Vol. 79/No. 16      May 4, 2015

Fritz Edler, a veteran member and officer of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen, and Glenn Gales, a Red Cap at Amtrak and president of Transportation Communication Union Local 570, spoke.

They both had participated in March conferences on rail safety in California and Washington state sponsored by Railroad Workers United, a labor group active in last year’s successful fight against boss demands for one-person “crews” on the BNSF Railway, and Backbone Campaign, an organization active on environmental and other issues.

Joining them was Glova Scott, an overnight stocker at Walmart and member of OUR Walmart, which has been leading the fight for $15 an hour and a union here. Scott is the Socialist Workers Party candidate for City Council in Ward 4 in the April 28 election.

“Washington, D.C., is a rail town although most people don’t think of it that way,” Edler said. “The railroads are a significant employer, with commuter, passenger and commodity lines. Safety on the railroads is a national question. We are up against the individual private companies who fight tooth and nail for themselves. But they work collectively to keep their workforces down.”

Because of the crisis in the economy, “these days they are emboldened,” he said.

Militant Labor Forums are a weekly Friday night event in cities across the country where SWP members and others involved in workers’ struggles participate. The same is true of Communist League members in the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. (See locations on page 8.)

“My education ultimately stemmed from what I learned by coming to the Militant Labor Forum 40 years ago,” Edler said. “While everything about a topic can’t be covered, it whets your appetite to continue on your own.”

“A lot of people don’t know about what is faced by workers who carry oil, coal, grain and other freight through the surrounding working-class communities,” said Gales. “The bosses fight to lengthen the trains and increase the tonnage and cut crews. Some trains are three miles long and weigh 18,000 tons.”

“Just think about the dangers involved with a one-man crew — a worker out there by themselves with a remote control unit hanging on his waist,” Gales said. Rail bosses promote radio control from the ground to operate the train, to cut back crew size and reduce labor costs.

“Because my campaign is part of unfolding workers’ resistance,” said Scott, “I’ve learned a lot about safety — nurses fighting for lower patient-nurse ratios and refinery workers striking for safety and against forced overtime. At a recent union-organized hearing I attended, Metro workers described the dangers of not having proper radio communications while operating trains.”

“What workers need is to exercise workers control on the job. We need unions strong enough to shut down a job if it’s not safe,” she said. “We need to use political power that is independent from the Democrats and Republicans, a labor party based on the unions to have political discussions and take action in our class interests. These questions are becoming less abstract as workers are standing up.”

Tom Headley, an engineer who works in the D.C. Amtrak yard and is a member of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen, described how rail workers there recently came together to push back management’s plan to impose 12-hour shifts. “It’s a question of profits vs. safety. The companies would rather clean up an occasional train wreck than pay the cost of properly maintaining the track and equipment to prevent train wrecks in the first place,” he said.

All too often union officials are part of the problem, Edler said. “The union leaderships have become the managers of the rate of risks and givebacks, but there is a hunger for leadership, for a way to fight back,” he said.

On March 5, 21 cars on a BNSF Railway train hauling 103 tankers of crude oil derailed near Galena, Illinois, an aerospace worker said. Several cars ruptured and the oil inside caught fire and exploded.

A month before the accident a flat spot on one of the tanker’s wheels was detected, according to a preliminary investigation by government regulators. The day of the derailment the same wheel was flagged defective 130 miles outside Galena. But under Federal Railroad Administration regulations, BNSF was not obligated to repair it until the car’s next regularly scheduled mechanical checkup, so the train rolled on, and off the tracks.

BNSF, owned by billionaire investor Warren Buffett, has been in the vanguard demanding rail workers give in to operating trains with only an engineer on board.

“The railroads maintain zero liability. There are so many ‘behavioral safety’ programs. There’s always a worker who did something wrong,” said Edler.

“The problem that we face is that the government is for the rich. They do what is necessary for their class, everywhere. It’s not our government,” Scott said. “What we need to do is awaken workers to our capacities to fight independently of the capitalist parties. As we fight we find a road forward. Win or lose, we have experiences and discussions and find leadership. That’s the opportunity that lies in front of us.”
 
 
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On the Picket Line
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