Tag Archives: railroad

US

Argument near Birmingham’s Railroad Park leaves 1 shot dead in city’s 2nd homicide of the weekend

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A man was shot to death in broad daylight Sunday during an apparent argument on a Birmingham street near Railroad Park.

The deadly shooting was one of two this weekend in the city. The other happened Friday night on the city’s east side, leaving a woman dead.

Sunday’s killing happened shortly after 5 p.m. on 16th Street South between Second and Third avenues. That location is also near Regions Field.

Sgt. Monica Law said police at 5:01 p.m. received a call of a male shot in the 200 block of 16th Street South. Upon arrival, officers were met by an adult male, an adult female and a small child.

The family had been visiting Railroad Park, according to family members on the scene.

According to witnesses, the male who fired the shots and the male who was wounded got into an altercation while the family was walking in the area. The nature of the dispute wasn’t immediately known.

The couple was being taken to police headquarters to undergo questioning about what led up to the shooting.

Law said the victim sustained at least one gunshot wound. He was pronounced dead on a sidewalk.

An Uber driver coming to pick up a passenger saw the entire ordeal, and said the shooter warned the victim back off before firing the deadly shot.

Law said detectives are canvassing the area for video of the slaying and have spoken to witnesses.

Sunday’s fatal shooting brings the city’s homicide tally so far this year to 113. Of those, six have been ruled justifiable and therefore aren’t deemed criminal.

In all of Jefferson County there have been 153 homicides, including the 113 in Birmingham.

Anyone with information is asked to call detectives at 205-254-1764 or Crime Stoppers at 205-254-7777.

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US

Railroad strike averted after marathon talks reach tentative deal

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Washington, DC
CNN Business
 — 

Unions and management reached a tentative deal early Thursday, averting a freight railroad strike that had threatened to cripple US supply chains and push prices higher for many goods.

The deal with unions representing more than 50,000 engineers and conductors was announced just after 5 a.m. ET in a statement from the White House, which called it “an important win for our economy and the American people.”

A verbal agreement between the two sides was reached at about 2:30 am ET according to sources, and the final hours were spent getting the details worked out.

That concluded about 20 hours of talks between the unions’ leadership and the railroads’ labor negotiators hosted by Labor Secretary Marty Walsh. They began their meeting Wednesday morning with the clock ticking down to a strike that had been set to start at 12:01 am ET on Friday.

President Joe Biden called in personally to talk to negotiators around 9 pm ET Wednesday, according to a person familiar with negotiations. Biden stressed that catastrophic harm could come to families, businesses and communities if the rail system shut down. Sources within the unions were giving Biden’s call credit for helping to get the deal completed without a strike.

“We’re very proud of what was accomplished,” said Jeremy Ferguson, president of the conductors union and one of the leaders involved in the marathon session. He thanked Biden and Labor Department officials involved in the talks for the deal.

“Everybody pulled together to make sure that we could get our members what they deserved,” he said.

“This is the quality of life issue we have been trying to get for our members since bargaining started,” said Dennis Pierce, president of the engineers’ union and the other union official involved in the talks.

The agreement does not mean the threat of a strike has gone away entirely. The deal needs to be ratified by union members. But it’s good news for a wide range of businesses that depend upon the freight railroads to continue to operate, and for the wider US economy. About 30% of the nation’s freight moves by rail.

The deal gives the union members an immediate 14% raise with back pay dating back to 2020, and raises totaling 24% during the five-year life of the contract, that runs from 2020 through 2024. It also gives them cash bonuses of $1,000 a year.

Few other details of the deal have so far been made public. But the statement from Biden indicated that the major sticking point – involving work rules and scheduling issues – that had brought the country within a day of its first national rail strike in 30 years had been addressed in the unions’ favor.

“It is a win for tens of thousands of rail workers who worked tirelessly through the pandemic to ensure that America’s families and communities got deliveries of what have kept us going during these difficult years,” said Biden in a statement. “These rail workers will get better pay, improved working conditions, and peace of mind around their health care costs: all hard-earned.”

The dispute was about staffing shortages and scheduling rules that union leaders said had brought their membership to a breaking point. The unions say the railroads have been requiring their members to be “on call” and ready to report to work on short notice as often as seven days a week. Leadership of the two unions had said their members would not accept a contract without changes to those work rules.

