Tag:Alt. National Legislative Director Jared Cassity
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SMART-TD’s Alternate National Legislative Director Jared Cassity was featured on an episode of America’s Workforce Union Podcast, covering a wide range of rail industry topics including the hostile takeover attempt at Norfolk Southern, the FRA’s 2PC ruling, the Railway Safety Act to East Palestine, Ohio, and beyond.
“Safety does cost some money sometimes — but [the railroads are] still making billions of dollars in each quarter. There’s no rationale to cut the safety aspect out of it,” Cassity told host Ed “Flash” Ferencz. “They make money despite themselves.”
Alternate National Legislative Director Jared Cassity addresses a rail labor solidarity rally on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., in December 2022 on the day before the FRA’s hearing on the two-person crew rule.
Cassity continues, “so their interest isn’t really in preventing accidents. [They ask] is it cheaper to make all these changes to prevent it, or is it cheaper to clean it up? And if you look at Norfolk Southern, if you look at this policy and you look at what Chairwoman Jennifer Homendy of the NTSB just said, blowing up those cars [in East Palestine] didn’t have to happen. The railroad chose to take the fastest, easiest course. It’s not about safety. It’s about the bottom line.”
“So the Rail Safety Act is working to fix that. This is a perfect example of why elections matter.”
“The crews aren’t always aware of what is going on with their trains. Like in East Palestine, there were defects that were actually happening as they were going down the rail and making their trip. In your car, the check engine light comes on to tell you there’s a problem, that wasn’t happening for the crews. What was happening is that the notification was going to some backroom with a manager sitting in Atlanta, Georgia, and then they were making the decision of whether or not to tell the crew if they should stop the train. And it’s just a completely bonkers notion of how you run that.”
“And for them to say that there’s no safety data or anything of that nature is not true, because everything that we have today is because of the two-person crew. But the unfortunate reality of this is all of the success stories, all of the accidents that are prevented, all of the things that didn’t happen because of the second person in the crew is not recorded or captured or reported in any capacity by the railroads to anyone.”
Brother Cassity is an authority on rail safety. He came from the craft working as a conductor and engineer out of the Russell, Kentucky, crew base for CSX. A longtime member of the National Safety Team before leading it, Cassity participates in federal investigations of rail safety mishaps. When national media outlets want to discuss safety regulations on America’s railroads, Brother Cassity is consistently at the top of their lists.
SMART-TD wants to thank Brother Cassity for a job well done, amplifying our concerns and discussing our victories with a nationwide audience.
“I would like to start off by saying that this decision by President Biden’s administration is historic for SMART-TD members and all rail labor. Today’s ruling codifying the two-person freight crew not only demonstrates this administration’s dedication to the safety of this country and our workforce, but it also shows their respect and acknowledgment of our men and women and the work they do. They see our value to this nation’s economy and security. Every railroad professional should take pride in this accomplishment and recognition. We are too often undervalued. Today is a day we should all remember. When this rule came open for public comments, SMART members stood up and spoke with over 13,000 responses to the FRA. Today, we all celebrate the result and the essential proof of the value of the labor of the people aboard the nation’s freight trains. This effort defines what it is to be a union and the power of workers to stand as one. We did it together as a SMART-TD family, and I am unbelievably proud to be the president of this union in what is a defining moment for our industry where safety finally and deservedly came first.”
— SMART-TD President Jeremy Ferguson
INDEPENDENCE, Ohio (April 2, 2024) — After a multi-year effort by SMART-TD members and leadership, DOT Secretary Pete Buttigieg announced today that there will be a minimum of TWO certified rail crew members assigned to the cab of freight trains in the nation. The Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) ruling on the Notice of Proposed Rule Making (NPRM) finally puts safety first for our industry. With this action, President Joe Biden’s Department of Transportation (DOT) delivered on a promise made in 2020, which supports our ongoing struggle to force railroads to responsibly operate their trains.
SMART Transportation Division President Jeremy Ferguson speaks during the announcement of the FRA’s two-person crew regulation on April 2.
