Cameron Harrison at People’s World reports it’s no secret that irresponsible Rail Giants out for profits have visited injury and death on Workers and massive destruction to communities around the country. As such, Workers are warning that a new corporate monster railroads want to create via a merger would tear up critical health and safety measures that protect both Workers and people in towns thorough which the trains pass. The monster rail monopolies created America’s Gilded Age, now the proposed $85 billion merger between Union Pacific and Norfolk Southern seeks to create a new Gilded Age for the 21st century. They are lobbying to merge into a single corporate giant that would wield monopoly power over freight from the Pacific to the Atlantic. Such a consolidation will threaten spikes in costs for the entire economy, degrade safety and crush the bargaining power of Rail Workers - who are mobilizing against this merger. But their campaign faces a critical test: Maintaining a united front among all Rail Unions. At the forefront of the opposition to the dangerous merger is the Rank-and-File Coalition Railroad Workers United (RWU). Its position is that in order to defeat the proposed Union of Union Pacific and Norfolk Southern, all 14 Rail Craft Unions must present a solid wall of solidarity. Any fracture, RWU argues, will empower the corporate giants and jeopardize the jobs, safety, and bargaining power of every Rail Worker. “This is not governance, it’s gate-keeping for the cartels,” warns the RWU, which argues this concentration of power will “jeopardize the Freight Rail Network that sustains our industries, our jobs and our communities.”

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