Biden described the deal as “also a victory for railway companies who will be able to retain and recruit more workers for an industry that will continue to be part of the backbone of the American economy for decades to come.”

It is an important victory for Biden, who faced nothing but bad choices if a deal had not been reached. Backing Congressional action sought by the business community to impose a contract on workers would have angered his supporters among the unions. Letting the work stoppage play out risked massive economic consequences just ahead of the midterm elections.

Railroad workers are governed by a different labor law than most workers, one that limits their freedom to strike and allows for more governmental intervention. In July, Biden issued an order that prevented a strike at that time and created a panel, known as a Presidential Emergency Board, to try to find a solution to the dispute.

It also imposed a 60-day cooling off period during which the unions could not strike and management could not lock out workers. That cooling off period was due to end early Friday.

Biden could not have ordered the railroads to keep operating once the cooling off period ended Friday. Only Congress could have acted to get the unions back to work if a strike had begun.

With a wide range of business groups calling on Congress to act, Republicans had prepared legislation that would have given railroad management the deal they wanted. But Democrats were opposed to taking such action.

A union source said that Democrats’ refusal to side with management had been a key to the talks.

“Senate leaderership not acting gave space for these negotiations,” said the union source. He said that Walsh had “hung in” with the union during the negotiations.

“it was a slog yesterday,” he said, with lots of back and forth.

“Our people were not going to give up,” said the source. “Our people would have gone on strike” if a deal was not reached by the Friday deadline.

The Association of American Railroads also praised the deal and thanked the Biden administration, as well as the unions themselves, for their role in reaching an agreement.

The pay raises and bonuses had been recommended by a presidential panel charged with trying to find a solution to the impasse in negotiations at that time.

Those terms were lucrative enough for most of the rail unions to agree to tentative deals in recent weeks, the engineers and conductors, who were faced with work and scheduling rules that did not apply to others, refused to sign on without relief on the scheduling issue.

Shares of the major freight railroads – Union Pacific

(UNP), CSX

(CSX) and Norfolk Southern

(NSC) – were between 1% and 3% higher in premarket trading on the news. Shares of Berkshire Hathaway

(BRKA), which owns the fourth national freight railroad, Burlington Northern Santa Fe, was narrowly higher as well.

The threat of the strike had already started to disrupt operations. Amtrak, whose 22,000-mile system is almost exclusively over freight rail lines outside of the Northeast Corridor, had already canceled all long-distance trains. Amtrak said it “is working to quickly restore canceled trains and reaching out to impacted customers to accommodate on first available departures.” It said it will provide update soon as information becomes available.

The railroads had already stopped accepting shipments of hazardous and security-related materials a week ago. And Wednesday some of the railroads had stopped accepting shipments of crops from the agricultural industry.

Customers of the railroads who had been braced to major problems expressed relief that a strike had been avoided.

“This is fantastic news for the economy,” said Eric Hoplin, CEO of the National Association of Wholesale Distributors, in an appearance on CNN’s New Day Thursday. “My phone has been ringing off the hook over the last 48 hours, talking to distribution leaders from across the country, who were spelling out what some of the catastrophic consequences could have been to America’s supply chain and the economy.”

The US economy avoided several economic blows, including a potential spike in gasoline prices that could have undone the 26% decline in prices at the pump over the last three months. Although refineries get most of their oil through pipelines and ship out most of the gasoline they produce the same way, they still needed railroad tank cars to deliver other materials to refine gasoline and to take away waste products.

Higher prices for food and cars and a shortage of consumer goods well into the holiday shopping season were likely if there had been a prolonged strike, according to business leaders and economists.

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Business

Railroad strike 2022: Intensifying efforts to avert crippling strike go overnight

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New York
CNN Business
 — 

Talks aimed at averting a freight railroad strike that could cripple US supply chains continued overnight into Thursday. If the strike goes ahead early Friday, it could send prices higher for goods from gasoline to food to cars.

