Rail & Labor News from RWU
| | Weekly Digest Number 35 - August 26, 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: This article makes the case against the UP-NS Merger, including the input of RWU General Secretary along with other rank & file rail workers and union officials. Look for more articles of this nature in the coming weeks and months. The RWU Media Outreach Committee is geared up and ready! | |
The Guardian / August 25th
A proposed mega-merger of two of the largest railroad companies in the US will hurt jobs, raise costs for consumers and increase the risk of more catastrophic train crashes, according to workers and unions.
Union Pacific proposed a $85bn deal to buy Norfolk Southern last month, which would create the first transcontinental railroad network in the US.
As executives at Union Pacific seek approval from federal regulators the Surface Transportation Board, union leaders warn the deal heightens fears around safety – two years after the derailment of a Norfolk Southern train in East Palestine, Ohio, resulted in the release of plumes of toxic chemicals.
“The entirety of the workers” is against the merger, claimed John Samuelsen, the president of the Transport Workers Union.
| | Editor's Note: While Wall Street plots another merger to fatten its purse, rail workers see the same old game.. the industry is run for profit, not for people. Hedge funds call the shots, executives scramble to please them, and the men and women who keep the trains moving are left to pay the price in wages, jobs, and safety. Whether it is CSX, BNSF, or CP-KCS, the name on the letterhead doesn’t matter, the outcome is the same: fewer workers, longer trains, and greater risk. The financiers demand speed, the carriers obey, and communities along the tracks live with the wreckage. The lesson for labor is clear.. no salvation will come from the boardroom. Only through united, organized, and militant workers can this industry be wrested from the grip of capital and placed in the service of the people. | |
Trains Magazine / August 19th
Activist investor Ancora Holdings, which recently announced it had taken an increased stake in CSX, is increasing pressure on the railroad to pursue a merger.
The hedge fund today released a letter it had sent to the CSX board on Aug. 6, saying the board “needs to announce in the near term that it is working with identified third-party advisors to explore a range of merger options,” and arguing that “no railroad has more to lose than CSX” if the Union Pacific-Norfolk Southern merger takes place.
The move came on the same day that Reuters reported another activist investor, Toms Capital, has requested a meeting with the CSX board, raising expectations it, too, would push for a merger.
Ancora’s letter also attacked the performance of the railroad under CEO Joe Hinrichs, as it had when Ancora Alternatives President James Chadwick discussed the company’s investment in CSX during a July interview on CNBC.
| | Editor's Note: The so-called “cooling-off” period imposed on Long Island Rail Road workers is nothing but a leash fastened by the state to protect the bosses’ comfort. Five unions have stood their ground, refusing to bow to an offer that sells short their labor and their dignity, and now the machinery of government steps in.. not to help the worker, but to delay their right to strike. We have seen this before: time is always granted to the carriers, never to the rank and file. They call it mediation, but its purpose is to sap momentum, to cool the fire of solidarity. Workers must remember.. the law may restrain our hand for thirty days, but it cannot restrain our power if we act together. No decree can grant us justice, we will win it only by standing shoulder to shoulder and making ourselves ungovernable to those who exploit us. | |
Progressive Railroading / August 19th
The National Mediation Board (NMB) today confirmed that it has released the MTA Long Island Rail Road and five labor unions that represent the railroad's workers from statutory mediation, an action that starts a 30-day "cooling off" period between the parties.
The five unions involved in the negotiations are the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen (BLET), the Brotherhood of Railroad Signalmen (BRS), the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAMAW), the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) and the Transportation Communications Union (TCU).
The labor unions indicated last week that the parties were unable to reach a voluntary agreement, local news media reported.
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| Editor's Note: Another preventable disaster strikes the rails.. this time in Illinois, where a Norfolk Southern train derailed after rolling through a spring switch that had just been worked on. Cars of molten sulfur spilled, crew were injured, and once again it is the workers who pay the price for a system built on speed, cost-cutting, and blind faith in corporate oversight. The NTSB will issue findings, the lawyers will circle, and the carrier will blame procedure. But every railroader knows the truth.. safety is hollow when dictated from the boardroom. Until workers have a decisive voice in how trains are run, maintained, and crewed, accidents like this will remain a feature, not a flaw, of railroading in America. | |
Progressive Railroading / August 18th
The National Transportation Safety Board has issued its preliminary report on a July 18 Norfolk Southern Railway derailment, collision and hazardous materials release near Browns, Illinois.
