Weekly Digest Number 30 - July 25th, 2023

Editor's Note: Michael Paul Lindsey's videos have inspired hundreds of railroad workers to fight back, and have exposed the Class Ones' disregard for worker and community safety, working conditions, rail shippers, passengers, and the greater economy. Like so many others who have come before him, powerful corporations do not take kindly to such criticism. Please read this extensive interview with Paul, conducted last week by Max Alvarez of the Real News Network.

Railroad Whistleblowers Keep Losing Their Jobs

Michael Paul Lindsey II, a locomotive conductor and engineer of 17 years, tried to sound the alarm on railroad safety. Not long after, he was fired.

MAXIMILLIAN ALVAREZ JULY 21, 2023

Michael Paul Lindsey II is a military veteran who has worked for Union Pacific as a trained locomotive conductor and engineer for the past 17 years, and he has maintained good standing as an employee throughout that time. Over the course of his career on the rails, however, Paul has seen and experienced firsthand how corporate greed has destroyed the railroad industry, damaged our supply chain, run workers into the ground, and put the public in danger. Even though he knew it could put his career at risk, Paul has been outspoken on these issues, using his popular TikTok channel, writing op-eds, and giving interviews in which he has exposed, with a veteran railroader’s insight, the destructive business and labor practices of Union Pacific and the other Class 1 rail carriers, and how those practices have contributed to catastrophes like the Norfolk Southern train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio. Then the company came for him.

Editor's Note: Union Pacific and the Class One railroads have been pushing this absurd idea since it was first proposed in the Section 6 notice to the unions of the operating crafts for national contract bargaining, November 1, 2004. RWU - and its predecessor Railroad Operating Crafts United (ROCU) have been fighting it since getting organized in 2005. We expect the Class Ones will never give up ... and neither will we!

Union Pacific railroad to renew push for 1-person crews by testing conductors in trucks

Union Pacific will renew its push for one-person train crews later this summer when the railroad tests out the idea of having a conductor in a truck respond to problems on trains in Nebraska and Colorado

By JOSH FUNK AP Business Writer July 17, 2023, 3:12 PM

The railroad will continue using two crew members on its trains during the test, but officials say this could bolster their case in future negotiations for cutting crew size if it is successful.

In the wake of the East Palestine, Ohio, disaster, other train towns wonder: Are we next?

John McCracken July 12th, 2023 GRIST

Safety is not only a concern for the cities and towns seeing increased rail traffic, but also for those working the rails. In the immediate aftermath of the Ohio derailment, the working conditions of railroaders were called into question.

Editor's Note: Just as the residents are learning in Houston (see article below) the residents of East Palestine will see that when railroads pollute it can be a decades-long issue.

WIDESPREAD, LINGERING IMPACTS OF NORFOLK SOUTHERN WARRANT AN EMERGENCY RESPONSE

By Erica Jackson/June 30, 2023

On Wednesday, June 15th, residents impacted by the disaster traveled to Ohio’s state house to pressure Governor DeWine to make that declaration. Doing so would open up federal funding for much-needed independent environmental testing and economic relief. The impact of the derailment still looms heavy for many: families unable to return home, farmers questioning the health of their produce and animals, struggling businesses, and continued health impacts like coughing, bloody noses, and rashes. And the impacts go far beyond East Palestine’s borders.

Editor's Note: Another example of a practice of railroads externalizing costs... When the creosote-impregnated railroad ties age out they're tossed aside to leach carcinogens into the groundwater, leaving the adjacent community with a massively expensive (and probably traumatic) relocation of families.

Families to Relocate After Living By Union Pacific Rail Yard

Written by Jennifer McLawhorn, Managing Editor July 14th, 2023

HOUSTON, Texas – After cancer clusters were found in Houston neighborhoods nearby a Union Pacific rail yard, the city plans to spend millions of dollars on relocation. According to MYNorthwest, the city of Houston will spend “millions of dollars to relocate residents” from areas surrounding a “rail yard polluted by a cancer-linked wood preservative that has been blamed for an increase in cancer cases.”

Editor's Note: This fight is an example of what a union can do when it is united and goes on the offensive. The workers are riding a wave of discontent among working calls people. They work for an extremely profitable corporation. They are united, with 95% voting to strike. In many ways, they face circumstances similar to what rail workers faced last year. The difference? They are demanding more, they are demanding what they deserve!

UPS Teamsters ‘Just Practicing’

July 19, 2023 / Alexandra Bradbury, Luis Feliz Leon

A deal could still avert a strike—as we went to press, the Teamsters announced UPS had reached out to resume negotiations. The union bargaining team had dispersed to members’ home locals after talks broke down July 5, for practice picketing that has put on display just how ready to strike UPSers are.

