The E. H. Harriman Memorial Awards are presented annually to U.S. railroads whose employees have the lowest number of injuries based on information reported by the railroads to the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA).

For the eighth consecutive year Norfolk Southern Railroad (NS) won the top Harriman Award. Burlington Northern Santa Fe won the silver medal this year, displacing CSX which moved to third place.

"In the race to achieve status as a Harriman Award recipient, the railroads regularly disguise the depth of the rail safety crisis which today continues unabated at the expense of thousands of railroad workers who are injured or killed on the job, said Edward Wytkind, director of the AFL-CIO’s Transportation Trades Department.

The Norfolk Southern General Chairmen’s Association (NS GCA), composed of representatives from 14 rail labor unions representing over 20,000 union rail workers on NS, prepared the leaflet passed out at the protest. Their slogan was "Harass, Intimidate and Make It Eight’ in reference to the eighth NS win.

"Harassment Award is what NS deserves," said BMWE General Chairman Paul Beard. "NS succeeds in having the lowest injury statistics, not in being the safest railroad."

Two years ago Beard established the Harassment Award "in tribute to the outstanding work in the field of falsifying the reporting of employee injuries. Through firings, threats of firings, investigations, discipline and other forms of intimidation, Norfolk Southern Railroad managed to have the lowest incidence of reported employee injuries of any carrier in the United States."

The NS GCA leaflet noted that during a NS staff meeting in Cordele, Georgia on December 5, 1995 the statement was made, "If an employee is injured, don’t let them get away. If they’ve had problems, take them out of service. Make sure they are investigated promptly."

Just one recent example of this policy in effect:

An employee with 31 years of service sustained the first reportable on-the-job injury in his railroad career. The middle finger of his left hand was lacerated, fractured and dripping with blood. A co-worker (allegedly an in-house emergency medical technician) cleaned and bandaged the wound.

Did NS then swiftly transport the employee to the hospital for medical care; notifying his family of the injury on the way? No! NS swiftly returned the employee to the scene of the accident where the supervisor interrogated him. The concern of the supervisor was how the accident happened, not the condition of the employee who was injured. It was 45 minutes before he reached a hospital where his injury required 22 stitches and a splint for the broken finger.

Incidents like this happen hundreds of times a year in the railroad industry and rail labor has long and loudly complained about them.

In partial response, the FRA tightened up its accident reporting requirements effective January 1 this year. One of the most significant new features of the FRA’s amended rules is the prohibition against harassment and intimidation by "any railroad officer, manager, supervisor or employee that is calculated to discourage or prevent any person from receiving proper medical treatment or from reporting an accident." The effects of the amended FRA rules have yet to be realized, however, as the harassment appears to continue unabated.

In another effort to stop the harassment, BMWE President Mac Fleming and nine other rail union chiefs wrote the Harriman Award Committee last year. They asked the Committee to revise their selection criteria to prevent the railroads from making "a mockery of their safety programs by seeking to intimidate the workers."

The members at this year’s protest vowed to continue their fight against railroad harassment until there is "not even one employee punished for being injured."