It’s possible that I shall make an ass of myself. But in that case one can always get out of it with a little dialectic. I have, of course, so worded my proposition as to be right either way (K.Marx, Letter to F.Engels on the Indian Mutiny)
Derailed oil train cars removed north of Bellingham By LISA BAUMANN
(AP) — Crews on Tuesday removed the train cars carrying crude oil that derailed north of Bellingham and near the Canadian border last week.
BNSF employees and contractors loaded the cars onto flatbed trucks for removal from the derailment site in Custer. BNSF spokeswoman Courtney Wallace said all the cars would be removed on Tuesday. She also confirmed Tuesday that ten cars of the tanker train hauling oil derailed on Dec. 22, which was several more than previously reported.
Five cars caught fire, sending a large plume of black smoke into the sky and prompting evacuations. Three cars were punctured and leaked oil.
The cause of the derailment remains under investigation by the FBI and Wallace said she had no new information about the investigation on Tuesday. The derailment happened when the train was moving at about 7 mph, making it a low-speed derailment, she said.
Officials with the Department of Ecology also remain at the site with soil testing and remediation work to start this week, she said. On Sunday, Ecology officials said on Twitter that crews were continuing to remove oil from the site.
Workers use heavy equipment to begin to move one of several train cars which had been hauling crude oil and derailed a week earlier, Tuesday, Dec. 29, 2020, in Custer, Wash. The cause of the derailment of the oil cars Dec. 22 in Whatcom County is still unknown. A spokesperson for BNSF Railways said three cars ruptured, spilling an unknown amount of crude oil onto the ground. (AP Photo/Elaine Thompson)BELLINGHAM, Wash.
Workers use heavy equipment to begin to move one of several train cars which had been hauling crude oil and derailed days earlier, Tuesday, Dec. 29, 2020, in Custer, Wash. The cause of the derailment of the oil cars Dec. 22 in Whatcom County is still unknown. A spokesperson for BNSF Railways said three cars ruptured, spilling an unknown amount of crude oil onto the ground. (AP Photo/Elaine Thompson)
In this photo taken with a drone, workers use heavy equipment prepare to remove the last several of 10 train cars which had been hauling crude oil and derailed a week earlier, Tuesday, Dec. 29, 2020, in Custer, Wash. The cause of the derailment of the oil cars Dec. 22 in Whatcom County is still unknown. A spokesperson for BNSF Railways said three cars ruptured, spilling an unknown amount of crude oil onto the ground. (AP Photo/Elaine Thompson)
A piece of heavy equipment goes up on a single track while being used to move one of several train cars which had been hauling crude oil and derailed a week earlier, Tuesday, Dec. 29, 2020, in Custer, Wash. The cause of the derailment of the oil cars Dec. 22 in Whatcom County is still unknown. A spokesperson for BNSF Railways said three cars ruptured, spilling an unknown amount of crude oil onto the ground. (AP Photo/Elaine Thompson)
Tuesday, March 05, 2024
Oberman calls out UP, BNSF for cutting jobs when they should focus on growth
Surface Transportation Board Chairman Martin Oberman has seen some rail carriers cut jobs and neglect their infrastructure in pursuit of short-term profit, and he says there’s nothing to like about it.
Oberman spoke last week before the Southeast Association of Rail Shippers’ conference, and the “cult of the operating ratio” (OR) could be rising again with BNSF and Union Pacific cutting workers and a hedge fund looking to seize Norfolk Southern.
“These low OR — which could only be achieved rapidly — as the activists demanded — by cutting payroll — have meant lots of free cash which the Class Is have not been shy about paying out in stock buybacks, dividends, and in BNSF’s case, returns to its owner,” Oberman said. “The total in the last decade or so is over $250 billion — money which was not invested in retaining workers or building new infrastructure to increase a railroad’s reach and serve more customers.”
SMART-TD members and rail workers have been coping with the consequences through job cuts, irresponsibly long trains and inhumane work schedules. For our members, “PSR” stands for “punishing and sadistic railroading.”
Starting in about 2014, more than 45,000 rail workers lost their jobs because of the quest for increased efficiency.
“Railroads are a regulated monopoly. They have a common carrier obligation to the public interest and to the nation’s economy,” Oberman said. “Unlike other businesses, railroad management and owners are not just free to manipulate the business by draining the company’s resources for short-term gain.”
Too often, the pro-free market crowd, overseeing spreadsheets from the comfort of their railroad offices, think that “free market” means “we can run our business however we want and do to workers and the communities we affect whatever we want. We’re here to make money, and they should be happy about it. They’re lucky we’re here.”
That mentality’s brought longer trains, fewer inspections and less emphasis on safety, as much as industry executives and mouthpieces like the Association of American Railroads and Railway Age claim the railroads are working in everyone’s best interests. PSR is only good for everyone who owns stock.
The industry’s shareholders cruised through the initial wave of PSR with fatter wallets and bigger dividends, Oberman noted in his speech. Contrast that with the thousands of workers who were sent home for the last time as service to their former customers suffered.
Investor neglect drew attention of federal regulators, including Oberman’s STB, after a post-COVID national supply chain meltdown. The STB held hearings on carrier performance in 2022 and has kept a close eye on carrier personnel levels since.
So when leaders such as Oberman and Federal Railroad Administrator Amit Bose decide to oversee the industry through a more skeptical lens, along with the workers and the members of the media, those folks in the comfortable offices get less comfortable.
Oberman also expressed his doubts about activist investor group Ancora’s plan to replace Norfolk Southern’s leadership with a who’s who of exploitative executives.
“Several weeks ago, Ancora wrote me a letter. The essence of their message was that they had taken a $1 billion dollar stake in NS in order for it — quote — ‘to become a safer railroad,’ ” Oberman said. “Really? What hedge fund raises $1 billion to promote safety anywhere? The measure of Ancora’s disingenuous pitch to improve safety is that its slide deck completely omits reference to FRA data which shows that, in the last year, NS has been an industry leader in reducing mainline rail accidents and derailments.”
SMART-TD members — the people who do the work — have lived through PSR. Oberman has gone through PSR, as has Bose. It was a failure for workers, shippers and catastrophic for the national supply chain. It’s not wanted by anyone or good for anyone except for those who would reap the most by doing the least.
The watchdogs of the industry — Oberman, Bose and SMART-TD — all recognize this. We do not want to go through it again.
UP and BNSF executives — you’ll need to get to work, because PSR doesn’t.
Rail whistleblowers fired for voicing safety concerns despite efforts to end practice of retaliation
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Hours before a Norfolk Southern train 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 who said he reported too many flaws in rail cars he inspected and had his job changed after reporting an injury.
Richard Singleton’s case against Norfolk Southern was settled for an undisclosed amount after the judge said he had enough evidence to go to trial over whether he was disciplined for reporting safety violations that slowed trains passing through a Macon, Georgia, railyard.
Lawyers and unions representing rail workers say there is an industry-wide pattern of retaliation against workers like Singleton who report safety violations or injuries. They contend workers often run afoul of managers who don’t want to jeopardize their bonuses, and retaliation discourages other workers from speaking up.
Rail safety has been in the spotlight since the Feb. 3 Ohio derailment, with Congress and regulators proposing reforms. But little has changed, apart from railroads promising to install 1,000 more trackside detectors to spot mechanical problems and reevaluate their responses to alerts from those devices.
