(The following story by David Crowder appeared on the El Paso Times website on February 27.)
EL PASO, Texas — About 20 sign-waving wives of Union Pacific railroad engineers and conductors protested Thursday at City Hall about unsafe working conditions and the long hours their husbands are working.
None of the women would identify themselves, saying their husbands would suffer retaliation if they did.
A former local chairman of the United Transportation Union, West-Central city Rep. Bob Cushing, said that while long hours, worker fatigue and safety have long been serious problems in the railroad industry, City Hall is the wrong place to protest.
“Picketing City Hall is not where they need to be,” said Cushing, who retired from Union Pacific in 1998. “They should be working with their union. That’s where, I think, the shortage is.
“These issues didn’t just come up today. They are endemic to the railroad industry.”
Several of the protesters’ placards suggested that worker fatigue might have been responsible for Saturday’s derailment, in which train engineer Anthony Rodella and conductor Jeffrey Bohler were killed near Carrizozo, N.M.
The cause of that accident is still under investigation, said spokesmen for both the National Traffic Safety Board and the National Railroad Administration.
Union Pacific’s principal spokesman, John Bromley, said his company is not oblivious to problems caused by a shortage of railroad workers.
“We are operating under rules and regulations by the federal government under which workers are not allowed to be on duty for more than 12 hours at a time and must have eight hours rest before being called back,” Bromley said.
“We have made a number of moves to address the fatigue issue,” he said.