Today’s announcement solidifies the role of freight conductors in this country. It comes after a long fight between SMART-TD and the Association of American Railroads (AAR), the railroad companies it represents and the hedge fund operators who own many of the nation’s railroads. SMART’s members participated by sending 13,000 comments to the FRA on the regulation. TD President Jeremy Ferguson and our union’s national and state legislative officers relentlessly pushed lawmakers and government officials to understand the safety ramifications of a nation with single-person freight train crews. President Ferguson attended and testified at the FRA’s public hearing on this regulation in December 2022 and delivered 20 minutes of firsthand accounts to FRA officials demanding they take this step to protect the country from the railroad companies’ greed.
Federal Railroad Administrator Amit Bose speaks as SMART-TD President Jeremy Ferguson and U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg listen in Washington D.C. on April 2.
National Legislative Director Greg Hynes and Alternate National Legislative Director Jared Cassity orchestrated outreach to every state in the U.S., mobilizing our members to stand up and take part in the public comment period, resulting in our record-setting number of submissions.
Cassity had this to say: “It is no secret that the railroads in this country have been relentlessly pursuing a way to cut our rail crews down to one person. They have poured millions of dollars into pursuing technology that allows them to do this. These corporations are open with the fact they see more value in the trajectory of their stock prices than the safety of this country or the well-being of the conductors and engineers who are the bedrock of our economy. This fight raged for years and, as a union family, we stood toe to toe with the railroads. I want to thank our members for staying engaged in this fight.”
The announcement of this new regulation comes as a relief to all rail workers and to all concerned with rail safety in America. SMART-TD National Legislative Director Greg Hynes gives credit for this win to the collective effort of railroad workers and the state legislative committees throughout SMART’s organization.
“This announcement didn’t come out of thin air. It came from the hard work and dedication of SMART-TD’s men and women!” Hynes said. “Two-person crew regulations have been discussed for years through multiple presidencies and even more sessions of Congress. The men and women of this union have never relented or allowed this issue to get pushed to the side. Our state legislative directors have taken up this fight state after state. Our members have made their voices heard from coast to coast on this issue. Today we reach a place where our vigilance and persistence have paid off. This administration got it done.”
Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg announces FRA’s two-person crew ruling on April 2 in Washington, D.C.
The regulation, often mired in partisan struggles, was not a certainty. SMART-TD state legislative committees worked relentlessly to get a dozen states to set a minimum crew size. Our work would continue should the regulation change under a future administration.
Cassity continues, “We have every right to celebrate today’s ruling from the Biden administration, but we cannot for one second think this fight is over. We must stay informed, involved, and on offense. These railroads aren’t used to losing. They will come out swinging to argue against the reality that our people matter, and we have got to be ready for it. SMART-TD remains vigilant, and we ask you to continue to stand with us.”
Attendees at the announcement of the two-person crew freight regulation take a group photo April 2, 2024.
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If you’re interested in speaking more about the ruling on two-person freight rail crews, we’d be happy to connect you with:
SMART Transportation Division President Jeremy Ferguson
President Jeremy Ferguson, a member of Local 313 in Grand Rapids, Mich., was elected president of SMART’s Transportation Division in 2019.
President Ferguson, an Army veteran, started railroading in 1994 as a conductor on CSX at Grand Rapids, Mich., and was promoted to engineer in 1995. Ferguson headed the 2019 national rail negotiations for the union.
SMART Transportation Division National Legislative Director Gregory Hynes
Greg Hynes is a fifth-generation railroader and was elected national legislative director in 2019.
Hynes served on the SMART Transportation Division National Safety Team that assists the National Transportation Safety Board with accident investigations, from 2007-2014.
In 2014, he was appointed to the Federal Railroad Administration’s Railroad Safety Advisory Committee (RSAC), which develops new railroad regulatory standards.
Hynes was appointed the first chairperson of the United Transportation Union’s Rail Safety Task Force in 2009 and served in that capacity until being elected SMART Transportation Division alternate national legislative director at the Transportation Division’s 2014 convention.
SMART Transportation Division Alternate National Legislative Director Jared Cassity
Jared Cassity, a member of Local 1377 (Russell, Ky.), was elected to the office of alternate national legislative director at the Second SMART Transportation Division Convention in August 2019 and became director of the union’s National Safety Team in June 2021.
Cassity started his railroad career with CSX in September 2005 and was promoted to engineer in 2008.