“Since Wall Street took them over, railroads have put productivity ahead of safety,” lawyer Nick Thompson argued earlier this year on behalf of a fired engineer. He pointed to recent derailments in Ohio and Raymond, Minnesota. “People are being killed, towns are being evacuated, rivers are being poisoned, all in the name of profit.”
The railroads are working to eliminate such practices with policies prohibiting retaliation and myriad ways for workers fearful of retribution to report safety concerns, either directly to a manager or anonymously through an internal hotline.
Statistics from the Occupational Health and Safety Administration show the number of single-year whistleblower complaints filed against big railroads declined from the 218 reported in 2018 to 96 last year.
“I have zero tolerance for retaliation. And I’ve made that very clear. And in fact, the culture that we’re creating at Norfolk Southern is one of transparency and one in which people are encouraged to raise their hand and say they’ve got an issue,” CEO Alan Shaw said.
Other major railroads, including BNSF, Union Pacific, CPKC, Canadian National and CSX, echoed that sentiment in statements and said they encourage employees to report safety concerns.
Whistleblower cases represent a small fraction of the workforce numbering more than 100,000 nationwide. But even a handful of cases can instill fear among employees and have a chilling effect on safety reporting.
Long before Mike Ratigan was fired from CSX in New York last year after refusing to help circumvent federal safety standards or ignore railcar flaws, he said he saw other workers sanctioned. Those disciplinary cases became a “deer head” for managers: a trophy that sent a clear message.
“It says, if we can do it to him, we can do it to you,” Ratigan said.
OSHA says 793 whistleblower complaints were filed between 2018 and the end of July, with Norfolk Southern leading all railroads with 257. Union Pacific and CSX weren't far behind with nearly 200 complaints apiece, while another 113 were reported at BNSF. The numbers are much smaller at the Canadian railroads partly because much of their operations are north of the border.
More than half of the complaints were dismissed after OSHA reviews. But that doesn’t tell the full story because some dismissed cases become federal lawsuits that can lead to multimillion-dollar judgments against railroads. OSHA's decisions also can be appealed, with 87 cases settled before OSHA decided if they had merit.
The Associated Press reviewed dozens of whistleblower cases and found a similar pattern. When they weren’t bound by confidential settlement agreements, former railroad workers discussed how managers didn't want them to report too many safety violations because they would slow trains. Some ex-employees prevailed in court, but they all faced tough battles against massive companies with billions of dollars in annual profits and armies of lawyers.
Mike Elliott was fired in 2011 after he went to the Federal Railroad Administration with safety concerns other workers reported to him in his capacity as Washington state's top safety official with the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen union. The FRA responded with a special inspection that found 357 defects, angering his BNSF bosses.
One of his managers confronted Elliott in the parking lot and jumped on the hood of his car, claiming Elliott punched him and tried to run him down. Elliott said he was acquitted of those allegations in a criminal case, but ultimately was fired.
That started a yearslong court fight that included countless motions and a six-day trial before a jury awarded him $1.25 million and approved $500,000 in legal fees. After an appeal to the 9th Circuit, the railroad finally paid him in 2018.
“It’s a never-ending battle. They have the best lawyers. They have the best lobbyists and they have a lot of lobbyists. They have a lot of money, and you’re up against it.” Elliott said.
Dale Gourneau had a reputation as a “tenacious safety advocate” who may have written more “bad order” tags listing defects on railcars than anyone else in the Mandan, North Dakota, railyard where he worked for 18 years.
Gourneau pressed his managers to stop blocking employees from applying for corporate BNSF bonuses for finding broken railcar wheels. Not long after, he was written up for failing to properly stop his ATV before crossing the tracks in 2019. He was fired a few months later after the company alleged he violated the same rule a second time, even though he claimed to have followed the common practice of stopping several feet short of the tracks to avoid another set of tracks.
An administrative law judge ruled this spring that the discipline Gourneau received was merely pretext his managers conjured to fire him. The judge ordered BNSF to reinstate Gourneau and pay him $578,659 in back pay and penalties.
BNSF is appealing and declined to comment on specific cases.
For rail car inspector John Fulk, the situation got so bad that in 2011 he shot himself in the head in the parking lot of his workplace at a North Carolina Norfolk Southern railyard. His widow successfully argued in court that after being berated by managers for flagging too many cars for repairs, Fulk killed himself rather than face a disciplinary hearing and possible firing on trumped-up charges of trying to sabotage a train’s braking system.
Fulk’s case was allowed to move forward because he started the complaint process with regulators before his death. FRA investigators found numerous rule violations and his former coworkers told them Fulk had repeatedly been targeted by managers. But court documents say none of them would sign witness statements because they feared retribution. Norfolk Southern settled in 2015.
“Because of his adherence to FRA regulations, Mr. Fulk was subjected to abusive intimidation, disciplinary threats, and job threats by Norfolk Southern management,” U.S. District Judge William Osteen wrote. “Although he reported these acts and omissions, Norfolk Southern never took action to stop such treatment.”
Josh Funk, The Ass
Saturday, March 18, 2023
BNSF train derailment spills diesel fuel on tribal land in Washington
March 16, 2023 This photo provided by the Washington Department of Ecology shows a derailed BNSF train on the Swinomish tribal reservation near Anacortes, Wash. on Thursday, March 16, 2023. Two BNSF trains derailed in separate incidents in Arizona and Washington state on Thursday, with the latter spilling diesel fuel. There were no injuries reported in either. The derailment in Washington occurred on a berm along Puget Sound, on the Swinomish tribal reservation near Anacortes.
(Washington Department of Ecology via AP)
ANACORTES, Wash. (AP) — Two BNSF trains derailed in separate incidents in Arizona and Washington state on Thursday, with the latter spilling diesel fuel on tribal land along Puget Sound.
No injuries were reported. It wasn’t clear what caused either derailment.
The derailment in Washington occurred on a berm along Padilla Bay, on the Swinomish tribal reservation near Anacortes. Most of 5,000 gallons (nearly 19,000 liters) of spilled diesel fuel leaked on the land side of the berm rather than toward the water, according to the state Ecology Department.
Officials said there were no indications the spill reached the water or affected any wildlife.
Responders placed a boom along the shoreline as a precaution and removed the remaining fuel from two locomotives that derailed. Four tank cars remained upright.
The derailment in western Arizona, near the state’s border with California and Nevada, involved a train carrying corn syrup. A spokeswoman for the Mohave County Sheriff’s Office, Anita Mortensen, said that she was not aware of any spills or leaks.
BNSF spokeswoman Lena Kent said an estimated eight cars derailed in Arizona and were blocking the main track. The cause of the derailment was under investigation, and it was not immediately known when the track will reopen.
Officials seeking to avoid an uncontrolled blast intentionally released and burned toxic vinyl chloride from five rail cars, sending flames and black smoke high into the sky. That left people questioning the potential health impacts even as authorities maintained they were doing their best to protect people.
Monday, October 16, 2023
Train derailment closes Colorado interstate
A train derailment near Pueblo, Colorado, has shut down both directions of an interstate, leaving behind dozens of mangled train cars.
