Rail & Labor News from RWU
| | Weekly Digest Number 46 - November 11, 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 rail barons want more.. more power, more profit, more control over the nation’s arteries. Fifty years ago, seventy-one railroads served this country. Today, a handful do, and now two of them aim to swallow the rest. They call it efficiency; working people know it as greed. Every merger means less jobs, higher prices, and longer trains run by fewer hands. The public pays while a handful grow rich. The rails were meant to serve a nation, not a stock ticker. It’s time someone remembered the difference. | |
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More Perfect Union / November 8
Fifty years ago, there were 71 major US railroad companies. Now just 4 rail corporations control 90% of the market -- and two of them are on the verge of merging.
If this merger goes through, it would make everything more expensive, because huge swaths of the economy still rely on rail infrastructure.
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| Editor's Note: When the railroads buy influence, the public pays the fare. Now we’re told that two nominees will judge the largest merger in history “on the merits,” while one of the carriers writes checks to build a ballroom for the man who nominated them. The pattern is older than the rails themselves.. corporate power courting political favor while workers and shippers are told to trust the process. But trust is earned, not appointed. The people who keep the trains moving deserve a board that answers to them, not to the financiers hosting the next dinner. | |
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Trains Staff / November 8
Surface Transportation Board nominees Richard Kloster and Michelle Schultz assured senators on Thursday that they will judge Union Pacific’s proposed acquisition of Norfolk Southern on the merits — and will not allow politics to influence their decisions on the largest merger in railroad history.
Kloster and Schultz spoke during a hearing of the Senate’s Commerce, Science & Transportation committee, which is weighing their nominations to serve on the board. President Donald Trump earlier this year nominated Kloster to a first term and renominated Schultz for a second term on the board; both are Republicans.
Democrats on the committee said they were concerned that the Trump administration’s views on the merger might sway the STB. Trump expressed support for the $85 billion deal after meeting with UP Chief Executive Jim Vena in September.
The railroad also is among the corporations that have made donations to support construction of Trump’s privately funded $300 million White House ballroom.
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| Editor's Note: They speak of “independence,” yet every seat at the table is bought and paid for. While senators quarrel over party lines, the railroads are busy drawing theirs through every office that dares call itself a regulator. The workers who built this system are left to watch as justice is traded like freight on the open market. A government that fears the powerful and fires the honest cannot call itself free.. The boards meant to guard the public have become gates for the rich. It’s time they remembered who laid the rails, who runs the trains, and who this nation truly belongs to. | |
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Julie Sneider / November 7
The political independence of the National Transportation Safety Board and the Surface Transportation Board, as well as the proposed merger between Union Pacific Railroad and Norfolk Southern Railway, were the main topics discussed during a hearing held yesterday by the U.S. Senate Committee of Commerce, Science and Transportation.
U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) called the hearing to review President Donald Trump’s nominations of airline captain John Deleeuw to serve on the NTSB; rail industry consultant Richard Kloster to join the STB; and current STB Vice President Michelle Schultz to assume a second STB term.
After the hearing began with a back-and-forth between Cruz and U.S. Sen. Ben Ray Lujan (D-N.M.) over which political party is responsible for the federal government shutdown, Lujan suggested the hearing on Deleeuw’s nomination should not be held until litigation is settled over Trump’s firing earlier this year of NTSB Vice Chairman Alvin Brown, who is now suing the administration for firing him without cause. Later in the hearing, Lujan also brought up Trump’s firing of STB member Robert Primus, who also has filed a lawsuit challenging his dismissal. Lujan noted that neither Schultz nor Kloster, if confirmed, would replace Primus.
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| Editor's Note: It’s good to see trains full again. Every new route is a reminder that rail still stirs something honest in the American spirit. But behind every headline of record ridership are the crews who keep the wheels turning and the passengers safe. Growth is welcome.. but only if those who make it possible share in its reward. The measure of progress isn’t how many ride, it’s how well the people running the trains are treated. | |
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Cristina Miceli / November 4
Amtrak has launched several new trains and routes in the last few years. In August, the highly anticipated NextGet Acela trains made their debut, and a few days ago, the company announced that a train between Albany and New York City would finally be restored.
In addition, Amtrak’s latest routes continue to impress passengers with their record-breaking results. A few months ago, the Amtrak Borealis service reached 250,000 passengers, just over a year following its debut. However, there’s another route recently added to Amtrak’s network that is now breaking all records: the Mardi Gras Service. Here is everything you should know about this route and its brand-new ridership milestone.
