WASHINGTON — The rail industry’s largest union is raising concerns about CSX’s plans to eliminate Operation RedBlock, a decades-old, union-run program for substance abuse prevention and worker support.
The International Association of Sheet Metal, Air, Rail, and Transportation Workers-Transportation Division calls Operation RedBlock, founded in 1984, “the gold standard” for such programs in the rail industry. “This is a sad day — not just for our members, but for management as well,” SMART-TD President Jeremy Ferguson said in a statement. “Operation RedBlock worked because it saved lives, it saved careers, and it prevented countless incidents that would have cost the railroad far more than the program ever did.”
CSX says the move is part of an effort “to align with current market realities,” and that “comparable services and resources will remain available to support employees.”
The union says it learned Wednesday of the decision to end Operation RedBlock. That was the same day CSX announced management layoffs, conductor furloughs, and other cost-cutting moves [see “CSX lays off 166 …,” Trains.com, Jan. 7, 2025]. SMART-TD says the program worked because it was independent from carrier discipline and management control, encouraging workers to take action when unfit for duty and seek long-term solutions to their underlying issues.
“Operation RedBlock didn’t survive for four decades because it only benefited labor,” Ferguson says. “It survived because it worked. Programs without wide-reaching value do not last 40 years in this industry. It benefited public safety, the railroad’s bottom line, and our brothers and sisters’ quality of life.”
SMART-TD says CSX’s move follows the end of similar union-run programs at Amtrak and Union Pacific, and that the replacement programs ultimately lost effectiveness or disappeared entirely. “When management took over these programs elsewhere, decades of peer-prevention work were thrown away,” said Mike Jackson, longtime program coordinator for Operation RedBlock and a SMART-TD member with the local based in New Castle, Pa. “Operation RedBlock existed because people trusted it — and that trust is being destroyed.”
CSX said in a statement that its “commitment to safety, fitness-for-duty, and employee well-being is steadfast. … Our dedication to employee well-being will not change. We will continue to work closely with union leadership to uphold the highest standards of safety and support for all CSX employees.”
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