Mangled train cars scattered on a Colorado interstate. SMART Local 202
A train derailment near Pueblo, Colorado, shut down both directions of Interstate 25 Sunday.
The derailment occurred near Mile Marker 107 and prompted the closure of the interstate around 4 p.m. As of Monday morning, the interstate remained closed.
Photos of the scene provided by SMART Local 202 transit workers union and the Pueblo County Sheriff's Office show several crushed railroad cars and coal on the roadway.
The railroad bridge over I-25 also appears to have partially collapsed.
The Pueblo County Sheriff's Office said multiple law enforcement agencies are responding.
"BNSF can confirm at approximately 4:30 p.m. CST Sunday, Oct. 15, a train carrying coal derailed on a bridge over I-25 just north of Pueblo, Colorado," BNSF Railway said in a statement. "There are no reported injuries to BNSF crew. The cause is under investigation. BNSF personnel are on site working with responding agencies to clear the incident as safely as possible."
The Colorado State Patrol said motorists should expect an extended closure of the interstate. A detour route has been established.
Motorists going north to Colorado Springs will need to exit at U.S. 50 and go west to Penrose and north Highway 115. Southbound traffic from Colorado Springs to Pueblo will need to take Highway 115 south.
Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg addressed the incident on social media Sunday evening:
"In touch with Gov. Polis and have been briefed by Federal Railroad & Federal Highway Administrations on a BNSF coal train derailment & bridge collapse affecting I-25 near Pueblo, CO. USDOT staff are en route. Travelers should follow local updates about closures & detours," he wrote.
Robert F Kennedy Jr. has replaced his presidential campaign manager, former Congressman Dennis J. Kucinich, with his daughter-in-law, who also happens to be a Central Intelligence Service (CIA) agent.
Amaryllis Fox Kennedy, married to RFK‘s son of the same name, was announced as Kucinich’s replacement this weekend, after he suggested the campaign needed a “new direction.” Kucinich, who also ran for president on two occasions, had been RFK’s campaign manager since the latter announced his presidential run earlier this year.
“Amaryllis is a woman of extraordinary intelligence and drive who I am confident will take this campaign to the next level,” said RFK in a statement following the announcement.
Amaryllis spent a decade at the CIA working in the organization’s most elite and clandestine operations unit. Her memoir suggests she was deployed to 16 different countries as part of her goal of hunting some of the world’s most dangerous terrorists.
Her writings, however, have been criticized as “grossly exaggerated” and “BS” by multiple senior CIA colleagues. William Murray, a CIA operations official, said: “You don’t go wandering around Karachi on your own… You’ll wind up in some warlord’s harem, or you’ll wind up dead.”
Amaryllis joins the senior campaign staff as RFK is coming under increased scrutiny from both sides following his decision to run as an independent in next year’s presidential election. Last week, RFK was left dumbfounded in an interview with Sean Hannity
Robert F Kennedy Jr. has replaced his presidential campaign manager, former Congressman Dennis J. Kucinich, with his daughter-in-law, who also happens to be a Central Intelligence Service (CIA) agent.
Amaryllis Fox Kennedy, married to RFK‘s son of the same name, was announced as Kucinich’s replacement this weekend, after he suggested the campaign needed a “new direction.” Kucinich, who also ran for president on two occasions, had been RFK’s campaign manager since the latter announced his presidential run earlier this year.
“Amaryllis is a woman of extraordinary intelligence and drive who I am confident will take this campaign to the next level,” said RFK in a statement following the announcement.
Amaryllis spent a decade at the CIA working in the organization’s most elite and clandestine operations unit. Her memoir suggests she was deployed to 16 different countries as part of her goal of hunting some of the world’s most dangerous terrorists.
Her writings, however, have been criticized as “grossly exaggerated” and “BS” by multiple senior CIA colleagues. William Murray, a CIA operations official, said: “You don’t go wandering around Karachi on your own… You’ll wind up in some warlord’s harem, or you’ll wind up dead.”
Amaryllis joins the senior campaign staff as RFK is coming under increased scrutiny from both sides following his decision to run as an independent in next year’s presidential election. Last week, RFK was left dumbfounded in an interview with Sean Hannity
Saturday, July 23, 2022
U.S. Rail System Still Deteriorating, On Balance
Written byRick Paterson, Managing Director, Loop Capital Markets
We’re now in the second half of 2022, when the four major U.S. Class I’s have committed to turning their operations around, but the current state of play is not encouraging. Only Union Pacific has made any progress in recent months, but that has been from a low base and fading somewhat over the past two weeks. We would regard UP and Norfolk Southern as now in a “steady state” and it’s the other two we’re more worried about in terms of trajectory.
BNSF’s intermodal business, in particular, is really struggling and in no shape to handle peak season volumes, which typically start around mid-August. Last week, BNSF Intermodal hit new lows in terms of network velocity (28.9 mph vs. 32.3 average in 2021) and on-time performance (only 57% of containers deramped within 24-hours of schedule), and a new high in terms of intermodal cars sitting idle for 48-hours or longer (1,610 out of 19,969 intermodal cars-on-line). To be fair, weather and other external factors had an impact. More broadly, the full system has seen record trains holding for crews over the last six weeks and a high in recrews to 1,789 at a recrew rate of 13.4% last week.
Over in the east, CSX is coming off two bad weeks, recording multi-year lows in velocity and multi-year highs in trains holding for crews, terminal dwell, and the proportion of cars-online sitting idle for 48 hours or more. Last week on-time performance in its manifest network hit a new record low of 64%.
While it pains us to recount these statistics (download the complete State of the Rails report below), for what it’s worth we’re confident both BNSF and CSX have the talent to turn this around and fully expect them to do so, but you can’t start getting better until you stop getting worse and more patience will, unfortunately, be required from all of us.
Last week we talked about 4th of July as both a blessing and a curse for the US railroads and we’ll dig into that a little more here. On the positive side, the holiday on Monday, subsequent four days of heavily reduced customer activity, and bookending weekends represents the second biggest drop in volume pressure of the year, behind of course the Christmas to New Years period. Historically, weekly volumes temporarily subside by 14% at NS, 13% at CSX, 11% at UP, and 8% at BNSF. These are big drops in volume pressure over a 9-day period, which is both positive and badly needed given the current state of affairs. However…
This period also represents peak summer vacation season, and the networks can obviously ill-afford to lose crews during a crew capacity crunch. In terms of putting some numbers around it, if we look at the monthly seasonality in the four years prior to the pandemic, midmonth crew headcount fell by 0.5% on average from mid-June into mid-July for the US rail industry. For some reason it’s more pronounced in the east, with CSX and NS down 3.3% and 0.8%, respectively, versus -0.2% at UP and +0.5% at BNSF. Clearly these mid-month statistics also understate the crew shortfalls over the first ~nine days of July. By July 15th the heavy vacation effect has partially normalized.
The railroads are of course well aware of this dynamic and no doubt doing all they can to buy out/stagger/delay vacations next week, but it likely won’t be completely successful and we’re still looking at a situation where the opportunity try to improve operations during the volume pressure reprieve will be diluted by temporarily increased crew scarcity.