According to the report, an eastbound NS mixed freight train passed over a spring switch and derailed 24 rail cars, over half the train's length, which subsequently collided with a stationary westbound mixed-freight train in the NS Midwest Division, Southern West District near Browns, Illinois.
The eastbound train was the first to pass over the spring switch after maintenance had been conducted about 40 minutes prior, NTSB officials said.
Among the eastbound train's derailed cars were two tank cars with molten sulfur that were breached and released product, and one tank car with denatured fuel ethanol, which released about 15 gallons of product.
| | Editor's Note: BMWED members on Union Pacific have ratified a five-year deal with wage bumps and benefit tweaks, but the gains barely keep pace with what Wall Street skims off the top. An 18.5% raise means little when inflation and job cuts eat it away. The real lesson isn’t in the numbers, it’s that workers only move the needle when they stand together, and that isolated contracts will never match the power of united crafts. The merger looming on the horizon should remind us.. consolidation enriches the carriers, solidarity must enrich the working class. | |
Teamsters / August 21
Thousands of maintenance of way workers at Union Pacific (UP) have voted to ratify a strong new contract. They are represented by the Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employes Division (BMWED) of the Teamsters Rail Conference.
The contract victory comes as Union Pacific recently proposed a merger with Norfolk Southern. If approved, it would create the largest railroad in American history.
“Sitting on the bargaining committee was an eye-opening experience — one that I am happy to have contributed to and had a voice in,” said Lee Ziegler, a member of the Union Pacific bargaining committee and BMWED Lodge 899. “I’m glad that together we were able to come to a resolution that advances our wages and benefits.”
| | Editor's Note: This video blows the whistle on what the Class One carriers are attempting to get away with - replacing countless track inspectors with AI while trying to claim that the rails will be just as safe in fact safer, without on-the-ground live human track inspectors. The news outlet "More Perfect Union" calls bullshit! | | More Perfect Union / August 22nd | | Editor's Note: Make no mistake, this is a direct result of the announced UP-NS merger from just a few weeks ago. Look for these two railroads to soon begin talks - if they have not already done so - to form a BNSF-CSX merger. Whether that happens in a few weeks, months or years, it is more or less a done deal in the face of the nation's other two big Class One carriers seeking to combine their systems. Hold onto your hat! | |
Progressive Railroading / August 22nd
Today, CSX and BNSF Railway Co. announced several new joint intermodal service products designed to offer customers seamless, efficient, coast-to-coast solutions to ship between the western and eastern United States.
The new services will include:
• new, coast-to-coast direct domestic intermodal services between Southern California and Charlotte, North Carolina, and Jacksonville, Florida;
• a new service to be launched between Phoenix and Atlanta, aiming to convert over-the-road (OTR) freight to rail through a seamless product between the two railroads; and
• new direct international intermodal services between the Port of New York and New Jersey and Norfolk, Virginia, and Kansas City, Missouri.
Between Phoenix and Flagstaff, Arizona, two new 10,000-foot sidings will further support this growing market by enabling more efficient meet/pass operations on the route connecting to BNSF’s Southern Transcon, the rail corridor connecting Los Angeles to Chicago.
| | Editor's Note: Restoration of passenger service to this former Amtrak route following Hurricane Katrina took nearly 20 years, and it is only over 140 miles of the route. The Class One carriers fought it every step of the way. While this is a great victory for advocates of passenger rail, we simply must ask ourselves how - at this rate - are we ever going to restore a robust passenger train network to the U.S. when we rely on the Class One rail carriers to be the hosts when they are hostile to passenger trains? | |
Progressive Railroading / August 18th
An Amtrak train carrying passengers bound for New Orleans officially left a train station in Mobile, Alabama, early this morning, marking the first time in 20 years that the railroad has served that area of the Gulf Coast.
Local events featuring music and other festivities were held Aug. 16 in Bay St. Louis, Gulfport, Biloxi and Pascagoula, Mississippi, as part of an inaugural run between New Orleans and Mobile to celebrate Amtrak's new Mardi Gras Service. The new twice daily service offers morning and evening departures from both Mobile and New Orleans.
