Rail & Labor News from RWU
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Weekly Digest Number 40 - October 3rd, 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 has been working closely with citizens groups in Cincinnati, assisting them to make the argument that the municipally owned railroad should not be sold to NS. See our Campaign Page HERE. | |
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Enquirer editorial board Cincinnati Enquirer
City officials could be on the right track in pushing to sell the nation’s only municipally owned railroad, or the decision could wind up being a trainwreck. Voters will have the final say on Nov. 7, and there’s much information about the $1.6 billion deal for them to sift through in the meantime. The forum, co-sponsored by 91.7 (WVXU-FM), will be held at Cincinnati Union Terminal's Reakirt Auditorium, 1301 Western Avenue, and begins promptly at 7 p.m.
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Editor's Note: Great to see these regulators focused on rail safety. But we need laws and regulations, not recommendations and advisories! | |
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George Lauby - Sep. 26, 2023
The head of the Federal Railroad Administration met Monday with workers as well as management in North Platte, the home of the world’s largest railroad yard – Bailey Yard. The FRA sent 16 inspectors to Bailey Yard during the week of Sept. 18-22. They reportedly found 550 deficient rail cars, said Andy Foust, the Nebraska Legislative Director for the Sheet Metal, Air, Rail and Transportation union (SMART-TD.)
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Editor's Note: This bill sounds a little more promising than some of the others that have been introduced. But as we know, the devil is in the details. Does this bill - like the proposed FRA regulation and the Senate bill introduced by Ohio Senators - provide a loophole that allows rail carriers to circumvent the 2-person crew stipulation? | |
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Progressive Railroading
U.S. Reps. Melanie Stansbury (D-N.M.) and Jamaal Bowman (D-N.Y.) have introduced the proposed Rail Worker and Community Safety Act, which calls for mandatory two-person rail crews on all Class Is and other federal rail safety regulations. The bill also would codify paid sick leave for rail workers. It would require railroads to allow their workers to earn up to seven days (56 hours) of paid sick leave each year. Also, railroads would be prohibited from discriminating or retaliating against employees for using their accrued paid sick leave.
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Editor's Note: Most all of the Class Ones have now reached agreement with the myriad unions on paid sick leave, something that never would have come to pass had the working railroaders not raised such hell and threatened national strike action last fall. See the RWU Editorial HERE. | |
Editor's Note: It will be a bright day when railroads replace their fossil and ethanol fuel business with re-captured freight transportation market share... Until then we need to keep making tank cars safer especially if the railroads are skimping on maintenance. | |
Trains Magazine September 29, 2023
The NTSB has called for new standards for tank-car gaskets as a result of its investigation into this 2022 derailment and fire involving a BNSF train in Oklaunion, Texas. Wichita West Volunteer Fire Department, via Twitter
...the majority of the ethanol was released from equipment such as manway covers and valves that remained intact after the derailment, but was damaged by the subsequent fire, and said more thermally resistant gaskets likely would have reduced the severity of the hazardous-material release.
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Editor's Note: Had the citizens of East Palestine along with numerous community groups, unions, and RWU not raised hell about this wreck, none of this would be happening today. | |
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A groundbreaking ceremony on September 21 marked the start of construction of Norfolk Southern’s First Responder Training Center in East Palestine, Ohio.
NS agreed to develop the facility following the derailment in February of a train carrying hazardous chemicals while passing through East Palestine. The company said it would invest at least $20m over 10 years in the new centre, which will operate at no cost to taxpayers.
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Editor's Note: RWU worked closely with the Labor Network for Sustainability to pull off this successful webinar a few weeks ago. Watch it here. | |
Action Network Webinar Recording: Where is this train going?
HUNDREDS of you registered and turned out to hear the case for a freight railroad system in the public interest! Would we accept our public highways being completely owned and controlled by a few giant corporations? No way. So why should we accept it for our critical railroad infrastructure?
(1) Click here to watch the webinar recording - Hear the case directly from affected workers and community members.