Crew Deficit: ~4,100
Updating our crew models with the most recent data points for network velocity (last week) results in the following updated estimates with regard to the minimum number of additional crews required to trigger a service recovery. We’ve regressed slightly, with net velocity for the four major systems slightly slower last week, which pushes our estimated crew deficit from ~4,000 to ~4,100.
In terms of predicting the order in which these systems operationally inflect for the better, look at the % Deficit column on the far right. The smaller the number, the closer to recovery.
Some of the railroad’s T&E crew headcount numbers (Actual Crews) include trainees, which are higher as a percentage of total now than historically, which in turn makes the crew deficit numbers look slightly better (smaller) than they actually are. When railroads are running poorly, crew capacity is diluted by non-productive crew starts, such as deadheads (repositioning crews by road transport) and recrews (replacing a crew due to an unanticipated expiration of the allowable 12 hours). It will likely take several months before conductor graduates in the field are satisfactorily productive.
Rick Paterson covers the Transportation sector for Loop Capital Markets, including the North American Class I railroads. Prior to joining Loop Capital, he covered the Transportation Sector at Topeka Capital Markets and UBS Investment Bank. Rick previously worked in Intermodal Sales & Marketing and Strategic Planning for the Pacific National Railway in Australia. He testified at the Surface Transportation Board’s April 2022 hearing on “Urgent Issues in Freight Rail Service.”
Thursday, March 16, 2023
BNSF train derailment spills diesel fuel on tribal land in Washington
This photo provided by the Washington Department of Ecology shows a derailed BNSF train on the Swinomish tribal reservation near Anacortes, Wash. on Thursday, March 16, 2023. Two BNSF trains derailed in separate incidents in Arizona and Washington state on Thursday, with the latter spilling diesel fuel. There were no injuries reported in either. The derailment in Washington occurred on a berm along Puget Sound, on the Swinomish tribal reservation near Anacortes. (Washington Department of Ecology via AP)
ANACORTES, Wash. (AP) — Two BNSF trains derailed in separate incidents in Arizona and Washington state on Thursday, with the latter spilling diesel fuel on tribal land along Puget Sound.
No injuries were reported. It wasn’t clear what caused either derailment.
The derailment in Washington occurred on a berm along Padilla Bay, on the Swinomish tribal reservation near Anacortes. Most of 5,000 gallons (nearly 19,000 liters) of spilled diesel fuel leaked on the land side of the berm rather than toward the water, according to the state Ecology Department.
Officials said there were no indications the spill reached the water or affected any wildlife.
Responders placed a boom along the shoreline as a precaution and removed the remaining fuel from two locomotives that derailed. Four tank cars remained upright.
The derailment in western Arizona, near the state’s border with California and Nevada, involved a train carrying corn syrup. A spokeswoman for the Mohave County Sheriff’s Office, Anita Mortensen, said that she was not aware of any spills or leaks. BNSF spokeswoman Lena Kent said an estimated eight cars derailed in Arizona and were blocking the main track. The cause of the derailment was under investigation, and it was not immediately known when the track will reopen.
Officials seeking to avoid an uncontrolled blast intentionally released and burned toxic vinyl chloride from five rail cars, sending flames and black smoke high into the sky. That left people questioning the potential health impacts even as authorities maintained they were doing their best to protect people.
Sunday, April 02, 2023
Cleanup begins after fiery Minnesota ethanol derailment Train Derailment MinnesotaA BNSF train carrying ethanol and corn syrup derailed and caught fire in Raymond, Minn., Thursday, March 30, 2023. BNSF officials said 22 cars derailed, including about 10 carrying ethanol, and the track remains blocked, but that no injuries were reported due to the accident. The cause of the derailment hasn't been determined. (Mark Vancleave /Star Tribune via AP)
JOSH FUNK Fri, March 31, 2023
Crews have started removing contaminated soil and damaged railcars left behind by Thursday's fiery derailment in southwest Minnesota.
Authorities said Friday afternoon the ethanol fire that burned for hours had been extinguished and that local firefighters were allowed to leave after remaining on site overnight. But large water tanks and railroad firefighting equipment remained at the site to handle any flare-ups as damaged tank cars are removed.
The entire town of Raymond, which is about 100 miles (161 kilometers) west of Minneapolis, had to be evacuated after 22 cars, including 10 carrying ethanol, left the tracks. Four of the tank cars ruptured and caught fire. But the several hundred residents were allowed to return home by midday Thursday, and no injuries were reported.
The Kandiyohi County Sheriff's office said BNSF railroad crews began removing some of the contaminated soil under and around the tracks early Friday morning. And once investigators from the National Transportation Safety Board gave the OK, workers started to remove the damaged railcars.
It’s not clear how long the cleanup will take, and no cause of the derailment has been determined yet.
The head of the Fort Worth, Texas-based railroad promised a thorough cleanup and said BNSF works hard to prevent derailments like this from happening.
NTSB spokesman Keith Holloway said the BNSF train had three crew members — an engineer, conductor and brakeman — aboard when it derailed around 1 a.m. Thursday. The train had a total of 14 ethanol cars along with corn syrup it was delivering.
Holloway said investigators will work to determine what caused the derailment.
The Environmental Protection Agency continued monitoring the air around the derailment Friday, but officials said the agency hasn’t found any worrisome levels of contaminants or particulate matter.
CDC team falls sick probing Ohio train derailment
Bernd Debusmann Jr - BBC News, Washington Fri, March 31, 2023 The train that derailed in East Palestine, Ohio, on 3 February was carrying vinyl chloride and other potentially hazardous substances
Authorities say seven US health investigators fell ill while probing the impact of the 3 February train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the investigator's symptoms included nausea and headaches.
Locals in East Palestine have reported similar illnesses.
The train was carrying vinyl chloride and other potentially hazardous substances.
The CDC investigators formed part of a team that was conducting house-to-house interviews in the area of the derailment last month, according to authorities. They immediately reported their symptoms to federal authorities after they fell ill.
"Symptoms resolved for most team members later the same afternoon," the CDC said in a statement. "Everyone resumed work on survey data collection within 24 hours. Impacted team members have not reported ongoing health effects."
In the wake of the derailment, state and federal officials repeatedly sought to reassure East Palestine residents that local air and water supplies were safe. Residents, however, reported headaches, nausea, burning eyes and sore throats, sparking fears that their long-term health could be impacted.
Environmental officials have said that nearly 45,000 animals died as a result of the toxic train crash, although all were aquatic species.
One of the chemicals that the train was carrying, vinyl chloride, is a colourless, hazardous gas that is primarily used to make PVC plastic. It is also a known carcinogen and acute exposure is linked to dizziness, drowsiness and headaches. Prolonged exposure can cause liver damage and a rare form of liver cancer.
On Thursday, the US Department of Justice filed a lawsuit against the company that operated the train - Norfolk Southern - over environmental damage caused by the derailment.
The justice department said it plans to hold the company responsible for "unlawfully polluting the nation's waterways and to ensure it pays the full cost of the environmental cleanup," the lawsuit states.
Additionally, the lawsuit is seeking fines and a judgement that will hold the firm accountable for future costs associated with the environmental response to the derailment.
A separate lawsuit, filed by Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost last month, is seeking to recoup the state's costs and ensure that Norfolk Southern carries out long-term environmental monitoring.
