Unions fight plan to scale back rail workforce

With blatant disregard for the health and safety of rail workers and people living near train tracks across the country, rail industry owners have been pushing to reduce train crews to a single person—even on trains carrying hazardous materials (hazmat). The United Transportation Union (UTU) and other rail labor unions, backed by both the AFL-CIO and Change to Win Coalition, have fought back with a campaign of public information and a federal lawsuit to prevent the railroad capitalists from pushing the one-person crew demand in the current round of national labor negotiations.  

According to the May edition of UTU News, “Rail investors have been enticed by rail Executives with the idea that carrier

profits could soar even higher if train-crew sizes are reduced.” UTU International President Paul Thompson said the union would “continue seeking out opportunities to inform investors, the public, the media and lawmakers at all levels of government the safety and national security risks railroads are willing to take in order to boost even further what are already record carrier profits and executive bonuses.” 

Rail has grown into a $42 billion a year industry. Owners plan to raise profits further by utilizing experimental “Positive Train Control” technology, reducing labor costs for each train run while still charging the same price to consumers.

Such profit-minded measures, if taken, could be harmful, even deadly, to people and the environment. Nearly 65 percent of chemicals that are toxic to inhale are shipped by rail. These chemicals are used for manufacturing, agriculture, energy, transportation, technology, communications, health care and military production. One tank car can carry 90 tons of chlorine or 30,000 gallons of anhydrous ammonia.

A single chlorine car passing through an urban area could kill thousands of people within minutes of an accidental chlorine release. UTU International President Thompson said, “What the public gets with one-person crews is deadly hazmat rolling through their towns and by their schools where a single-person-crew medical emergency or fatigue or other interruption could visit death upon thousands.”

Under capitalism, profits rule

Because capitalism is driven by profit, increasing profits takes priority over any other consideration, including public health, protection of natural habitats or the endangerment of animal species. IBM’s East Fishkill microchip fabrication plant is a case in point.

The plant uses 200 different chemicals, many of them pollutants, to produce the tiny microchips used in computer and video games played in consoles like the X-Box. These chips helped push IBM’s 2006 first-quarter profits to $1.7 billion, up 21.4 percent from a year earlier. Meanwhile, the increased production of the computer chips also caused a four-fold increase in water pollution around the East Fishkill plant.

Pressure from the environmental movement, in the form of lawsuits and regulatory legislation, may push capitalist manufacturers to make some efforts to reduce the use of toxins or to take action to mitigate the harm caused by chemicals. But capitalist discourse prevents debate over more fundamental questions.

For example, does the profitable production of computer game chips justify endangering public health and damaging the environment? Does the promise of greater profits for the rail industry justify dramatically increased threats to public safety? As revolutionary Marxists, we know that the answer to both questions is a resounding “no.” But, under capitalism, these issues will not be discussed seriously by government regulators or politicians.

The entire capitalist system is devoted to putting profits over people and the environment. Only a socialist planned economy can balance the efficient management of industry with a broader consideration of human needs and environmental sustainability.