(2) Click here to signal your support in the fight for public railroads - Just a few minutes to signal your support.
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Editor's Note: Don't miss this important webinar featuring CSX Conductor and RWU Steering Committee member Nick Wurst. | |
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Please join us in person or online via Zoom for the ConnectiCOSH 2023 Ray Elling In person/Hybrid Health and Safety Convention which will be held at the IAM Local 1746, 357 Main Street, East Hartford, CT. The convention Don’t Get Railroaded: Partnering to Keep Our Communities, Our Jobs and Our Environment on the Right Track will feature Nick Wurst, Recording Secretary of the Railroad Workers United International Steering Committee. Nick will speak about the intersection between worker safety and community safety – as we have seen with railroad tragedies in recent and not so recent times, what affects the safety of the railways affects the safety of the communities they run through.
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Editor's Note: It is great to see rail obtaining funding for so many important projects to improve safety and efficiency. But after 25 years of record profits and hundreds of billions in stock buybacks, one cannot help but wonder why the rail industry itself should not be picking up the tab for these. Well, because they are privately owned and prefer not to. One more reason the railroads should be publicly owned. | |
FRA: $1.4B in Infrastructure Funding Through CRISI Program
Carolina Worrell, September 25
The Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) of the U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT) announced Sept. 25 that it has invested more than $1.4 billion from President Biden’s Infrastructure Law into 70 rail improvement projects in 25 states and Washington, D.C.
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Editor's Note: As this Robotruck lobby moves these things forward, expect the Class One railroads to cry the blues veen louder that they need one-person train crews - or even autonomous trains - in order to compete. Get ready to fight back! | |
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Freddy Brewster
After autonomous vehicle interests spent at least a quarter of a million dollars on lobbying and treated two senior gubernatorial aides to a bougie dinner, California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) vetoed a bill Friday night that would have banned self-driving trucks from operating in the state without a safety operator aboard. The veto delivered a massive win to Big Tech and a major blow to labor unions and road safety advocates, since backers of the bill say the rapid rise of driverless trucks may jeopardize trucking jobs and make public roadways more dangerous.
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Editor's Note: Trucks - unlike trains - cannot be operated safely at higher speeds, and must be limited from speeding. | |
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By John Schulz September 26, 2023
The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s (FMCSA) announced intention to mandate that commercial trucks have speed limiting devices is sharply dividing the trucking industry. On one side is the American Trucking Associations (ATA), safety groups and the Trucking Alliance, which are backing the plan. The Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association (OOIDA) is sharply against it, and hinted it might challenge its legality in courts.
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Cincinnati voters to decide on sale of Cincinnati Southern Railway to NS
Joanna Marsh · September 25, 2023
Those for and against the sale of the Cincinnati Southern Railway to Norfolk Southern are gearing up for a Nov. 7 vote in which Cincinnati residents get to decide whether the city will sell the rail line to NS for $1.62 billion. Cincinnati has owned the land beneath the track for almost two centuries, but NS operates the rail line...
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NEWS FROM AROUND THE LABOR MOVEMENT | |
Editor's Note: Yes it was a photo op, and yes it was a publicity stunt. BUT he did it. This should set the standard for any and all Presidents who wish to proclaim their support for labor. Get out there on the picket line! | |
Editor's Note: The efforts of the UAWD show that change does not just happen, people organizing makes it happen. Rail workers who are disaffected by their union officials' lackadaisical attitude and meek reactions to attacks by the rail carriers would be wise to organize similarly into caucuses within their respective rail unions and build an opposition movement that can affect change and win a more democratic and member-focused union. | |
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JANE SLAUGHTER | SEPTEMBER 20, 2023
UAW members are on strike today because four years ago a small group of activists founded a reform caucus. That caucus, Unite All Workers for Democracy (UAWD), boldly took advantage of an unexpected opportunity, organized like crazy, won elections, and went on to lead the union. Their international president consistently hammers home the message that the UAW’s fight this fall is a fight for the whole working class.
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