In 2025, Railroad Workers United (RWU) needs your feedback to help prioritize and guide our strategic priorities.

For the most part, railroad workers continue to struggle and suffer under the same issues of job quality and safety brought to public attention during the 2020-2022 contract battle. And the current contract negotiations between all of the carriers and individual unions are a mess. Without much of a fight, many of our unions have separate agreements with individual carriers, setting us up to fall victim to pattern bargaining, divide-and-conquer tactics, and a race to the bottom for all railroad workers.

We are asking all of our RWU members, supporters, and any railroad worker (whether an RWU member or not) to help prioritize our current campaigns and give us your thoughts in a brief survey.

As America grapples with the everlasting impacts of the derailment in East Palestine, OH., Public Rail Now and Railroad Workers United released their latest report entitled "Putting America Back on Track: The Case for a 21st Century Public Rail System." Authored by Maddock Thomas, a Stone Fellow from Brown University and recipient of the North American Rail Shippers Association scholarship, this report presents a compelling argument for transitioning the United States' rail system to public ownership. Drawing on historical precedent and rigorous analysis, it makes a compelling case for overseeing our rail infrastructure in the same manner as our interstate highways, inland waterways, and airports.

Our calendar year 2023 started off with a bang, literally. The ink was barely dry on the National Freight Contract rammed down working railroaders’ throats by Congress and the White House, when a Norfolk Southern train laden with toxic chemicals derailed and exploded in a devastating wreck in East Palestine, Ohio. The RWU Media Outreach Committee once again rose to the occasion and responded to countless requests for information, interviews and webinars.