the Voice of
The Communist League of Revolutionary Workers–Internationalist
“The emancipation of the working class will only be achieved by the working class itself.”
— Karl Marx
the Voice of
The Communist League of Revolutionary Workers–Internationalist
“The emancipation of the working class will only be achieved by the working class itself.”
— Karl Marx
Sep 2, 2024
This summer, the National Transportation Safety Board issued its final report on the 2023 derailment of a train in East Palestine, Ohio. The report squarely blamed Norfolk Southern railroad for the accident, which fortunately killed no one this time. But highly dangerous chemicals were released in the derailment, threatening the health of the people of East Palestine, of whom 2,000 were asked to immediately evacuate.
The NTSB mentioned in particular the rail cars known as DOT-111 that carry hazardous materials. Ten years earlier, a similar accident happened in Canada in another town along a rail route, and that explosion from hazardous materials killed 47 people.
It is nothing new that these rail cars are not sufficient for transporting hazardous chemicals in this day and age. But unless those railroad company cronies in Congress actually force the companies to do what they should have done more than 10 years ago, these dangerous railroad cars will remain in place, endangering millions of people along rail routes, for at least 10 more years.
In addition to Congress being unwilling to hold bosses accountable, the Biden administration threatened railroad workers who wanted to strike against their terrible working conditions. Biden’s legislation passed in December of 2022, so railroad workers still face horrible pressure to work overtime, an inability to take a day off, and hazardous conditions caused by too few workers.
Norfolk Southern has proposed to pay some thousands of dollars to people in East Palestine, Ohio. Will that solve the problem of dangerous health consequences?
How many of us would like to be near a rail route on which a mile-long train has one engineer to drive and one conductor, and both of them stayed overnight in a hotel and did NOT get 8 hours of sleep? Over the last six years almost one in three railroad workers was pushed out, laid off by rail bosses who only care about profits. And the rail bosses have argued that even a one-person crew could be safe!
Even other bosses in the supply chain say they prefer trucking, which is more on time, than rail freight. It’s true that railroads could be a solution to both freight moving across the country and humans moving without clogging up the roads. But not when profit is all that matters—not workers, neighbors or customers.