General Items

Conditions change regularly. New equipment, changing technology, changed work processes, deteriorating equipment, and a host of other changes can each create new or changed hazards. It’s expected there will also be changes to processes, procedures, equipment, chemicals, and to jobs in general – this is why changes need to be analyzed in advance for their impact on safety and health by a union-management health and safety committee. Effective railroad safety systems must include a process for assessing and addressing proposed changes to (or new) machinery and equipment, technology, work organization, processes and procedures to review possible safety and health impacts, and make recommendations to address problems identified prior to the changes being made that could negatively impact safety and/or health.

A union-management health and safety committee must review planned changes to (or new) machinery, equipment, technology, work organization, processes and procedures to ensure safety and health (e.g. is new or changed equipment designed to prevent falls? Does the change create other hazards? Do changes meet accepted regulatory or voluntary standards and industry practices?). Sometimes these reviews can spot hazardous conditions before the machinery, equipment or processes go into operation, thus preventing injuries and fatalities.

Federal Regulation 49 CFR Part 218, Subpart G, Train Crew Size Safety Requirements mandates that general system railroads, have two-person train crews except in certain circumstances. In-plant/in-mill railroads, as a standard of care, should not be anything less.

eCFR: 49 CFR Part 218 Subpart G – Train Crew Size Safety Requirements. The rule enhances rail safety by generally requiring a second crew member and emphasizing the importance and necessity of a second crewmember on all trains for Class I freight and passenger trains. The USW strongly encourages in-plant/in-mill rail operations to voluntarily apply this proper staffing rule to improve rail safety as some employers have incorrectly forced our members to operate as a single-person operation without performing a rigorous risk assessment, mitigating known risks, or even working with the USW when they must have at least two crew members. A second crew member performs important safety functions that could be lost when reducing crew size to a single person. The final rule as submitted to the Federal Register can be viewed here.

A union-management health and safety committee must be looking at equipment, technology and proposed changes in work processes before they are implemented or purchased. Input from union members on a union-management health and safety committee is essential in evaluating the health and safety of workplace and work process change. Those who do the work and those who represent them have invaluable insights into potential health and safety impacts of changes and if and how changes could or should be made. This process helps to identify and address health and safety problems before new equipment is purchased, installed and/or implemented or changes are made (involving “future-fitting” rather than “retrofitting”).

A union-management health and safety committee must continually act upon worker/union input on workplace change, in addition to new information received from inspections, investigations and other sources. The changes a union-management health and safety committee should investigate are not limited. They could include introduction of a new piece of equipment or new chemical, a change in a work process or work organization in a particular area or department such as the number of workers assigned to a particular task or job. Regular inspections/audits must be conducted by union and management which are designed not just to identify hazards, but also assess trends and hazard control measures. These trends or hazard control measures could indicate the need for changes going beyond maintenance and mitigation to engineering and design changes. Inspections and rigorous worker-involved audits should identify particular work organization changes (e.g., staffing levels, hours of work, work load, work pace) that may be having negative impacts on workplace health and safety.

Each railroad safety systems must include an Evaluation of Change by a union-management health and safety committee. Before a change is finalized, this committee can assist in making sure any new equipment and processes are safer and effective over long periods, and does not create any new hazards.

Stop Work Authority (SWA) is the right of workers to stop unsafe/unhealthy work and processes, until the potential hazards are thoroughly investigated, and abated to the satisfaction of workers, the union and management. Workers need the right to stop their job/tasks and remove themselves or others in situations when they are uncertain about job safety, unfamiliar with situations, unavailability of appropriate equipment/personnel, or faced with work situations that they consider present an imminent and serious danger to their life or health, or the life or health of others, as well as the arrangements for protecting them from undue consequences for doing so.

The USW’s publication, Bargaining for Stop Work Authority to Prevent Injuries and Save Lives is intended to help local unions and employers with effective SWA processes in collective bargaining agreements. The Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSH Act) and other laws do not include SWA, how SWA programs are actually common in workplaces, that a voluntary consensus standard supports SWA, as do many safety professionals, how workers face challenges when using SWA, and how workplace health and safety issues, including SWA, are a mandatory subject of bargaining under the National Labor Relations Act. The USW’s publication provides a model of a negotiated SWA process and contract language and four checklists to help develop an effective SWA process.

