Saturday, February 03, 2024

A Year After Ohio Disaster, Renewed Calls for Rail Safety Legislation


"Folks like us, who live along or near the tracks, refuse to be treated as collateral damage in the way of big railroads' profits," said Congressman Chris Deluzio.



This video screenshot released by the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) shows the site of a derailed freight train in East Palestine, Ohio.
(Photo: NTSB/Handout via Xinhua)

JESSICA CORBETT
Feb 02, 2024
COMMON DREAMS

On the eve of the first anniversary of a toxic train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, residents, lawmakers, and members of U.S. President Joe Biden's administration are renewing calls for Congress to swiftly pass federal legislation boosting rail safety.

In a Friday letter, U.S. Rep. Chris Deluzio (D-Pa.) urged House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) to "bring the Railway Saftey Act to the floor for a vote before Congress adjourns for the August recess," highlighting that the bill is backed by Democratic and Republican lawmakers as well as the Biden administration and former President Donald Trump, the GOP presidential frontrunner.

Deluzio, who introduced the House version of the bill with Rep. Nick LaLota (R-N.Y.), noted that the Norfolk Southern train derailed and released hazardous materials "less than a mile from the Pennsylvania state line and the homes and farms of my constituents."



"Without dwelling on the resulting health problems, environmental scare, and general lack of trust that I still regularly hear from my constituents, I instead want to empathize that we cannot accept congressional inaction, and how the February 3, 2023 derailment could have been much worse," the congressman wrote. "Folks like us, who live along or near the tracks, refuse to be treated as collateral damage in the way of big railroads' profits."

"Over the last two centuries, railroad companies have wielded their power and influence to protect their profits and avoid commonsense safety measures, allowing them to cut corners and pad the pockets of their corporate shareholders at the expense of the American people," he explained. "After the East Palestine derailment, the big railroad lobby sprang into action once again and lobbied members of Congress—directing them to do nothing to make rail safer and risk cutting into their profits."

The Railway Saftey Act—led in the Senate by Sens. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) and JD Vance (R-Ohio)—contains provisions to enhance safety procedures for trains carrying hazardous materials, reduce the risk of wheel bearing failures, require well-trained two-person crews, force carriers to face higher fines for wrongdoing, support communities impacted by disasters, and invest in safety improvements.



Brown and Vance have also issued fresh calls for action this week.

"Over the last year, I've visited East Palestine repeatedly, and our staff is there even more often," Brown said Tuesday. "Each time, we ask residents what we can do. They want the support and the compensation they are owed, but they do not want this derailment to define them. I don't want that either, and I don't want any other community in Ohio or around the country to have to deal with a disaster like this ever again."

"As I've told the people of East Palestine—and as I keeptelling them: I'm here for the long haul," he added. "I will always fight for the people of East Palestine. I will always fight to hold Norfolk Southern accountable. And I will always fight to make our railways safer."

As Nexstar's Reshad Hudson reported Tuesday:

Vance says he's working with Brown to get the needed support for the bill.

"It's not going to eliminate every train crash, but it hopefully can make these things much less common because they happen way too often,” Vance said.

According toRoll Call, U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg told reporters this week that his department has "done our part" and "we are pressing industry to do their part, Congress needs to act as well."

"Any congressional leader of any party who is serious about railroad safety should support funding for railroad safety inspections... and should support the Railway Safety Act," he said.

While the outlet noted that delays in the House are partly tied to a forthcoming national Transportation Safety Board investigation report, the bill's sponsors and Buttigieg are largely blaming industry opposition, with the secretary saying that "in the past, there have been times when Congress stood up against the railroad lobby... they should do that now."



The White House announced this week that Biden plans to visit East Palestine sometime in February "to meet with residents impacted by the Norfolk Southern train derailment and assess the progress that his administration has helped deliver in coordination with state and local leaders to protect the community and hold Norfolk Southern accountable."

The White House also reiterated the administration's support for the Railway Safety Act—a bill that is backed by workers but also contains loopholes that "you can run a freight train through," as Eddie Hall, national president of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen, warned last year.

Other measures before Congress include the Railway Accountability Act—led by Brown along with Sens. John Fetterman (D-Pa.) and Bob Casey (D-Pa.), who are also fighting to pass the Railway Safety Act.



