Per this source, a 25 mile radius includes 585,000 people. That means (before lawyer fees so imagine half in actuality), Norfolk-Southern wants to give $1,000 per person for permanently poisoning not only their property but their body which is now forever scarred. This was filed for approval by the Plaintiff (people hurt) but as shown in the story and simple math show this can’t be appropriate for a company with billions in revenue. Unfortunately this may also (not sure about insurance’s involvement) represent a third of their cash on hand 2023 Annual Report pdf page 58/their k48. I personally believe this is unjust and would love to hear other opinions and/or other information such as the index number for this (I have not diligently searched/PACER looked, but usually at least one news sources mentions a caption or docket number).
Biden broke a rail strike that was largely about both pay and worker safety in 2022. East Palestine happened 3 months later and if you don’t understand the connection I don’t know what to tell you.
"So late Monday, Biden found himself forced to hold his nose and do something he hates: Limit the ability of labor unions to use all the tools at their disposal, including strikes, to force the best possible contract terms.
“As a proud pro-labor President, I am reluctant to override the ratification procedures and the views of those who voted against the agreement,” Biden explained in his statement Monday evening. “But in this case — where the economic impact of a shutdown would hurt millions of other working people and families — I believe Congress must use its powers to adopt this deal.”
The first administration official said the bill will not strip out any of the additional side-agreements between unions and railroads that went into the Sept. 15 deal. The unions would also receive any other concessions that the railroads have made in individual contract discussions since then — but not everything that the unions wanted, especially on paid leave.
Congressional approval of a bill to impose the deal seems likely but far from assured. While the House is likely to pass a bill relatively smoothly, any single senator could slow down the process on the other side of the Capitol.
Ultimately, Biden and his top advisers made the calculation that the Sept. 15 deal enjoyed wide enough support among rail unions that the White House could ask Congress to use its unilateral power to enshrine the contract.
As a senator, Biden himself opposed using congressional authority to force labor deals on railroad workers. Congress has wielded that power more than a dozen times since passage of the Railway Labor Act in 1926, but it has not done so since 1991.
This time, the president resisted the congressional route for months. But with fertilizer companies making plans to stop shipments and rising threats to the movement of products needed for clean drinking water, Biden decided time was up.
And the last thing the president or White House wanted was a crippling strike stopping the movement of around 40 percent worth of freight, denying critical components, supplies and chemicals to a broad range of industries, from farmers to carmakers.
Any such disruption could also add further upward pressure on prices. Inflation is still running at 40-year highs after massive government stimulus during the Covid-19 pandemic and amidst a big gap in heavy consumer demand and limited supplies of both available workers and materials used for finished products.
The White House economic team spent many months of intense work to help repair Covid-related breakdowns in American supply chains. An extended rail strike threatened to at least partially undo much of that, while also potentially stranding passengers who rely on train lines — such as Amtrak’s long-distance routes — that run in part on freight lines.
A third administration official who also declined to be identified took issue with the idea that the White House had much choice but to turn to congressional powers to force a rail deal. “It just feels like we exhausted all the available routes,” the person said."
Politico
So, while not a perfect outcome, it was probably the best outcome that could be had at the time, precluding a disaster somewhere else due to a rail strike. You know, 40% of freight is a lot.
So, how about we call out the real villains, The robber barron rail owners, and continue to push Biden to do better. Because if it were the alternative, I doubt things would be much better. More than likely worse somehow?
This arguably pushes me further in agreement to the person you’re responding to. The messaging I’m getting from Biden according to this article is that ‘As a laborer you can organize into a union, but only if it’s an impotent union that isn’t involved in inconveniencing anyone else to achieve it’s goals.’ It still sounds like Biden chose to side with Big-Business over labor and the concessions made by the rail companies to the union were inadequate, at best.
What gets lost in media spin is Biden has just as much power to force the rail companies to accept terms of the union memebers as he did to shut down a strike.
It was also only after East Palestine threw mud on his face that his administration really hustled to get the meager contract they got. Compair the 4 days of sick leave Biden and Union leaders called a huge win for rail workers to Seattle’s city wide 1 hour of sick leave earned for every 30 hours worked that Socialist Kashama Sawant pushed democrats on city council to the left on in 2012.
Actions over words, everytime.
Biden didn’t even push the EPA to declare an emergency in East Palestine to help get residents Medicare coverage. He is on the side of the rail owners even if he likes to say he’s pro labor. How can you push him if you’re unwilling to acknowledge this?
The state needs to ask for federal involvement in these situations. And I’m not just saying that it’s on Ohio to ask, legally how the system is set up is the state needs to ask in order for any release of aid. DeWine ® did not ask. The white house and federal agencies did everything they legally could to assist and be ready for the ask, DeWine just didn’t.
You’re getting your emergencies mixed up. Yes for a FEMA emergency a request must be made by the governor, an FDA public health emergency is not the same and is at the sole discretion of the FDA. Easy to mix up, but you misunderstood me, this is also covered in the article.