Championing Rail and Transit Safety from Coast to Coast

Whether it’s on the rails or on the road, SMART-TD prioritizes the safety of our brothers and sisters.  
 
This isn’t just something that we preach: our members’ actions speak louder than words. 
 
From fighting to ensure that Massachusetts law covers public transit workers employed by private companies, to securing permanent funding for the Office of Railroad Safety in Colorado just last week, this union’s presence and commitment to protecting its members is evident in statehouses across the country. 

String of Legislative Victories Spotlight Safety

SMART-TD members have racked up an impressive number of legislative wins centered on securing or strengthening safety protections this year. These include:

• Passing a monumental transit safety bill in Maryland that protects bus and passenger rail workers from violent assaults by requiring the Maryland Transit Administration to form a safety-focused workgroup in consultation with SMART-TD and several other unions. Together, they will create a passenger code of conduct and roll out a variety of internal safety improvements.  
• Securing permanent funding for the Office of Railroad Safety in Colorado after more than two years of tireless organizing, lobbying, and standing firm in the face of corporate and political games.  The Office is charged with collecting and analyzing safety data, including the impact of train length, crew size, and scheduling on accident rates—key areas the carriers and the Association of American Railroads (AAR) have consistently claimed lack “data to support.”  
• Passing a second new law in Colorado that enacts “Transit Worker Assault and Training Requirements,” which widens the definition of a transit worker and imposes harsher penalties for transit assaults. 
• Successfully broadening the definition of “public employee” and “assault” to cover transit workers employed by private companies in Massachusetts to close an unintended loophole that barred them from the same level of protection as public transit workers. 

A safety-related bill doesn’t necessarily need to pass to make headway. Organizing a coalition to move a piece of legislation out of committee or securing another co-sponsor to build support for a new law are part of how the work gets done. Each milestone means that lawmakers are coming to support our members’ priorities. While some laws take several years to pass, the members of SMART-TD and our advocates are relentless in the fight for safety.  
 
This is just a small snapshot of the safety-focused legislation that SMART-TD members have championed over the past few months. The theme is clear: safety on the job has and will always be this union’s top priority, even in the face of repeated attempts by the carriers to make that goal more difficult to achieve.

Carriers, Some Lawmakers Attempting to Cut Corners 

Short-term attempts to save a buck at the expense of workers’ safety are happening across the country. 

At the federal level, the Association of American Railroads (AAR) requested a repeal of the federal two-person crew rule (2-PC), claiming that it will save them over $260 million. But at what cost?  

Securing permanent funding for the Office of Rail Safety in Colorado was anything but a smooth ride.  A state senator tried to force employees’ unions to split the bill with the carriers. The office itself was created as a way to steal progress from defeat. 

The original legislation sought to limit train lengths to 8500 feet and cap blocked crossings at 10 minutes.  After 10 months of cooperation between the union and bipartisan legislative sponsors, railroad lobbyists stepped in at the last minute to threaten an unrelated passenger rail initiative. The original bill, if passed, had a good chance of being vetoed. The Colorado team pivoted to create the Office of Rail Safety instead.  
 
The proposal to share the cost was defeated, but the message was loud and clear: safety is secondary to financial savings, and our opposition is willing to do what it takes to erode the powers that hold them accountable.  

The contrast between our priorities and those of the carriers is clear. Our bottom line is this: no price tag can ever be put on our members’ safety.

Keeping Our Priorities in Line 

Whether it’s a major victory or an incremental step forward, SMART-TD will never lose focus of our central duty: ensuring our mutual well-being, and that our employers are held accountable for any harm caused by their greed.  
 
It takes grit to be on one of our state legislative boards. Political savviness and tireless determination are essential to building stronger protections in the face of ceaseless industry lobbying.  But grit and determination are what it means to be union. We’re used to hard work, and we will never stop. Our brothers and sisters, in every state and across every craft, will continue to fight tirelessly, day after day, to stand up for one another and protect what’s right.