Shift to Remote-Controlled Dams, Trains Raises Unions’ Alarm (1)

While economists and policymakers have sounded alarms that workers will someday be replaced by artificial intelligence and automation technology, it’s already well underway in critical pieces of infrastructure essential to the US supply chain.

The technology will replace Michael Arendt, who guides thousands of tons of goods each year through the large metal gates he pulls open and shut during his 12-hour shifts at the Howell Heflin Lock and Dam near Gainesville, Ala. Items that businesses need, such as shipping fertilizer and dry goods, move via the rivers and dams connected by the navigational locks like the ones operated by Arendt.

In the next few years, his job will be taken over by someone behind a computer screen perhaps hundreds of miles away who will be responsible for multiple locations, as the US Army Corps of Engineers automates critical infrastructure like lock and dam operations.

Army Corps leaders say the shift will provide necessary modernization to the system, that will also control costs and ensure all dams and locks are being monitored. But they also acknowledge it’s aimed at reducing staff. A separate effort to test self-driving, battery-operated trains is also being considered by the Federal Railroad Authority. That proposal was submitted by two Georgia-based railways and is still pending before the agency.

Unions and the businesses that rely on the waterways say that the government is putting essential pieces of the nation’s supply chain at risk for catastrophe by removing people who can quickly deal with emergencies at the nation’s navigational locks and dams. Automating train operations poses cybersecurity and safety concerns, unions say, that could lead to accidents as destructive as the 2023 East Palestine, Ohio, train derailment or the Colonial Pipeline ransomware attack in 2021, which led to the shutdown of the fuel network for nearly a week.

“This is a danger for society. This is a danger for commerce, and it doesn’t need to happen,” said Arendt.

Disruptions of either the railway or water systems could freeze the movement of essential energy sources and manufacturing supplies, potentially driving up prices for everything from travel to computer chips.

Rail and water are some of the top modes of transportation used to move coal, natural gas, fuel oils, and crude petroleum, according to the Bureau of Transportation Statistics. Railways are also the primary transporter of metallic ores that contain copper, gold, and iron used to construct buildings and make modern technology, according to the Bureau of Transportation Statistics.

Interactive graphic: Trillions in freight could be affected by automation.

Together both the rail and water systems moved roughly 12% of the 20.2 billion tons of goods that were transported through the US in 2023, shipments that were valued at $833 billion, according to the BTS.

Unions representing supply chain workers fear the incoming Trump administration’s focus on cutting spending and federal staff will mean hasty technological updates, causing unnecessary job losses that jeopardize the safety of the public that rely on these facilities, as well the nation’s cybersecurity as a whole.

“We never want to stop the modernization of the system, but we have great concerns with how it is going to be done,” said Tracy Zea, president and CEO of the Waterways Council Inc., an organization that represents 175 members in shipping and barging.

Remote Controls

The Army Corps rolled out “a long-term initiative” to modernize its lock and dam operations to address an expected worker shortage that began during the pandemic. The agency describes the project as “a multi-decade, funding-dependent transition,” would move these duties to a remote station, where workers would run multiple locks from miles away.

“That started this for us. Do we have enough folks? What happens if we lose folks?” said Stephen Beams, chief of the Technical Support Branch Operations Division.

Army Corps officials say those workers may end up in other positions like cyber security, electronics technicians, automation control experts, possibly for lower pay.

“Five operators, their effective rate probably is just a couple 100 grand a year, that’s a million bucks,” said Brian Sapp, USACE Mobile District Hydropower Branch chief. “That feedback is quick, given our labor rates.”

Automating these facilities will also allow for much needed technological updates to the equipment at the dams and locks, Army Corps officials say, creating a more uniform and efficient system.

The Army Corps of Engineers, part of the US Army, is in charge of key components of federal waterway infrastructure like dams, levees, and navigational locks that connect 25,000 miles of rivers, lakes, and other inland waterways.

The interconnected structure of the inland waterway system makes it particularly vulnerable to mass shutdowns when just a few of its components malfunction. A 2017 Department of Transportation report found that if an unscheduled outage impacted just four locks,” the impact would reach across all of the states served by the system and cause billions of dollars in economic harm to shippers, the commerce that depends on those shippers, and the communities that rely on this substantial business activity.”

Dam operators day-to-day work will also become more difficult and risky. Navigation into lock corridors will be potentially more arduous for boats attempting to pass through who are relying on directions from an operator miles away, especially in inclement weather when cameras are warped by fog or rain and for recreational boaters who faced mixed requirements for training on how to use these passages.

Once boats pass out of the camera’s view, remote operators can no longer scrutinize the ship’s cargo, and instead will have to rely on ship captains to ensure their boat is in condition to safely use the lock mechanism.

