A safety hotline that allows railroad workers to report safety violations anonymously is seeing resistance from major freight carriers--like Norfolk Southern.

Back in March, Union Pacific, BNSF, Norfolk Southern, CPKC, Canadian National and CSX all pledged to join the FRA Close Call reporting system...but Labor Unions are saying little has changed.

 

 The Transportation Trades Department of the AFL-CIO sent this letter to those carriers reminding them of that promise and urging them to follow through on joining the program.  

"East Palestine is the perfect example of the fact that what the railroads on America are doing is not working...and here we have a program that is proven to work and they are doing everything they can to keep the old railroad system.", said Jared Cassity, SMART Transportation director.

Jason Graham with the Alliance System Federation says employees rely on their paychecks and that fear of losing their jobs while trying to do the right thing has kept many quiet.

"Railroad workers. we're blue-collar workers if we miss our work, our families are hurt and that's what the railroads use against us to get us to overlook safety or to not report those things.", Graham explained, adding that workers should be encouraged to report safety issues and not discouraged.

21 News reached out to each of these Class 1 carriers for a response as to why they haven't joined. Norfolk Southern responded saying,

"We are making good progress toward operationalizing our membership in the Confidential Close Call Reporting System. We met with FRA representatives in May to receive an initial briefing on the program, and with labor representatives this month to discuss the multi-party Memorandum of Understanding and the subsequent implementation of a pilot program at NS."

 Union Pacific also a Class 1 carrier says their have their own close call system but say they plan to join the FRA system.

"Union Pacific has had a robust internal close call reporting system in place for more than a decade, and we already collaborate with the FRA. Waiting for information to return to the railroad from a federal system often removes the immediacy needed to be successful responding to concerns; however, we plan to participate in the federal system and are confident this collaborative process will ultimately improve the C3RS program."