Solutionary Rail: Good for Workers and Unions

The Solutionary Rail concept would prove highly beneficial for working and retired railroad workers. In contrast to the current operating plan the major rail carriers have embraced, Solutionary Rail holds out the promise of:

• more jobs in both passenger rail and freight rail, not fewer
• more rail infrastructure, not less
• good, family-wage, secure union jobs

The railroad industry is the most unionized sector of the economy. Most all Class One railroad jobs are organized into a union. Since the Solutionary Rail concept applies primarily to the major trunk lines – practically all of which are unionized Class One railroads – the increase in rail employment would necessarily mean an increase in union jobs. 

Close to 100% of the jobs created by implementing Solutionary Rail would be union, with good pay and benefits.

There was a time when 2 million railroad workers labored on the nation’s railroads. A century of line closures and abandonments, job consolidations, and new technology have combined to drastically reduce these numbers.

Solutionary Rail provides a plan to reverse this trend and boost employment in the rail industry in both rural and urban areas. By drastically increasing track capacity – through electrification and multiple tracking of key mainlines – Solutionary Rail will lead to a dramatic spike in the demand for railroad construction and maintenance workers as well as railroad engineers and trainmen. 

Winning high priority freight traffic back from the highways, together with an influx of scheduled passenger trains, will result in many more scheduled jobs for train and engine service workers.

To access this information as a downloadable pdf, click HERE.

More on these issues at www.solutionaryrail.org/factsnfalsesolutions & www.solutionaryrail.org/video

Please share this important info with policymakers, including your elected officials, candidates running for office, and others.

Legislators and policymakers have a lot of information to sort through -- we hope our “Railbites” will help you gather essential information about modernizing and electrifying our transportation infrastructure. Please use us as a resource! Contact [email protected] or 206-408-8058.