A New Frontier For Rail Labor: Why Not?
For decades, rail labor has been content with incremental changes, celebrating small victories that feel more like stopgaps than real wins. We’ve traded away larger gains for short-term stability, often without realizing the long-term costs. Just as past generations gave away firemen, brakemen and cabooses with little to show for it, we now find ourselves at another crossroads—staring down a future where one-person crews and automation loom large. The question isn’t if these changes will happen, but when.
Why not seize this moment to rethink our approach? Why not stop asking how we can hold onto the scraps of what we once had, and instead demand a bigger seat at the table for the future?