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The Norfolk Southern train that derailed in East Palestine, Ohio has suffered a fate common to, well, just about anything in America: it became embroiled in this country’s wonderful politics.
Republicans, for instance, have used it evidence to wag their fingers at Joe Biden for visiting Kyiv over the weekend, saying he should have gone to East Palestine instead. Expect Donald Trump to say the same thing when he appears in the town later today, which lies in Ohio’s heavily Republican sixth district.
But as the Guardian’s Michael Sainato reported on Monday, railroad worker unions see the disaster not as a political prop, but as exactly the type of consequence they’d warned about for years. Here’s more from his story:
US railroad workers say the train derailment in Ohio, which forced thousands of residents to evacuate and is now spreading a noxious plume of carcinogenic chemicals across the area, should be an “eye-opening” revelation for Congress and “an illustration of how the railroads operate, and how they’re getting away with a lot of things”.
Workers and union officials cited the Norfolk Southern Railway derailment in early February as a glaring example of why safety reforms to the industry – which include providing workers with paid sick leave – need to be made.
Thirty-eight cars on the train derailed in the town of East Palestine, near the Pennsylvania border, including 11 cars carrying hazardous materials that incited an evacuation order, a controlled release of chemicals, and fears of harmful chemical exposure to residents, wildlife and waterways.
Unions and rail companies have been at loggerheads for years over new contracts that would address what workers describe as poor working conditions, and would provide paid sick days amid grueling schedules caused by labor cuts.
“Without a change in the working conditions, without better scheduling, without more time off, without a better work-life balance, the railroad is going to suffer,” said Ron Kaminkow, the general secretary of Railroad Workers United, an Amtrak engineer in Reno, Nevada, and the vice-president of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen (Blet) local 51. “It’s just intrinsic, with short staffing. Corners get cut and safety is compromised.”
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Speaking of Ukraine, the top Republican investigator in the House of Representatives James Comer has written to the state and defense departments as well as USAID demanding an accounting of Washington’s assistance to Kyiv.
“The Committee on Oversight and Accountability is conducting oversight of the federal government’s administration of U.S. taxpayer-funded assistance to Ukraine. Since Russia invaded Ukraine nearly a year ago, Congress has provided more than $113 billion for security, humanitarian, economic, and governance assistance. It is critical that government agencies administering these funds ensure they are used for their intended purposes to prevent and reduce the risk of waste, fraud, and abuse,” Comer, who chairs the House oversight committee, and his Republican colleagues wrote in a letter to the heads of the three agencies.
“We learned from efforts in Afghanistan that the World Bank does not always have effective monitoring and accounting of funds, and often lacks transparency. We also learned that unrealistic timelines and expectations that prioritize spending quickly lead to increased corruption and reduced effectiveness of programs. As the United States continues to filter assistance through multilateral organizations with pressure to spend funds quickly, we must ensure proper protections are in place to prevent the misuse of funds,” he continued.
While House GOP leadership has yet to openly break with Kyiv, their leaders, including speaker Kevin McCarthy, have signaled hesitation to continuing to fund Ukraine’s war effort against Russia, at least at the same levels as over the past year.
The Norfolk Southern train that derailed in East Palestine, Ohio has suffered a fate common to, well, just about anything in America: it became embroiled in this country’s wonderful politics.
Republicans, for instance, have used it evidence to wag their fingers at Joe Biden for visiting Kyiv over the weekend, saying he should have gone to East Palestine instead. Expect Donald Trump to say the same thing when he appears in the town later today, which lies in Ohio’s heavily Republican sixth district.
But as the Guardian’s Michael Sainato reported on Monday, railroad worker unions see the disaster not as a political prop, but as exactly the type of consequence they’d warned about for years. Here’s more from his story:
US railroad workers say the train derailment in Ohio, which forced thousands of residents to evacuate and is now spreading a noxious plume of carcinogenic chemicals across the area, should be an “eye-opening” revelation for Congress and “an illustration of how the railroads operate, and how they’re getting away with a lot of things”.
Workers and union officials cited the Norfolk Southern Railway derailment in early February as a glaring example of why safety reforms to the industry – which include providing workers with paid sick leave – need to be made.
Thirty-eight cars on the train derailed in the town of East Palestine, near the Pennsylvania border, including 11 cars carrying hazardous materials that incited an evacuation order, a controlled release of chemicals, and fears of harmful chemical exposure to residents, wildlife and waterways.
Unions and rail companies have been at loggerheads for years over new contracts that would address what workers describe as poor working conditions, and would provide paid sick days amid grueling schedules caused by labor cuts.
“Without a change in the working conditions, without better scheduling, without more time off, without a better work-life balance, the railroad is going to suffer,” said Ron Kaminkow, the general secretary of Railroad Workers United, an Amtrak engineer in Reno, Nevada, and the vice-president of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen (Blet) local 51. “It’s just intrinsic, with short staffing. Corners get cut and safety is compromised.”
Trump to face questions on environmental record in visit to Ohio toxic train crash
Good morning, US politics blog readers. Donald Trump is today heading to East Palestine, Ohio, where a Norfolk Southern train carrying toxic chemicals derailed earlier this month, causing an environmental disaster and an intensifying political firestorm. Trump wants to seize the initiative from Joe Biden, who Republicans have criticized for not visiting the Ohio town, though he did dispatch his Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) chief. But Trump, who is running for president once again, may have questions of his own to answer in East Palestine. During his four years in the White House, he loosened up safety regulations for rail operators, and tried to curb the EPA’s powers.
Here’s what else is going on today:
Biden continues his visit to Poland, where he’ll be meeting with the leaders of America’s eastern European allies and Nato secretary general Jens Stoltenberg, before flying back to Washington later today.
The supreme court will hear the second of two cases that address the question of whether tech companies are liable for users’ online speech.
Kamala Harris will be in Maryland to talk about the Biden’ administration’s efforts to lower costs for homebuyers.
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