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Norfolk Southern

Merger Opponents Unmoved By Latest UP-NS Regulatory Filing

August 4, 2026 Trains.com. , , , ,
Not surprisingly, opponents of the Union Pacific-Norfolk Southern merger remain unmoved by the two railroads’ latest regulatory filing addressing plans for their union. BNSF CEO Katie Farmer and the Stop the Rail Merger Coalition have both issued statements reiterating their opposition in the wake of Monday’s UP-NS filing to address questions from the Surface Transportation Board about matters including competition, market share, and the impact of other mergers their deal might trigger.

Working People Oppose Corporate Railroad Merger

April 2, 2026 Otis Grotewohl, Workers World. , , , , ,
Rail workers and small family farmers are united in opposition to the proposed $85 billion merger between Union Pacific (UP) and Norfolk Southern (NS). The idea was first proposed by UP-NS bosses and capitalist shareholders in July 2025. The merger would combine the two major railroad companies, which span tracks across 43 states, and would create the first single-line railroad linking the North American coasts.  Several labor unions and organizations representing small farmers have raised concerns about how the merger would impact their jobs and raise costs for consumers.

The Derailment That Never Ended

February 3, 2026 Katya Schwenk, Lever News. , , ,
On a balmy evening last September, Michael Fowler stumbled out to the south rail line in East Palestine, Ohio, and sat down in the middle of the tracks. His dog, a white Chihuahua, was beside him. The sun was setting. He waited perilously for the next oncoming train. He wouldn’t have to wait long. Dozens of times a day, freight trains blare through East Palestine, cleaving the small Ohio town in two. The stretch of tracks on which Fowler sat was just a few hundred yards west of the site where two and a half years earlier, a Norfolk Southern train carrying tank cars full of toxic chemicals derailed and burned.

Rail Workers Group Vows To Fight Proposed Rail Mega-Merger

December 22, 2025 Railroad Workers United. , , , ,
Today, Union Pacific (UP) and Norfolk Southern (NS) officially filed an application with the Surface Transportation Board (STB) requesting approval to combine the two railroads. Railroad Workers United (RWU) - a cross-craft group of North American railroad workers from all unions, crafts and carriers, promises an all-out fight to block the merger, and urges all rail workers, unions, community groups, shippers, passenger rail advocates and other stakeholders to resist what would be the largest rail merger in history. According to RWU Organizer and BMWED member from Ohio Matt Weaver, “There’s no way in hell that this acquisition will be good for anyone in Rail Labor, nor most shippers, nor the American people.”

RWU Opposes Merger, Responds To Latest Fratricide In Rail Labor

November 24, 2025 Railroad Workers United. , , , , , ,
When Railroad Workers United (RWU) was founded in 2008, delegates agreed that rail labor’s strength depends on solidarity, unity, and democracy across all crafts. That remains our position today. Sentiment alone does not win better wages, benefits, and working conditions; strategy and coordinated action do. As Eugene V. Debs reminded us, the success of the labor movement rests on real - not rhetorical - solidarity. Unfortunately, recent developments have undermined these principles. In its latest statement, SMART-TD abandoned solidarity, unity, and democratic process.

Why Railroad Workers Are Fighting The Proposed UP-NS Merger

September 16, 2025 Bill Moyer, Solutionary Rail. , , , ,
In the coming year or so, the Surface Transportation Board will determine whether to approve or block Union Pacific’s $85-billion acquisition of Norfolk Southern. This signals an attempt by Wall Street to squeeze yet more from this critical infrastructure in order to maximize returns for shareholders. In 2023, Surface Transportation Board (STB) member Robert Primus was the sole board member to vote against the merger of Canadian Pacific and Kansas City Southern to form Canadian Pacific Kansas City. President Trump’s recent illegal firing of board member Primus further weakens the STB and corrupts its adjudicatory mandate. The absence of a key critical voice from the Board raises the pressure on concerned workers, shippers, competing railroads, and the public to make their voices heard. Unless Primus is reinstated, the approval of this Wall Street railroad merger is a near done deal.

Feeling Abandoned, Community Contaminated By Toxic Train Decides ‘We Only Have Ourselves’

July 2, 2025 Steve Mellon, Pittsburgh Union Progress. , , , , ,
What happens to people in the months and years after a corporation worth billions creates an environmental catastrophe that disfigures their community? Myriad answers emerged a few weeks ago in a hotel conference room in Columbiana, Ohio, where eight people from the East Palestine, Ohio, area met with a Pittsburgh psychiatrist experienced in treating people who’ve endured traumatic events. One of the first to speak up was Lonnie Miller. She’s been open about discussing her family’s struggles since a Norfolk Southern train tumbled off a set of railroad tracks 1,200 feet from her home on Feb. 3, 2023.

Norfolk Southern Worker Sues; Railroad Put ‘Profits Ahead Of Safety’

July 30, 2024 Mike Gauntner, WFMJ. , , , ,
Claiming that Norfolk Southern put “profits ahead of safety,” one of the railroad’s employees has filed a lawsuit accusing the company of negligence by sending him to the site of the February 3, 2023 fire, derailment, and toxic spill in East Palestine. Joseph Lee Roberts of Indiana filed a complaint in U.S. District Court in Youngstown Wednesday claiming he had developed chemically induced asthma after he and other workers were exposed to vinyl chloride that some of the derailed cars had been carrying. Roberts says in the lawsuit that with a focus on getting trains running through the village again, Norfolk Southern sent employees to East Palestine to fix the track which had been damaged by the derailment and fire.