In addition to his elected roles, he has been a member of the National Safety Team since 2014, where he was subsequently elected to the position of Alternate Director (East) for the NST in 2016. Likewise, he was elected by his fellow peers of state directors to serve as the directors’ representative on the CSX Safety Model Executive Board in 2013.
Genesee and Wyoming (G&W) railroad, the parent of the Heart of Georgia Railroad and Georgia Central Railway, and their partner, Parallel Systems Inc., are attempting to begin testing fully autonomous train cars. Their experimental, self-propelled container cars pose many problems and, if successful, will threaten many union-protected jobs.
SMART-TD shared our concerns at their first hearing and will explain our position to the FRA by filing a public comment. We encourage you to follow this link and submit a comment of your own about the attempt to run fully automated containers.
Parallel Systems, founded by former SpaceX personnel, has a prototype of a self-driving container car, which SMART-TD and our partners have seen in action. The cars don’t have couplers. Instead, each has a battery, motors and radio-connected computer that allows individual freight cars to move wherever they need to go. Their goal is to eventually eliminate engines, yards and conductors entirely.
Our union’s testimony left little doubt that this concept is nowhere near ready for a real-world setting. SMART-TD Alternate National Legislative Director Jared Cassity’s testimony opened many eyes and landed with the members of the FRA technical committee. Even representatives of G&W and Parallel Systems began to see the error of their ways.
ANLD Cassity pointed out multiple examples where these crewless vehicles fail to meet federal regulations, which enforce well-established safety and industry standards. If Parallel expected a warm reception for their new shiny thing, they were sadly mistaken.
Cassity made it very clear that this project and testing it on live tracks was detrimental to the safety of every rail professional in the area and drastically compounds risk to the community.
G&W, FRA play a waiting game at hearing
This hearing, held in a community center in the Atlanta area, was attended by SMART-TD, the AFL-CIO’s Transportation Trades Department (TTD), and other rail unions. While scheduled to run until 5 p.m., both G&W and FRA representatives thanked everyone and told labor we got an early quit. As long as the meeting was technically open, and the Zoom “recording” button was still flashing, we weren’t going anywhere. The room emptied over several minutes. SMART-TD, the TTD and other labor groups remained. After many silent minutes, the CEO of G&W began reading a rebuttal to Cassity and the other unions’ objections.
Clearly wounded, G&W went on record claiming that the new technology wasn’t as bad as our facts made it out to be.
It would have been funny if it wasn’t so sad.
Get ready for a fight
We also learned that the FRA has already scheduled a meeting to announce its decision on April 18th. SMART-TD has a couple of problems with this announcement. Written public comments are not due until the close of business April 1, this seems like a lightning quick turnaround to announce a decision.
Animated graphic by the SMART Transportation Division
Autonomous freight cars would upend everything we know about the railroad industry, but the FRA is going to make a decision a little more than two weeks after the deadline for public comment. Has the outcome of this hearing and public-comment period already been determined through a backroom deal? Not on our watch.
The FRA has worked closely with our union on almost every topic involving rail since 2021. Why did we find out about this highly important meeting, announcing a potentially monumental shift in our industry, only by lurking in a public meeting after they told us it was time to leave? That is not how the agency has operated since President Biden appointed Administrator Amit Bose.
Investigative journalist Topher Sanders released a report on ProPublica today where he reveals how multiple injuries and fatalities were swept under the rug by Class I carriers BNSF, Union Pacific, CSX and Norfolk Southern. The article goes into detail on stories common to us in the industry. Jared Cassity, SMART-TD Alternate National Legislative Director, helped shine a public spotlight on this critical issue.
Brother Cassity is a nationally recognized expert on railroad safety and a leader of SMART-TD’s National Safety Team (NST). He does not sugarcoat his responses, especially when it comes to the well-being of our members.
“The system is rigged, especially when it comes to injuries. You see what they want you to see,” Cassity said in the article. ProPublica found that carriers pick and choose what injuries they report so that they can boast about their safety records.
As the largest rail union in the nation, SMART-TD is an established authority for rail-related issues. Brother Cassity’s efforts reflect our union’s commitment to safeguard members, have our hardships recognized and to force the railroads to improve conditions for those who keep our economy moving.
In September, the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) awarded SMART-TD $602,227.35 to get members the training they need to safely perform their duties as railroad professionals.
