What Railway Workers Think about Oil Trains

From Sightline Daily - November 20, 2014

Disclaimer: The views expressed here are not the official position of the IWW (or even the IWW’s EUC) and do not necessarily represent the views of anyone but the author’s.

Ecology.iww.org web editor's note: shortly after this article was published, it was deleted. The reasons for its deletion are not given. Did somebody higher up in the union bureaurcracy closely tied with management freak out? We'll let you know as soon as we find out more.

If you’re following the debate about the development of large-scale crude oil-by-rail sites in Washington, you should be paying close attention to what labor unions are saying.

Sightline has cataloged a range of serious concerns about the rise of oil trains— from lax tank car safety standards to industry intransigence to severe under-insurance—but the perspective of actual rail workers is even more troubling. In response to a recently published Washington Department of Ecology study on rail oil transport, the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen submitted formal comments to the State that are frankly damning.The remarks illustrate an industry prioritizing profits and efficiency over health and safety and, by doing so, jeopardizing the very workers we rely on to  move 15,000-ton trains of hazardous goods through our communities safely.

Ecology will not be making the comments publicly available until March 2015, but with permission from the union I’m publishing portions of them here. What follows are direct excerpts from  Chairman Sharaim C. Allen’s letter to the Department of Ecology:

There is an imminent risk to public health and safety by the number of inexperienced, “new hire” railroad employees entering the railroad workforce inadequately trained and/or familiarized with the workplace environment.

There is an imminent risk to public health and safety by the proposed use of Single-Person Train Crews in freight rail operations.

Transport Canada took steps to bridle the North American rail industry’s “profits first” approach to safety by requiring all trains carrying hazardous materials in Canada to have a minimum Two-Person Crew. The Canadian government has also put a strict timeline of three years on the phasing out of the aging DOT-111 tank cars. For a country that is supposed to be setting the example for the rest of the world, so far, the USA still has not taken the sensible safety steps our neighbors to the north now require of railroads operating in their country.

[Ed. note: Sightline published a comparative analysis of Canadian and American regulatory responses, finding that Canada has take a far more assertive approach.]

There is an imminent risk to public health and safety by both chronic and acute fatigue in the railroad industry.

There is an imminent risk to public health and safety by track maintenance not commensurate with the number of heavy tonnage trains operated on rail lines in Washington State.

Over the past three years, Washington State has seen a dramatic increase in heavy train traffic, associated with energy trains. Unit coal and Bakken crude oil trains, many in excess of 100 cars and 15,000 tons, have increased exponentially. These heavy tonnage trains accelerate wear and tear on the mainline infrastructure… Crude oil trains pose an additional maintenance challenge due to the fact the product is transported in liquid state. Sloshing associated with rail transportation of product can create “asymmetrical forces” to the track structure and road bed beyond what is experienced by other non-liquid commodities.

Washington State’s railroad territory is unique, and the Class I service model seems to ignore this important point. Case in point, during the Spring of 2008, a BLET Locomotive Engineer reported for work on his Seattle Subdivision job to find a “monster” Distributed Power train of over 10,000 feet! When this engineer advised management that the train was too long for the territory, they asked him, “Are you refusing service?” He replied that he was not but only advising them of his safety concerns regarding the extreme length of the train for the territory to be traversed. That safety experiment in train length went on to derail three times between Seattle and Vancouver, WA.

There is an imminent risk to public health and safety by inadequate regulatory oversight and cumbersome rulemaking by the Federal Railroad Administration.

The railroad Track Inspectors, who inspect the rail lines, have had their territories expanded…. It is nearly impossible to adequately inspect all track placed in their responsibility, as needed to ensure safety. These crucial inspections by railroad personnel are happening less frequently thus increasing the potential for mishaps associated with failed infrastructure to occur.

The railroad has received federal High Speed Rail monies in the amount of $800 Million for the upgrade in the existing infrastructure associated with improving passenger rail performance… rest assured, the railroad benefited handsomely by this huge infusion of taxpayer funds. This substantial financial benefit to the privately owned railroad corporations should require more return to the public than what amounts to a few minutes improvement to passenger train on-time performance.

There is an imminent risk to public health and safety due to the lack of accountability in all area of operations management within the railroads.

The employees that encounter the bulk of the workplace risk, and who have firsthand knowledge of what factors influence workplace risk, oftentimes are ignored or, even worse, intimidated to remain silent.

There is an imminent risk to public health and safety by crew fatigue caused by inaccurate train line-ups, and poor or improper crew lodging conditions.

There is an imminent risk to public health and safety due to inadequate Whistleblower protections afforded railroad employees.

…the railroads have their own private police department with sworn officers having, in some cases, more authority than city, county, and state police. In recent years, the railroads have taken to using their railroad police to intimidate the workforce and/or meddle in labor/management disputes.

For more on this subject, I highly recommend EarthFix reporter Ashley Ahearn’s July 2014 investigation into conditions for railway workers in Washington—and what can happen when someone raises a red flag.

Sightline Institute researches the best practices in public policy for a sustainable Pacific Northwest. Read more at daily.sightline.org.

Related articles

• “Bombs on the railway?” Trains moving large amounts of ‘Bakken’ crude oil are crashing, burning, exploding - http://drcinfo.org/2014/11/20/bombs-on-the-railway-trains-moving-large-amounts-of-bakken-crude-oil-are-crashing-burning-exploding-fox-news-6-milwaukee/
• After oil, natural gas may be next on North American rails - http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/06/16/us-usa-railway-natgas-insight-idUSKBN0ER0D620140616?irpc=932
• Railway Companies’ Bottom Line Continues to Trump Safety - http://railroaded.wordpress.com/2014/11/19/railway-companies-bottom-line-continues-to-trump-safety/