From: DeSmogBlog
by Cole Stanger
For decades, the U.S. railroad industry has
successfully shed labor costs by shifting to smaller and smaller
operating crews. Now, it’s on the verge of what was once an unthinkable
victory: single-member crews, even on dangerous oil trains.
A tentative agreement reached by BNSF Railway and the Transportation Division of the Sheet Metal, Air, Rail and Transportation (SMART) union
would allow a single engineer to operate most of the company’s routes.
It would mark a dramatic change to a labor contract that covers about
3,000 workers, or 60 percent of the BNSF system.
It’s not just bad news for workers. The contract has major safety
implications—especially amid North America’s dangerous, and sometimes
deadly, crude-by-rail boom. Last year’s Bakken shale oil train
derailment and explosion in Lac Mégantic, Quebec, which killed 47
people, brought increased scrutiny to oil trains. MORE
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