Norfolk Southern has repeatedly apologised for the crash and has so far pledged $27.9m (£22.6m) to the community.
"I am deeply sorry for the impact this derailment has had on the people of East Palestine and surrounding communities," CEO Alan Shaw told a Senate committee earlier this month. "I am determined to make this right."
Monday, March 21, 2022
CONTINENTAL GENERAL STRIKE
Canadian Pacific railway workers must answer lockout, threat of back-to-work law by expanding struggle
The contract dispute between Canadian Pacific Railway and the 3,000 engineers, conductors and yard workers it employs at its operations across Canada has rapidly escalated into a class confrontation whose outcome will have a major impact on the class struggle throughout North America.
CP Rail workers on the picket line in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan
(Credit: Teamsters Division 510)
The workers, whom CP Rail locked out at 12:01 a.m. Sunday, are determined to put an end to a brutal work regimen that ravages their family lives and imperils their personal safety and that of the public. They are also fighting for improved wages and pensions after years of stagnating incomes and successive concessions contracts. Earlier this month, the workers voted by 96.7 percent in favour of strike action.
However, due to the sabotage by the Teamsters union, it was Canadian Pacific, Canada’s second and North America’s sixth largest railway, that took the offensive.
With its lockout, CP Rail is mobilizing big business and the political establishment on both sides of the Canada-US border to press the Justin Trudeau-led federal Liberal government to rush a back-to-work law through Parliament. Such a law would strip the rail workers of their rights to strike and bargain collectively and empower a government-appointed, pro-big business arbitrator to dictate their terms of employment.
On cue, Canada’s largest business lobby groups, from the blue-chip Business Council of Canada and the Canadian Chamber of Commerce to the Canadian Federation of Independent Business, along with the premiers of Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta, are imploring the government to force the CP Rail workers back on the job. So too are numerous US business organizations and senators and governors from more than half a dozen Western and Plains states.
In demanding state intervention against the CP Rail workers, these forces are cynically invoking the impact of the shutdown of the railway’s Canadian operations on supply chains and consequently consumer prices and workers’ jobs. This is a fraud. As evidenced by the North American ruling class’s ruinous pandemic policy, which that has led to both mass death and socio-economic dislocation for working people, and their proxy war against Russia in Ukraine and the attendant blitzkrieg of economic sanctions, their concern is not the rational functioning of the economy but amassing greater profits and advancing their predatory imperialist interests on the world stage.
The Trudeau Liberal government has repeatedly illegalized or threatened to illegalize worker job actions. Last April it used an emergency law to break a strike of Port of Montreal longshore workers, and in December 2018 it criminalized a campaign of rotating strikes by postal workers.
Its preference, however, is to rely on the trade union bureaucracy, with which it enjoys a close partnership, to smother the CP Rail workers struggle.
Labour Minister Seamus O’Regan claims the Liberal government wants a “negotiated deal.” But the language he is using makes clear the negotiations, which continue under a federal mediator despite CP Rail locking out the workers and agitating for a back-to-work law, are a sham. Even as it publicly avows support for “negotiations,” the government is readying a back-to-work law and threatening, behind closed doors, to strip rail workers of their rights, if it has not already issued an explicit ultimatum to the Teamster bureaucrats as to when a “deal” must be reached.
“We want a resolution, and we want it now,” declared O’Regan on Sunday. “This work stoppage could not have happened at a worse time.”
Rank-and-file CP Rail workers have taken the measure of the Trudeau government, which has spent the past two years blustering about being “pro-worker” while funneling unprecedented sums into the coffers of big business and the financial oligarchy and spearheading the ruling elite’s “profit before lives” pandemic policy. “I can guarantee Trudeau will force us back to work, without even thinking about the workers’ lives,” a CP Rail conductor told the World Socialist Web Site, “He will force us back regardless of our strike demands.”
The CP Rail workers have powerful enemies arrayed against them. Yet still more powerful are their potential allies among the tens of millions of workers across North America who confront the same essential problems—deteriorating living standards, unsafe working conditions, austerity, speedup and war—born of the capitalist ruling elite’s relentless drive to extract ever greater profits.
The past year has witnessed an ongoing wave of worker struggles across Canada and the US, as workers seek to resist a further erosion of their real wages as a result of surging inflation, claw back pension cuts and other concessions and demand protection from the pandemic. These include strikes by Vale miners in Sudbury, Ontario, New Brunswick public sector workers, Volvo Truck workers in Virginia, Kellogg’s workers at multiple US plants, and the ongoing strike of 4,500 educators in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
In recent days CP Rail workers in discussions with the WSWS have painted a harrowing picture of the punishing schedules and work rules the company imposes through a brutal disciplinary regime and its indifference to workers’ safety.
“We are called the ‘backbone of Canada,’ but our industry just makes up its own rules,” one worker told the WSWS.
Said another veteran rail worker, “They have effectively reduced the well trained, hardworking men and women of CP into a position of folding under the constant pressure of fear of dismissal for speaking up when the actions requested of them would put either themselves, their fellow co-workers, or the public at elevated risk.”
The working conditions faced by the CP Rail workers are akin to those of workers throughout basic industry and transport, across the gig economy and even increasingly for professional workers in Canada and internationally. The ruling class’ drive to keep schools open amid the COVID-19 pandemic, so that students’ parents can be forced to keep churning out corporate profits, has demonstrated that its indifference to the health and well-being of teachers and students, as well as railway workers and meatpackers.
Two factors account for the ruthlessness with which Canadian Pacific and the ruling class as a whole have responded to the rail workers’ struggle. First, they see it as cutting across their plans—especially those of Canada’s oil and agri-business companies and the railways that transport their merchandise—to profiteer from the war against Russia. Second and more fundamentally, they fear it will serve as a catalyst for a broader mobilization of the working class.
The greatest obstacle to CP Rail workers expanding their struggle and making it the spearhead of a working class counteroffensive is the Teamsters and more generally the corporatist trade unions as a whole. For decades, the unions in Canada, as around the world, have systematically suppressed the class struggle while integrating themselves ever more fully into corporate management and the state.
Since negotiations between CP Rail and the Teamsters Canada Rail Conference (TCRC) began last September, the union has done everything to demobilize the rank and file. This includes keeping workers in the dark about the negotiations.
As the lockout deadline approached, the TCRC bowed to CP Rail’s demand that the 24 major outstanding issues in the dispute be settled by binding arbitration. That is, it agreed to surrender workers’ right to strike and any means of fighting for their just demands. Only then, according to TCRC spokesman Dave Fulton, management “moved the goal posts” and announced it would go ahead with the lockout unless the union allowed it to dictate terms that would ensure the arbitrator would be compelled to do its bidding across the board.
With the workers now locked out, the union has formally proclaimed a strike. But they have no intention of doing anything to rally working class support. This is underscored by the TCRC leaders’ readiness to remain at the bargaining table even as CP Rail bays for a government back-to-work law, accuses workers of striking illegally and vows, in the words of CEO Keith Creel, to explore “all avenues to address this egregious behaviour.”
Workers’ fundamental democratic rights, especially the right to strike, have been under increasing attack for decades. Rail workers, at both Canadian Pacific and Canadian National Rail, Canada’s largest railway, have repeatedly been targeted, especially over the past 13 years.
