Transportation

BNSF Railway Families Protest Inhumane Policies

May 15, 2022 More Perfect Union. Resistance Report BNSF Railway, Human Rights, Transportation, Worker Rights and Jobs

BNSF Railway workers have been stripped of almost all time-off, including weekends, under an extreme new attendance policy. They’ve been working for 3 years with no contract and no raises. A federal judge barred workers from striking, so their families have been picketing on their behalf. We talked to the railroad workers’ family members who travelled to Omaha, Nebraska, to protest BNSF’s owner Berkshire Hathaway. Below is a full transcript of our video. Kelly Pettus: They haven’t had a raise in 3 years and they just implemented an inhumane attendance policy without a contract and that’s why we’re standing here, because they’re profiting in the billions and we can’t get a contract.

A Life In Transit: ‘What You Can Get Is Set By How Far You Are Prepared To Go’

May 1, 2022 Tim Schermerhorn, Labor Notes. Strategize! Strike, Trains, Transportation, Unions, Worker Rights and Jobs

Track workers and train operators could stop work over safety. Making the community aware of risks to hospitals and schools built important support—but we won because we had learned the work rules and organized transit workers to implement them. When something hits the tripping device on the undercarriage, it stops the train. The operator has to walk around the entire train, plus a reasonable length behind, to see what stopped it. Sometimes the operator would call the supervisor to investigate before proceeding; that was one way of stopping work over safety. Because of actions like this, management had to replace the walkways in the tunnels, which were made of old wood that would rot. Now they are all fiberglass and yellow. Exact work-to-rule is the basis of a slowdown. Sometimes it was as effective as a strike.

Winning Against The Odds: The 32BJ SEIU Organizing Model

April 26, 2022 Rob Hill and Stuart Eimer, New Labor Forum. Organize! Organizing, Transportation, Unions, Worker Rights and Jobs

Over twenty-five years have passed since the AFL-CIO New Voice movement urged unions to dedicate 20-30 percent of their budgets to organizing. Despite recent high-profile victories by the Writers Guild in digital media, the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) in home health care and at Starbucks, and the Transit Workers at JetBlue, most unions have not heeded the call to organize, and the labor movement has continued to shrink.[1] Facing this decline, unions have turned much of their attention to labor law reform, hoping to address notable weaknesses in U.S. labor law that impede organizing success.[2] Winning the Protect the Right to Organize (PRO) Act would be a game changer in this regard but the PRO Act will not pass without organized pressure and militancy from non-union workers demanding unions.

Report: Massive Increase In Green Jobs From Climate-Friendly Travel

April 8, 2022 Stephanie Loveless, Stay Grounded. Create! climate crisis, Green Jobs, Sustainability, Transportation, United Kingdom (UK), Worker Rights and Jobs

In their new report titled, “The right track for Green Jobs” Possible, Autonomy UK and Safe Landing present scenarios for showing that cuts to aviation can more than compensate for job losses to the aviation sector. No more excuses, green jobs are possible especially when people are willing to fly less. While we at Stay Grounded and those in our network have proposed numerous strategies for reducing climate impacts from aviation, we also realize the need to emphasize a just transition towards a grounded future that helps counter some of the negative impacts of reduced flying. The Covid-19 pandemic has given many of us a taste of what a reduced ability to travel, and especially to fly, for leisure and to visit loved ones feels like.

Rail Unions Are Bargaining Over A Good Job Made Miserable

February 3, 2022 Joe Demanuelle-Hall, Labor Notes. Resist! Labor Unions, Railroads, Transportation, Worker Rights and Jobs

Contract negotiations covering 115,000 rail workers in the U.S. are expected to heat up in 2022. Workers are seething over the impact of extreme cost-cutting measures. Rail unions are escalating through the slow steps of negotiations under the Railway Labor Act—toward a resolution, a strike, or a lockout. Rail remains one of the most heavily unionized industries in the country, and rail workers maintain the arteries of the economic system. In 2018, U.S. railroads moved 1.73 trillion ton-miles of freight, while trucks moved 2.03 trillion. (One ton-mile is one ton of freight moved one mile.) A slim majority of rail freight consists of bulk commodities, ranging from grain to mined ores to automobiles; slightly less is made up of consumer goods.

Flight Attendant Union Criticizes CDC For Decision

December 31, 2021 Sharon Zhang, Truthout. Resist! Airlines, CDC, COVID-19, Transportation, Unions

Flight Attendant union president and labor leader Sara Nelson is criticizing the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) for changing its guidance on quarantining for COVID-19 after business leaders asked the agency to cut its recommendations by half, potentially at the cost of public health. Nelson, the president of the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA International, accused the CDC in a statement of making its decision to benefit businesses that may be experiencing staffing issues, rather than stemming the spread of the virus. “We said we wanted to hear from medical professionals on the best guidance for quarantine, not from corporate America advocating for a shortened period due to staffing shortages,” Nelson said.

#NoTrucksToColorado

December 24, 2021 Luigi Morris, Left Voice. Resist! Colorado, Legal System, Transportation, Worker Rights

Rogel Lazaro Aguilera-Mederos is a Cuban truck driver who was sentenced for 110 years in prison because of a vehicle accident on the I-70 in Denver in 2019. The brakes of the semi-truck failed and he crashed into traffic, causing a 28-car pile up, killing four people, and injuring several others. The accident occurred because the company Aguilar-Mederos worked for at the time did not properly maintain their equipment and permitted a driver to use a truck with faulty brakes. “I ask God too many times why them and not me? Why did I survive that accident?” Aguilera-Mederos said to the court. “I am not a murderer. I am not a killer. When I look at my charges, we are talking about a murderer, which is not me.