Judge Allows East Palestine Residents’ Lawsuit Against Norfolk Southern

March 15, 2024 Nick Robertson, The Hill. , , , ,
A class action suit accusing Norfolk Southern of negligence over the train derailment that released toxic chemicals in East Palestine, Ohio, last year can go forward, a federal judge determined Wednesday. Judge Benita Yalonda Pearson rejected the railroad’s arguments that claims in the suit were protected by federal law regulating railroads, instead ruling that the case focuses on activity that is not covered by protections. The suit represents about 500,000 people and businesses near the eastern Ohio town where nearly 40 railcars derailed last year, some of which contained toxic vinyl chloride.

Is East Palestine Safe One Year After The Ohio Train Derailment?

January 23, 2024 Eve Andrews, Grist. , , , , , ,
If there hadn’t been construction planned for the bridge that crosses over Leslie Run, one of the creeks that runs through the middle of East Palestine, Ohio, Rick Tsai and Randy DeHaven might not have noticed the worst contamination they’d seen in the creek in weeks. A backhoe had hoisted a chunk of earth from the bank of the creek, leaving a pool about eight feet across and deep enough to come up to the knees of Tsai’s rubber fishing waders. What it also left, in Tsai’s words, was an opportunity for a sort of “geological sample” — evidence that oil and chemicals still lingered in the soil and in the creeks six months after a catastrophic derailment.

The Fight To Stop The Sale Of The Only Municipally-Owned Railroad

November 2, 2023 Kari Lydersen, In These Times. , , , ,
When Norfolk Southern first proposed to buy Cincinnati’s publicly-owned 336-mile stretch of railroad for nearly one billion dollars in July 2021, it probably seemed like an easy and lucrative deal for both the corporation and city officials — a deal that got even sweeter as the price was eventually upped to $1.6 billion. Under the offer, the company would gain total control of a crucial link in the rail network stretching between Chicago and Atlanta. And the city would get a big chunk of cash for infrastructure and other spending. But as Cincinnati residents prepare to vote on a Nov. 7 referendum necessary to complete the deal, as required by the state constitution, it’s becoming clear that the railroad behemoth and city leaders may not get their way.

Groups In Queen City Fight To Stop Privatization Of Railroad

September 18, 2023 Railroad Workers United, Popular Resistance. , , ,
Railroad Workers United is working with local organizations to keep the nation's only municipally owned interstate mainline freight railroad in public hands. The Cincinnati Southern was chartered and built by the City of Cincinnati in the 19th century and has been run successfully for well over a century, historically being leased to a designated operator. Now, today's operator Norfolk Southern wants to take over the infrastructure outright. Citizens across the Queen City are organizing to maintain ownership and control of their railroad. Railroad workers stand with them in their struggle! As the November 7th vote nears, more and more citizens are questioning the wisdom of turning over the city's mainline freight artery between Cincinnati and Chattanooga to corporate outlaw Norfolk Southern.

Victims Of The East Palestine Train Disaster Still Fighting For Their Lives

August 14, 2023 Margaret Flowers, Clearing the FOG. , , , , , , , ,
On February 3, 2023, a Norfolk Southern Railroad train carrying 150 cars, some containing toxic chemicals, derailed in the small town of East Palestine, Ohio on the border with Pennsylvania. The residents in the immediate area were evacuated but the 100,000 gallons of chemicals, including vinyl chloride, that spilled spread throughout the region. Now, over six months later, many residents still cannot return to their homes. Hilary Flint of Enon Valley, Pennsylvania, the vice president of the Unity Council for the East Palestine Train Derailment joined Clearing the FOG to describe what happened, the failures of the local, state and federal governments to provide what affected residents need and how they are organizing to pressure President Biden to grant Governor DeWine's request for an emergency declaration and more.

Rail Workers Group Opposes Sale Of Cincinnati Southern Railway

July 18, 2023 Railroad Workers United, Popular Resistance. , , ,
Railroad Workers United opposes the sale of the Cincinnati Southern, the only municipally owned - and one of the nation's few publicly held pieces of rail infrastructure - to the Class One rail giant Norfolk Southern. The group is urging all citizens of Cincinnati who are eligible voters to vote NO in the referendum to be held in November. On July 13th, the railway's Board of Directors voted to place the proposed sale on the ballot this Fall. Per the railroad's bylaws, the citizens of the City will get the final say. Should they approve the plan, the nation's only municipally owned interstate rail line - from Cincinnati to Chattanooga - would then be purchased for a paltry $1.62 billion by the private Class One rail carrier.

Norfolk Southern Won’t Clean Up Their Mess Unless We Make Them

May 31, 2023 Maximillian Alvarez, In These Times. , , , , ,
It’s been over 100 days since the catastrophic derailment of a Norfolk Southern train carrying over 100,000 gallons of toxic materials occurred in East Palestine, Ohio, on Feb 3. Since then, residents of East Palestine and the surrounding area in Ohio and Pennsylvania have had their lives turned completely upside down. Entire families have been uprooted from their homes, with many having to live in hotels or wherever they can find shelter, unable to return home out of fear of exposure to chemicals that were spilled into the water and soil from the derailment and spewed into the air from Norfolk Southern’s ​“controlled burn” of the vinyl chloride contained within multiple derailed train cars.
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