Rail & Labor News from RWU
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Weekly Digest Number 42 - October 17th, 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: RWU Member Mary Patterson is interviewed in this story of how the freight railroads make Amtrak passenger trains chronically late. | |
John Ryan / October 06
Late is par for the course for Amtrak trains nationwide. The passenger rail company blames illegal interference from freight trains for most of its passengers’ often-substantial delays. Rail advocates say enticing more passengers to take a train instead of driving or flying — and making a dent in the heavy climate impact of American transportation — will require measures to reduce those delays and boost train travel’s speed and reliability.
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Editor's Note: This scathing commentary from the officers of the Unity Council for the East Palestine Derailment asks the question of Cincinnati voters: Why would you want to give your future over to the railroad that brought Ohio such a disastrous wreck just 9 months earlier? | |
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Jami R. Wallace & Christina Siceloff / Oct 12
The Unity Council for the East Palestine Train Derailment writes this letter in solidarity with the Derail the Sale Campaign to urge the constituents of Cincinnati to vote "no" on Issue 22. There is no benefit from the sale of Cincinnati Southern Railway that outweighs the health of your families. As the railway owner, Cincinnati retains oversight powers regarding its proper and safe use, something East Palestine did not have and still does not.
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Editor's Note: This TV clip is well put together and exposes a lot of what is wrong with the rail industry in North America today and features the RWU Organizer along with Professor Jeff Schuhrke who has written extensively in the past year on rail labor issues. | |
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CUNY TV
On this episode of City Works, Laura Flanders is joined by Jeff Schuhrke, a labor historian and assistant professor at the Harry Van Arsdale Jr. School of Labor Studies, and Ron Kaminkow, a locomotive engineer and co-founder of Railroad Workers United. The three speak about the critical state of the U.S. rail industry and the organized fight for safer railways and railworkers' rights.
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Editor's Note: While it worth requesting for the record, the chances that the FRA will actually issue such an order are that of a snowball in hell. Nevertheless, kudos to the BLET President for demanding one. | |
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BLET Requests FRA to issue emergency Order Limiting Train Length
BLET Statement
"Following the recent increase in derailments being contributed to forces created by massive train sizes, the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen ("BLET") requests the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) intervention establishing a maximum train length of 7,500 feet by issuing an Emergency Order."
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Editor's Note: Ten states - a number of them conservative strongholds like Kansas - have now adopted two-person crew laws, showing the broad appeal of the concept. While the courts are known to strike down any state law which attempts to regulate the railroad, these states are displaying the need for federal legislation that guarantees a minimum of two crew members per train. | |
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by Marybeth Luczak
Kansans’ safety and security must always come first, and that includes the safety of our railroad crew members,” Gov. Laura Kelly said in an Oct. 11 press release, which noted that Kansas is the 10th state to require a two-person crew. “This requirement will protect workers from the effects of fatigue, prevent train derailments, and reduce risks in the many Kansas communities along our railroad tracks.”
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Editor's Note: For whatever reason the state of California seems determined to push hydrogen power even after it's recent discrediting in Germany. When motive power technology eventually plays out, these and other hydrogen powered trains are likely to be expensive orphans, with an expensive fuel supply chain. | |
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Esther Geerts
The State of California and Swiss rolling stock manufacturer Stadler have signed an agreement for the supply of hydrogen trains this Thursday. Under the contract worth 80 million US dollars, Stadler will provide the California State Transportation Agency (CalSTA) and Caltrans with four hydrogen fuel cell trains, with an option to acquire up to 25 additional train sets.
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Editor's Note: In 2010, RWU first articulated a position opposed inward facing cameras on locomotives, and promulgated a number of position statements in the last decade. If and when cameras are introduced in any service, RWU believes the footage should only be available to federal inspectors for use in post-accident research and not be routinely made available to rail managers to do with what they will. | |
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By JOSH FUNK / October 13
Passenger railroads nationwide will now be required to install video recorders inside their locomotives, but the head of the National Transportation Safety Board said Thursday the new rule is flawed because it excludes freight trains like the one that derailed and caught fire in eastern Ohio earlier this year.