Why America’s ‘Shipping Crisis’ Will Not End

December 23, 2021 Ryan Johnson, Medium. Educate! Finance and the Economy, Ports, Supply Chain, Transportation

I have a simple question for every ‘expert’ who thinks they understand the root causes of the shipping crisis: Why is there only one crane for every 50–100 trucks at every port in America? No ‘expert’ will answer this question. I’m a Class A truck driver with experience in nearly every aspect of freight. My experience in the trucking industry of 20 years tells me that nothing is going to change in the shipping industry. Let’s start with understanding some things about ports. Outside of dedicated port trucking companies, most trucking companies won’t touch shipping containers. There is a reason for that. Think of going to the port as going to WalMart on Black Friday, but imagine only ONE cashier for thousands of customers.

How NYC Taxi Drivers Took On Predatory Lenders And Won

November 18, 2021 Rebekah Entralgo, Counter Punch. Resist! Hunger Strike, New York City (NYC), Taxi Drivers, Transportation, Worker Rights and Jobs

On November 3, New York City reached an agreement with the New York Taxi Workers Alliance (NYTWA), the union fighting to relieve drivers of thousands of dollars in debt they owe for medallions, the physical permits to operate taxis. According to the NYTWA, the average debt owed on medallions by taxi drivers is $600,000. “Today marks a new dawn, a new beginning for a workforce that has struggled through so much crisis and loss,” said Bhairavi Desai, Executive Director of NYTWA, in a statement. “Today, we can say owner-drivers have won real debt relief and can begin to get their lives back. Drivers will no longer be at risk of losing their homes, and no longer be held captive to debt beyond their lifetime.”

SEPTA Workers Vote To Authorize Strike

October 25, 2021 Pat Ralph, Philly Voice. Resist! Transportation, Unions, Worker Rights and Jobs

SEPTA's transit union has taken another step towards a potential work stoppage, as workers voted unanimously Sunday to authorize a strike if a new contract can't be agreed upon over the next week. More than 1,000 members of Transport Workers Union Local 234 gathered Sunday for the vote at the Sheet Metal Workers Union Hall in South Philly, according to KYW Newsradio. A vote to authorize a strike doesn't guarantee that all 5,000 members of SEPTA's transit union will be walking off the job. Rather, it gives union leadership the power to call for a work stoppage if a new deal can't be reached with SEPTA by the end of the month. "Our members are essential workers who have risked their lives and put their own families at risk during this pandemic," Local 234 President Willie Brown said this week.

Take This Job And Love It

October 21, 2021 Jaisal Noor, The Progressive Magazine. Create! Transportation, Uber, Worker Cooperatives, Worker Rights and Jobs

In the six years that Michael Ugwu has worked as an Uber driver in New York City, he’s seen a growing share of his earnings diverted into venture capitalists’ pockets. Uber and Lyft require workers to assume a myriad of expenses that can quickly trap drivers like Ugwu into debt and poverty. “Currently, they’re taking out between 35 to 40 percent, when you add up all the deductions,” Ugwu says. “You end up not having enough to pay rent, maintain the car, pay the car loan, and buy gas. They’re continuously ripping us off.” By 2017, rideshare drivers were earning less than half what they made just four years earlier, a study found. Meanwhile, executives at Lyft and Uber have raked in tens of millions of dollars in compensation.

Taxi Drivers Plan Hunger Strike For Debt Relief

October 19, 2021 Annie McDonough, City and State N.Y.. Resist! Protests, Transportation, Worker Rights and Jobs

Details of how the hunger strike will work are still being finalized, but Bhairavi Desai, executive director of the driver group New York Taxi Workers Alliance, said that dozens are signed up to join so far. “We cannot wait for the next administration,” Desai said. “Leaving drivers at $300,000 (or) $500,000 in debt is not a resolution. It’s a set-up for failure.”

Reno Transit Workers Holding Firm In Second Strike Since August

October 18, 2021 Scott Cooper, Left Voice. Resist! #Striketober, Nevada, Transportation, Worker Rights and Jobs

Reno, Nevada, - Workers for the Washoe County Regional Transit Commission (RTC) went out on strike against the RTC’s contractor, Keolis North America — a division of a notoriously anti-union company based in France that manages bus and rail operations in several U.S. cities, including Boston, Fort Lauderdale, and Los Angeles. The strikers — around 200 workers in all, including drivers, mechanics, and cleaners — were provoked by Keolis proposing a new health plan for the workers — one that would replace their existing coverage with what’s known as Health Plan of Nevada. That’s a plan offered to low-income families,” Michael Lansborough explained. “It’s a travesty for those who need that insurance when we can afford what we already have.”

Climate Activists Stage Protest At Airport Against Private Jet Emissions

October 3, 2021 The Canary. Resist! Climate Change, Protests, Transportation

Extinction Rebellion activists claim to have blocked all major entrances to a private airport in protest against emissions from private jets. As part of the protest, a stretched limousine has been parked at the gates to Farnborough Airport in Hampshire. The protesters, including a former airline pilot, are raising awareness of the emissions caused by private flights.

World’s First Battery-Powered Freight Train Unveiled In Pittsburgh

September 24, 2021 Olivia Rosane, EcoWatch. Create! Electrification, Energy, Science and technology, Transportation

The world's first ever battery-electric freight train was unveiled in Pittsburgh on Friday. The train, known as the FLXdrive battery-electric locomotive, was built by rail-freight company Wabtec and showcased at Carnegie Mellon University as part of a bid by the two organizations to decarbonize rail freight transport in the U.S., The Guardian reported. "A bolder, cleaner, more efficient transportation system is in our grasp," Wabtec chief executive Raphael Santana said, as The Guardian reported. "This is just the beginning." In addition to partnering with Carnegie Mellon on this venture, Wabtec is also working with fellow freight company Genesee & Wyoming, according to Railway Age.

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