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Press Release: Rail Workers Group Opposes Further Class One Rail Mergers [1]

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Date: 2025-08

Press Release

Date: August 11,2025

For Immediate Release

For More Information, Please Contact:

CHICAGO, IL - RWU Newsletter Editor Mark Burrows 773-486-7001 [email protected] SPARKS, NV - RWU International Steering Committee Member Gabe Christenson 775-682-0889 [email protected] LAS VEGAS, NV - RWU Member Jason Doering 202-480-0587 [email protected] PLEASANT HILL, IA - RWU International Steering Committee Member Ross Grooters 515-265-9879 [email protected] RENO, NV - RWU Trustee Ron Kaminkow 608-358-5771 [email protected] FORT MADISON, IA - RWU Member Jeff Kurtz 319-470-9990 [email protected] SPARKS, NV - RWU Member Matt Parker 775-772-3675 [email protected] FRANKLIN, GA - RWU Treasurer Hugh Sawyer 770-854-5789 [email protected] DECATUR, IL - RWU International Steering Committee Member Tim Sloper 217-652-0028 [email protected] BERWYN, IL - RWU Member Marilee Taylor 708-484-7386 [email protected] GENOA, OH - RWU International Steering Committee Member Matt Weaver 419-855-9328 [email protected] WORCESTER, MA - RWU General Secretary Nicholas Wurst 508-335-8633 [email protected]



Railroad Worker Group Opposes Further Class One Rail Mergers

The group Railroad Workers United (RWU) has issued a formal Resolution and statement opposing any and all mega-rail mergers such as the one under question in recent weeks between rail giants Union Pacific and Norfolk Southern. Should that merger move forward and be condoned by the U.S. government, RWU notes that the remaining two Class One railroads, BNSF and CSX, would in effect be forced to amalgamate as well, resulting in just four major rail corporations controlling not just the industry, but the infrastructure as well. Upwards of 90% of the rail traffic of North America will be controlled by these four corporations.

According to RWU General Secretary Nick Wurst, “In no other counties in the world outside of North America do huge rail corporations not just run the trains, but own the tracks, yards, signals, shops and other infrastructure. Allowing a handful of privately held, extremely wealthy and powerful corporations, unaccountable to no one but the shareholders is not in the interest of railroad workers, passengers, shippers, trackside communities nor the nation as a whole.”

The organization has grave concerns of what such mega-mergers might mean for rail workers and their conditions of employment. Ron Kaminkow, an RWU Trustee formerly worked in train and engine service at Conrail in the 1990s, and was subject to the corporate carve-up of that railroad in 1999, becoming a Norfolk Southern employee overnight on June 1st. “None of us will ever forget it. A complete and total ‘melt-down’ on Day One. Our mainline from Elkhart to Chicago that saw upwards of 80 trains a day looked like a parking lot - trains parked awaiting crews, classification yards clogged and unable to accept them, average dwell time skyrocketing, and average train velocity plunging. It was a mess for well over a year. Who knows how many carloads were lost, how much traffic went onto trucks, how many shippers’ enterprises suffered, and the extent of damage done to the national economy as a whole.”

According to Transport Workers Union (TWU) International President John Samuelsen “Union Pacific has a shameful safety record and was caught by the federal government trying to meddle in a safety audit. There is no world where Union Pacific should be controlling a coast-to-coast rail network …A supersized Union Pacific would be catastrophic for TWU rail workers, shippers, and the safety of millions of Americans who live and work near freight rail lines.” TWU Rail Division Director John Feltz added that, “Union Pacific cut railroad jobs even as other freight railroads ramped up hiring after the pandemic. They are not to be trusted by railroad workers nationwide …”

Private for-profit freight rail consolidation would most likely not bode well for Amtrak nor other passenger train operators who must operate over these rail corporations’ tracks. According to Jim Matthews, CEO of the Rail Passengers Association, an advocacy group for passenger rail, said in a statement that passengers and shippers have “Good reason to treat this news (of the UP-NS merger) with skepticism. The past decade has seen Class I railroads steadily losing market share to trucking in pursuit of shareholder dividends. While that’s been good for Wall Street, it’s meant worse rail service for passengers and shippers in the rest of the country.”

Likewise, shipper associations are up in arms. A trade group representing 3,500 chemical, manufacturing, agriculture, and energy companies recently cautioned in a press release that past history shows that a proposed merger of Union Pacific and Norfolk Southern will push up shipping costs without improving service. “The Freight Rail Customer Alliance (FRCA) has long been opposed to continued consolidation in the rail industry based on past experiences resulting in increased rates, higher fees and unreliable service,” said FRCA President Emily Regis.

RWU urges all shipping groups, passenger train advocates, environmentalists, and especially railroad workers and our unions to oppose further mergers of rail corporations. The powerful capitalists who controlled the nation’s railroads in the latter 19th century - Gould, Harriman, Hill, Vanderbilt and others - did not get the name “Robber Barrons” for nothing. According to RWU Organizer Matt Weaver, “Such concentrations of wealth and power among a handful of men was not a good idea then and it is not a good idea today. They had a stranglehold on the economy and the rail workforce. Further corporate rail mergers today will do little for rail development but simply line the pockets of Wall Street investors at everyone else’s expense.





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