Rail Workers Revolt against Driving Solo

[Omaha Steve]

X post in Socialist-progressive

http://labornotes.org/2014/08/rail-workers-revolt-against-driving-solo

August 12, 2014 / Alexandra Bradbury



Railroaders are racing to put the brakes on a secret deal between their union officers and Warren Buffett's railroad. It would allow huge freight trains to rumble through towns across the western U.S. with just an engineer onboard, no conductor. Photo: Spouses & Families Against One Man Crews. - See more at: http://labornotes.org/2014/08/rail-workers-revolt-against-driving-solo#sthash.R7WnbrL4.dpuf

“There’s a real rank-and-file rebellion going on right now,” says Jen Wallis, a Seattle switchman-conductor for Burlington Northern Santa Fe (BNSF) Railway. “People who’ve never been involved in the union, never went to a union meeting, they are showing up and they’re joining Railroad Workers United in droves.

“People are saying, ‘We have to take action now to stop it. We can’t let our union officers do this to us.’”

What’s all the fuss? On July 16, thousands of railroaders abruptly learned their union officers had held secret negotiations with BNSF, one of the country’s biggest freight carriers, and reached a deal to allow single-person train crews: a safety disaster.

Ballots on the tentative agreement went out in early August, and are due back in early September. If the vote goes up, huge freight trains could rumble through towns across the western U.S. with just an engineer onboard, no conductor.

- See more at: http://labornotes.org/2014/08/rail-workers-revolt-against-driving-solo#sthash.R7WnbrL4.dpuf

FULL story at link.

[roody]

1. They need new leadership!

[Brickbat]

2. It's past time for the crafts to unite.

[CatholicEdHead]

3. Safety risk too high even with new technology

Part of the excuse for single-person crews is the coming of yet another new technology, positive train control, which Congress is mandating the rail carriers all adopt by 2015. This automated system will track trains’ speed and position, and apply the brakes in certain situations.

Railroaders call this tech advance a good thing—but as an additional boost to safety, not something you’d want to rely on to replace a human. “The railroad unions have been asking for PTC to be implemented as a safety overlay, not in place of a crew member,” Wright says.

The article is correct, it is a additional safety measure, not meant as a employee replacement tool. The eventual model is probably drone-like trains with a centralized control center with nobody in the engines outside the switching yard.

BNSF's insurance company probably needs to do the study on safety/labor costs and it is much cheaper to have a second person and pay the labor costs. One major disaster and the conductors will return, cleanup costs and legal costs are much higher than labor costs on the train itself.