On December 17, UE participated in two events in our nation’s capital that highlighted the urgent need for federal action on rail pollution. UE General President Carl Rosen delivered the keynote address at the White House’s Sustainable Freight workshop. Rosen spoke to the need for industry to step up and do more to clean up over-polluted rail yards and create good, union jobs in green locomotive manufacturing.
On September 24, a train derailment in Cleves, Ohio caused yet another toxic chemical spill. Members of UE Local 704, who live and work within miles of the spill, are concerned about the impacts and the response from both the local governments and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
Rail crew drivers from UE Local 1077 joined environmental justice organizations in persuading the South Coast Air Quality Management District (SCAQMD) board to pass a life-saving regulation for rail yards in the Inland Empire, Los Angeles County, and Orange County. In response to overwhelming public support, including a letter signed by the UE local and its allies, the rule passed unanimously at the board’s meeting in August.
UE Local 1177 President Larry Hopkins was one of the panelists at a community roundtable about rail pollution on Wednesday, May 29. “I live on the southwest side of Chicago,” Hopkins said, “and I’m bounded by four rail yards within a two to four mile radius.” He charged that the old, polluting diesel locomotives used in Chicago’s rail yards are “harming railroad workers and drivers like myself, and people that live in these communities.”
On Wednesday, May 29, UE will join the Moving Forward Network (MFN) and other MFN affiliates in holding a Chicago community roundtable on impacts from and solutions to rail and locomotive pollution.
UE rail crew drivers and leaders from California gave testimony at a virtual hearing hosted by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on March 20. They encouraged the federal government to approve a new regulation from the California Air Resources Board (CARB) that will reduce air pollution from train yards.
UE organizer Ryan Calbreath spoke about the Green Locomotive Project at the International Labor Communications Association (ILCA)’s bi-annual convention at the end of November. Calbreath was part of a panel on messaging to the labor and environmental movements about climate change, hosted by ILCA Vice President Howard Kling, the Retired Director of the University of Minnesota’s Labor Education Service.
After months of pressure from grassroots advocates and UE members, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) officially gave states some power to regulate locomotive emissions in early November. This ruling clears the way for California’s In-Use Locomotive Regulation to be implemented, but the fight for jobs in the green economy and clean air in rail yard communities is far from over.
On the final day of the convention, delegates heard remarks from Molly Greenberg of the Moving Forward Network and Tommy Carden of Warehouse Workers for Justice.
On Saturday, July 29, Green Locomotive Project volunteers in California brought the fight for green locomotives and green jobs to the entrance of the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railroad (BNSF) rail yard. The activists distributed leaflets explaining the struggle of striking UE Local 506 and 618 members in Erie. The 1400 members of the two locals have been on strike since June 22 demanding a fair contract and that Wabtec invest in making green locomotives in their plant.