railroad workers

By Eddie Hall - America's Workforce Union Podcast, February 1, 2024

By Union Jake, Adam, and Matt Weaver - Valley Labor Report, December 22, 2023

By staff - National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers (RMT), November 5, 2023

As Britain ‘celebrates’ 30 years of rail privatisation, RMT reveals that the three-decade debacle has seen at least £31 billion leak out of the system, mostly into shareholders pockets, while passengers are paying 8% more in real terms to travel on a deteriorating system.

• Renationalising the railway and creating a single, integrated publicly owned railway company would save around £1.5 billion every year which could be used to cut fares by 18%, helping to encourage more people back onto Britain’s railways.
• At least £1.5 billion and very likely more leaks out of Britain’s railways every year in the form of profits extracted by train operating companies, rolling stock leasing companies, subcontractors and other costs that arise the fragmentation of the railways.1 Throughout privatisation, the annual outflow of funds would have enabled, on average, a cut of 14% in fares (Table 1.)
• If the railways were nationalised now and the flow of funds into the private sector was cut off, the money saved would fund a cut of 18% in fares.
• The cost of travelling by rail is now almost 8% higher in real terms than it was in 1995, before privatisation. This figure has dropped in the last two years only as inflation as risen above 13%. Until the cost-of-living crisis, when fare increases were decoupled from RPI inflation, fares were consistently 15-20% higher in real terms than before privatisation.

Download a copy of this publication here (PDF).

By Paul Lindsey - Railroad Workers United, October 26, 2023

By Chris Townsend, Union Jake, and Adam Keller - Valley Labor Report, September 29, 2023

By Luis Feliz Leon - Labor Notes, September 29, 2023

Seven thousand Auto Workers at two more assembly plants will walk off the job at noon ET today, UAW President Shawn Fain announced in a Facebook Live appearance this morning. Joining the strike are Ford’s Chicago Assembly Plant and General Motors’ Lansing Delta Township Assembly in Michigan.

Fain announced that Stellantis would be spared this time. The union had been expected to expand the strike today at all three companies, but, said Region 1 Director LaShawn English, three minutes before Fain was scheduled to go on Facebook Live, the UAW received frantic emails from company representatives.

According to Fain, Stellantis made “significant progress” on the cost-of-living adjustment, the right not to cross a picket line, and the right to strike over product commitments and plant closures. “We are excited about this momentum at Stellantis and hope it continues,” Fain said.

Fain made clear that negotiations with all three companies are ongoing. “I’m still very hopeful that we can reach a deal that reflects the incredible sacrifices and contributions our members have made over the last decade,” he said to 60,000 viewers on Facebook. “But I also know that what we win at the bargaining table depends on the power we build on the job. It’s time to use that power.”

By Nick Wurst, Ashley McCollum, Yvette Arellano, Paul Lindsay, Helen Yost, Thomas Hanna, Magda Orlander, and Bakari Height - Labor Network for Sustainability, September 20, 2023

By Ross Grooters, Gabe Christianson, and Andrew Weir - Railroad Workers United, September 6, 2023

Whereas, the US labor movement, including the railroad unions, face many obstacles in the fight to reverse the long decline of low membership; and

Whereas, autoworkers represented by the UAW are a significant workforce in the country and are battling against the “Big Three” automakers; and;

Whereas, solidarity action by other workers and unions along the supply chain can be the decisive factor in any battle between workers and employers; and

Whereas, a victory for UAW workers could embolden all workers to go on the offensive to win better contracts; and likewise, a victory for the new leadership of the UAW could embolden all union members looking to reform and democratize their own unions; and

Whereas, RWU recognizes the power that railroad workers have to assist UAW workers, as automobiles manufactured at UAW plants are loaded onto “autorack” railcars and transported by train daily throughout the U.S.; and

Whereas, the fight for electrification of the auto industry to happen through good, union jobs, has parallels to the fight for electrification of the North American railroads; and

Whereas, the fight to build links with auto workers in Mexico and Canada to fight back against the outsourcing of jobs to non-union workforces has parallels with the fight for railroad workers to get organized across North America as the railroad systems of the US, Mexico, and Canada become increasingly integrated;

Therefore, Be it Resolved that RWU offers full solidarity in support of UAW workers in their fight for strong contracts; and

Be it Further Resolved that RWU suggests that UAW workers organize picket lines at the rail entrance of any auto facilities that receive rail service, and that RWU calls on railroad workers and our unions to refuse to cross any UAW picket lines, which is a basic principle of labor movement solidarity; and

Be it Finally Resolved that RWU urges all of rail labor to likewise stand in solidarity with our UAW fellow workers.

Adopted by the RWU Steering Committee, September 6, 2023

By Matt Weaver, Ashley M. Gjøvik, Stella Miranda, Dr. Ray Tomkins, Steve Zeltser, et. al. - Labor Video Project, August 2, 2023