Two rail unions, representing more than 50,000 engineers and conductors who make up the two-person crews that make the trains run, are threatening the first rail strike in 30 years as of 12:01 am ET Friday. Union leaders and the railroads’ labor negotiators began meeting with Labor Secretary Marty Walsh at his Washington, DC, office at 9 a.m. ET on Wednesday.

The talks were still underway 18 hours later at 3 a.m. ET Thursday, a Labor Department spokesman told CNN.

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters aboard Air Force One on Wednesday that “all parties need to stay at the table, bargain in good faith to resolve outstanding issues and come to an agreement. A shutdown of our freight rail system is unacceptable outcome for our economy and the American people, and all parties must work to avoid just that.”

The Labor Department asked both management and labor not to comment on the state of the talks, and neither responded to a request for comment.

Nearly 30% of the nation’s freight moves on the nation’s railroads. Many vital sectors — including oil refining, agriculture, auto and other manufacturing, plus the imports of consumer goods — depend on the railroads to operate. While a short strike would have a limited effect, economists say a strike lasting a week or more could have severe economic consequences.

The railroads announced last Friday that they had stopped accepting shipments of hazardous material, including fertilizer, as well as security-related materials, due to concerns that trains will immediately stop wherever they are once the strike begins. On Wednesday many stopped accepting shipments of agricultural products.

Members of Union Pacific

(UNP) train crews were informed by the railroad late Tuesday that if they’re in the middle of a trip when the strike begins at 12:01 am EST Friday they should park and secure their train and wait for transportation.

Freight railroad Norfolk Southern

(NSC) is planning to use management employees to operate a limited number of trains in the event of a strike Friday. That could allow critical materials to reach their destinations, like chlorine to water treatment plants.

“We’ll have some capability. Not a very good capability, but we’ll have some if it comes to that,” Norfolk Southern spokesman Connor Spielmaker told CNN Business Wednesday. “How we’re going to utilize them is still being planned out.”

Spielmaker said the railroads still hope to reach a deal with the unions and avert such a situation. Freight railroads CSX, BNSF and Union Pacific declined to say if they’ll be using management employees to operate trains in the event of a strike.

The threat of the strike could snarl commutes across the country. Many Amtrak and local commuter trains travel on railways owned by freight companies. If striking engineers park their trans midroute Friday morning, commutes could be disrupted. Amtrak on Wednesday said it canceled all long-distance trains starting Thursday, and it announced 10 additional routes would be shut down Thursday evening. Amtrak said additional delays or cancellations are possible.

The effort to avert a strike is a major test for President Joe Biden and his White House, which has positioned itself as one of the most pro-labor administrations ever. At the same time, it also wants to avoid any potential shocks to the economy, especially with the midterm elections just seven weeks away.

Railroad workers are governed by a different labor law than most workers, one that limits their freedom to strike and allows for more governmental intervention. In July Biden issued an order that prevented a strike at that time and created a panel, known as a Presidential Emergency Board (PEB), to try to find a solution to the dispute. It also imposed a 60-day cooling off period during which the unions could not strike and management could not lock out workers.

But Biden cannot order the railroads to keep operating once the cooling off period ends Friday. Only Congress can act to keep workers on the job if there is no deal. Sen. Richard Durbin, the second highest ranking member of the Democrats’ Senate leadership, told CNN this week that Congressional action is unlikely, despite business groups calling on Congress to act. The Senate is in recess on Friday, and many members of Congress are flying to London to attend Queen Elizabeth’s funeral.

The PEB’s recommendations called for workers to get an immediate 14% pay raise, plus back pay dating back to 2020. It also called for a 24% increase in pay during the five-year life of the contract from 2020 to 2024, and cash bonuses of $1,000 a year.

But it did not address the staffing shortages and scheduling rules that have become the key sticking point in the dispute. The engineers’ and conductors’ unions say the railroads are requiring their members to be “on call” and ready to report to work on short notice as often as seven days a week. Leadership of the two unions say their members would not accept a contract without changes to those work rules.

There are more than 50,000 other unions members at the railroads who maintain tracks, operate signals, dispatch trains and work as mechanics, among other jobs. But they are not subject to the same work rules, and those unions already accepted tentative deals with the railroads based on the PEB’s recommendations.