Not only have the unions bowed to back-to-work laws and policed them. Terrified of the development of an insurgent working class movement, they have increasingly relied on the adoption or threat of these laws to provide a pretext for their short circuiting of workers’ struggles.
A special place in this political theater is reserved for the trade union-sponsored New Democratic Party (NDP). NDP provincial governments have themselves repeatedly adopted strikebreaking laws, but as a rule the social democrats condemn them in parliament while working with the union bureaucracy to corral workers back to work with claims that the “struggle must continue” in the capitalist courts and at the ballot box.
Yesterday, federal New Democratic Party (NDP) leader Jagmeet Singh announced his party would not back legislation stripping CP Rail workers of their right to strike and bargain collectively, saying that to do so at this time would be “cavalier.” This is meaningless posturing of the worst kind. If and when the Liberals do introduce such a law, it will quickly pass thanks to the support of the official opposition Conservatives. Otherwise, the NDP will continue to prop the minority Liberal government in parliament as they have since 2019.
Indeed, on Monday evening it was revealed that the NDP was about to sign a “supply and confidence” agreement with the Liberals, under which Canada’s social democrats will pledge to keep the Trudeau government in power until 2025. This under conditions in which the Liberal government is playing a leading role in pressing the NATO powers to take an even more belligerent stance against Russia in the war over Ukraine, and at home is pivoting from “pandemic relief and stimulus” to austerity.
The CP Rail workers should follow the lead and join forces with the workers at BNSF, North America’s largest railroad, who recently formed the BNSF Workers Rank-and-File Committee to mobilize workers in struggle against the company, independently of and in opposition to the pro-company unions.
Like the CP Rail workers, the BNSF workers are facing state attack. The US courts have issued an injunction barring them from striking or taking any job action to oppose management’s imposition of a punitive “Hi-Viz” attendance policy. The big business line-up against the Canadian Pacific workers and the injunction against the BNSF workers underscore that workers are fighting not just a particularly reactionary employer, but rather the ruling class as a whole, its political representatives and state. Consequently, they confront a political struggle.
Militant industrial action—including preparations to defy a back-to-work law—must be tied to the fight for a workers’ government that would institute socialist policies in opposition to the ruling class agenda of unending pandemic, low wages, brutal working conditions, austerity and war.
Saturday, July 23, 2022
The Take: Railroads Sound the Whistle on Labor Shortages
U.S. President Joe Biden on Friday signed an executive order creating an emergency board to help settle disputes between major freight rail carriers and their unions. But thwarting a strike will not resolve an industry crisis: a severe labor shortage.
SAP’s Take
North America’s major freight railroads — BNSF, Canadian National Railway, Canadian Pacific Railway, CSX Transportation, Kansas City Southern Railway, Norfolk Southern Railway and Union Pacific Railroad — are suffering labor shortages equal to those of the air travel industry.
Bulk commodities, such as energy, agriculture, automobiles, and components, account for more than half of the freight moved by trains. Rail carriers transport 27.9% of U.S. freight, second to the 39.6% delivered by road, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation.
While retiring engineers and track workers account for a major part of the labor attrition, past layoffs and demanding schedules are also part of a very complicated problem.
“In the railroad industry, folks were let go,” said Timothy Motter, SAP solutions manager for the travel and transportation industries. “Now that those folks have been let go, they don’t necessarily want to come back. Railroad work is very difficult.”
Loop Capital, an investment bank that follows the railway industry, estimates that the industry is short about 4,100 workers, or about 9.4% of the needed workforce.
“Retention and hiring are not easy in the logistics industry in general, especially if you’re telling someone that they can’t go home, and that their schedule is up in the air every day,” Motter said.
Port delays have made scheduling for intermodal shipping — whereby shipping containers are loaded from one form of transportation to another — even more of a nightmare.
“Delays in getting containers through the port system and onto a train are really wrecking schedules,” Motter said. “If I can’t get a container on my train, I can’t fill up the train, but I still have to move the train on a scheduled basis.”
Like airlines, the railroad industry depends on tight schedules to keep operations staffed and profitable. But global supply chain and logistics problems have thrown that into havoc, making recruiting more difficult.
“It’s really difficult to bring someone back into the industry,” Motter said. “There’s a considerable amount of training that needs to occur to make sure workers are ready to handle themselves. To bring on a new employee is really difficult too. What happens to the new employee in a unionized industry? Well, they get the worst choices for work schedules, typically late or even in the middle of the night.”
The railroad industry’s chief competitor is trucking. To make railroads more competitive, the industry implemented a new way of shipping called Precision Scheduling Railroading (PSR) several years ago. Instead of allowing trains to sit still until fully loaded, PSR now focuses on loading individual cars. This enables the railroads to operate more meanly. But it also led to layoffs.
According to Motter, the shippers and unions say that “PSR cut headcounts too deep.”
Labor shortage for railroads that have slashed workforce by 33%
WOLF RICHTER ON AUGUST 3, 2021
More wailing about workers
“No way did I realize how difficult it was going to be to try and get people to come to work these days…” CEO of CSX.
There are few hiccups in the US economy right now. James Foote, the chief executive of CSX, one of the largest railroads in the US, put it this way:
“In January when I got on this [earnings] call, I said we were hiring because we anticipated growth. I fully expected that by now we would have about 500 new T&E [train and engine] employees on the property,” he said. “No way did I or anybody else in the last six months realize how difficult it was going to be to try and get people to come to work these days.”
“It’s an enormous challenge for us to go out and find people that want to be conductors on the railroad, just like it’s hard to find people that want to be baristas or anything else, it’s very, very difficult,” he said. So even though we brought on 200 new employees, we fell short of where we thought we would be by now….”
Railroads are grappling with a weird phenomenon that is a combination of “labor shortages” and 12.6 million people still claiming some form of unemployment compensation, amid stimulus-fueled demand.
This comes after railroads had spent six years shedding employees in order to tickle Wall Street analysts and pump up stock prices. The North American Class 1 freight railroads combined—BNSF, Union Pacific, Norfolk Southern, CSX, Canadian National, Kansas City Southern, and Canadian Pacific—have tried to streamline their operations, using fewer but longer trains and making other changes, including the strategy of “precision scheduled railroading,” implemented first by Canadian National, then by CSX.
The resulting deterioration in service triggered numerous complaints from shippers. But one of the big benefits was that the workforce could be slashed, which fattened the profit margins at the railroads. Wall Street analysts loved it, and it was good for railroad stocks. By now, precision scheduled railroading has become the new religion at all Class 1 railroads except at BNSF, which has not officially adopted it, at least not completely.
In the process, over the past six years, the Class 1 railroads have axed 33% of their workers through layoffs and attrition. According to the Surface of Transportation Board (STB), an independent federal agency that oversees freight railroads, the Class 1 railroads slashed their headcount from 174,000 workers in April 2015 to 116,000 workers in June 2021.
Before the railroads blame the 33% cut in the workforce on the pandemic, let’s point out that by February 2020, just before the pandemic, their headcount had already been cut by 46,000 workers, or by 26%, to 128,000. Only 12,000 workers were cut during the pandemic.
During the pandemic, some of the workers were put on furlough, to be recalled more easily. But it turns out that not all of them are eager to return to work on the conditions offered by the railroads, including relocation to new assignments.
