I used to work in interstate freight (barge, not train). They make it crystal clear any employee has the right to stop work and are protected. The rail workers could have stopped working under their dangerous conditions, they just negligently kept going. The big bad railroad is to blame, but so are the employees.
The regulation was vague, so now you have a situation where two sides are interpreting things differently:
>She said: “The regulation at the time stated that a wheel bearing was bad when it had ‘visible seepage’. But that was very vague, and the bosses used that vagueness to their advantage. For me, it was whenever oil was visible on the bearing. For my bosses, they wanted actual droplets and proof it would leak on the ground.
That's probably why we have an audio leak story, because the company may have some ground to stand on because of this vagueness.
https://www.osha.gov/laws-regs/mou/2012-07-16
Note regarding "refusing to work under certain conditions:"
https://www.osha.gov/workers/right-to-refuse
I used to work in interstate freight (barge, not train). They make it crystal clear any employee has the right to stop work and are protected. The rail workers could have stopped working under their dangerous conditions, they just negligently kept going. The big bad railroad is to blame, but so are the employees.