One of those unions, the Machinists, announced Wednesday that its members voted to reject its tentative labor deal. There are about 5,000 members of the union at the railroads working as locomotive machinists, track equipment mechanics and facility maintenance personnel.

Their rejection of the proposed contract is not an immediate setback in efforts to avoid the strike. The union said it will not go on strike before the end of the month, as it tries to reach a change in the tentative agreement that its members will accept. But it is a sign of the complexity the railroads are facing in reaching deals with a dozen different unions that are also acceptable to rank-and-file membership.

Two other unions, the Brotherhood of Railway Carmen and the Transportation Communications Union, which between them have 11,000 members, ratified deals on Wednesday.

– CNN’s Matt McFarland, Ali Zaslav, Kate Sullivan, Phil Mattingly, Maegan Vazquez and Andrew Millman contributed to this report

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Business

Unions, railroad officials head to DC as White House urgently discusses contingency plans amid rail shutdown threat

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While the sources stressed that the situation remains fluid, the two main unions that have lingering disputes with the railroads — the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen and SMART Transportation Division — are expected to send their union chiefs to the meeting.

“Continuing the administration’s sustained engagement and hands-on efforts to encourage the parties to come to a mutually beneficial agreement, tomorrow morning Secretary Walsh will host the rail companies and the unions in Washington, DC at the Department of Labor,” the spokesperson said in a statement.

The Wednesday meeting puts Walsh at the center of the high stakes effort to avert what would be a debilitating strike that could deal a major blow to the economy.

CNN reported earlier Tuesday that the White House is urgently discussing contingency plans as the threat of a rail shut down looms, with agencies across the federal government working through how they could potentially use federal authority to keep critical supply chains operational as labor talks continue to sit at an impasse.

The work has ramped up in recent days as officials have grown increasingly concerned about a labor strike if freight-rail labor negotiations fail to produce an agreement ahead of Friday’s deadline. And President Joe Biden personally called rail unions and companies on Monday while visiting Boston in an attempt to avert a rail shut down, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters.

While officials have been closely watching the developments — and have gotten directly involved in an effort to find a resolution — for several weeks, accelerated efforts to plan for a worst case scenario underscore the stakes of an outcome that would lead to massive supply chain disruptions, and dual-pronged political and economic risk.

“The White House is working with other modes of transportation (including shippers, truckers, air freight) to see how they can step in and keep goods moving, in case of a rail shutdown,” a White House official told CNN on Tuesday.

The official added that the administration “has also been working with relevant agencies to assess what supply chains and commodities are most likely to face severe disruptions, and the emergency authorities available to keep goods moving.”

About 60,000 union members who work for the railroad are set to go on strike, including the engineers and conductors who make up the two-person crews on each train. Even though 45,000 other union members belong to unions that have reached tentative deals with the railroads, a strike by engineers and conductors would bring the freight rail system, which carries nearly 30% of the nation’s freight, to a grinding halt.

Stakeholders are already warning that the situation is dire, the US Chamber of Commerce detailing some of the urgent issues in a letter to congressional leadership on Monday.

“A shutdown of the nation’s rail service would have enormous national consequences,” chamber executive vice president and chief policy officer Neil L. Bradley said in the letter.

He continued, “It would lead to perishable foods such dairy, fruits, and vegetables spoiling at their points of origin, would halt Amtrak service for approximately 12.2 million daily riders in 46 states, would disrupt materials and goods being delivered to factories and ports, and would inhibit the transport of heating fuel and other important fuels and chemicals. These are only a few examples of the damage of a rail shutdown.”

Biden continues to receive regular updates on the high-stakes negotiations, including briefings on the matter Monday evening and Tuesday morning.

Senior-level engagements were expected to continue Tuesday. There are conversations with industry leaders and also “multiple interagency meetings” happening daily with the Departments of Transportation, Defense, Agriculture, Health and Human Services, and Energy, as well as the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the official said, with efforts toward “identifying the sectors and the goods that will be most immediately and significantly impacted by a rail stoppage.”

One area of key concern is hazardous materials carried by rail.

“We are paying particular attention to hazardous materials carried by rail, to protect the safety of workers and communities and to support the continued distribution of vital hazardous materials that depend on rail transport, such as chlorine for water treatment plants,” said the official, who added that “all tools are on the table and will be deployed as appropriate.”