Amtrak’s Mardi Gras service was launched only a few months ago; however, it is already proving to be a highly successful route. TheTravel contacted Marc Magliari, Amtrak Senior Public Relations Manager, who confirmed that between mid-August and the end of September, the route welcomed a total of 18,906 passengers. Yet, numbers continue to increase. At this pace, the Mardi Gras service could easily exceed Amtrak’s original estimate of 71,000 passengers for its first year.
Ridership is now averaging about 90%, and Amtrak even had to include an extra car, adding 60 additional seats on specific days. Magliari confirmed that some passengers are already purchasing tickets for the summer.
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| Editor's Note: The people did what the politicians never will.. they chose progress for all over profit for a few. While the rich hoard and the powerful stall, working folks keep finding ways to move this country forward. Every vote for public transit is a vote for one another, and that’s the only kind of victory that lasts. | |
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Transit won big at ballot boxes across America on Tuesday, promising US communities billions in local support as federal dollars for shared modes fall under threat.
Voters in communities as diverse as Yampa Valley, Colorado and Kalamazoo, Mich. all said yes to public transportation on Tuesday, approving billions in new funding for light rail, buses and more as well as establishing at least one new transit agency.
The biggest piece of the pie came from Mecklenburg County, N.C., which passed a 1-percent sales tax increase that will generate an estimated $388 million per year for 30 years for shared modes — as well as billions more for road safety improvements, mostly in and around the city of Charlotte.
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| Editor's Note: Representatives from RWU, BLET, and SMART-TD have worked alongside groups in Nevada including the Sierra Club to get the ball rolling. In the most recent session of the State legislature, a bill was approved to set up a Taskforce to investigate and study the feasibility of establishing a regional rail system in the state in both the North (Carson City and Reno area) and the South (Las Vegas and Henderson area). Like so many metropolitan areas of the USA, Canada and Mexico, residents are demanding public rail transport. Our unions need to get involved in helping to bring these desires into existence! | |
Will Payne / November 4
Rail transit — it’s a hot topic in the car-centric Biggest Little City. And soon, Nevada could be one step closer to bringing trains back into the transportation conversation.
A new statewide task force will study how to get more Nevadans off their wheels and onto the rails.
“What we’re looking for is what people probably think of as the subway, or BART — some kind of train that takes you around town.”
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Progressive Railroading / November 4
Brother Austin Scott Raysby, the conductor of a northbound Union Pacific Railroad train was struck and killed by a southbound Metra train in September 2024 after the conductor stepped too close to the track on which the Metra train was traveling, the National Transportation Safety Board has determined.
In a report issued last month, NTSB investigators concluded the UP conductor was struck after fouling the adjacent track for unknown reasons. The Sept. 4, 2024, accident occurred in Kenosha, Wisconsin. There were no other fatalities or injuries.
| | Editor's Note: They call it progress when the papers are signed, but a contract means nothing if it only binds the worker and frees the boss. The companies speak of partnership while keeping the profits and the power. Real agreement will come the day labor stands as an equal, not as a cost. Until then, the struggle goes on.. because no signature ever fed a family or gave a worker their dignity back. | |
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Progressive Railroading / November 6
Canadian Pacific Kansas City has reached 13 new five-year tentative agreements with unions in the United States representing laborers, clerks, maintenance workers and mechanical and engineering supervisors, the Class I announced yesterday.
The Class I reached six tentative agreements with the Brotherhood of Railway Carmen, representing 228 carmen on the Delaware & Hudson, Soo Line, Kansas City Southern, MidSouth, SouthRail and TexMex properties, CPKC officials said in a press release.
The railroad also reached five tentative agreements with the Transportation Communications Union and American Railway and Airway Supervisors Association, representing about 105 employees in the United States on the Delaware & Hudson, Soo Line and Kansas City Southern properties. In addition, two tentative agreements were reached with the National Conference of Firemen and Oilers covering 30 employees on the Soo Line and Kansas City Southern properties.
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Progressive Railroading / November 6
Freight railroads in the United States hauled 496,928 carloads and intermodal units during the week ending Nov. 1, down 3.9% compared with traffic from the same week in 2024, according to Association of American Railroads data.
Carloads for the week totaled 227,209, down 0.7%, while weekly intermodal volume totaled 269,719 containers and trailers, down 6.4%.
Four of the 10 carload commodity groups tracked by the AAR each week posted an increase. They included grain, up 6.4% to 25,171 carloads; metallic ores and metals, up 5.5% to 21,151; and miscellaneous carloads, up 8.9% to 9,517.