The award was granted through FRA’s Consolidated Rail Infrastructure and Safety Improvements (CRISI) program. This is the first award of its kind to a rail labor organization and a clear indication from FRA Administrator Amit Bose and the Biden administration that they view SMART-TD as a true partner in the mission to improve rail safety — and as a union with innovative ideas and plans worth investing in.
SMART-TD has proactively provided tools such as SMART University to help enhance organizational training opportunities for our members and officers at every level of our organization. In addition, our Regional Training Seminars bring educational opportunities closer to home for those who want to learn more about their union and the way the industry works. This grant will help provide the financial means to further expand these platforms to include job duty best practices and other safety-sensitive training.
The training project these federal dollars are going toward is known as Data Driven Safety Training and Education for Front-Line Railroad Workers. SMART-TD President Jeremy Ferguson and his department, in collaboration with SMART-TD’s National Legislative Director Greg Hynes and Alternate National Legislative Director Jared Cassity, will lead the charge as they aim to restructure the training rail workers receive.
“Every railroader has his or her own opinion on what needs to be done to fix the industry. But one thing all of us agree on is that the training programs are not even close to reflecting how dangerous or important rail jobs are,” Ferguson said.
He went on to frame the grant award as a vote of confidence in SMART’s ability to provide leadership in this arena.
“If I had to sum up my reaction, I would say that Department of Transportation (DOT) leadership and President Biden see the dangerous trajectory this industry is on. Training is fundamental to a safe workplace, not just for our members but for the public, too. The East Palestine disaster and the fact that there are more than three major derailments a day in this nation are a testament to the need for a fundamental change, and proof that the status quo is clearly not working. They recognize that there is a better solution by investing in SMART-TD and our vision of training.”
New-hire training for all Class I railroads has been in the crosshairs of FRA Administrator Bose in the past year as national focus on railroad safety intensifies. Bose has called for a complete audit of Norfolk Southern’s training program and has even gone as far as rejecting their program in its entirety and giving hard deadlines to redesign it from the ground up.
CSX has also had very public struggles with their training programs this year, including two trainee fatalities that prompted scrutiny from SMART-TD as well as the FRA. But as all our members know, the bare-bones training approach of the Class I railroads is not exclusive to any one carrier. Some of the freight carriers are participating in a race to the bottom by cutting corners, at the expense of training, to fill self-inflicted employment shortages as quickly as possible.
In addition to supplementing the training of our freight railroaders, this grant project is also tasked with providing our brothers and sisters on commuter and passenger rail with a heightened level of training in preventing assaults in their workspace.
“As our transit and commuter rail members know all too well, their carriers and agencies have failed to provide the operational changes and training necessary to keep our members safe. That is unacceptable. We take this seriously and know that more is required, especially as the assault rates continue to climb,” Cassity said. “With this grant, SMART-TD will once again pick up the slack for the gaps in the carriers’ training. If the companies can’t keep our people safe, we’re damn well going to do it ourselves.”
Finally, Ferguson made sure to acknowledge the efforts of SMART-TD Director of Administration Matt Dolin in winning the FRA grant.
“He deserves our thanks for securing this grant. He went above and beyond the call of duty to make this a reality,” Ferguson said. “When this program is all said and done, Matt’s efforts will have been leveraged into thousands of hours of safety training that would not have happened otherwise. There were a lot of moving parts in making this grant a reality, but Matt and his professionalism played a large role in realizing this funding.”
It’s easy to levy criticism at the training programs run by the railroad carriers in 2023. But as we all know, criticism is meaningless without action.
SMART Transportation Division is doing more than talking about the decline in the quality and quantity of training new hire railroaders receive. As leaders in rail labor, we work to arm ourselves with the tools needed to address training shortfalls rather than wait for the railroads to do the right thing.
Last week, the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) awarded SMART-TD $602,227.35 to continue our mission to get our members the training they need to safely perform their duties as railroad professionals.
The award was granted through FRA’s Consolidated Rail Infrastructure and Safety Improvements (CRISI) program. This is the first award of its kind to a rail labor organization and a clear indication from FRA Administrator Amit Bose and the Biden administration that they view SMART-TD as a true partner in the mission to improve rail safety and a union with innovative ideas and plans worth investing in.
