UE Political Action Updates

Railroads are a crucial part of our nation’s infrastructure. Nearly every sector of our economy depends on goods shipped by the railroads ... [and] the greater fuel efficiency of using rail to move both people and freight means that moving more of our transportation onto the railroads will be necessary to address the existential threat of climate change.

Yet the private owners of our nation’s Class 1 railroads have shown themselves utterly incapable of facing the challenge of the climate crisis, dealing fairly with their own workers, or even meeting the most basic needs of their customers. Therefore, we demand that Congress immediately begin a process of bringing our nation’s railroads under public ownership.

On January 10, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in Glacier Northwest v. International Brotherhood of Teamsters, Local Union 174, a case which will potentially cripple the ability of private-sector unions to strike by opening them up to punitive lawsuits. If the Court, which is currently dominated by a six-person anti-worker majority, decides in favor of the employer, it will open the possibility that any employer, faced with a strike, will be able to sue the union (and, potentially, individual strikers) for economic damages.

Statement of the UE officers

The current move by President Biden and Congress to impose a contract on our nation’s 115,000 railroad workers — a contract that the members of rail unions representing the majority of those workers have rejected — is an unconscionable attack on rail workers, the labor movement, and the entire U.S. working class.

UE members speak out on the importance of the midterm elections: “It’s important for working people to vote because we’re kind of on a precipice.” “We must no longer vote for party but vote for candidates who will advance policies that will benefit the people.” “As a female who has had her right to bodily autonomy arbitrarily and recklessly taken away after so many fought for so many years for that same right, it is vitally important to show up at the polls and vote.”