UTU asks FRA, OSHA to investigate serious safety concerns at USX steel railroads operating in five states (11/16/98)

UTU asks FRA, OSHA to investigate serious safety concerns
at USX steel railroads operating in five states

Cleveland (Nov. 12) – The United Transportation Union (UTU) is asking the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) and the Occupational Safety & Health Administration (OSHA) to investigate serious worker safety issues at USX steel works railroads operating in five states.

The request comes after the UTU began an investigation in late September into worker safety issues at USX’s steel railroads in Ohio, Pennsylvania, Indiana, Illinois, and Minnesota. The investigation revealed serious safety issues that could injure workers, including improper training, inadequate communication devices, defective locomotives and operating equipment, and other life-threatening problems.

"We are focusing the spotlight on very serious safety issues at USX steel railroads in order to protect our members," said Byron Boyd, Jr., UTU International Assistant President. "We want our members to return home safely from the job every day. It’s time that USX fix the serious safety problems in their rail transportation systems, and we are asking the FRA and OSHA to make sure they do so."

The USX facilities and Transtar-USX railroads the UTU is asking the FRA and OSHA to investigate include: USS/Kobe Steel and the Lake Terminal Railroad, Lorain, Ohio; USX plants in the Mon Valley, including the Irvin Works and Edgar Thompson Works, and the Union Railroad; Gary Works in Gary, Ind., and the Elgin, Joliet & Eastern Railway; the Bessemer Works in Greenville, Pa., and the Bessemer & Lake Erie Railroad; USX’s Iron Range operation and the Duluth, Missabe & Iron Range Railroad; the Fairless Works in Birmingham, Ala., and the Birmingham Southern Railroad, and the McKeesport (Pa.) Connecting Railroad.

At last week’s White House conference on the dumping of cheap foreign steel, Labor Secretary Alexis Herman raised the issue of job security and safety at the USS/Kobe Steel mill in Lorain, Ohio, with US Steel President Paul Wilhelm. Reports out of Washington, D.C., say that her office is trying to arrange a meeting between US Steel, the UTU and the Labor Department to resolve the situation.

USS/Kobe Steel Co. made public in late September that it was terminating it service agreement after 104 years with the Lake Terminal Railroad and was planning to hire a non-union company to replace it. The new company is planning to buy old defective locomotives from Transtar that lack adequate safety equipment and working brakes to operate using remote-controlled devices.

Ten years ago USX sold its five "in-house railroads," including the Lake Terminal Railroad, to Transtar Holdings LP. However, USX retained a 45% ownership interest in Transtar.

If USS/Kobe discontinues its working relationship with the Lake Terminal RR, it will cause its parent company, USX, to lose its share of $7.7 million in annual revenue and $1 million in income before taxes from Transtar.

The United Transportation Union, with 150,000 members, is the largest rail and transportation in North America. Its headquarters is in Cleveland.