(The AFL-CIO’s Transportation Trades Department issued the following news release on May 5.)
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Saying that in the wake of both the 9/11 and the Madrid terrorist attacks, “our government and rail employers are still not doing enough to make rail transportation as secure as possible,” AFL-CIO Transportation Trades Department President Edward Wytkind today urged Congress to support a comprehensive rail security agenda that “benefits from the insight of front-line workers and gives them the tools they need to help make our rail system as secure as possible.”
Dismissing the federal response to rail security threats as consisting of little more than “vague warnings,” Wytkind told a hearing of the House Rail Subcommittee that “the Administration has done little to harden vulnerable rail targets, ensure the training of employees or provide the level of funding that is so desperately needed for training, new technology deployment and infrastructure improvements.”
Wytkind was sharply critical of the rail industry’s long-standing opposition to federal mandates, saying, “we need to ensure that security is not left to the whims of individual carriers or cut when profit margins get tight. We must ensure a basic level of security and asking railroads to follow certain basic requirements, such as employee training, is not unreasonable.” He also decried the misuse of unregulated remote control locomotives, which pose a security risk.
In his testimony on behalf of 35 AFL-CIO transportation unions, Wytkind outlined a number of initiatives that ensure “workers are brought into the process and are treated as valued partners,” including:
–Mandatory and rigorous security training for employees;
–Strengthened whistle-blower protections against harassment, as “a rail worker should not have to choose between doing the right thing on security and his or her job;”
–Federal regulations governing the use of remote control locomotive technology, which “put profits ahead of safety,” especially when transporting hazardous materials in and around train stations and rail yards; and
–Increased security regarding access to rail facilities, unattended trains, and preventing intruders from entering locomotive cabins.
For a copy of the testimony, go to the TTD website at: www.ttd.org
TTD represents 35 member unions in the aviation, rail, transit, trucking, highway, longshore, maritime and related industries. For more information, visit www.ttd.org