Tag: Sheet Metal Air Rail Transportation

Relentless Profit Drive Behind Ohio Rail Disaster

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The February 3 derailment of a Norfolk Southern (NS) train carrying hazardous chemicals caused an inferno and the release of enormous plumes of toxic black smoke over East Palestine, Ohio. It has brought into sharp focus the danger the railroads’ relentless drive for profit poses to public safety. That profit drive is the same motive that led the rail barons, backed by the federal government, to compromise safety by refusing to include paid days off for railroad workers in contract negotiations last year. Workers advocated for paid days off for times when they are sick, or too exhausted from long and unpredictable hours of work, to operate trains safely. In December, President Joe Biden and the U.S. Congress backed the railroad owners, imposing the new national rail contract the owners insisted on.

Join Rail Union Rallies Dec. 13!

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Railroad Workers United (RWU), a national organization of rank-and-file rail workers from all rail unions, is urging rail labor and its allies to join rallies on Tuesday, December 13. RWU has expressed its support for these actions in the post we are sharing here. It includes a link from the rail union SMART-TD, offering information on the time and place of rallies in various cities. World-Outlook encourages our readers to join these actions.

Rail Contract Shows Unions Need New Leadership; Workers Need Our Own Party

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At the “urgent appeal” of President Biden, the U.S. Senate voted 80 – 15 on December 1 to impose a contract settlement previously rejected by four unions representing a majority of railroad workers and by thousands who voted “No” in eight other unions. The House of Representatives approved a similar measure, which Biden swiftly signed into law on December 2. A separate bill would have added seven days paid sick leave to the new national rail contract. It was no surprise that it failed. Biden firmly opposed any changes to the contract that his administration brokered in September on the eve of a national strike deadline. Rail workers are angry and frustrated by this outcome. Rank-and-file rail workers refused to accept Biden’s deal that top union leaders claimed was the best contract possible. The ranks of the unions spoke out, explained the intolerable conditions of work and life they face every day, and won support from millions of working people. Without rank-and-file resistance, no resolution on sick pay would have been considered. Without rank-and-file resistance, those brutal conditions would have remained unknown to other working people.

Biden Stabs Rail Labor in the Back

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November 29, 2022 — On Monday, November 28, President Biden called on Congress to impose a national contract on railroad workers that has been rejected by four unions that represent a majority of rail union members. He claimed there is “no path to resolve the dispute at the bargaining table.” He then sanctimoniously described himself as a “proud pro-labor president.” The facts show otherwise. Biden’s action flies in the face of the reasonable demands of union members. His action is anti-democratic, seeking to deny railroad workers the right to use their unions to fight for their interests.

Are Railroad Workers Heading Toward a Strike?

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August 26, 2022 — Some 100,000 workers on the nation’s freight railroads are one step closer to a decision on whether to go on strike or not. That’s the result of the recommendations made August 16 by Presidential Emergency Board (PEB) Number 250, established by President Joe Biden in June of this year. The government’s intent is to resolve an impasse between the railroad owners and all of the 12 unions representing rail workers organized into the Coordinated Bargaining Coalition and BMWED/SMART MD Coalition (Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employees Division and Sheet Metal, Air, Rail and Transportation Workers — Mechanical and Engineering Department). The national freight contract expired almost three years ago. The impasse is largely a result of policies imposed by the railroad owners that make working and living conditions for workers increasingly intolerable. This includes imposing draconian attendance policies coupled with the carriers’ demands to cut the workforce even further by altering work rules.

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Railroad Workers Keep Up Resistance to BNSF ‘Hi-Viz’ Policy

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March 2, 2022—As locomotive engineer Marilee Taylor explained in the February 11 post on World-Outlook “BNSF Railroad Workers Resist Cruel Attendance Policy,” workers at the largest freight railroad (RR) in the U.S. are under fierce attack by the company owned by billionaire Warren Buffett. Workers who move the freight—engineers, conductors, brakemen and switchmen—frequently face work weeks of 60 hours or more, producing enormous profits for Buffett and the other wealthy RR owners. Many are on call to work 24 hours a day, 7 days a week with little or no predictability about when they will be called to work. Shifts are routinely 12 hours and perhaps longer before workers arrive at a destination where they can obtain some rest, often a hotel far from home. Trains are longer and heavier than ever, often carrying hazardous material, as the RRs seek to squeeze the maximum profit out of every trip. This poses serious safety risks for RR workers and the communities these trains pass through. Now Buffett’s BNSF wants more. It has imposed a new policy, called “Hi-Viz,” that demands employees to work even more hours. This cruel and dangerous policy has been upheld by a federal court judge who has ruled that the unions’ challenge to this policy is a “minor dispute,” and has denied the right to strike to oppose it.

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