Newly released recordings bring to light a culture of ignoring safety in favor of profit By Collin Woodard for jalopnik.com You would think that if you worked as a track inspector for a railroad company, reporting defects would make you good at your job. After all, wouldn’t the company want to know where its trains […]
Lawyers and unions say there’s an industry-wide pattern of acting against workers who report safety violations or injuries. BY JOSH FUNK AND THE ASSOCIATED PRESS via fortune.com Hours before a Norfolk Southerntrain derailed in Ohio and erupted in fire in February, a judge ruled a former railroad employee could proceed with a lawsuit claiming he had been harassed for years by managers […]
Subpar rail service interferes with US’ ability to compete internationally, Oberman says CHICAGO — The Class I railroads must increase their head count levels because doing so not only will bolster rail service but benefit the U.S. economy overall, Surface Transportation Board Chair Marty Oberman said to a crowd of rail shippers and rail employees […]
By Bill Stephens for trains.com New management incentives for service and growth are an encouraging sign Well, this isn’t a pretty picture. From 2013 to 2022 U.S. industrial production eked out 3% growth, overall economic output increased 57%, and truck tonnage grew 26%. Yet volume on the big four U.S. railroads increased by an average of just 2% […]
By JOSH FUNK for apnews.com Tens of thousands of engineers remain frustrated with the lack of paid sick time and the demands railroads like BNSF are making in negotiations despite the deals that have been made this year for most of the other rail unions. The lack of sick time and other quality of life concerns about the demanding schedules train […]
By Natalie Neysa Alund for usatoday.com A train carrying ethanol derailed early Thursday in rural Minnesota, and several cars caught fire, forcing nearby residents to evacuate homes as a precaution. The derailment took place at 1 a.m. in the small city of Raymond, the Raymond Fire Departmentreported. The city is in southwest Kandiyohi County about 110 miles west of Minneapolis. Homes […]
By Chris Isidore, for cnn.com Union Pacific, one of the major freight railroads that successfully fought off union demands for paid sick days for workers during contentious labor negotiations in 2022, reported another year of record earnings Tuesday. The company, along with CSX, Norfolk Southern and Burlington Northern Sante Fe, narrowly avoided a strike by its unionized workers […]
Railroads are prioritizing payments to Wall Street stockholders over everything else, including serving the public interest. By John Cassidy for newyorker.com In our click-driven world, the threatened strike at America’s freight railroads, and President Biden’s intervention to prevent it, represents last week’s news. But there are two groups for which the averted strike is still […]
By Lori Ann LaRocco for cnbc.com KEY POINTS The Surface and Transportation Board is calling Union Pacific management including CEO Lance Fritz to appear at hearings December 13-14 about the freight railroad’s use of embargoes. The STB, an independent federal agency with oversight of surface transportation, wants to question Fritz and other Union Pacific top executives about […]
By Lori Ann LaRocco for cnbc.com KEY POINTS SMART-TD, one of the largest railroad labor unions, voted down the tentative agreement with rail management, raising the likelihood of a strike in December. The BLET, the other largest union which represents engineers, voted to ratify the labor deal but said it will honor the picket line. […]