UE has called for a shift to zero-emissions locomotives. The union also supports public ownership (or nationalization) of the railway industry, arguing that the profit motive is a key barrier to vitally needed improvements.
Freight rail corporations, which appeared triumphant at the end of 2022 after successfully using the blackmail threat that a rail strike would cripple the U.S. economy, then faced blowback from the negative consequences of their political victories.
Workers at the Wabtec locomotive manufacturing plant in Erie, Pennsylvania, have walked off the job. Their demands get to the heart of bigger questions about the nature of work and the role workers can play in fights like climate change.
While the abused residents of East Palestine, Ohio sorted through the contradictory messaging from officials, freight trains with vast quantities of toxic chemicals rumbled through equally vulnerable and unprepared corridor communities across America
In October, months before the East Palestine derailment, the company also directed a train to keep moving with an overheated wheel that caused it to derail miles later in Sandusky, Ohio.
It is not too late for Biden to use the full powers of his presidency to confront employers who force workers to choose between protecting their health or retaining their jobs — and to challenge them in other matters as well.
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If he wanted to, Joe Biden could give railworkers the sick days they’re seeking without any need for Senate approval. He is choosing not to.
He didn’t give rail workers paid leave in legislation. But he can still do it through an executive order.
An alarming number of commentators are grafting their ideological purity on the situation. But the final settlement was nit Biden’s fault, nor the fault of the two political parties. It’s Rail Labor leadership’s fault.
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