A few weeks shy of their respective first quarter earnings announcements East Coast-based Class I railroads Norfolk Southern and CSX are feeling pretty good about their businesses. Norfolk Southern CEO Wick Moorman stated in the company’s 2012 annual report that the future is promising for the rail carrier, which saw 2012 come in as its [...]
OSHA slams Norfolk Southern again
February 28, 2013
WASHINGTON – Norfolk Southern Railway Co. has been ordered to pay $1,121,099 to three workers following an investigation by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration, which found that the company violated the whistleblower provisions of the Federal Railroad Safety Act. Two investigations, conducted by OSHA staff in Chicago and Pittsburgh, found [...]
Sheriff: NS engineer shot himself
September 24, 2012
HURLEY, Va. — The Norfolk Southern locomotive engineer who suffered a bullet wound in the NS Hurley yard here Sept. 20 reportedly confessed to shooting himself, according to news reports citing the sheriff’s office in Buchanan County, Va. Hurley is some 100 miles south of Charleston, W.Va. Engineer Mark Jarrell, 41, of Canada, Ky., suffered [...]
No defense for violating worker rights
August 31, 2012
Even when railroads return workers to their jobs with full back pay after wrongly terminating them for suffering a workplace injury, significant monetary sanctions may still be imposed by the Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA). Case in point is Norfolk Southern, which was ordered to pay damages in excess of $580,000 [...]
NS: More than a hat trick or golden sombrero
August 10, 2012
In ice hockey, the scoring by one player of three goals is called a “hat trick.” In baseball, a player striking out four times in a single game is said to have earned a “golden sombrero.” Norfolk Southern’s feat is to have earned from OSHA a still unnamed fifth significant sanction in recent months for [...]
Every tool in use to protect members’ jobs, safety
July 31, 2012
Delivering on the theme of the 2012 regional meetings – “We will not back down” – UTU International President Mike Futhey told more than 1,000 attendees at the Memphis meeting how the UTU is using every tool available – negotiations, legislative and legal — to defend its members’ jobs and workplace safety. * On the [...]
UTU assisting in NS derailment investigation
July 12, 2012
COLUMBUS, Ohio — The UTU Transportation Safety Team is assisting the National Transportation Safety Board in investigating a fiery explosion following a Norfolk Southern derailment here July 11. Sixteen of 98 cars carrying ethanol, corn syrup and grain left the tracks around 2 a.m. There were no injuries among the crew, but two nearby residents [...]
NS retaliation again slapped by OSHA
June 20, 2012
It is reasonable to wonder just how many millions of dollars in sanctions must be assessed against railroads by the federal government before they learn the lesson that employees are not the equivalent of number 2 pencils to be chewed on at will and discarded when convenient. In the most recent comeuppance applied to Norfolk [...]
