Preventing workplace deaths will take a lot more than ceremonies and mock funerals and roses. It will take more than cleverly crafted slogans and meme’s or eye-catching tee shirts. It will take the insistence of workers to insure that there are more inspectors, more enforcement, more penalties, and more involvement by administrators. It will take workers actively organizing, at the polls, in the workplace and in the community if we’re going to be successful in realizing our goal, the end to workplace deaths and illnesses. It will take the open opposition of our government and our department of labor who currently embrace a philosophy of less – less regulation, less enforcement, less fines.

In 2015, the BMWED-IBT funded three research teams to study the impact of workplace hazards on the safety, health, and welfare of its members. The objectives were 1) to clearly define the risks and impact of injury, illness, and death among the union’s membership, 2) to provide materials to educate both current and future members so they will be able to live longer and healthier lives, and 3) to provide scientific data that can be used to help prevent injuries and illnesses affecting members (and other MOW workers unaffiliated with BMWED) through a combination of regulatory improvements and labor/management engagement.

Pennsylvania Federation Women’s Caucus Position Statement on Paid Parental Leave As our first formal project as a Women’s Caucus we have chosen to focus our energies on organizing and educating within our Union to promote an understanding of the need for paid parental leave for all eligible members.

Union workers vowed not to support “hate group” accommodation for those attending the upcoming rally. Transit officials have ditched a controversial idea to dedicate separate cars or trains for white nationalists descending on the nation’s capital next weekend for a “Unite the Right” rally.

On Tuesday June 19, 2018 at the 4th Regular Convention of the BMWED-IBT, Pennsylvania Federation General Chairman Jed Dodd was elected, by acclamation, to the National Division position of Vice President At-Large.

On April 24, 2018, Luke Gsell, a twenty year old trackman with eight months service on the railroad, was struck and killed at 9 AM by Amtrak Train #86. He was performing watchman duties for workers and equipment involved in an Undercutting operation at Bowie State Station in Bowie, MD. This accident was wholly avoidable.

April 24, 2018 - Today in Philadelphia the American Arbitration Association counted and certified the votes cast to accept or reject the proposed Amtrak contract. The majority of votes cast were in favor and the terms and conditions will be implimented in the very near future.

The Pennsylvania Federation Endorses Elizabeth Fiedler for Democratic Candidate in Pennsylvania’s 184th district. A Working Class Choice for the Working Class. “… proud to stand shoulder to shoulder with working people. We demand the freedom to come together in strong unions.”

The BMWED has extensive experience with Amtrak on the issues that drive Amtrak's safety culture. It is our members and Amtrak's customers who pay with our lives, and life changing injuries, when Amtrak management ignores their obligations to operate a safe railroad. Hopefully, with your help we can reverse the downward spiral on safety that began with the Boardman administration.

Pennsylvania's top court delivers scathing indictment of political gerrymandering The Pennsylvania Supreme Court released a 139-page opinion detailing why it rejected the state's Republican-drawn congressional districts for "clearly, plainly, and palpably" violating the state's Constitution. The ruling is a scathing indictment of political gerrymandering, the process by which political parties draw legislative districts to give themselves advantages in statewide elections. The Republican redistricting plan, crafted after the 2010 Census, was "aimed at achieving unfair partisan gain" and "undermines voters' ability to exercise their right to vote in free and 'equal' elections if the term is to be interpreted in any credible way," the court concluded.