EPISODE · Sep 10, 2026 · 34 MIN
BRS's Tim Tarrant on Ludlow, Blair Mountain and Railroad Safety Today
from America’s Work Force Union Podcast · host BMA Media Group
On Easter Sunday morning, April 19, 1914, the National Guard and the Baldwin-Felts Detective Agency set up a machine gun overlooking a Colorado miners' tent colony, murdered union leader Louis Tikas and two lieutenants who came out to negotiate a truce and burned the camp. Eleven children and two women died in one tent alone. They wanted an eight-hour workday and a safe workplace. The word redneck comes from striking West Virginia miners in 1921 who tied red bandanas around their necks to identify themselves against strikebreakers. It is a labor word. On today's episode of America's Work Force Union Podcast, Brotherhood of Railroad Signalmen National VP Tim Tarrant joins the Labor 132 series to trace those moments in labor history and connect them to the fights happening right now: fall protection still missing at Metra Chicago, clean air fought for in Port Authority of New Jersey tunnels and the May 2026 Long Island Rail Road strike that shut down New York commuter service east of Manhattan for three days. His message on AI and technology: it is a worker's tool and must be used responsibly with workers, not as a replacement for them. Visit brs.org for more.
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What this episode covers
Brotherhood of Railroad Signalmen National VP Tim Tarrant discusses his terminal cancer diagnosis in 2007 and the union healthcare plan that saved his life, the Ludlow Massacre of Easter Sunday 1914 in which approximately 75 people including eleven children died in a burning tent colony after union leader Louis Tikas was murdered during a fake truce negotiation, the Battle of Blair Mountain and the labor origin of the word redneck, current BRS safety fights at Metra Chicago and the Port Authority of New Jersey and the May 2026 LIRR strike, the first in 42 years, that won a fair cost-of-living contract after three days that shut down New York commuter service east of Manhattan.
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BRS's Tim Tarrant on Ludlow, Blair Mountain and Railroad Safety Today
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