While concern about a strike has heightened at the White House in recent days, the administration remains hopeful that the matter will be resolved. The President does not have the authority to head off a strike, but Congress can still act to prevent a work stoppage.

“We hope this planning and preparation will prove unnecessary and that negotiating parties will agree to a resolution and not allow American workers, families, and businesses to be hurt by a rail stoppage. We have been clear in all our communications with the negotiating parties that a shutdown is unacceptable and will hurt American workers, families, and businesses, and they must take action to avert it,” the official said.

This story and headline have been updated with additional details Tuesday.

CNN’s Maegan Vazquez contributed to this report.

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Business

White House scrambles to avert looming railroad strike

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White House officials are holding emergency meetings in a desperate scramble to avert a national railroad strike that is days away from shutting down much of the country’s transportation infrastructure, according to three people familiar with the matter.

Biden administration officials have started preparing for a potential shutdown and have warned that a strike could seriously damage the U.S. economy, while also warning it could hurt Democrats in the upcoming midterm elections, two of the people said. Labor Secretary Marty Walsh was part of meetings led by the White House National Economic Council last week, and President Biden is also personally tracking the matter, the two people said. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg is also involved in trying to broker the impasse.

The stalemate pits two of Biden’s top priorities against each other. The president has been an adamant defender of union workers but does not want a breakdown in the nation’s transportation infrastructure that would disrupt commuter and passenger services.

Largest private-sector nurses strike in U.S. history begins in Minnesota

The administration has little time to act: The nationwide rail shutdown is set to go into effect on Friday, and labor and management have been at an impasse over difficult issues such as sick time and penalties for missing work.

The freight industry has warned that the first national rail strike in decades would shut down 30 percent of the country’s freight and “halt most passenger and commuter rail services.” The Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employes, a division of the Teamsters, on Sunday announced a tentative agreement with national rail carriers, leaving only two of the 12 unions without a deal in place. But those are the two biggest rail unions in the country, representing 57,000 engineers and conductors.

Concerns about the political impact of a labor shutdown extend to parts of the administration as well. Farm groups have clamored for an agreement to be swiftly reached, as their operations could be heavily impacted. The administration has already faced criticism over its handling of the nation’s transportation infrastructure, which was wracked last year by supply chain snarls and this year by a spike in cancellations and delays at the nation’s airports. Some administration officials fear squandering the Biden economic victories of August that have helped increase Democrats’ poll numbers.

The Federal Railroad Administration, a part of the Transportation Department, has estimated that failure to reach an agreement could cost the U.S. economy as much as $2 billion per day in lost economic output. U.S. Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Suzanne P. Clark on Monday said a strike would be an “economic disaster” with “catastrophic economic impacts,” calling for urgent action to resolve the standoff.

“The last thing they want right now is a major strike in a key sector like this,” said Dean Baker, a White House ally and economist and co-founder of the Center for Economic and Policy Research, a liberal think tank. “I think Biden is going to be pushing really hard to get a deal. He’ll presumably push on the employer side but I’m sure he’ll push the union side as well … though there’s a question of how hard he’ll be willing to push the workers.”

Still, the president has made supporting unions one of the top priorities throughout his administration. Many Biden aides are sympathetic to workers’ complaints of poor working conditions and unjust treatment by management, and are reluctant to lean too aggressively on labor leaders to end the strike.

At issue is the recommendation of the Presidential Emergency Board, which is run by three Biden appointees. The board outlined wage hikes and annual bonuses in a 124-page report that were between the demands of the union and management, and were generous enough to peel off 10 of the labor unions that represent a subset of railway workers who do not operate trains.

But the remaining two unions slated to strike are infuriated by the board’s lack of strong proposals related to certain working conditions that they say are “destroying the lives” of their members, such as facing penalties for taking any time off. Labor groups say engineers and conductors have been fired for going to routine doctor’s appointments or family members’ funerals, and can be on call for 14 consecutive days without a break, for up to 12 hours. They are also afforded no sick days.

