Episode Details

Bryan Mack is a second-generation railroad worker from Florence, South Carolina, with a Masters in Music Performance. Both Bryan and his father worked for CSX Transportation, each hiring out at times when there were statistically few Black employees or employees of color working on the railroads. For 17 years, Bryan has worked as a conductor for CSX; in that time, he has seen and experienced firsthand the worsening conditions as the industry has been taken over by greedy executives and upper-level managers hellbent on cutting costs and maximizing profits for their shareholders at the expense of workers, customers, and the public at large. As part of our continuing coverage of the crisis on the nation's railroad system, we talk with Bryan about his life and work on the railroads, and about the good, bad, and ugly parts of the industry that outsiders may not see, including the discriminatory treatment that Bryan and other workers of color have faced on the job—up to CSX's recent decision to fire him under dubious circumstances.

Additional links/info below...

• US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission: "Know Your Rights: Workplace Discrimination is Illegal"
• Railroad Workers United website, Facebook page, and Twitter page
• Eric Arnesen, Harvard University Press, Brotherhoods of Color: Black Railroad Workers and the Struggle for Equality
• Mike L., The Real News Network, "A Carman's Perspective on the East Palestine Derailment and the Railroad Industry as a Whole"
• Mel Buer, The Real News Network, "What Union Pacific and the Media Aren't Telling You About the Baker, CA, Train Derailment"
• Mel Buer, The Real News Network, "

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