofits that provide support and services for workers not covered by the NLRB –– utilize a similar model, but it is far from widespread.
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AFL-CIO
We have the votes we need to pass the Protect America’s Workforce Act in the House of Representatives. And we have a new way to get this bill to a vote.
Congress can do it with a tool called a “discharge petition,” which bypasses all the political procedures and shenanigans and brings a bill quickly to the floor for a vote. But to make it happen, every single member of Congress who says they support America’s unions must sign that discharge petition right now.
It’s time to restore federal workers’ collective bargaining rights. Call your member of Congress—Republican or Democrat—and urge them to sign the discharge petition for the Protect America’s Workforce Act (H.R. 2550) right now.
| | WEEKLY DERAILMENT DEPARTMENT | | Each Tuesday in this news bulletin, RWU does our best to present a picture of what has been happening over the course of the previous week in terms of derailments in North America, and investigation determinations of previous accidents. NOTE: This list is by no means comprehensive. Smaller and less consequential mishaps are generally not reported here. If the wreck results in injury or fatality, or is especially damaging/extreme, a full article will appear as a feature in the dozen or so rail articles above. Know of a train wreck? Please feel free to forward a link to raillabornews@gmail.com for possible inclusion next week. Thanks! |
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