Maybe…Just a Little Too Cozy!

By Paul C. Thompson

UTU International President

 

From The Real Western Pacific List, forwarded by Les Childers.  (05/06/05)  Anti-union  attacks frequently come from regulatory agency officials, many of whom subsequently accept railroad employment - perhaps, as a reward.  In recent years, carriers hired dozens of regulators.  This pattern sends a luminous, forceful and convincing signal: Be nice to us and we will be nice to you.  I am not suggesting wrong doing.  I am suggesting cozy relationships create problematic temptations.  They can work to game the system to the carriers' advantage.

Consider:  The Surface  Transportation Board (STB) - formerly the Interstate Commerce Commission  (ICC) - rules on railroad mergers, abandonments, line sales and labor protection flowing from such transactions.  Many who decided such cases departed to accept  lucrative carrier employment.

  • Former ICC Chairman Darius Gaskins was hired by the Burlington Northern.
  • Former ICC member Karen Phillips was hired by the Association of American Railroads (AAR).
  • Former ICC Chairman Reese Taylor and ICC/STB member Jake Simmons were hired by CSX.
  • Former ICC official Rick Crawford was  hired by Norfolk Southern.
  • Former ICC official Sidney Strickland was hired by BNSF.
  • Former ICC/STB Chairman Linda Morgan was hired by Union  Pacific.
  • The Federal Railroad Administration regulates railroad  safety.
  • Former FRA administrators Shef Lang, Robert Blanchette and  John Riley were hired by the AAR.  Two other past FRA administrators, Reginald Whitman and John Ingram - were employed by major railroads.
  • Former FRA Acting Administrator Betty Monro was found by DOT's inspector general to have had a cozy relationship with Union  Pacific's chief lobbyist.

One must wonder whether these relationships influenced ICC/STB decisions that were harmful to rail labor, or influenced decisions of the FRA to water down fines assessed railroads for safety violations.  Many of those fines were reduced to such a low level that the  industry considered them a cost of doing business, much like United  Parcel Service treats parking tickets.  In fact, after he left the FRA and  joined the AAR, Blanchette called federal safety investigators "meter  maids."

Regulatory agencies, like courts, should be neutral to those who come before them seeking justice.  Regulatory agencies were created to curb excesses of the free-market economic system.  When the public loses confidence in its institutions' neutrality, our social fabric becomes tattered.  It is said that sunlight is the  greatest of disinfectants.  Thus, the UTU has begun working with the media, public-interest groups and labor-friendly congressional lawmakers to shine  increased sunlight on how railroads seek to game the system to their advantage.

Through our national and state legislative offices, and other efforts by the International, we intend to level the playing  field.

 

Posted:  05/07/05