SMART-TD has proactively provided tools such as SMART University to help enhance organizational training opportunities for our members and officers at every level of our organization. In addition, our Regional Training Seminars bring educational opportunities closer to home for those who want to learn more about their union and the way the industry works. This grant will allow the financial means to further expand these platforms to include job duty best practices, and other safety sensitive training.
The training project these federal dollars are going toward is known as the Data Driven Safety Training and Education for Front-Line Railroad Workers. Led by SMART-TD President Jeremy Ferguson and his department, in collaboration with SMART-TD’s National Legislative Director Greg Hynes and Alt. National Legislative Director Jared Cassity, they’re on a mission to restructure the role of training rail workers.
“Every railroader has his/her own opinion on what needs to be done to fix the industry. But one thing all of us agree on is that the training programs are not even close to reflecting how dangerous or important rail jobs are.” President Ferguson said. He went on to frame the grant award as a vote of confidence in SMART’s ability to provide leadership in this arena. “If I had to sum up my reaction, I would say that Department of Transportation (DOT) leadership and President Biden see the dangerous trajectory this industry is on. Training is fundamental to a safe workplace, not just for our members but for the public, too. The East Palestine disaster and the fact that there are more than three major derailments a day in this nation is a testament to the need for a fundamental change, and proof that the status quo is clearly not working. They recognize that there is a better solution by investing in SMART-TD and our vision of training.”
New-hire training for all Class I railroads has been in the crosshairs of FRA Administrator Amit Bose in the past year in conjunction with an intense national focus on railroad safety. Bose has called for a complete audit of Norfolk Southern’s training program and has even gone as far as rejecting their program in its entirety and giving hard deadlines to redesign it from the ground up.
CSX has had very public struggles with their training programs this year as well, including two trainee fatalities that prompted scrutiny from SMART-TD as well as the FRA. As all our members coast to coast know, the bare-bones training approach of the Class I railroads is not exclusive to any one carrier. Some of the freight carriers are participating in a race to the bottom by cutting corners, at the expense of training, to fill self-inflicted employment shortages as quickly as possible.
In addition to supplementing the training of our members, this grant project is also tasked with providing our brothers and sisters on commuter and passenger rail a heightened level of training in preventing assaults in their workspace. As the grant proposal states in the project summary, -”
“As our transit and commuter rail members know all too well, their carriers and agencies have failed to provide the operational changes and training necessary to keep our members safe. That is unacceptable. We take this seriously and know that more is required, especially as the assault rates continue to climb,” Alt. Legislative Director Cassity said. “With this grant, SMART-TD will once again pick up the slack for the gaps in the carriers’ training. If the companies can’t keep our people safe, we’re damn well going to do it ourselves.”
SMART-TD is honored and excited to have this opportunity to work with FRA to take a greater level of control in the training regimen of our members. As the training is developed and rolled out, SMART-TD will keep you informed on the progress being made.
President Ferguson wanted to give special recognition for winning this grant to SMART-TD Director of Administration Matt Dolin. “He deserves our thanks for securing this grant. He went above and beyond the call of duty to make this a reality,” Ferguson said. “When this program is all said and done, Matt’s efforts will have been leveraged into thousands of hours of safety training that would not have happened otherwise. There were a lot of moving parts in making this grant a reality, but Matt and his professionalism played a large role in realizing this funding.”
For immediate release March 1, 2023 Phone: (216) 228-9400 Department email:news_td@smart-union.org
“This legislation goes a long way toward protecting American families and communities while fortifying the rail industry to be sustainable and safe long into the future. The voices of SMART-TD’s brothers and sisters have been heard by these senators and are echoing through the halls of the United States Congress.”
INDEPENDENCE, Ohio (March 1, 2023) — Jeremy Ferguson, president of the International Association of Sheet Metal, Air, Rail and Transportation Workers Transportation Division (SMART-TD), is calling for national support of The Railway Safety Act of 2023, a bipartisan bill that acknowledges the real-world conditions that shape the day-to-day safety concerns of the railroad workers who haul America’s freight.