Demands for congressional action on rail safety and more have also continued to pour out of East Palestine and surrounding communities—particularly from people who remain displaced and are suffering a wide range of symptoms.

"What I've been experiencing is some of the fear that I've never known in almost all of my 70 years," Stella Gamble, a grandmother of nine who lives less than a mile from the derailment, said in a testimony shared by The Real News Network. "I am so afraid for my grandchildren and for the other children in this town. My granddaughters have rashes on their skin. They've been having female issues. They get massive headaches."

"I think that the whole thing behind everything that's happened here is the same as it is everywhere else in this country. It's all about the money," Gamble added. "Everything about it is the money, and they will gladly sacrifice a few thousand Appalachians to keep their trains going through here... We're just a sacrifice. That's how I feel. And I feel like my grandkids are being sacrificed, too."

One Year After East Palestine Spill, the Next Catastrophe Is Waiting to Happen

The consensus among railroad unions and workers is that without new regulations, disaster will strike again.

By Mark Gruenberg , PEOPLE'SWORLD   February 3, 2024
An aerial view of a derailed freight train near Whitemarsh Township, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on July 17, 2023.
LOKMAN VURAL ELIBOL / ANADOLU AGENCY VIA GETTY IMAGES


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WASHINGTON — One year after a Norfolk Southern freight train derailed and crashed, with chemicals pouring from its tank cars to poison the small town of East Palestine, Ohio, there’s a consensus among railroaders and their unions:

Another such disaster is waiting to happen.

And it could occur, they add, not in a small rural town with one rail track, such as East Palestine, but in a major rail hub with many miles of tracks and hosting hundreds of daily freight trains. In other words, a big city. Like — the obvious one — Chicago.

The big freight railroads would shrug it off, says Ed Dowell of the Train Dispatchers. After all, data shows there are three accidents a day on U.S. freight rail tracks.

RELATED STORY

Norfolk Southern Used Sick Leave as Bargaining Chip to Erode Safety, Union Says
The company wanted to withhold sick leave unless the union agreed to support an industry-favored inspection system. By Sharon Zhang , TRUTHOUT March 2, 2023


“In the rail industry, they accept the loss of life,” he says.

The best way to stop a future catastrophe? A new federal law forcing railroads, notably the big Class I freight carriers, to put safety over profits. But right now, that’s unlikely to happen, thanks to congressional gridlock and corporate lobbying.

In other words, the aim is legislative re-regulation of an industry that was deregulated decades ago and claims — wrongly — it can regulate itself.

The result? Railroaders “doing more with less” which “endangers the public and our members,” says Eddie Hall, new president of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen/Teamsters. Workers have less training, less time for inspections, and less protection from honchos’ retaliation.

“East Palestine was not the beginning of the crisis” over safety on the nation’s freight railroads, says Greg Regan, president of the AFL-CIO Transportation Trades Department, who has lobbied lawmakers and the Biden administration on the issue.

“It’s the culmination of years of degradation of safety. The industry would like to regulate themselves and that is something we cannot accept.”

“Congress still has not acted,” adds Biden Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, referring to the comprehensive pro-safety re-regulation bill Regan and unions campaign for. “If they did, it would be a decisive victory for rail safety and for you.

“Our department would have tougher tools” to pursue recalcitrant railroads with. “Such as more inspections, more enforcement, and higher fines” for law-breakers.

Regan estimates rail labor is still “one or two Republicans short” of the ten GOP senators whom they need to pass comprehensive re-regulation, along with all the Democrats and independents. Rail industry lobbying helps sidetrack it. Legislation needs 60 votes to avoid Senate filibusters.
Swayed by Lobbyists

“There are some aspects” of inaction on rail safety where recalcitrant Republicans “are swayed by high-paid lobbyists,” Regan says. “There’s sympathy” from lawmakers on safety “as long as they don’t have to take a vote.”

But he admits gridlock plays a role, too. If leaders “weren’t haggling about the budget, this would be on the (Senate) floor.” And the outlook in the GOP-run is even shakier. “They’ve had one committee hearing; that’s all.”

