BLET President Dennis Pierce testified before the House subcommittee on Transportation and Infrastructure today about the need for two-person rail crews. 

“The industry’s safety regulator (Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) ) has again refused to regulate. Although the previous Administration promulgated a rule making that would have required two crew members on many forms of freight service, the current Administration has withdrawn that rule making. In doing so, FRA has further attempted to ‘negatively preempt’ all State laws that make any effort to legislate crew size. For all of these reasons, and to ensure the safety of all rail workers, we strongly support H.R. 1748 — The Safe Freight Act of 2019 — which has been sponsored by Congressman Young and has over six dozen bipartisan cosponsors. We urge passage of this Bill by the House and the Senate, and that President Trump sign it into law,” Pierce testified.

Pierce was joined by union leaders from SMART and the Brotherhood of Railroad Signalmen, all of whom spoke of the need for two-person crews to insure safety on the railroads and urging the passage of H.R. 1748 – the Safe Freight act that is currently before Congress.

To read the whole article published by the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen (BLET), click here.

 

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