America’s railroad unions want the major railroads to take some of the billions of dollars they’re using every year to buy back their stock and spend it to hire more workers and improve safety in the wake of several high-profile derailments.
The 12 unions that represent all of the more than 100,000 workers across the industry said Friday that collectively the six biggest freight railroads spent over $165 billion between 2015 and last year on buybacks.
During the same period, they spent $119-billion on upgrading and maintaining their track and equipment while eliminating nearly one-third of all rail jobs to reduce costs. The result has been an increase in derailments and more workplace injuries.
Greg Regan. President of the AFL-CIO’s Transportation Trades Department labor coalition says “the priorities of the railroads are out of whack.”
Firemen & Oilers union President Dean Devita says the unions want the railroads to be profitable and make money, but it’s reaching the point where it’s just greed and “greed will kill you.”
Unions say inspections of trains and cars are being rushed with workers getting maybe a minute to check out each rail car at a tie when preventative maintenance may be neglected.
Safety data from the Federal Railroad Administration does show the rate of accidents per every million miles freight trains travel increased from 15.6 to 16.8 over the past decade, but with the total number of accidents down as the railroads hauled less freight on fewer, longer trains.
The rate of accidents inside railyards also worsened from 11.0 in 2013 to 15.5 last year, but the railroads say the accident rate hasn’t worsened enough to show the new operating model the industry adopted over the past six years is unsafe.
The Association of American Railroads trade group says railroads have a strong safety record overall, and they remain the safest option to transport hazardous chemicals across land routes.