Dear Marc,

CSX Transportation has requested that the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) allow it to continue hiding behind its five-year waiver that relieved it of the requirement to physically post workplace injury and illness reports in crew rooms (and instead use an electronic only system). The waiver was granted in 2020 on the condition that CSX would ensure equal access to this information. They haven't. And they had five years to get it right. And while this email is telling the CSX story; their tactics apply to the entire railroad industry.

I hired out on CSX 20 years ago. I know the difference between a safety tool and a corporate smokescreen. Removing those postings didn't 'modernize' a thing. It silenced conversations, buried accountability, and put every railroader at greater risk. CSX didn't fail to meet the waiver conditions by accident. They failed because transparency was never their goal to begin with. And now they want another five years; that's not how this works.  

SMART-TD did not shrug. We called out CSX's smokescreen with hard data gathered directly from the men and women living and working under this waiver. In less than a week, SMART-TD surveyed over 1,000 CSX members across the system to ensure the FRA heard the voices from the ground louder than the corporate spin from CSX's Jacksonville headquarters.

The results from members show the CSX did not uphold the conditions of the waiver: 1) They did not ensure access to the monthly on-duty injury/illness information. 2) They did not train employees on how to obtain it. 3) They did not consistently post the required instructions on where to find it. In my world, three strikes and you are out! The FRA should deny CSX's request.

Common sense says Injury and illness postings should hang on the same bulletin boards as job briefings, safety alerts, and the rest of the information crews rely on as part of their daily rhythm. The National Safety and Legislative Office will continue to use every tool at our disposal to let the FRA and elected officials know that safety is not just a slogan on a banner when it comes to SMART-TD, and that the FRA should deny this petition and eliminate the waiver.

In solidarity,

Jared Cassity

National Safety and Legislative Director

SMART Transportation Division