USW Template for the Right to Act and Stop Work Authority Process

1. Health, safety and environmental concerns go before quality, productivity, and profit. No job/task/operation/process is so important, no order is so urgent, that it cannot be completed in a safe manner. Consistent with this commitment, no employee shall be required or permitted to work under unsafe/unhealthy conditions.
2. All employees will be informed of the Right to Act and Stop Work Authority process and will be instructed by the employer on how important it is to prevent work-related fatalities, injuries, illnesses, environmental releases, and adverse events, and how critical it is to maintain and respect the process. The Right to Act and Stop Work Authority is, in part, stopping a job/task/operation/process, etc. that is believed (in good faith) to be unsafe/unhealthy and is also about identifying, preventing and controlling the hazards – short and long term. If employees see something that is unsafe and/or unhealthy, the employer wants employees to say and do something without fear of consequences.
3. Each employee, in good faith, is empowered to assess each work situation that they believe is potentially unsafe, unhealthy, or in violation of a safety or health policy or safety and/or health standard. The employee(s) can then stop the job/task/operation/process, etc., and then engage their supervisor and union representative by sharing the concern for their safety/health, and/or the safety/health of others, if the specific job/task/operation/process, etc., were to be performed. The employee(s) should communicate to their supervisor that they are not willing to perform the required job/task/operation/process, etc., because of identified safety and/or health risks that may result in injury to themselves, other employees, the environment or result in damage to the facility.
4. Upon notification of the concern(s) to their supervisor and union representative, it is the responsibility of the supervisor, if needed, to assess the situation with the employee(s), consult with additional levels of management and local union health, safety and environment committee representative(s) to review the situation and confirm that the potential risks as identified do or do not exist.
5. If the safety and/or health concern(s) are not resolved through use of Section 3 above, the process will continue by engaging the department manager and local union president to assess the situation and communicate their findings to the highest-ranking facility manager. If upon concluding such an assessment, the situation is determined to be potentially unsafe and/or unhealthy, the employee(s) and others who are or could be exposed to the hazard(s), shall be directed by management to stop work on the job/task/operation/process, etc., until it is safe to do so. The employer’s highest-ranking executive of environmental, health and safety and the USW’s Health, Safety and Environment Department Director (or designee) are available to assist in this process.
6. If after an investigation the Employer does not agree that a potentially unsafe or unhealthy condition exists, the union has the right to present a grievance in writing to the appropriate facility manager and thereafter the employee(s) shall continue to be relieved from duty on the task or job. The grievance will be presented promptly to an arbitrator, who will determine whether the employee(s) acted in good faith in exercising their Stop Work Authority (SWA).
7. If an arbitrator determines that the employee(s) acted in good faith in exercising their SWA right, the arbitrator shall order that the condition be corrected and that the correction occur before the employee(s) returns to work on the job/task/operation/process, etc., in question. If the arbitrator determines that the employee(s) acting in good faith was not exposed to an unsafe condition or potentially unsafe condition, the employee(s) will return to work, and continue to perform the assigned job/task/operation/process, etc.
8. Each use of SWA, including threatened use, must be entered into the facility’s electronic reporting system as a leading indicator. Such situations and all reports will be periodically reviewed by the union-management health, safety & environment committee. The union-management health, safety & environment committee will also review data in the electronic system to assess and recommend improvements as needed facility-wide to the Right to Act and Stop Work Authority policy and process.
9. All employees shall be trained annually to be competent in carrying out this process. In addition, new employees, before they begin work, shall be trained to be competent in carrying out this process.
10. Under no circumstances shall employees be discriminated or retaliated against for using this process. For the employee(s) exercising their SWA and all employees affected by the SWA, there shall be no discipline, loss of pay, seniority, or benefits during the period of the SWA, even if it is later determined that the alleged unsafe or unhealthy condition did not exist.
11. Wallet Card – “The Right to Act on Unsafe/Unhealthy Work – Stop Work Authority” card the employer and the union agree to co-sponsor is meant to help engage the workforce. A wallet card will be issued to all personnel. The facility’s highest-ranking manager and local union president will sign the card. On one side of the card it will state, “You have the authority, without fear of discipline or retaliation, to immediately stop any work activity that presents a hazard to you, your co-workers, the environment; to get involved, question and rectify any situation that is identified as not being in compliance with our Safety and Health Values/Policies; to report any conditions or activities to management and question any work that may cause harm.” On the opposite side it will state, “The Right to Act on Unsafe/Unhealthy Work – Stop Work Authority; Health and Safety Shall Never be Sacrificed for Profits or Production.” and will include employer and union logos as well as a pictogram of a “stop” sign.

The content of this publication, Bargaining for Stop Work Authority to Prevent Injuries and Save Lives is appropriate for in-plant/in-mill rail operations. However, special considerations apply to mining and a few other sectors that may not be covered in this document. For specific questions about Stop Work Authority in these sectors, contact the USW Health, Safety and Environment Department. For information on the right to refuse unsafe work and addressing management retaliation for health and safety activity, see Stand Up Without Fear: Understanding the OSH Act’s Retaliation Provisions by the OSH Law Project (2020). https://unitedsteelworkers-dev.huemortest.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/The-OSH-Act-Toolkit-Understanding-the-Retaliation-Provisions.pdf