UP WITHDRAWS LAREDO WAIVER REQUEST

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Union Pacific Railroad told the Federal Railroad Administration Jan. 25 that it is withdrawing its waiver request seeking permission to perform mechanical safety inspections in Nuevo Laredo, Mexico -- rather than the U.S.  -- on trains headed north across the border.

As a result, the FRA has canceled a public hearing scheduled for Feb. 7 in Laredo, Texas.

The UTU and other rail labor organizations collaborated to generate -- on safety grounds -- substantial opposition from congressional and state lawmakers to UP’s waiver application.

Public safety and national security are at issue.

As the UTU made clear, Nuevo Laredo is a lawless Mexican town beset by drug-gang warfare, killings and kidnappings -- so dangerous that neither the FRA nor UP officials would venture into Nuevo Laredo to inspect the facilities where the mechanical safety inspections were to take place.

Had the waiver been approved, trains from Mexico, carrying who knows what, would have been able to travel up to 1,500 miles into the U.S. before receiving a mandatory mechanical safety inspection on U.S. soil by trained carmen. This would have meant trains originating in Mexico could have traveled to Atlanta, Dallas, Houston, San Antonio, Kansas City and St. Louis without having had a mechanical safety inspection on U.S. soil.

In exposing the Union Pacific plan as self-serving for the sole purpose of boosting profits, the UTU worked closely with the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen and others in rail labor.

Specifically, UTU National Legislative Director James Brunkenhoefer and Alternate National Legislative Director James Stem collaborated with Brunkenhoefer’s counterpart at the BLET, John Tolman.

Also working to educate lawmakers and regulators were UTU Texas State Legislative Director Connie English and BLET State Legislative Chairman Terry Briggs, who provided considerable detail on the Laredo operation; and numerous other state legislative directors.

Brunkenhoefer said, "When unions coordinate efforts, our team is much stronger and more effective. The Laredo waiver process, and the sunshine it focused on a tremendous potential for significant degrading of rail safety, is an excellent example of the benefits of union collaboration."