Tag: Operation Redblock

Early January marked a deeply sad and consequential moment for rail labor, rail management and the freight rail industry as a whole.

CSX Transportation announced its decision to dismantle Operation RedBlock. This union-run program stood as the gold standard for substance abuse prevention, peer prevention and safety in railroading for more than four decades. Since its founding in 1984, Operation RedBlock saved lives, preserved careers, stabilized families and safeguarded the movement of America’s freight.

“This is a sad day — not just for our members, but for management as well,” said SMART-TD President Jeremy Ferguson. “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.”

A program built on trust and proven results

Operation RedBlock was never about shielding employees from responsibility. It was about ensuring that railroaders did not report to work under the influence, under extreme distress or under levels of distraction that lead to derailments, collisions, injuries and fatalities.

By offering a confidential, non-punitive path to help, RedBlock did something in-house corporate programs rarely achieve. It created trust.

That trust ensured that men and women on the ballast removed themselves from service when they were not fit for duty and sought long-term solutions to the underlying issues creating instability in their lives. In doing so, Operation RedBlock did not just benefit workers. It safeguarded train crews, supervisors, communities along the right-of-way and CSX’s bottom line.

For 41 years, this program prevented accidents before they happen. That is not speculation. That was its record.

That record was repeatedly recognized by federal regulators. The Federal Railroad Administration acknowledged that Operation RedBlock and its coordination with CSX’s EAP produced measurable safety benefits.

“FRA has been impressed by the CSX Operation RedBlock programs, the EAP program, and the synergy and cooperation between the two programs,” said Jerry Powers, Staff Director of the FRA’s Part 219 Drug and Alcohol Program. “FRA considers an effective mark-off program and voluntary self-referral and co-worker reporting policies as key force-multipliers to Part 219-regulated testing in the deterrence and detection of drug use and alcohol misuse.”

FRA’s Powers went on to say, “The level of referrals is approximately three times greater year-to-year as compared to random and reasonable cause/suspicion positives, a figure that truly speaks to the outstanding efforts of CSX Drug & Alcohol, EAP, and Operation RedBlock Program personnel. One must keep in mind that these are not just statistics but actual individual employees being helped with substance disorders that can not only improve railroad safety but also positively impact the families of the employees and the emotional development of their children.

“The mark-offs and referrals demonstrate that the ORB Programs under the leadership of Mike Jackson and Phillip Young with Tad Hood (MOW and Signal) and Scott Higgins (Mechanical) has been successful in promoting and creating on-going cultural change and employee engagement to reduce and eliminate unsafe behavior.”

President Ferguson put it simply: “Operation RedBlock didn’t survive for four decades because it only benefited labor. It survived because it worked. It made CSX safer, more stable, and more reliable. Programs without value do not last 41 years in this industry.”

A history the industry chose to ignore

The dismantling of Operation RedBlock at CSX did not happen in a vacuum.

Amtrak and Union Pacific once had similar union-run RedBlock programs. Those programs also saved lives and served their memberships and public safety well. Both were ultimately taken over by management under the belief that carrier-controlled employee assistance programs could do the job better.

They could not.

Amtrak’s program disappeared entirely. Union Pacific lost nearly all traction after experienced union coordinators were removed.

“We watched this happen at Amtrak and Union Pacific, and now CSX is following the same path,” said Mike Jackson, Operation RedBlock program coordinator for CSX and a member of SMART-TD Local 1374 (New Castle, Pa.). “Once management took control at those properties, the trust disappeared. When trust disappears, people stop coming forward — and safety suffers.”

Losing more than a program

The loss of Operation RedBlock is part of a much larger trend: railroads abandoning the commitments they once claimed to believe in.

In the 1980s and 1990s, railroads invested in robust mental health and substance abuse programs staffed by masters-level counselors embedded in divisions. These professionals met railroaders face-to-face. They followed through. They cared whether people lived or died.

Today, most rail carriers rely on outsourced, checkbox-driven EAP vendors with little accountability and no connection to the railroad lifestyle. That is why the union-run Operation RedBlock stood above the rest.

“Federal law requires railroads to have EAPs, but nothing requires them to make those programs effective,” Jackson said. “What we’ve lost across this industry is real commitment. The health and mental condition of our coworkers has to matter. It can’t be reduced to compliance on paper.”

Operation RedBlock at CSX was the last program of its kind still standing.

“I’m deeply disappointed that this mission is being dismantled,” Jackson said. “What makes it worse is knowing our members will no longer have someone standing in their corner, making sure our industry doesn’t fail the people who are struggling.”

An abdication of leadership

CSX claims that nothing will change. They want us to believe that Operation RedBlock’s functions will simply be absorbed into its internal EAP.

SMART-TD members know better.

When discipline, attendance and job security all flow from the same entity, voluntary self-reporting disappears. Fear replaces trust. Problems go underground until they surface as accidents, injuries or fatalities.

By eliminating the independent, union-run structure that made Operation RedBlock effective, CSX has dismantled the very safeguard that kept unfit employees out of service and trains moving safely.

But this is not the end of the fight.

“No matter what the carriers do, our members need to know this: we have their backs,” Jackson said. “We will keep fighting for them — even when the road forward isn’t clear.”