WASHINGTON – Last week, a coalition of 39 labor unions responded to the Trump Administration’s proposed changes to dozens of federal safety rules and regulations. The responses, submitted by the AFL-CIO’s Transportation Trades Department (TTD) on behalf of the 39 member unions, highlighted how the Trump Administration’s deregulatory proposals at the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) and the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) will weaken safety standards for transportation workers, systems, passengers, and the public.
Federal agencies are responsible for setting a high bar for safety and holding powerful corporations accountable when they seek to cut corners on safety to maximize profits. For example, after Norfolk Southern’s toxic train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio in 2023, all Class I railroads agreed to participate in a proven FRA program known as the Confidential Close Call Reporting System (C3RS). Workers, their employing railroads, and the FRA are partners in the program, in which railroad workers who report close call safety events are protected from railroad retribution and FRA enforcement, which encourages workers to report their experiences and identifies risks that railroads fix. Similarly, railroads receive protection from FRA enforcement for events reported to C3RS. The program is built on the collaboration of all participants and requires their joint cooperation.
Unfortunately, the FRA has proposed a rule that would effectively exclude rail labor organizations from the formal agreements that govern participation in the C3RS program. A similar program has succeeded in the U.S. aviation industry for years, in part because it has the buy-in from unions and the airlines.
“The freight rail industry has not earned the public’s trust to be able to self-regulate on safety and the current state of safety doesn’t warrant further deregulation,” said the TTD Rail Labor Division, a coalition of more than a dozen rail unions that represent hundreds of thousands of passenger and freight rail workers across America.
On the proposed changes to C3RS, they continued, “We firmly believe that participation in the C3RS program will create a safer freight rail system and identify potential safety issues before they lead to dangerous catastrophes–as it has done for over two dozen railroads that participate in the program. Given the rail industry’s high rate of retaliation against workers for speaking the truth, it’s unlikely that employees will feel comfortable making a report to a program that excludes their labor organization from negotiating the terms of the C3RS agreement. We therefore encourage the FRA to revise its proposed rule to be consistent with the tried and true C3RS model at dozens of other railroads,”
Labor unions are also concerned about other proposed rules, including one that would weaken maintenance and inspection frequencies for certain train air brake systems and another that would introduce excessive locomotive wheel size variation. Both are safety concerns that could lead to increased safety incidents or derailments. Another proposed rule would allow railroads to replace hard copies of emergency response information with electronic copies, which could leave first responders without the necessary information, such as a description of the hazardous material, immediate health risks, and emergency procedure, to best respond to the hazard. Based on a wishlist from a railroad industry group, we anticipate further deregulatory actions that could undermine rail safety rules for signal inspections and other safety-critical tasks.
The Trump Administration can heed the lessons of the past and adopt a proactive regulatory agenda that seeks to maximize safety for all. Instead, its current deregulatory approach will wholly eliminate, weaken or delay federal rules that exist to prevent unnecessary injury or loss of life across our transportation systems.
For example, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) recently issued a one-year delay in the timeline for utilizing secondary flight deck barriers in newly-manufactured airline passenger planes. These barriers will provide a critical layer of security beyond the existing flight deck door and are necessary to prevent unauthorized access to the flight deck.
As America’s largest transportation labor federation, TTD has advocated for stronger workplace and public safety requirements at the federal level for more than 35 years. Skilled transportation workers are the eyes and ears of America’s aviation system, freight and passenger rail networks, public transit services, and the maritime industry. They know firsthand that federal safety rules are often prompted by catastrophic safety incidents that could have been prevented and are reminders of the need for a more proactive approach from safety regulators.
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