U.S. Sens. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), J.D. Vance (R-Ohio), Bob Casey (D-Pa.), John Fetterman (D-Pa.), Marco Rubio (R-Florida) and Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) have listened to the concerns of their constituents and put forward a comprehensive package in the Railway Safety Act that lives up to its billing — prioritizing the safety concerns expressed by the public and rail worker alike. In this bill, they give credence to the common-sense safety measures that our union and others in rail labor have advanced for years.
“The provisions in this act add up to the end of the era of Precision Scheduled Railroading (PSR) and attempt to take back control of our nation’s supply chain from Wall Street’s ‘profit at any cost’ mentality. It offers a chance for the nation to make the giant rail corporations take rational measures to get the industry to do what it’s designed to do — move freight through our nation safely and efficiently and be an example for the rest of the world to model,” President Ferguson said. “SMART-TD is proud to support this bill and its efforts to bring about generational changes in this country and to take a major step to stop PSR. We will work tirelessly with this team of like-minded Senators to realize their vision for a safer and stronger rail industry.”
The safeguards offered in the bill include, but are not limited to:
A nationwide mandate for well-trained two-person crews on all freight trains;
Restrictions on train length and weight;
Regulations on the installation, frequency, upkeep, and response to wayside defect detectors;
Speed restrictions;
Drastically increased fines for rail companies and management employees who do not adhere to rail safety protocols;
Universalized track maintenance standards;
Universalized rail-car maintenance standards;
Higher standards for tank cars carrying hazardous material;
Emergency response plans for carriers and communities;
Phasing out of rail cars that do not meet strengthened safety requirements;
Annual government audits of rail carriers to validate compliance to new heightened safety standards.
“Hedge fund management of rail companies and their PSR strategy have careened the United States rail industry into a dark and dangerous place in the last six years. This bill has the potential to put safe operations into its rightful place as the gold standard in railroading and not what the next quarterly report can bring. We owe it to the people of East Palestine, Ohio, and to all communities that have railroad tracks running through them to have members of Congress do the right thing — to support this bill and insist that it makes it to President Biden’s desk without being watered down by negotiations or the special interests that will seek to stop it and claim that it is too ‘burdensome’ for a highly profitable industry to implement,” Ferguson continued.
A recently released Ipsos-USA Today poll shows that 53% of Americans believe that strengthened rail industry safety regulations could have prevented the disaster in East Palestine, Ohio.
SMART Transportation Division is comprised of approximately 125,000 active and retired members who work in a variety of different crafts in the transportation industry. These crafts include employees on every Class I railroad, Amtrak, many shortline railroads, bus and mass transit employees and airport personnel.
If you’re interested in speaking more about the Railway Safety Act of 2023, PSR, East Palestine, rail safety, and the next steps for the rail industry, we’d be happy to connect you with:
President Jeremy Ferguson, a member of Local 313 in Grand Rapids, Mic., was elected president of SMART’s Transportation Division in 2019.President Ferguson, an Army veteran, started railroading in 1994 as a conductor on CSX at Grand Rapids, Mich., and was promoted to engineer in 1995. Ferguson headed the recent national rail negotiations for the union with the nation’s rail carriers.
Greg Hynes is a fifth-generation railroader and was elected national legislative director in 2019. Hynes served on the SMART Transportation Division National Safety Team that assists the National Transportation Safety Board with accident investigations, from 2007-2014. In 2014, he was appointed to the Federal Railroad Administration’s Railroad Safety Advisory Committee (RSAC), which develops new railroad regulatory standards.
Jared Cassity was elected by his peers in 2019 and currently serves as the Alternate National Legislative Director. In addition to his elected roles, Cassity has also been appointed as the union’s chief of safety, serves as the director for the SMART-TD National Safety Team (which assists the NTSB in major rail-related accident investigations), is SMART-TD’s voting member on the Federal Railroad Administration’s C3RS Steering Committee, and is the first and only labor member to ever be appointed to the Transportation Security Administration’s Surface Transportation Safety Advisory Committee.
SMART Transportation Division Alternate National Legislative Director Jared Cassity was a guest of The Rick Smith Show podcast released on Friday night.
In the interview, Smith and Alt. NLD Cassity discussed the Norfolk Southern derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, and the role Precision Scheduled Railroading potentially played in causing it.
The interview clip will not only give insight on the disaster itself, but will help you provide answers when friends and family ask you how this occurred and whether they should be worried about this kind of accident happening on a main line near them.
