Locomotive Builders Forge Green Rail Project

Union workers who make diesel locomotives at a plant in Pennsylvania are pushing ahead with their campaign to manufacture more green-powered locomotives.

The workers aim to clean up diesel railroad pollution while also revitalizing their locomotive engine manufacturing plant in Erie. But they’re facing roadblocks, and the recent federal chaos has added to the uncertainty. In the meantime, workers are making direct changes to clean up their jobsite.

The Wabtec plant, formerly General Electric, makes diesel locomotives for both freight and passenger trains. The company began researching all-electric and hybrid diesel-electric locomotives several years ago, and more recently began exploring hydrogen power.

After doing some research of its own, United Electrical Workers (UE) Local 506 began advocating that members should build more electric and hybrid models. Only a few samples of these new engines were being built, so the union argued there was plenty of space at the plant to expand production. Workers had the expertise to make the initiative a success, and the shift could bring additional jobs.

Local 506 President Scott Slawson said the transition would be good for union members and their community. “When you look at diesel pollutants, including in the city we live in, the rail industry has only gotten dirtier and more unsafe,” he said. “We explained the new technology to our members, and more people started asking questions in membership meetings about how they can get involved.”

This local used to have as many as 5,000 members at the sprawling complex, and now has about 1,400, ...now has about 1,400, in part because work was moved to other plants, including a non-union shop in Fort Worth, Texas. It’s also because the railroads can dodge today's green emissions standards by refurbishing locomotives they already own—which are grandparented in under old standards—instead of buying new ones. The union has been pushing to close this loophole in environmental regulations.”

One challenge is generating enough demand for these greener locomotives—especially without state or federal regulations forcing the railroads to make the change.

Nevertheless, as Local 506 leaders shared ideas about the project, members of other UE locals started to get interested too, particularly where members were directly exposed to pollution from existing diesel locomotives. UE represents thousands of rail crew drivers—taxis for the railroads—who drive vans within rail yards or near trains. Many manufacturing locals receive deliveries or send products by rail and have locomotives pull up very near their buildings.

ADVOCATING NATIONALLY

UE members endorsed the “Green Locomotive Project” at their national convention, and the union settled on a plan to advocate for it. Members would reach out to legislators to push for federal investment in the technology. (The Inflation Reduction Act passed during the Biden administration did allow the Department of Energy to issue loans for green locomotive production.) They also hoped to win incentives for keeping jobs at union manufacturing plants.

The union, along with environmental justice organizations, also advocated for stricter regulations requiring railroads to move to cleaner-burning locomotives for long trips and use electric locomotives in rail yards, where they can get power from overhead lines and be more easily recharged.

Members and leaders argued in hearings before the Environmental Protection Agency that California should be allowed to set its own (higher) locomotive emission standards. UE members in California also joined efforts to support new rules passed by the California Air Resources Board requiring reduced emissions starting in 2030. Any train coming into California’s key ports would need to meet these higher standards.

A 2023 research paper commissioned by the union found that switching to green locomotive production would create between 2,600 and 4,300 jobs at the Erie plant, as well as new jobs for the surrounding community because of increased demand for local goods and services.

In contract negotiations that year, the local union demanded that green locomotives be built at the Erie plant—one of many demands that led to a 70-day strike. While the union made gains in the new contract, the company never responded to its proposals for green production.

ON HOLD UNDER TRUMP

Unfortunately, progress on electric-powered locomotives is now on hold under the new Trump administration.

One of Trump’s executive orders froze grants that fund projects connected with “supporting the ‘Green New Deal,’” according to a memo issued by the Office of Management and Budget. The union has not yet heard if this has prevented Wabtec from receiving expected federal research grants.

In January, the California Air Resources Board preemptively withdrew its request to the EPA to allow its new locomotive regulations. The EPA had not yet ruled on the request, and the Board feared a negative outcome under Trump. If California can’t move forward with new rules to reduce diesel pollution, efforts there and in other states will be paused.

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“This doesn’t mean the fight stops, but I don’t know where it’s going right now,” said Slawson.

“I’m hoping that the Green Locomotive Project is not going to be derailed because of these cuts that Mr. Trump is making,” said Larry Hopkins, a rail crew driver in Chicago and president of UE Local 1177. He was part of a group that took representatives from the EPA on a tour of Chicago rail yards to investigate the pollution firsthand. “I’m hoping we’ll be able to continue to progress with the work that has been done already.”

Meanwhile, said Slawson, workers in Erie have already helped solve problems that might get in the way of green locomotive production, including complications with battery installation. And member education around the project has spurred workers to push the company to clean up other manufacturing processes.

“We are making the shift in our own factory, like reducing plastics in locomotives,” said Slawson. “We’ve learned to do a lot of water recapturing and recycling, and recycling scrap metals, cardboard, wood. We’re reducing the refuse going out of the plant and into the landfill.”

In pushing for the Green Locomotive Project, the union is “fighting a very hard lobby of the U.S. rail industry—they’re the tycoons of industry,” Slawson said. “I never expected it to gain the kind of traction it did. It’s not worth giving up on it.”