Union Pacific managers have been accused of undermining the U.S. government’s safety assessment efforts at the railroad by coaching employees on how to respond and suggesting they might face discipline. The Federal Railroad Administration had to suspend its safety assessment of the company due to the widespread meddling, which affected employees across the company’s 23-state network. The agency’s chief safety officer, Karl Alexy, raised concerns about employees being coached to provide specific responses and reluctance from employees to participate in field interviews due to intimidation or fear of retaliation. The agency had launched safety assessments of all major railroads in the U.S. following a derailment at Norfolk Southern in Ohio in February 2023.
The chief of safety at the International Association of Sheet Metal, Air, Rail and Transportation Workers’ Transportation Division, Jared Cassity, criticized Union Pacific for going to great lengths to intimidate and harass their employees in order to prevent them from providing honest assessments of the company’s safety culture. He questioned what else the company may be trying to cover up. Union Pacific defended its actions, stating that the concerns raised by regulators were related to a manager sharing the questions FRA planned to ask with employees to help prepare them for interviews. The company apologized for any confusion caused by their efforts and stated that they were meant to educate and prepare their team for the assessment ethically and compliantly.
The FRA had found defects in Union Pacific’s locomotives and railcars last year after sending out a team of inspectors, and the agency is still investigating a railcar explosion in the railroad’s railyard in Nebraska. Democratic Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brown criticized Union Pacific’s meddling as unacceptable and called for stronger tools to ensure railroad safety is not compromised for profits. He pledged to fight for a vote in the Senate on a bipartisan railroad safety bill that would set standards for trackside detectors and inspections to prevent derailments. The House has yet to take up the bill, as Republican leaders wanted to wait for the National Transportation Safety Board’s final report on the East Palestine derailment.
Union Pacific plans to launch an internal safety assessment this month, as suggested by the FRA, with the goal of becoming the safest railroad in North America. However, Cassity expressed doubts about the accuracy of an internal survey, stating that many Union Pacific workers are afraid to speak out about safety concerns due to the prevailing attitude of prioritizing moving freight at any cost. He warned that this mindset could increase the risk of another major derailment occurring. Despite the challenges faced by Union Pacific, the company’s president expressed a commitment to working with the FRA to improve safety and address any issues that may arise.
