Railroad Workers United

01/19/2026

Today we honor Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., remembering his life, his struggle, and his unfinished work. For railroad workers, this day carries special meaning — not just because Dr. King was a champion of working people, but because the fight for civil rights and the fight for union rights have always been inextricably linked.

Email from Railroad Workers United MLK 2026 Greetings from Railroad Workers United From Pullman cars to picket lines: The enduring connection between Labor and Civil Rights View This Email as Webpage

12/02/2025

It’s Giving Tuesday — and Railroad Workers United needs your support. We’re aiming to raise $15,000 to keep up our work fighting against corporate consolidation and instead FOR rail workers’ rights, job quality, safety, and solidarity across North America's craft rail unions. Will you stand with us today? Every gift counts. Go to railroadworkersunited.org/donate🚆

donations, donate, paypal, sustainer

12/02/2025

Railroaders: another merger is on deck.

And before the companies write their fairy tale about how it’ll “improve safety” and “create opportunity,” we want the real story — the one written by people who actually run the trains.

Anonymous. Quick. No fluff.

Tell us what the UP + NS merger means for you and your crew.
👉 Survey link

09/17/2025

Please join us next Tuesday, September 23rd starting at 6 p.m. Central time on Zoom for an RWU Town Hall on the UP-NS merger and the affects of industry mega-mergers on railroad working conditions, trackside communities and more. RSVP at the QR code below or at this link: https://tinyurl.com/yfbcrbxn

09/01/2025

The dramatic origin story behind a favorite end-of-summer long weekend.

09/01/2025

Workers' Labor Day greetings from Railroad Workers United! Whether you are off work or on the job, please take time to honor, remember and celebrate the rights and dignity of all workers this Labor Day — OUR DAY.

Bosses have never freely guaranteed overtime pay, vacations, paid holidays, sick leave, workers’ compensation, FELA, Social Security, retirement benefits, safe working conditions, the basic 8-hour day, or seniority systems. These only came about because workers organized and fought (some losing their lives) collectively for these things — and at every turn, management would dial them back if it weren't for our vigilance.

Email from View this Email as a Webpage   2025 Labor Day Greetings from Railroad Workers United     Whether you're off work or on the job, please take time to honor, remember and celebrate the rights

08/27/2025

Railroad Workers United (RWU) wants to hear from working railroaders across carriers to learn how mega mergers like that proposed between the Union Pacific and Norfolk Southern affect your job quality. Share your thoughts!

Railroad Workers United (RWU) is reaching out to workers across the railroad industry to learn how you feel about the proposed merger between Union Pacific and Norfolk Southern. The survey results will be published anonymously in September, but if you would like, RWU may contact you in the future to...

07/23/2025

Join us in recreating a pivotal moment in Chicago and labor history!

The great railroad strike of 1877 became a massive nationwide labor uprising that arrived to Chicago and nearly brought the city and its business titans to their knees — mass strikes, walkouts, running battles and fiery speeches from labor leaders incited violent reprisals from police and national guard troops resulting in the deaths of over 30 civilians. With striking parallels to our current political moment, our re-enactment hopes to ensure that this history and the lives lost are properly memorialized and the lessons carried forward toward a more just future.

Addressing issues of labor, historical erasure, immigration, abolition, and solidarity; we propose to turn this event into a springboard for civic agitation. Our immediate demand is that the City of Chicago create a historical marker acknowledging this event and the lives lost in time for the 150th anniversary in 2027. Our greater goal is the building of movements that acknowledge that our histories are maps guiding us towards a future where our labor is not undervalued, our race not a marker for brutality, and state violence an anachronism — let us hold them up to the light and dare to march forward!

July 25 @ 7pm in the Pilsen Neighborhood, the intersection of Cermak & Halsted streets.

Hosted by: Under the Tree Podcast & Pilsen Community Books as part of the subVersion Summer Camp presented by the Public Media Institute.

06/30/2025

Attending the Socialism Conference in Chicago later this week? Join railroad workers Mark and Guy, along with Allison from the Debs Foundation in Terra Haute, IN to discuss Eugene V Debs and his trajectory from organizing rail labor, to opposing war, to running for president.
Thursday, July 3 from 2:30-4pm located in Field ABC.

06/30/2025

"Railroading today is profitable but struggles to serve customers, workers, and communities, as punctuated by recent high-profile disputes and disasters. This Note traces the development of the legal regulation of railroads from the Progressive Era’s antimonopoly vision to today’s deregulated environment. Railroads’ financial success and operational failures both come from this deregulation in the 1970s and 1980s. Yet deregulators retained a Progressive Era tool requiring fair treatment for all—the common-carrier obligation—in muted form. Given the need for a resilient, expansive rail network today, policymakers should consider using the common-carrier obligation, or more direct legal and institutional responses such as reregulation, public options, and nationalization, to address the problems that plague the industry."

Freight railroading today is profitable but fails workers, consumers, and communities in serious ways. This Note argues that both the railroad industry’s financial success and its operational shortcomings are legacies of deregulation in the 1970s and 1980s and considers alternatives, some old and ...

05/17/2025

Frank N. Wilner’s latest piece, “Building Bridges of Understanding,” strikes a hopeful chord, one that many of us in labor would like to believe in. The idea that empathy and storytelling could

05/16/2025

Railroad Workers United supports New Jersey Transit engineers and trainmen on strike today! Read our full statement of solidarity.

Email from Railroad Workers United   SPECIAL BULLETIN: RWU supports New Jersey Transit engineers on strike!     View this Email as a Webpage Friday, May 16, 2025 — Railroad Workers United (RWU) sends