Holding the Line

We all learn something early in this industry: the railroad will not accept responsibility for your safety. For railroaders, this truth is most dangerous not on an ordinary workday, but on the worst day of their life.

When a serious injury or fatality occurs, the situation becomes life-altering for the worker and their family. For company officials and local managers, it becomes something else entirely. It’s a career-defining event. Management’s attention immediately turns to numbers like lost-time, reportable injuries, liability exposure, and how the event will affect their performance record and bonuses. In those moments, our well-being often takes a back seat to management’s self-preservation.

Across the industry, management’s performance is evaluated on minimizing injuries, reducing costs, and controlling outcomes. That pressure does not disappear when someone is hurt; it intensifies. When careers, reputations, and bonuses are on the line, the railroads’ focus shifts rapidly toward damage control. In those moments, injured workers are not viewed as equals. They are viewed as a risk. And risk must be managed.

When You’re Injured, the Clock Starts Ticking

After a serious injury or fatality, time becomes the enemy. What follows is a high-stakes race between the railroad and the union.

A race to the hospital.
A race to the family.
A race to the accident scene.

The railroad industry’s documented pattern following an injury is for company representatives to arrive quickly while a member is injured, exhausted, frightened, and heavily medicated. In those moments, workers and families are vulnerable. Conversations are framed as “routine,” “just part of the process,” or even “helpful.” Paperwork appears. Statements are requested. Medical record releases are signed. Access is assumed.

Once a document is signed, a statement is given, and access is granted, the damage is too often done. That is why this moment is where SMART-TD matters most.

One Local Chair, Three Critical Battles

When tragedy strikes, local officers are immediately fighting on three fronts at once:

• At the hospital: ensuring injured or medicated members are not pressured into giving statements or signing documents, and that medical records are not being released to the railroad
• With the next of kin: making sure families understand they are not required to speak with company representatives and should not sign anything. Sometimes, the local chairman is even required to physically place themselves between families and railroad management
• At the scene: ensuring evidence is preserved, and facts are not altered, omitted, or selectively framed

No Local Chair can be in three places at the same time. And too often, members assume, “The union has it covered.”

Here is the truth. The union is not a building or an office. The union is its members.

When something goes wrong, the railroad has a plan, a protocol, and is prepared for these moments. We must be just as prepared. Preparation requires participation, not just being a side line spectator.

Texting, gossiping, and posting divisive, negative comments on social media are not helpful ways to help our members. Showing up, is.

What Every Member Must Do

If you want the union to be there when your family needs it most, these steps are not optional.

1. Download the SMART app: Every member and officer should have the SMART app downloaded onto your phone and other devices. Stay up to date on breaking information about your union and local officers. Find contact information for your SMART-TD Designated Legal Counsel (DLC) on the app before an emergency strikes.

2. Get Help From Your Designated Legal Counsel (DLC): Should you or one of your members suffer injury on the property, contact your local DLC. Your union provides legal counsel who are experienced in representing you and your members when an on the job injury occurs. Your DLC are SMART approved and know what to do when your members need help the most. DLC specialize in enforcing the laws protecting you, your members, and your families.

3. Keep Your Contact Information Updated: When time matters, local officers should not have to search through outdated phone numbers, addresses, or emergency contacts. Too often, the railroad knows how to reach a family before SMART-TD does. Update your contact and emergency contact information with SMART-TD every time it changes. No exceptions.

4. Fill Local Officer Positions: Vacant officer positions weaken our response instantly. When only a few positions are filled, and those members are working or in the away-from-home terminal, coverage collapses. When one person is forced to choose which battle to fight, the others are lost automatically. If your local has vacancies, please step up. Protect your coworkers and their kids when it counts.

5.  Educate Your Family: Your family must know what to expect. They need to understand they are not required to speak to company representatives, that all communication should go through the union and Designated Legal Counsel, and that medical records do not belong to the railroad. Railroad workers are not subject to workers’ compensation systems, so the railroad has no rights to your medical records. Medical information is private, period.

Our families must be prepared to say, “We will not speak with you. Contact the union and my DLC.”

When It Happens to One of Us, We All Must Act

If a brother or sister is hurt, we need to go to the hospital. We need to go to their family’s home. We need to go to the scene. You don’t have to be an officer to help. Post up, hold the line, and keep the railroad from controlling the situation.

This is not extreme. It is necessary.

The railroad has never hidden what it is. What matters now is how we respond.

When something goes wrong, be the union you would want standing between your family and the railroad.