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Editor's Note: Electrically Controlled Pneumatic braking brings a new level of safety and data capture to trains. In addition to quicker and safer emergency stops and modulated pressure on couplers on long trains, ECP brakes on each railcar communicate with the lead locomotive and could convey the condition of critical railcar parts in 'real time' to the train crew. RWU has supported the concept of ECP braking for many years. | |
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by Grady C. Cothen Jr., Federal Railroad Administration (ret.)
Putting a few ECP trains on the railroad amid overlong and underpowered conventional trains will not make the network more fluid. Limiting ECP brakes to trains of certain lengths, or trains employing distributed power, would not be feasible given the requirements for interoperability. There needs to be a broader commitment.
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Editor's Note: Much of what is in these bills has also found its way into bills at the federal level. Politicians understand the popularity of rail safety legislation .. and are also aware of the rail industry's desire to kill all of these bills. Passage is difficult for the usual reason in politics - it is the People vs. profits. | |
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Progressive Railroading
Many state legislatures are considering measures aimed at tightening rail-safety laws in response to the Feb. 3 derailment of a Norfolk Southern Railway hazmat train in East Palestine, Ohio. The bills have called for provisions such as mandatory train-crew size, limits on train length, required wayside or hot box detectors, the creation of grade separations and the development of comprehensive emergency response plans.
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Editor's Note: CSX has been a big polluter in Baltimore, MD for years. Now the citizens are rising up and fighting back for a cleaner city. | |
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October 4 / By B.A. Parker, Rebecca Hersher, Courtney Stein, Bilal Qureshi, Dalia Mortada, Neela Banerjee, Arielle Retting
South Baltimore is on a peninsula surrounded by water, highways and train tracks. It's mostly made up of residential row houses, small yards, schools, rec centers and parks. ...mountains of coal are the focus of a growing opposition movement called Free Your Voice, led by South Baltimore teenagers — young people of color who are spearheading a call for climate justice.... mountains of coal are the focus of a growing opposition...
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Editor's Note: Many cities and states are taking legal action against the rail carriers for the contamination of soil, air and groundwater, caused by years of abuse and neglect of rail property by the carriers. | |
Editor's Note: Battery powered switchers are where freight rail electrification begins. They can be re-made from existing diesel-powered units and they don't require catenary. Kudos to WATCO for going this direction instead of dirty, complicated hydrogen power. | |
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by Carolina Worrell
After more than a year in production, Watco’s newly commissioned battery-powered switching locomotives are receiving high marks as they “outperform original assumptions around functionality and sustainability,” the short line holding company announced. “The way it performs is smoother than a diesel-electric. As far as operations, these things are the ticket.”
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NEWS FROM AROUND THE LABOR MOVEMENT | |
Editor's Note: The auto workers "stand up" strike continues to roll out as the Big Three automakers play hardball with the union. All rail workers should get behind these strikers. Their strike is our strike! | |
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KEITH BROWER BROWN / OCTOBER 11, 2023
Every Friday for the past four weeks, Big Three CEOs have waited fearfully for United Auto Workers (UAW) President Shawn Fain to announce which plants will strike next. But without warning on Wednesday afternoon, the union threw a haymaker: within 10 minutes the UAW would be shutting down the vast Kentucky Truck Plant.
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Editor's Note: RWU has sent members to these conferences in the past. All RR workers are encouraged to attend. RWU members who are interested should contact RWU with their intentions, and do not hesitate to ask for financial assistance if you wish to attend. | |
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If you’re a worker in the U.S. South, or otherwise engaged in efforts to help to build organization and worker power, we hope you’ll join us at the upcoming Southern Worker School. The gathering comes in the midst of a growing fightback that is permeating across sectors of the working class. [and addresses] how to carry this momentum into a widening number of workplaces, prepare for the election year ahead, and intervene in this moment to organize the unorganized and build workers assemblies to advance this struggle-oriented trend.
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Weekly Derailment Department | | | | |