The Mardi Gras route is the first time Amtrak has been able to transport passengers along the Gulf Coast since Hurricane Katrina devastated the region in 2005. Last month, Amtrak started accepting bookings for the service.
| | Editor's Note: Batteries can be a great answer for short haul passenger lines. Batteries can also supplement catenary (overhead wire) sourced electricity for freight locomotives. The optimal rate of charge is one of many tricky questions about the deployment of electric power in rail. Faster charging impacts the electric grid supplying the power - ever more so when powering a massive freight train. More catenary can buffer the impact. Also, the battery chemistry mentioned here and that currently being trialed in freight locomotives in the U.S. is optimized for over the road use and probably not the best choice for rail, which does not have the same weight penalty (if the batteries are over the drive wheels). There are other battery-centric schemes for freight rail, one being a literal bolt-on system that gets added to several (conventional) railcars throughout a freight train, providing regenerative braking and saving about 5% of locomotive fuel. Some combination of catenary and battery is the clear winner to power trains. | |
Rail Tech / August 20th
Great Western Railway (GWR) has set a new world distance record for battery-powered traction after one of its retrofitted units completed a 200-mile (322 km) round trip from Reading overnight. The specially adapted 1982 District Line train travelled via London Paddington and Oxford before returning to Reading on overnight morning.
The previous record of 139 miles (224 km) was set by Stadler Deutschland in Berlin in 2021. GWR’s unit passed that milestone on Brunel’s Maidenhead Bridge at around 04:00 BST early on Wednesday morning, reaching 140 miles (225 km) without external charging.
“We can confirm that, subject to final checks,” Rail Performance Society Vice chairman Nigel Smedley said. “The Great Western Railway Class 230 train travelled 200 miles on a return journey from Reading Train Care Depot without charging its batteries from any external energy source.”
| | Editor's Note: Californians for Electric Rail has published a new whitepaper critiquing "Trucks vs. Trains" analysis of the California Air Resources Board (CARB). A closer analysis of CARB's and supplementary data suggests that using real world fleet conditions, moving the same amount of freight by train has lower impacts on air quality, greenhouse gas, and safety compared to moving it by truck. The group encourages CARB and allied environmental organizations to prioritize modal shift to rail and rail electrification. | |
Californians for Electric Rail / August 19th
In 2020, CARB published a Trucks vs. Trains Analysis calculating the impacts of in-progress truck regulations on relative emissions between the truck and rail freight sectors. Importantly, these analyses assumed perfect compliance with CARB’s Advanced Clean Trucks and Advanced Clean Fleets Rules, and no regulation or zero-emissions transition in the rail sector. These purported to show that trucks would be cleaner than trains in the then near future year of 2023 if no rail regulations were put in place. It’s no surprise that if you assume one sector transitions to zero emissions and the other doesn’t, your results will show lower emissions in the one that transitioned.
However, in 2025 none of these assumptions are true. CARB proposed the In-Use Locomotive Rule regulating rail emissions in 2022, and as of 2025 all three regulations have been nullified by the Trump administration. Meanwhile, CARB’s analysis has been taken out of context to argue against vehicle miles travelled (VMT) reduction or modal shift to rail in the freight sector. Major policy directions like this need to be based on real-world data, not outmoded assumptions. In addition to being highly tailored to now-irrelevant regulations, CARB’s analysis omits many key impacts from trucks and completely ignores greenhouse gas emissions.
| | Editor's Note: The Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters played a crucial role in the labor and civil rights movements in the United States. Organized at a time when Black workers were largely excluded from trade unions, the BSCP organized against great odds, winning better conditions for thousands of porters aboard the nation's passenger trains. Travelling around the country, these men brought the cause of the labor movement to communities large and small. Ten years after the BSCP's founding, the newly forming Congress of Industrial Organization (CIO) and its affiliates would open the door to all workers, ushering in a new era of desegregated democratic unionism, the fruits of which were to be enjoyed by Black ad White workers alike. Sadly, many of the rail craft unions would maintain a color line for another 30 years. | |
The Chicago Crusader / August 13th
Earlier this year, the National A. Philip Randolph Pullman Porter Museum (NAPRPPRM) announced the launch of a yearlong celebratory campaign honoring the 100th Anniversary of the founding of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters (BSCP) as the first Black labor union and the museum’s 30th anniversary. As the campaign draws to a close, a series of events will take place starting August 8, 2025, with a visit from representatives of the A. Philip Randolph Institute, which was founded by Randolph in 1965.
Founded in 1925, the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters holds a pivotal place in American labor history as the first Black labor union in America to be chartered under the American Federation of Labor (AFL). Organized and co-founded by the legendary labor organizer and civil rights leader, A. Philip Randolph and a group of dedicated porters, this group of men fought tirelessly for the rights and dignity of its members, who endured harsh working conditions and discrimination. The union’s formation marked a significant step towards the advancement of labor, civil rights and equity for African Americans.