The Feb. 2, 2023 Norfolk Southern freight train wreck in small and rural East Palestine loosed hazardous chemicals that poisoned its air and ground water. It sent a mushroom cloud billowing overhead and killed pets and thousands of fish.

It also tanked home values — if you could find buyers — and sickened some residents, along with 39 Maintenance of the Way/Teamsters members sent to clean up the mess.

Meanwhile, the railroads cater to their Wall Street backers, who demand profits over people. Their clout is so huge that a hedge fund engineered the ouster of one rail CEO who paid attention to safety in favor a profit-oriented honcho who’s willing to push its priority down.

“And there’s an omnipresent threat of harassment and intimidation” by line supervisors whose bonuses are tied to moving freight as fast as possible, and who view safety precautions as a roadblock, adds Jared Cassidy, assistant legislative director of Smart’s Transportation Division.

East Palestine’s fate shows re-regulation of the nation’s railroads is absolutely necessary, Regan, plus Cassidy, Regan, Hall and other rail union leaders said in a February 1 zoom press conference the day before the first anniversary of the disaster.

There’s also no question the railroads “want to regulate themselves” as almost every speaker said one way or another. In myriad ways, they don’t do so, the unionists said.

The litany of hazards the leaders detailed ranged from inadequate training to having untrained workers perform jobs mechanics would do — because the railroads have slashed 30,000 workers since 2015, including 1300 mechanics at one big freight railroad alone, down to 115,000 total.

Warning systems direct alarms far away when something goes awry on a freight train, such as the overheated broken freight car brakes that led to the East Palestine disaster.

In that crash “you had alert going to someone sitting at home in his living room, watching 19,000 miles of track on a screen,” says the Train Dispatchers’ Dowell. “And they’re constantly being harassed” by higher bosses, “’Move the train, move the train, move the train.’”

Trouble sensors along the tracks are too many miles apart, especially since trains are now two, three or four miles long. Tracks badly need repair — but mid-level supervisors tell workers to ignore that.
Railroads Force Quick Inspections

Railroads force workers to inspect locomotives and freight cars even more quickly, down to five seconds for a freight car with multiple rivets and wheel assemblies. Mid-level managers pressure workers to ignore flaws. And if the workers speak up about hazards, the rail bosses retaliate, the union leaders said.

And there’s lack of human hands-on oversight. Railroads let workers go so they could switch to “precision scheduled railroading” in yet another attempt to save money.

“The rate of total accidents has risen by 19.5%” since 2015, one rail union speaker said. “Injuries increased 4.4%, train miles by 27% — and they cut the workforce by 20% while increasing overtime by 59%. And when the number of (freight) carloads decline by 10%, accidents should be going down. They went up.”

Railroads also lobby for one-person crews, which endangers safety, the railroaders say. There may be worker success on that, soon.

The Federal Railroad Administration sent a mandated two-person crew rule to Biden’s Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs. Biden Transportation Secretary Buttigieg promised action soon on several rules, though he didn’t specify that one.

But changing rules may not be enough. A succeeding administration could and would easily undo what workers want. Former Republican Oval Office occupant Donald Trump’s Republican regime proved that over and over again. So did right-wing ideologues in judicial robes, notably in Texas.

Meanwhile, Congress gridlocks on everything. And it’s influenced by increasing rail lobbying spending such as a 30% hike by Norfolk Southern in 2023, compared to the year before.

And public inattention doesn’t help. That led to a plea at the end of the press session with the rail union leaders: Call your representative. Call your senator.

“Don’t let this die,” Jared Cassidy of Smart Union’s Transportation Division urged reporters.

“Every day we have three major accidents” on freight rail lines and though they haven’t led to fatalities, they expose problems that left unsolved would lead to another East Palestine, he explained.

“This shouldn’t be just labor versus management” over safety “but about what’s going on” in the nation’s freight rail system “when these things happen. Things are going wrong every single day” and constituents should be concerned. After all, an East Palestine could happen to them.

“Money talks, but people talk louder.”


MARK GRUENBERG
Award-winning journalist Mark Gruenberg is head of the Washington, D.C., bureau of People’s World. He is also the editor of the union news service Press Associates Inc. (PAI). Known for his reporting skills, sharp wit and voluminous knowledge of history, Mark is a compassionate interviewer but tough when going after big corporations and their billionaire owners.

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