These cuts in the workforce, and now the scrambling to hire people amid “labor shortages,” is contributing to issues in meeting heavy transportation demand: Union Pacific temporarily suspended traffic from Los Angeles into Chicago, and BNSF has started to meter traffic into Chicago, to allow them to catch up unloading the trains that are stuck in their Chicago rail yards. The resulting pot-banging by frustrated shippers has gotten the attention of the STB.
“The railroads cannot strip down to bare-bones operations,” STB chairman Martin Oberman told the Wall Street Journal. “It’d be like a professional football team only having one quarterback.”
The American Chemistry Council—which represents companies in the chemical industry, such as BASF, Chemours (the DuPont spinoff), Chevron Phillips Chemical, DuPont, ExxonMobil Chemical, etc.—lamented in a letter to the STB, cited by the WSJ, that railcars were waiting at railyards for over a week and travel times for some routes more than doubled. Some factories were running out of materials because shipments had gotten hung up and were approaching the point where they’d have to close, and other factories have cut production.
The railroads “clearly weren’t as prepared as they should have been for the increase in traffic,” Jeff Sloan, senior director of regulatory and technical affairs at the Council, told the WSJ. The deteriorating service shows that the railroads cut too deep before the pandemic and were unable to catch up, he said.
This is an excerpt from an article in Railroad Workers United News. It was written and published by Wolf Richter at WOLF STREET. Richter reports on “and dissects economic, business, and financial data, Wall Street shenanigans, complex entanglements, debacles, and opportunities.” His site is worth a visit.
Hear that lonely whistle
Throughout Olympia’s history, railroads have crisscrossed the city’s landscape. As James Hannum notes in “Olympia’s Railroad History,” (an essay in the People’s History of Olympia) at various points in our city’s history, we hosted three “common carrier” lines, two logging railroads and a trolley line.
While the last remaining segment of one historic line is still owned by the Burlington Northern Sante Fe (the modern successor of the old Northern Pacific), any trains you see operating on it are owned by Tacoma Rail, which is operated as a public utility by the City of Tacoma. The second railroad still in operation in Olympia is the Union Pacific. This rail line comes into an urban portion of our community up the Deschutes River valley, passing through the old Brewery Complex, under Capitol Boulevard via a tunnel and then into downtown Olympia, terminating at the Port of Olympia.
Excerpted from Emmett O’Connell’s article History of the RR Lines that Cross Through Olympia, in Thurston Talk, 2014
After Slashing 33% of Workers in 6 Years, Railroads Complain about Labor Shortages, amid Uproar over Slow Shipments
• •
“No way did I realize how difficult it was going to be to try and get people to come to work these days”: CEO of CSX.
So there are few hiccups in the US economy right now. James Foote, the chief executive of CSX, one of the largest railroads in the US, put it this way during the earnings call yesterday (transcript by Seeking Alpha):
“I’ve never seen any kind of a thing like this in the transportation environment in my entire career where everything seems to be going sideways at the same time,” he said.
“In January when I got on this [earnings] call, I said we were hiring because we anticipated growth. I fully expected that by now we would have about 500 new T&E [train and engine] employees on the property,” he said. “No way did I or anybody else in the last six months realize how difficult it was going to be to try and get people to come to work these days.”
“It’s an enormous challenge for us to go out and find people that want to be conductors on the railroad, just like it’s hard to find people that want to be baristas or anything else, it’s very, very difficult,” he said.
“Nor did we anticipate that a lot of the people were going to decide they didn’t want to work anymore. So attrition was much higher in the first half of the year than what we had expected,” he said.
“So even though we brought on 200 new employees, we fell short of where we thought we would be by now….”
Railroads are grappling with a weird phenomenon that is a combination of “labor shortages” and 12.6 million people still claiming some form of unemployment compensation, amid stimulus-fueled demand.
And this comes after railroads had spent six years shedding employees in order to tickle Wall Street analysts and pump up stock prices. The North American Class 1 freight railroads combined – BNSF, Union Pacific, Norfolk Southern, CSX, Canadian National, Kansas City Southern, and Canadian Pacific – have tried to streamline their operations, using fewer but longer trains and making other changes, including under the strategy of “precision scheduled railroading,” implemented first by Canadian National, then by CSX.
The resulting deterioration in service triggered numerous complaints from shippers. But one of the big benefits was that the workforce could be slashed, which fattened the profit margins at the railroads. Wall Street analysts loved it, and it was good for railroad stocks. By now, precision scheduled railroading has become the new religion at all Class 1 railroads except at BNSF, which has not officially adopted it, at least not completely.
In the process, over the past six years, the Class 1 railroads have axed 33% of their workers through layoffs and attrition. According to the Surface of Transportation Board (STB), an independent federal agency that oversees freight railroads, the Class 1 railroads slashed their headcount from 174,000 workers in April 2015 to 116,000 workers in June 2021.
The results of the efforts to hire people back this year are barely visible in the chart – that risible uptick in employment over the past few months. Turns out, it’s a lot easier to cut workers than it is to suddenly hire workers:
Before the railroads blame the 33% cut in the workforce on the pandemic, let’s point out that by February 2020, just before the pandemic, their headcount had already been cut by 46,000 workers, or by 26%, to 128,000. Only 12,000 workers were cut during the pandemic.
Since September 2016 – the beginning of the STB monthly data by individual railroad – the biggest workforce slashers were CSX and Norfolk Southern, which both cut over 30%, and Union Pacific which cut nearly 30%. The other railroads cut far less over that period. But massive cuts occurred in 2015 and 2016, before this by-railroad data began.
During the pandemic, some of the workers were put on furlough, to be recalled more easily. But turns out, not all of them are eager to return to work on the conditions offered by the railroads, including relocation to new assignments.
These cuts in the workforce, and now the scrambling to hire people amid “labor shortages,” is contributing to issues in meeting heavy transportation demand: Union Pacific temporarily suspended traffic from Los Angeles into Chicago, and BNSF has started to meter traffic into Chicago, to allow them to catch up unloading the trains that are stuck in their Chicago railyards. The resulting pot-banging by frustrated shippers has gotten the attention of the STB.
“The railroads cannot strip down to bare-bones operations,” STB chairman Martin Oberman told the Wall Street Journal. “It’d be like a professional football team only having one quarterback.”
The American Chemistry Council – which represents companies in the chemical industry, such as BASF, Chemours (the DuPont spinoff), Chevron Phillips Chemical, DuPont, ExxonMobil Chemical, etc. – lamented in a letter to the STB, cited by the WSJ, that railcars were waiting at railyards for over a week and travel times for some routes more than doubled. Some factories were running out of materials because shipments had gotten hung up and were approaching the point where they’d have to close, and other factories have cut production.
The railroads “clearly weren’t as prepared as they should have been for the increase in traffic,” Jeff Sloan, senior director of regulatory and technical affairs at the Council, told the WSJ. The deteriorating service shows that the railroads cut too deep before the pandemic and were unable to catch up, he said.
In line with the executive order from the White House that exhorts agencies to work on making markets more competitive, the STB is now examining what can be done to improve competition among the railroads. Nixing any thought of mergers among Class 1 railroads would be a no-brainer.
