Weekly Digest Number 23 - June 6th, 2023

(Editor's Note: Railroad Workers United has aided and assisted these fine journalists to the best of our ability this past year. Now it is your turn! RWU encourages all rail workers to blow the whistle on the rail carriers and tell your story to these reporters. Let the voice of the rail worker be heard!)

Help ProPublica Report on Railroad Worker Safety

Many railroad employees tell us being injured on the job or reporting a safety concern can be fraught with consequences. Our investigative journalists want to talk with insiders in order to tell this story right.

by Topher Sanders, Dan Schwartz and Ruth Baron May 30, 12:30 p.m. EDT

(Editor's Note: This article is good ... but then hints that it is the union contract to blame. By law, the employer MUST create and maintain a safe workplace. Allowing for this continuous work after 8, 10, 12 hours and more is unacceptable and the carrier is responsible to ensure that workers are well rested when they come to work, period.)

Hundreds of Sleep-Deprived LIRR Employees Worked 24 Hour Shifts, Risked Fatigue-Related Tragedies: Watchdog

By Ben Brachfeld JUne 1st, 2023

Hundreds of Long Island Rail Road employees in sensitive jobs have worked excessive hours, sometimes more than 24 hours at a time, causing tragic accidents driven by fatigue and risking many more, according to a new audit by the MTA Inspector General’s office.

(Editor's Note: The MBTA has been an unmitigated disaster in recent years. Perhaps a first step in correcting all that is wrong with its operations is to stop contracting out its services to international renegade contractor KEOLIS.)

FTA Orders MBTA to Revise Safety Plan for Track Workers

By | May 30, 2023

Plan submitted May 5 is ‘insufficient;’ federal agency seeks ‘direct and focused actions’

A Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority safety plan for track workers has been turned down by the Federal Transit Administration, which has ordered a new plan to be submitted by June 5.

FRA Proposes Certification for Rail Dispatchers, Signal Employees

May 31st, 2023

The Federal Railroad Administration is soliciting comments until July 31 on proposed regulations for the certification of railroad dispatchers and signal employees.

(Editor's Note: This article makes clear what Amtrak is up against not just with climate change, but due to the fact that the passenger carrier is at the mercy of the Class One carriers. It mentions the public ownership option as a possible solution.)

Amtrak is the Climate-Friendly Option — if Extreme Weather Doesn't Disrupt Your Trip

The patchwork nature of Amtrak’s network means that making the rail operator more climate resilient while also helping it attract more passengers is no simple matter.

L.V. Anderson May 24th, 2023 GRIST

(Editor's Note: Without the rail workers and public outcry that took place and continues in the wake of the wreck, it is doubtable that NS would be doing anything. Keep up the pressure, folks!)

Norfolk Southern Won't Clean Up Their Mess Unless We Make Them

MAXIMILLIAN ALVAREZ MAY 30, 2023

In this urgent episode, we speak with Ashley McCollum, Kayla Miller, and Christina Siceloff — three residents of East Palestine and the surrounding area in Ohio and Pennsylvania, and members of the East Palestine Unity Council — about what they, their families, and their communities are going through, how they are banding together to provide mutual aid for one another, and what we can all do to help

(Editor's Note: While this new rail CEO may be the first one to tell the truth about the rail industry's antics and bullshit, do not be fooled. The rail industry has suffered a big black eye this past year and they need to make nice with their shippers, workers, with the public, and with Congress. As he says, "Most of our key stakeholders hate us." But CSX and the rest are still Fortune 500 corporations whose modus operandi is a monopoly corporation designed to maximize profits in the short run. The leopard cannot so easily change its spots. Beware.)

First Step Toward Improving Rail Service is Treating Employees Better, CSX CEO Says

By Bill Stephens | May 30, 2023 TRAINS Magazine

“At best we have strained relations with every single key stakeholder except investors. And most of our key stakeholders hate us,” Hinrichs says he told CSX management shortly after becoming CEO last fall. “We’re seeing that play out. We’re at an inflection point in this industry.”

(Editor's Note: The President and CEO of the Rail Passengers Association does a good job here calling out the U.S. Class One rail industry for their endless delaying of Amtrak trains. His criticism of the rail industry is spot on. Note: RWU has been a dues-paying member organization of RPA the last 5 years or so. We encourage the rail unions to do likewise, join and get involved in this fight. Individual rail workers can join HERE.)

STB Should Stop Letting Freights Run Out the Clock

On Monday it will be six months since Amtrak filed its first-ever Section 213 late-trains complaint with the Surface Transportation Board, spotlighting Union Pacific’s abysmal handling of the Sunset Limited as a test case for the new passenger-service metrics and standards that Amtrak, the freight railroads, and Federal regulators all agreed to live by.

by Jim Mathews / President & CEO of the Rail Passengers Association June 2, 2023

(Editor's Note: This is exciting news. Hopefully this will soon become law in that state and others, and put the kibosh on self-driving trucks AND take away one of the rail carriers' professed reasons as to why the railroad simply must go to single person - and eventually no person - train crews. Go California!)

California State Assembly Votes to Ban Driverless Trucks

The California State Assembly voted Wednesday to ban driverless trucks from the state’s roadways, requiring a safety driver be present. If passed by the Senate, it would leave the state where most autonomous trucking companies are based as an outlier in adopting the technology.

Alan Adler Wednesday, May 31, 2023

(Editor's Note: RWU urges all railroad workers to get behind this effort of the locomotive builders in Erie, PA, formerly GE employees, now of new owner WABTEC.)

In Erie, 1,500 UE Members to Walkout Over “Right to Strike” over Grievances

With the locomotive plant expanding again, the UE plans to strike to win back the right to strike over grievances when their contract expires at midnight on June 9th. 

BY: MIKE ELK JUNE 1, 2023

(Editor's Note: RWU Steering Committee member and UP engineer Michael Paul Lindsey gives us an update of life today after being fired for speaking out about rail practices after 17 years on the railroad.)

What Do You Do When a Corrupt Railroad Monopoly Fires You for Speaking Out Against Their Corrupt Business Practices?

(Editor's Note: Look out! Norfolk Southern, a generation ago WAS the "gold standard" in safety and it earned that corporation the nick-name "Nazi Southern" due to its "Behavior Based Safety", Blame-the-Worker attitude. Thousands of workers were disciplined and fired illegally as NS worked hard to be the "safest" railroad in the business. Rail workers and unions must fight against any safety programs that seek to blame workers and not fix the hazards. NS alone is responsible for its dismal safety record of recent years, not its employees, period. We refuse to go back to the days of Nazi Southern where the company blamed all accidents and injuries on its workforce.)

Shaw: NS is ‘Going to be the Gold Standard in Safety’

Rail CEOs echo safety message at industry conference... The rail industry has also been subject to broader public scrutiny over how the industry handles operations and train derailments.

Joanna Marsh Thursday, June 01, 2023

(Editor's Note: The railroad workers of the Ukraine are carrying on a proud heroic tradition that railroad workers of many war torn countries have maintained over the years.)

How Ukraine's ‘Iron People’ Keep the Country on Track

Photographs and video by Jelle Krings

Story by Kyle Almond, CNN Published May 19, 2023

That’s when it hit me how courageous these men and women were for going back into the war zone and sacrificing their safety and their opportunity to leave the country in order to help others,” he said.