Commodity groups that posted decreases included coal, down 3.3% to 55,508 carloads; motor vehicles and parts, down 10.1% to 14,917; and nonmetallic minerals, down 1.7% to 32,563.
| | 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! | |
Dollars and Sense / November 3
At the end of last August, President Donald Trump asserted that average wages for U.S. workers had risen by $546 during the first six months since he returned to office in January 2025. As with virtually all of Trump’s pronouncements, this one bears little relationship to the truth. In fact, when using the most reliable government data on wages and then controlling for inflation, workers’ wages did still rise under Trump, but by $26—that’s 95% less than the $546 average pay raise proclaimed by Trump.
The reality of wage stagnation under Trump is fully consistent with his broader attack on working people. As just one example, the labor historian Joseph McCartin called Trump’s move in March to cancel the union rights of more than one million federal government workers “by far the largest single action of union-busting in American history.”
| | Editor's Note: While this workshop is offered to all union representatives/grievers/stewards, it is appropriate for rail union local chairs and vice local chairs as well. A bad supervisor is a bad supervisor! | |
Labor Notes
This workshop has limited capacity and is for stewards and elected officers who work with stewards—not staff. Please register only if this applies to you.
As the union's most active members in the workplace, stewards can regularly find themselves in conflict with supervisors. Sometimes this is just part of the job. But sometimes, stewards come up against particularly difficult supervisors who try to undermine the union at every turn.
Join Labor Notes and other stewards from a variety of industries to talk about strategies for handling bad management.
When: Thursday, November 20
Time: 8 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. Eastern (5 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. Pacific).
Where: This is an online workshop and will be held via Zoom.
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Jimmy Williams
In 1973, construction unions represented 38 percent of workers in the industry (already a big drop from the 87 percent we represented in 1947). Last year, we represented just 11 percent.
As we’ve watched our rights, our membership, and our power erode over the last few decades, it’s become obvious that business as usual just won’t cut it. That’s why our union has embarked on our Building Union Power campaign, an effort to engage and activate every single IUPAT member.
As president, I, along with other elected officers of our International, have been traveling to our District Councils throughout North America to train delegates, apprentices, officers, stewards, staff, and other activists on the history of the labor movement and our union.
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Chris Walker / November 8
Anew report examining worker layoffs in the United States this year finds that the numbers through October closely resemble those seen during recessions in the past.
The report from Challenger, Gray & Christmas, a private firm that tracks workplace hirings and firings across the country, found that there were 153,074 layoffs reported last month alone, a 183 percent increase from September. October 2025 also saw the highest number of layoffs for that month in particular over the past 22 years.
Around 1.1 million layoffs have been reported in the U.S. from January to the end of October, the report stated. Major companies that posted high layoff numbers included UPS, Amazon, and Target, while tech jobs also saw big hits, with firings at a rate 17 percent higher than in 2024, the result of a slowdown in demand and new technologies.
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Kate Bronfenbrenner / October 22
[This article is part of a Labor Notes roundtable series: How Can Unions Defend Worker Power Against Trump 2.0? We will be publishing more contributions here and in our magazine in the months ahead. Click here to read the rest of the series.]
Last year, U.S. unions cautiously celebrated a turnaround in their organizing fortunes. National Labor Relations Board election win rates had reached 79 percent, and the number of workers organized for the year approached 100,000, the highest number since 2009.
Yet these gains masked a harsher reality for labor, even before the disastrous 2024 elections. For the labor movement to grow, it needs to organize millions of workers each year, not 100,000. Organizing continues to lag in fast-growing, low-density sectors such as personal services, IT, finance, and health care, while union-heavy sectors like government and manufacturing keep shedding jobs.
Many organizing victories of the last few years—including landmark wins at Amazon, Starbucks, REI, and Trader Joe’s—have yet to yield first contracts, as employers refuse to bargain and some go so far as to challenge the legitimacy of the NLRB.
And things have only gotten harder since Trump began his second term, dismantling the regulatory state, detaining and deporting immigrant workers, and stripping a million federal workers of collective bargaining rights.
| | Editor's Note: A group of RWU members recently returned from Terre Haute, IN where they took part in the annual Eugen V Debs Award ceremony where each year a nominee wins the award for their courageous work for peace, freedom and justice. Founder of the nation';s first industrial union - the American Railway Union - Eugene Debs was and is today a hero to many railroad worker. See the RWU webpagededicated to his life, ideas and work. | | |
Hamilton Nolan / October 27
On Saturday night, I witnessed a ballroom full of stout Midwesterners—railroad men and laborers, college professors and students, retirees and young parents—stand and say, in unison, “While there is a lower class, I am in it; while there is a criminal element, I am of it; and while there is a soul in prison, I am not free.” There, in the salt-of-the-earth town of Terre Haute, Indiana, I saw the line of solidarity that runs from America’s deep past into its future. It’s still running. Have no fear.
| | 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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