Already the Teamsters have won tentative agreements to end two-tier pay and forced sixth-day work for drivers, install air-conditioning in new delivery trucks, make Martin Luther King Day a paid holiday, eliminate driver-facing surveillance cameras, and curtail the subcontracting of feeder work.

Editor's Note: Hey Will, when you get to this article, search for it, find the link, add it, and then maybe use that graph for a photo. That or the FRA logo. Oh, for logos of all government agencies and railroads and unions, see the DROPBOX folder GRAPHICS - PHOTOS - CARTOONS

FRA Report: Amtrak OTP Still Leaves Much to be Desired

Written by William C. Vantuono, Editor-in-Chief Railway Age Magazine July 19th, 2023

In its “Quarterly Report on the Performance and Service Quality of Intercity Passenger Train Operations” covering Amtrak’s 2023 second fiscal quarter (January to March), the Federal Railroad Administration notes that Amtrak trains experienced approximately 1.31 million minutes (21,833 hours; 909.7 days; 129.9 weeks; 2.5 years) of delay, down 4% from the previous quarter and a 14% increase over the second quarter of FY 2022.

Editor's Note: Incredulously, the engineer of this train had told the carrier in no uncertain terms that this train was not safe to bring down Field Hill. He was ignored. He was right, It derailed. Not long after, another problematic train derailed on Field Hill, that time killing all three crew members on board.

Undesired release of air brakes led to 2019 freight train derailment in the Upper Spiral Tunnel, British Columbia

Richmond, British Columbia, 19 July 2023

The investigation revealed that, although the train cleared CP’s computer-based train marshalling verification program before departing, it was not compliant with the railway’s General Operating Instructions, which states that heavy cars must be placed as close as possible to the head of the train and light cars should be placed as close as possible to the rear unless the cars behind them are also relatively light.

Editor's Note: Finally after ten years of RWU beating the drum that something simply must be done about long and heavy trains, the FRA is taking some action. What happens with the data remains to be seen.

FRA wants Class I railroads to report monthly train length and tonnage data

By Bill Stephens | July 21, 2023

Proposal also would require information about accidents and incidents involving trains over and under 7,500 feet

The FRA, in a notice published in the Federal Register today, says it wants to use the data to better understand the impact of train length on safety and whether trains over a certain length are disproportionately involved in derailments or incidents such as stalls or a loss of communications.

Editor's Note: As the President of the Rail Passengers Association makes clear in this article, what is at stake here is the Class One's ability to keep running these inefficient, unsafe and problematic extremely long trains. Freight rail workers have a great ally in the passenger train advocates. Their fight is our fight!

STB LATE TRAINS CASE SHOULD BE WORTH THE WAIT

Jim Matthews, July 17, 2023 Rail Passengers Association

The freight railroads are fighting back like cornered honey badgers. And it’s no wonder. A look at the initial round of questions STB has posed to all the big players in this case suggests that they’ll be looking at a lot more than just a disputed schedule. Two long-festering controversies will effectively be on trial in this proceeding: one, who’s really to blame for chronic lateness and two, whether extra-long trains can ever be made to work for shippers and passengers as well they do for accountants and investors.

Editor's Note: As we go to press Canadian dockworkers have resumed strike activity at West Coast Canadian ports. This appears to be another example where rank and file workers felt emboldened to reject inadequate offers. It's exciting to see fellow logistics workers who are fighting back.

Canadian dockworkers reject tentative agreement, resume strike

From July 19th, 2023 Progressive Railroading.

International Longshore and Warehouse Union Canada members have rejected a tentative agreement with the British Columbia Maritime Employers Association — which represents British Columbia ports in labor negotiations — and have resumed a strike that began July 1.

Editor's Note: These locomotive builders deserve the support of all railroad workers. They are at the nexus of the labor and environmental movements.

Pennsylvania locomotive manufacturing workers are striking for greener jobs

A 1,400-worker strike at a locomotive plant is part of a larger trend of national labor organizing and calls for a just transition

Workers in Erie, Pennsylvania, are on strike, asking for familiar items like better pay, voting rights, and health care benefits. They’re also asking for one unique condition: to shift their production plant to greener technology.

Editor's Note: It's always exciting to see a non-union short line or regional railroad getting organized. There are tens of thousands of railroad workers in North America yet to gain union representation. It is a crucial task facing rail labor... one more reason to have a single rail workers union encompassing all crafts to get the job done!

Florida Gulf & Atlantic's train, engine workers join BLET

From 7/17/2023 Progressive Railroading

Florida Gulf & Atlantic Railroad's (FG&A) train and engine employees last week voted to join the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen. The National Mediation Board (NMB) certified the election on July 12