Is
the FELA Worth Saving?
Have you heard people say, "John Doe
got hurt, he hit the Railroad Lottery." They usually
imply that someone got a big pile of money for work related
injuries under the FELA. Some workers and almost all rail
management believe the FELA is corrupt and expensive and is
a way for workers to "get rich by getting hurt."
Rail management wants to dump FELA and go
to a "NO FAULT" system. Ask yourself this; What
incentive would there be to keep up rail safety programs if
we went to a system where every injury was judged no fault?
In 1893, Congress passed the Safety Appliance
Act, requiring the installation of power brakes, grab irons
and drawbars of standard height, and outlawing link-and-pin
couplings on all railroad cars and locomotives. The law did
not become fully operative until 1900. Each of the safety
devices specified had been known, patented and manufactured
for more than thirty years.
During those three decades approximately
65,000 railroad men had been killed and more than 750,000
injured. In the decade after the safety law came into effect,
the yearly death rate of railroad employees was reduced by
more than one-half and the injury rate by more than two-thirds.
From Workin' on the Railroad P280
by Richard Reinhardt
Weathervane Books NY
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