railroad workers

By Union Jake, Adam Keller, and Max Alvarez - Valley Labor Report, April 4, 2024

By RMT Press Office - National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers, April 1, 2024

Rail union, RMT union has slammed ScotRail's decision to hike fares by 8.7% from April 1st, exactly two years since the railway came under public ownership.

This punitive price increase comes at a time when the Scottish Government itself is running a successful off-peak fares trial, effectively removing peak fares entirely.

RMT is calling on the Scottish Government to make this off-peak fares trial permanent, otherwise passengers face the return of significantly increased peak fares from June.

RMT General Secretary Mick Lynch said: "This fare hike is terrible news for ScotRail passengers and a betrayal of the promises made when public ownership was introduced. 

"The counter-productive move will push people back into their cars at a time when we desperately need to be encouraging a shift to sustainable and environmentally friendly public transport."

The RMT demands the Scottish Government make the off-peak fares trial permanent, preventing the return of extortionate peak fares from June. 

Failing to do so will have a negative impact on passenger usage of trains and endanger Scotland's climate change targets.

Mr Lynch added: "The Committee on Climate Change recently made it clear – Scotland's current approach to transport isn't delivering the emissions reductions needed. 

"Making rail affordable, accessible, and reliable is essential. 

"This fare increase undermines all of that. The Scottish Government needs to get serious about putting passengers and the planet first."

RMT urges the Scottish Government to act decisively to reverse this damaging fare hike and commit to long-term policies that make rail the natural choice for passengers, not an affordable luxury.

By Nicole Fabricant and Steve Zeltser - Labor Video Project, March 30, 2024

By Steve Zeltser, et. al. - Labor Video Project, March 28, 2024

By Chris Albright, et. al - Labor Video Project, March 26, 2024

By Steve Mellon - Pittsburg Union Progress, March 24, 2024

Laurie Harmon stepped from the crowd gathered in a community hall at the East Palestine Country Club around 2:30 on Saturday afternoon and told her story to a hushed crowd of about 80 people. Many had traveled from as far as California and Texas to hear stories like hers, and to offer their support.

Laurie, 48, a retired registered nurse, lives three blocks from the site of the Feb. 3, 2023, toxic train derailment that many residents believe poisoned the town.

“On the 12th, I started getting rashes,” she said, her tone matter-of-fact. “On May 1st, about the time they started digging up a pit and cleaning up, I started getting second-, third- and fourth-degree chemical burns. I had burns over 80% of my body. They burrow deep down in. It’s horrible. I was going to doctors, trying to get it figured out. Nobody knows; no one can tell me. I was diagnosed with systemic contact dermatitis due to chemical exposure. I have now lesions on my spine, cysts on my kidneys; I have kidney stones. On March 4, I had a heart attack. …”

She’s scheduled for heart surgery at Cleveland Clinic. She’s seeing seven doctors. Her medical bills total $500,000. She’s on Medicare and says she’ll have to pay 20% of that. To avoid the rashes, she quit going outside in September.

“I’m losing everything. I’m losing my home; I lost my relationship; I’m a foster parent. I lost my kids. This is more than one person can take. I just don’t even know what to say. I want to thank you guys for coming here. I wasn’t even going to come, because sometimes I feel I’m defeated, but I can’t feel that way, because if I don’t talk no one’s going to know. No one is going to know.”

Laurie’s story, and the stories of other East Palestine residents in attendance, moved the crowd, which included organizers and members from a number of unions, as well as several environmental activists, academics and some people who simply wanted to offer help to a community in crisis. Hours later, after a number of panel discussions and the performance of a song written about the East Palestine disaster by musician Mike Stout, they voted to take action.

By Union Jake - Valley Labor Report, March 20, 2024

By Simon Pirani - The Ecologist, March 19, 2024

Fares for public transport around London should be abolished, says a new campaign briefing from Fare Free London.

Free public transport “opens the city to all” and should be “provided as a public service, just like health, education and public parks,” a new campaign briefing from Fare Free London argues.

And abolishing fares for public transport in London is “one of the drastic, demonstrative actions needed to tackle climate change globally and air pollution locally”. 

READ THE FAIR FREE LONDON BRIEFING NOW

Fare Free London, set up at a meeting of community, trade union and environmentalist activists this year, is calling on the city’s mayor to adopt the policy, and commission research on how to implement.

It urges national government to support the fare-free approach around the country, and change local government finance rules so that it can be paid for. 

By Steve Mellon - Pittsburg Union Progress, March 19, 2024

Here’s the story of two men. One is a Trump-supporting blue-collar conservative from a small town in rural Ohio; the other is the son of a Mexican immigrant and describes himself as a socialist and a “lefty nut job.” They’ll be getting together later this week, and of course they’ll soon come to blows, right? Or at least hurl insults at each other?

That’s the narrative we’ve all come to expect. You see it on cable news shows, on social media. Division is hot these days.

But in the real world, the one in which trains fly off their tracks and spill toxic loads in America’s backyards, Chris Albright and Maximilian Alvarez recognize they have more in common than that which separates them.

That bond will be on display Saturday, during an event in East Palestine, Ohio, involving local residents, unionists, community activists and environmentalists from around the country. They’re getting together to demand the federal government step in and make certain those affected by the derailment are provided with health care.

The get-together will feature music and a lineup of speakers that includes residents of East Palestine and other communities affected by toxic contamination as well as union organizers and journalists. Initiated by the newly formed coalition Justice for East Palestine Residents and Workers, the event runs from noon to 5 p.m. at East Palestine Country Club, 50834 Carmel Anchor Road, Negley, OH 44441 (moved from the First Church of Christ).