“We’re facing the potential of a strike because the railroad refuses to grant one single day of sick time,” said Ron Kaminkow, a member of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen, one of the unions that has not reached an agreement. “It’s about the phone rings at 2 a.m. to be at work at 4 a.m. after just 10 hours of rest prior. It’s about not knowing when you’re coming home and being penalized with discipline up to firing if you need to go to the doctor.”

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Business

Canada’s CP Rail shuts down railroad, workers strike

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Here are your FOX Business Flash top headlines for March 18.

Canadian Pacific Railway halted operations and locked out workers over a labor dispute early on Sunday, with each side blaming the other for a halt that will likely disrupt shipment of key commodities at a time of soaring prices.

“We are very disappointed with this turn of events,” said Teamsters Canada Rail Conference spokesperson Dave Fulton. The union said in a statement that it had begun to strike across the country in the dispute that it says affects 3,000 engineers, conductors and yard workers.

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Canada’s second-biggest railroad operator accused the union of misrepresenting the company’s position, saying in a statement that the Teamsters were “well aware of the damage this reckless action will cause to the Canadian supply chain.”

Minister of Labour Seamus O’Regan Jr said CP and Teamsters were still at the table with federal mediators.

FILE PHOTO: The Canadian Pacific railyard is pictured in Port Coquitlam, British Columbia REUTERS/Ben Nelms/File Photo (REUTERS/Ben Nelms/File Photo / Reuters Photos)

“We are monitoring the situation closely and expect the parties to keep working until they reach an agreement,” he said in a tweet just after midnight.

Canada, the largest country by area after Russia, depends heavily on rail to move commodities and manufactured goods to port. CP’s network runs across much of southern Canada and extends as far south as Kansas City in the United States.

The lockout is the latest blow to Canada’s battered supply chain, which last year weathered floods in British Columbia that washed out track and suspended access to Canada’s biggest port. CP has said a stoppage would disrupt the movement of grain, potash and coal.

CP had notified the union on Wednesday that it would lock out employees on Sunday, barring a breakthrough in talks on a deal covering pensions, pay and benefits.

Ticker Security Last Change Change %
CP CANADIAN PACIFIC RAILWAY LTD. 79.97 +0.06 +0.08%

It said the key bargaining issue is the union’s request for higher pension caps. Chief Financial Officer Nadeem Velani told a New York investor conference on Tuesday that the railway was unwilling to accept that demand.

Canada’s Nutrien said this week it may need to reduce potash production at its mines in the province of Saskatchewan if the shutdown lasts longer than a few days. 

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The country’s last major railway labor disruption was an eight-day Canadian National Railway Co CNR.TO strike in 2019. But in the past 12 years, there have been 12 stoppages due to poor weather, blockades or labor issues, according to the Western Canadian Wheat Growers Association. 

(Reporting by Ann Maria Shibu in Bengaluru and Rod Nickel in Chicago; Editing by William Mallard and Muralikumar Anantharaman)



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Technology

Deactivation of Flash cripples Chinese railroad for a day

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Enlarge / Dalian Railway Station.

In 2017, Adobe announced it would deactivate Flash at the end of 2020. Earlier this month, on January 12, Adobe carried through on its plans, deactivating Flash installations around the world. One result, according to Apple Daily, was chaos in a Chinese railroad in Liaoning province.

Officials at China Railway Shenyang use Flash-based software to plan each day’s railroad operations. As a result of the outage, Apple Daily says, “staffers were reportedly unable to view train operation diagrams, formulate train sequencing schedules, and arrange shunting plans.”

As a result, the railroad was unable to dispatch its trains, “leading to a complete shutdown of its railroads in Dalian, Liaoning province,” according to Apple Daily.

After a day of chaos, the railroad found a solution: it obtained a pirated version of Flash without the self-deactivating code. The railroad installed it early on the morning of January 13, allowing operations to resume.

Officials gave an exciting blow-by-blow account of the incident in a post on the Chinese social media account QQ.

“After more than 20 hours of fighting, no one complained, and no one gave up,” they wrote (according to Google Translate). “Even if there is little hope, there is a motivation to move forward.”

The post attracted some mockery on the Chinese Internet, with observers pointing out railroad officials could have anticipated this problem and developed a non-Flash dispatching system months earlier. The post was taken down, but a copy is still available at archive.org.

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