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High Speed Rail Alliance / Event on October 10th
Please mark your calendars for the High Speed Rail Alliance Fall 2025 Luncheon on Friday, October 10th in downtown Chicago.
This gathering will bring together members, local leaders, and other dedicated advocates working to advance better transportation for our region and the nation.
Date: Friday, October 10, 2025
Time: Doors open 10:00am | Program 11:00am-3:00pm
Location: Downtown Chicago (venue TBA)
Stay tuned for more details and registration information. We look forward to seeing you there!
| | Editor's Note: Again, states like Virginia and North Carolina that have made investments in passenger train development continue to prove the old adage, "build it, and they will come!" There is great potential for safe, clean, reliable passenger rail - and the rail jobs that go with it - in countless other states as well. They just need the political will. | |
Virginia Passenger Rail Authority / July 28th
Amtrak Virginia, the Commonwealth’s state-supported passenger rail service, closed the state fiscal year by setting another ridership record. In SFY2025, 1,451,276 passengers traveled on Amtrak Virginia. This was an increase of 4.8% compared to SFY2024 and was the highest ridership recorded since the state-supported service launched in 2009. Increases were seen on all four corridors with Roanoke leading the way with an increase of 6.9%. The Norfolk corridor carried the most passengers with 542,743 people traveling in SFY2025.
The month of June 2025 also set a record with 126,284 passengers traveling. This was the highest ridership the state has seen in June since the Amtrak Virginia service launched. All four corridors recorded double-digit increases in June.
| | 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: More than 40 years ago, another President - Ronald Reagan - broke the air traffic controllers union. Many working people felt that the labor movement should respond with vigor - protests, strikes, boycotts and general non-cooperation. The labor movement issued a tepid whimper ... and the labor movement entered a long painful decline ever since. Are we going to stand idly by once again and watch as our brothers and sisters are destroyed? If they go down, we are certainly going to be next! | |
Jacobin / August 14th
Last week, pursuant to President Donald Trump’s March 27 executive order, the federal government unilaterally voided the collective bargaining agreements (CBAs) covering almost 400,000 Veterans Administration (VA) employees. Since then, it has also voided contracts covering tens of thousands more at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the Federal Emergency Management Agency, and Citizenship and Immigration Services. These moves also end all payroll dues collection by these workers’ unions, throwing them into desperate financial jeopardy.
As Hamilton Nolan has pointed out, this is 2.5 percent of all American unionized workers — making this “by far the largest single action of union-busting in American history.” The Center for American Progress estimates that Trump’s executive order covers four-fifths of all federal workers represented by unions. An earlier federal order to strip almost 50,000 Transportation Security Administration workers of their contractual bargaining rights is temporarily on hold.
Meanwhile, another 154,000 federal workers, many fearing layoffs as a result of separate “reduction in force” orders, have accepted various resignation incentives; numerous others, so far uncounted, have been laid off or fired.
| | Editor's Note: RWU encourages ALL railroad workers to get involved in the larger labor movement. We can not exist in a vacuum. Labor's adage is, "An injury to one is an injury to all!" An attack on any segment of the working class is an attack on all of us. Coming out for Labor Day is a good way to get started! | |
AFL-CIO / Event on August 28th
Join AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler, union members and leaders, and our community allies for a look at what’s happening across the country this Labor Day in support of working people.
It truly is Workers’ Labor Day. At hundreds of events across the nation, we’re standing up for the freedom, fairness and security America’s workers deserve.
| | Editor's Note: In a gallant display of solidarity last week, rank & file members of the flight attendants union in Canada defied a government back-to-work order. They have succeeded in bringing management back to the bargaining table and in addition, may have struck a blow to change Canadian labour law. The union president has vowed to go to jail if necessary. Imagine if the rail union officials in the United States would have stood up to the U.S. government in November 2022 when it passed legislation preempting a national rail strike! "Direct action gets the goods!" | | |
CTV News / August 22nd
Many Air Canada flight attendants are dissatisfied with wage increases in a tentative agreement that ended a crippling strike earlier this week and union members may not approve the deal, cabin crew and a source familiar with the matter told Reuters.
Five flight attendants interviewed by Reuters said they plan to vote against the agreement because it fails to provide a living wage to entry-level workers and does not fully address concerns about lack of payment for hours spent waiting for a flight. The leader of the union acknowledged many members were frustrated with the deal, which was hailed initially as a union victory following an overnight blitz of talks.
That sentiment was echoed on social media posts by people who said they were flight attendants, although Reuters could not confirm their identity.
| | 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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