SHORTAGE OF RAILROAD WORKERS THREATENS RECOVERY Date: Friday, July 23, 2021
Source: Wall Street Journal
America’s freight railroads are struggling to bring back workers, contributing to a slowdown in the movement of chemicals, fertilizer and other products that threatens to disrupt factory operations and hinder a rebound from the pandemic, according to shippers and trade groups.
The problems have attracted scrutiny from federal regulators, who have been concerned that cost cuts and new operational plans implemented across most freight railroads that have been celebrated on Wall Street have resulted in lackluster service for some customers.
“The railroads cannot strip down to bare-bones operations,” said Martin Oberman, chairman of the Surface Transportation Board. “It’d be like a professional football team only having one quarterback.”
The board, which oversees freight railroads, is examining ways that it could improve competition in the rail industry, a mission highlighted in the Biden administration’s recent executive order to promote more competitive markets across numerous industries.
The challenges largely stem from two issues buffeting the U.S. economy: labor shortages and widespread supply-chain bottlenecks as manufacturing ramps up and the economy snaps back.
Railroad executives say they have done their best to manage through a pandemic that has forced swaths of their workforce to quarantine and caused fluctuating demand from irregular production at some plants.
CSX Corp. CSX +0.38% Chief Executive Officer Jim Foote said that the railroad had expected to hire 500 new conductors by now to help with the increased demand and higher-than-expected attrition, but has added only 200 so far. “It is an enormous challenge for us to go out and find people that want to be conductors on the railroad, just like it’s hard to find people that want to be baristas or anything else,” he said.
Railroads retrenched quickly when the economy seized up last year, furloughing thousands of workers and taking hundreds of locomotives offline. It came in the midst of a multiyear push by railroads like CSX, Norfolk Southern Corp. and Union Pacific Corp. UNP +0.54% to streamline their operations by running fewer trains with more cars, changes that already had resulted in fewer workers.
Some railroads implemented the Covid-related cuts in ways that would allow workers and locomotives to quickly be recalled should the pandemic ease quickly. Instead of furloughs, some railroads set up reserve boards that allowed the workers to use unpaid time off or work one week a month. That let them keep their benefits and return to duty in just 48 hours, instead of 15 days under normal furloughs. Idled locomotives were parked and maintained so that they could resume hauling trains.
But other workers who were furloughed have been slow to come back, with many of them balking at relocating to new assignments. Training took months and Covid-19 protocols stretched some training classes out further.
Shippers noticed. The American Chemistry Council, whose members include companies like Dow Inc. and Honeywell International Inc., said in a letter to the STB that railcars were waiting at yards for more than a week and travel times for some routes more than doubled. Some factories were close to closing because of lack of materials and others slowed production, the companies said.
Jeff Sloan, the trade group’s senior director of regulatory and technical affairs, said that the deteriorating service shows that the railroads cut too deep ahead of the pandemic and were unable to catch up. “They clearly weren’t as prepared as they should have been for the increase in traffic,” he said.
CSX, based in Jacksonville, Fla., was the first U.S. railroad operator to implement the operating philosophy called precision scheduled railroading starting in 2017, when Hunter Harrison, who pioneered the ideas on Canada’s major freight lines, joined the company as CEO. The strategy calls for running fewer trains longer distances and keeping them on a tighter schedule, allowing the railroad to scrap locomotives, employ fewer workers and shut facilities.
The implementation is jarring to operations and customers complained about mayhem on the tracks as the changes took place. But other railroads followed suit, in part due to Wall Street pressure to lower costs and boost margins and stock prices.
CSX and others say they have ramped up hiring lately to handle the increased shipping demand. Norfolk Southern had 114 conductors in training as of mid-June and plans to add between 72 and 96 new trainees each month for the remainder of the year.
CSX’s Mr. Foote said the challenges are prompting the railroad to re-evaluate its approach to hiring for certain jobs, such as those that require people to work during weekends and holidays, or spend days away from home. They are providing $3,000 bonuses to workers who provide referrals for new hires, which Mr. Foote said has helped boost the pool of applicants.
“It is a challenge for us to figure out ways to bring more normalcy to the hours worked by a railroad employee in order to make the job more attractive,” Mr. Foote said. “It’s not about the job.”
Across the freight rail network, employment levels still remain below pre-pandemic levels. According to data shared with the STB, railroads reported 47,444 transportation employees in June, down from about 51,800 in March 2020.
Not all railroads are scrambling to find workers. Union Pacific executives on Friday said the railroad has been able to hire workers to run their trains. CEO Lance Fritz said that furloughed employees, including some out of work for up to a year-and-a-half, are returning at a 70% rate.
“To date, while sometimes it’s difficult, we are finding the talent we need,” Mr. Fritz said.
The worker shortages are being exacerbated by congestion from products entering and exiting the rail system. Backlogs at ports mean strains on the freight railroads that are pulling cargo inland, while a tight market for trucking also creates pinch points when trains transfer containers to the highways.
“The supply chain is only as good as the weakest link in the chain and there are a lot of weak links in the chain,” Citi transportation analyst Christian Wetherbee said.
Union Pacific and BNSF Railway Co., a unit of Berkshire Hathaway Inc., BRK.B +0.33% have taken steps to mitigate some of the congestion of freight moving into Chicago. Union Pacific this week suspended traffic for seven days from certain West Coast ports into a Chicago intermodal facility to clear some of the backlog of trains waiting to be unloaded. BNSF said that it would be metering traffic from some West Coast ports into Chicago.
Mr. Oberman, the STB chairman, said that there are some industries that are reporting good service, but others continue to be plagued by the same issues, including crew shortages, late deliveries and other service cutbacks. “I don’t think we are overall having a system that works the way it should work,” he said.
Rail Industry Faces Worker Shortage
Welcome to Thomas Insights — every day, we publish the latest news and analysis to keep our readers up to date on what’s happening in industry.
Fayola Powell
Sep 05, 2018
Worker shortages have taken their toll on quite a number of industries in recent years, and the rail sector is no exception. The industry will need to hire more than 80,000 workers within the next six years in order to meet the increasing demand for transportation — for both people and commodities. Multiple factors must be considered when tackling the issue. Right now, the industry is trying its best to lure prospective candidates with financial incentives, such as signing bonuses worth thousands of dollars and more comprehensive benefits packages.
America’s focus on traditional schooling and career training is partly to blame, but the rail industry also has a reputation for involving exceedingly difficult, grueling work. Salaries simply don’t go as far as they used to in many regions; the industry’s rules and regulations are viewed as rigid and overly complex; workers are sometimes subjected to intense scrutiny, even in the form of supervisory drones; the hectic work schedules don’t leave much room for downtime; accidents are common; employees are given basic or inadequate benefits packages; and signing bonuses often involve a lot of fine print.
Overall conditions make for a challenging work environment, putting off prospective employees and painting an unappealing picture for the younger generation entering the workforce. The boomers are keeping things afloat right now, but many are retiring or reaching retirement age.
The rail industry must work to revamp its image. Heavy-handed, bureaucratic company policies have taken the shine off rail industry jobs, and while signing bonuses are certainly a solid starting point, the internal culture needs a complete overhaul. Improving the morale of current employees is a good place to start, helping to improve current conditions while also helping to attract the new generation of rail workers.