Interview with a railroad worker: on super exploitation

Recently, the U.S. Congress came to the aid of the railroad bosses, bankers and Wall St. and voted to impose a contract on 120,000 freight railroad workers in 12 different unions, who are subject to the federal Railway Labor Act (RLA).

President ‘Jim Crow’ Biden, “the most pro-union President in history,” stepped in to make sure that workers didn’t defy the bosses and union leaders with wildcat strikes and job actions. Congress, which can’t seem to agree on anything except war budgets and billions to Ukraine, acted with remarkable speed, proving that despite all their splits and in-fighting, all the politicians can unite on stomping out any threat from the workers.

The capitalists run the government to serve their interests: profit. We need to organize for a communist revolution where the working class runs the government and all society.

Eight unions have voted to ratify the imposed contract, with many workers feeling like this was the best they were going to get knowing that their union leaders were not prepared to take on the government and the bosses. But the four largest unions, representing almost 60 percent of rail workers have, as of this writing, rejected the imposed contract. These union leaders are actually misleaders. They accept capitalism with all its racist and sexist profiteering and laws benefiting the bosses. They don’t organize workers to fight back. But fight back we must with the goal of eventually seizing power for the working class - that’s communism.

CHALLENGE spoke with Windy City, a Black railroad worker in Chicago with 15 years on the job.

CHALLENGE (C) : What are some of the main issues facing railroad workers?

Windy City (WC): Railroaders are mostly concerned about quality of life as it pertains to long hours and lack of employees. We are overworked because of the greed of the bosses. Maybe the #1 issue is "Precision Scheduled Railroading.” It’s like the “just-in-time” method of manufacturing brought to the railroads to further speed us up and get us back to work quicker, driving down costs by firing workers, selling equipment, outsourcing work and more. Instead of knowing you have multiple people in front of you, now you can get called back to work in 15 minutes to fill a train.

Thousands of jobs have been eliminated over the past few years and now the bosses want to run these trains with just one person; that’s their goal. Having no sick days is perhaps the most well-known demand but scheduling and job cuts are there as well. This contract is going to continue to eliminate jobs. It does not address job cuts or make our jobs any safer.

C: What’s the makeup of the workforce?

WC: I would have to guess the railroad is about 30 to 40 percent Black workers, mostly in the cities. Many workers are from rural areas, and many are pro-Trumpers. They understand that we work in an industry that is heavily regulated by the federal government. A lot of workers are approaching 20 years in the industry, and may soon be eligible for retirement or disability. We have a lot of health issues.
A lot of older workers are holding on to get back pay and bonuses. Then they will be coming out.

C: How do the workers feel about the government imposing a contract on them? What has been the role of the union leadership?

WC: Most workers knew that this was probably going to happen. The union leaders have been transparent about how the government would use the Railway Labor Act to prevent a strike. We were never seriously prepared or mobilized to shut down the industry, let alone defy the U.S. government. In a certain sense, the union leadership used the government to impose a contract that they could not get us to ratify on their own.

C: What have discussions with your coworkers been like?

WC: We have discussed how Biden could issue an executive order for paid sick days, but he has not. We know we are going to get a contract that will lead to further cutbacks and higher profits for the bosses. They are hoping a big raise will get us to swallow these worsening conditions, but many current workers will not be around long enough to see the next contract.

C: Do you think you can show this issue of CHALLENGE with this interview to some of your coworkers and introduce them to Progressive Labor Party?  

WC: Our workforce is so thin and so spread out, sometimes I go weeks without seeing the same people. So, it's hard to have real discussions and build that trust, but I'm always on the lookout. Sure, I’ll take a few.