News and Media

America’s Workforce Union Podcast.

TTD Secretary Treasurer Shari Semelsberger discussed the new wave of worker empowerment during the pandemic and the path forward for working people in America.

Reported by Eleanor Mueller for Politico.

In the scramble to bring prices back down, one obstacle is slowly garnering more attention: a decimated railroad workforce, which agency officials say is impeding efforts to transport goods and, in doing so, further hobbling an already-delicate supply chain.

Over the last six years, Class I freight railroads — which include BNSF Railway, CSX Transportation, Kansas City Southern Railway, Norfolk Southern and Union Pacific — have hemorrhaged a combined 45,000 workers, according to the Surface Transportation Board. That’s nearly 29 percent of their workforce.

Reported by Justin Franz for Railfan and Railroad Magazine.

BNSF Railway will make adjustments to its new attendance policy that has been heavily criticized by union officials and railroaders alike.

Under the “Hi-Viz” attendance policy that went into effect on February 1, railroaders had a bank of 30 points. If they missed a call or couldn’t work, they lost points. If they lost all their points they could be punished or terminated. The policy has been called “draconian” by labor officials and the railroad’s unions almost went on strike over the policy until a judge blocked such action.

Reported by Bill Stephens for Trains.

BNSF Railway has modified its controversial Hi-Viz train crew attendance policy in response to employee feedback, but officials at two unions say the changes fall far short of what is needed.

The changes, which take effect June 1, were announced in a video released on Friday.

BNSF launched the policy in February, saying it would help improve crew availability, enable the railroad to remain competitive, and give employees greater visibility into their schedules. But union leaders have been highly critical of the program and threatened to strike over the matter.

Reported by Josh Funk for AP.

BNSF railroad is tweaking its strict new attendance policy that upset workers, but the unions that challenged the rules since they took effect in February say the changes don’t go far enough.

The railroad has told employees that starting next month it will make several small changes in the formula it uses to determine whether workers are missing too many shifts.

The unions say the rules still do too much to encourage workers to show up when they are sick or fatigued. They also argue the rules have contributed to more than 700 employees leaving the railroad at a time when BNSF is struggling to hire.

Reported by David Sparkman for Material Handling and Logistics.

The service deterioration on the nation’s Class 1 railroads is approaching the point of becoming a national security issue, shippers informed the Surface Transportation Board (STB) at hearings held April 26-27, where they described how it already has added to the supply chain crisis, inflation and damaged the nation’s ability to recover economically from COVID-19.

In March, rail shippers also presented similar information at an STB hearing on reciprocal switching, and now the crisis has even seized the attention of the highest levels of the federal government. On April 26 White House press secretary Jen Psaki mentioned the STB hearing at her daily press briefing and on that day Pete Buttigieg became the first secretary of transportation to testify in person before the STB.

Reported by Justin Franz for the Montana Free Press.

Brady Wassam knew what to expect when he took a job on the railroad. Wassam, 30, of Columbia Falls, came from a family of railroaders who have spent years moving freight over the mountains of northwest Montana. 

“It’s a family affair [and] I knew what I was getting into,” he said. “I knew I would get called to work in the middle of the night. I knew I’d have no regular schedule. I knew that because that’s how my family lived.”

Reported by Joanna Marsh for Freightwaves.

Service disruptions at the Class I railroads have come to a head in recent weeks, and shippers and the unions representing rail workers are clamoring for changes to the freight rail industry of a magnitude to match the disruptions.

Some examples of subpar rail service: Excessive dwell times at the origin, resulting in the doubling of transit times between the Midwest and West Coast for grain shippers and tardy arrivals that pressure flour and feed mills and ethanol plants to temporarily cease operations or curtail production. 

Reported by Katabella Roberts for Epoch Times.

Food supply shortages hit a record high in April, as the ongoing Russia–Ukraine conflict continues to impact worldwide food exports, data from S&P Global published on Monday suggested.

According to the survey, manufacturers worldwide reported sustained price and supply pressures during the last month, while the Global Supply Shortages Index signaled that shortages were just under seven times higher than the normal level, unchanged from March’s four-month high.

Reported by Lillianna Byington for Bloomberg Law.

Workers say a proposed change from the Transportation Department to drug testing rules could unfairly violate their privacy.

The administration is weighing whether to allow a licensed professional of any gender to observe a urine test for drugs. The proposal was included in a broader rule that’s mainly seeking to add saliva sampling to the transportation industry’s drug testing. The comments, pitting employers against employees, were due on the proposal by April 29.