(The following story appeared on the Sioux City Journal website on November 19.)
SIOUX CITY, Iowa — Several Burlington Northern and Santa Fe Railroad workers have sued the company for forcing them to skimp on federally required safety procedures by threatening to fire them.
The workers claim in the lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Sioux City, that managers at the BNSF terminal in Sioux City for at least 15 years have threatened and intimidated employees into not performing safety inspections and tests so that trains may depart on time.
The lawsuit said that managers have repeatedly ordered them to ignore or not complete required testing of air brake systems, skip inspections of trains for defective cars, not switch out defective cars, run trains without required monitoring and communication devices and other circumventions of safety regulations.
When employees do perform these safety tests, they have been removed from service, charged with insubordination, threatened with firing, berated and threatened with other types of punishment, the lawsuit said.
As a result, the suit said, workers face the choice between being fired for not performing federally required tests and being fired by BNSF if they do so.
Named as plaintiffs in the suit are Thomas Bauer, Kenneth Johnson, Charles Leonard, James P. Manna, Reginald Nelson, Anthony Pierce, James Prevail, David Ransford, James Sandman, Craig Walsh and United Transportation Union Local 418.
They are seeking damages for back pay and emotional distress as well as a court declaration that it is unlawful to require them to circumvent safety regulations to remain employed. The union is asking for a court declaration that labor organizations have a right to strike over BNSF’s practice of dismissing and disciplining employees as punishment for performing required tests and inspections.