Show notes
Concerns about staffing and safety are the focus of railroad union representatives, who say they’re worried that increasing automation will affect operations. Amid job cuts at Jacksonville-based CSX Transportation, the union reps say that about 900 employees will be furloughed by Nov. 15 and that human track inspections have dropped 40% in the past three months. The railroad has said it’s making the adjustments “to better align teams with seasonal workflows and the maintenance work required across the network,” but that its “focus on safety is unchanged.” We talk to two senior union representatives who say the Jacksonville community should be paying close attention.
We invited CSX Transportation to join the show or provide a statement. They provided the following:
"Safety is a core value at CSX and the cornerstone on which the reliability of our railroad is built. Contrary to union claims, we don't compromise safety, regardless of profits. Our results show it. In the first half of 2026, our FRA personal injury rate improved 19% and our train accident rate improved 29% compared to last year. In the second quarter alone, the injury rate improved 19% even as total employee hours fell 7%.
"CSX also values its maintenance of way employees and our excellent relationship with the BMWED union. We have long and fruitful relationships with — and respect for — Mr. Thompson and Mr. Cardwell, and we appreciate their advocacy for the CSX employees they represent. In this case, however, they're getting their facts wrong.
"The union's release treats seasonal furloughs and permanent eliminations as one number. They aren't the same thing. About 200 craft positions across Maintenance of Way and Communications & Signals are being eliminated, out of an Engineering craft workforce of about 5,500, and some of those positions were already vacant. Separately, about 1,000 employees on system production teams, which do capital project work, will be temporarily furloughed this winter. The end-of-year suspension of this construction work is customary throughout the industry and consistent with CSX's historic practices. These employees are expected to be recalled under their collective bargaining agreements when work resumes early next year. The start date is timed so crews aren't working frozen ground in January, when construction work is least productive. Required inspections and maintenance continue, and our capital program is unchanged.
"Finally, the public should understand that BMWED is engaged in a national effort to stop new technologies and automation, which it perceives as threatening union jobs. Technology adds to our inspections. It does not replace them. CSX uses autonomous track assessment cars that ride on trains around the clock and flag conditions such as geometry and gage conditions, and every condition they detect goes to our workforce for follow-up and repair. CSX supervisors are not encouraging track inspectors to overlook defects or cover up issues in the development of these new technologies, and we would not expect any maintenance of way professionals to carry out such unlawful instructions.
"For more on automated track inspection across the industry, visit https://www.aar.org/ati-waiver/."
Guests:
- Brian Thompson, general chairman, Allied Federation of the Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employees Division of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters union
- Tony Cardwell, president, Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employees Division of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters union
Beyond bars
A former prisoner turned criminal justice reform advocate has written a memoir documenting his decade behind bars, as well as his discovery of yoga as a means of coping with the realities of imprisonment. St. Augustine native Emmett Tatter, now a certified yoga instructor, refers to the five daily inmate head counts conducted by prison staff in the title of his new book, Count Time. For Tatter, that amounted to 15,523 counts over a 10-year sentence. We talk to him about the challenges of surviving beyond prison, the complexity of reentering life on the outside and his work helping other inmates endure carceral system-related violence and PTSD.
Guest: Emmett Tatter, prison reform advocate, author of Count Time
Guest star
From the complexity of the cosmos to the celestial sightings of earthbound stargazers, WJCT’s resident space man, Eddie Whistler, keeps us grounded in the realm of the universal. He joins us each month for an update on sky science, interplanetary exploration and just cool discoveries from deep space. He also keeps us abreast of MOSH outreach programs during the Museum of Science & History’s three-year physical hiatus, as the 55-year-old institution relocates from the Southbank to its new Northbank home.
Guest: Eddie Whisler, director of planetarium and outreach, Museum of Science & History
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