Worse, unions and businesses that rely on the waterways say, if there’s a medical emergency or a security concern, a remote operator would have to call in help instead of being able to respond immediately. They would also be monitoring multiple locks and dams, which could also delay their reaction.

Workers at these facilities act as “first responders,” said Zea of the Waterways Council. “So if a deckhand falls in, they’re there to help. If something happens on a boat and it goes sideways, they’re there to help.”

Unions and the Waterways Council also fear that the technology updates could invite cyberattacks aimed at shutting down critical supply chain networks, causing natural disasters, or cutting off key sources of power produced by hydroelectric dams, similar to the Colonial Pipeline attack in 2021.

Self-Driving Trains

The Federal Railroad Administration is eyeing a test of a self-driving train car on Georgia railroads, which has sparked similar outrage from union leaders who are still reeling from the East Palestine train derailment, where federal investigators found that railway heat sensors failed to notify the train operators that a bearing was overheating in time.

Unions argued in hearings before the National Transit Safety Board the disaster was helped by staff cuts and rail companies were rushing employees through safety inspections and having less-qualified staff inspecting rail cars for deficiencies.

Interactive graphic: Can you guess the projected rise in goods shipped across the country?

Now, the railroad administration is considering a pending August 2023 request to waive certain safety regulations to permit the trial run of a “novel, self-propelled, zero-emission, battery-electric rail vehicle” where no workers would be on-board. While the petition before the railroad administration notes that the technology provides “numerous public benefits for the environment, the economy, the national highway system,” and that “safety is an overriding focus of the proposed program,” its consideration has prompted new fears that more workers will be laid off or put at risk of future accidents.

“Legislators have to understand what AI means to certain industries, and they have to put safeguards in to protect the public. It’s just not about protecting our jobs,” said Mark Wallace, first vice president of the 51,500-member Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen.

Similar to the technology in self-driving cars, the trains manufactured by Parallel Systems use artificial intelligence to evaluate the tracks for hazards. Matt Soule, founder of Parallel Systems, said that the automated train cars offer safety benefits to workers, and will still require workers to assist in their operation.

But the lack of clarity surrounding training, or how the equipment would provide “equivalent levels of safety for workers who perform duties around or adjacent " to the train cars, or the surrounding community and pedestrians, has drawn opposition from unions.

“The problem is, when they’re putting this new technology in they’re not coming to the craft and saying, ‘You’re the one that knows how to operate this equipment. This is going to help assist you in operating equipment. We want to train you,’ ” Wallace said.

Worker response

Efforts to automate within the transportation industry have created significant friction among organized labor, becoming a flashpoint in negotiations earlier this year between the longshoreman’s union and East Coast ports that threatened to shutdown the US supply chain.

Unions representing transportation workers across the country have already started to push back against moves to incorporate automation technology at the local government level with some success.

In Georgia for example, the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen successfully organized workers at Georgia Central Railway one of the railroads applying for the Parallel Systems waiver.

The Transport Workers Union has also formed model contract language that gives workers a seat at the table when employers consider implementing AI or automation technology, language that they hope to emulate in industries critical to the nations infrastructure.

“We’re not opposed to the technology. We’re not cavemen,” said TWU International President John Samuelsen, whose union represents more than 150,000 workers in the transit, utilities, and other industries, including railroad flagmen, track workers, and power line workers. “We want the technology to be employed in such a way that it improves service delivery for riders and improves safety and security for our workers and for the riders as well.”

Both the Waterways Council and the International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers say that so far they’ve been left out of the Army Corp’s process as it evaluates the switch to remote operations. The federation’s request to join a governance board overseeing the matter was denied, Biggs said.

“It was almost the quickest reply I’ve ever gotten from any government agency—it was a flat out ‘no,’ ” Biggs said.

Instead, both groups successfully lobbied Congress to include language in the 2024 Water Resources Development Act—legislation that is typically passed on a bipartisan basis every two years—that would require “sufficient accountability” before implementing remote operations at the Army Corps. The language, sent to President Joe Biden’s desk in December, requires the Army Corps to affirm to Congress that it has accounted for cybersecurity, artificial intelligence and physical security risks that come from the effort, in addition to its plans for stakeholder engagement.

The deal will support “the safe operation of locks and dams and hydroelectric dams protected from cybersecurity and physical security threats,” IFPTE Secretary-Treasurer Gay Henson said in a statement on the legislation.

“Our members look forward to continuing our work with Congressional offices as Congress provides the accountability and oversight we asked for over the operation of USACE lock and dam and hydroelectric dams,” he added.

While the congressional-mandated oversight of the process provides some reassurance that IFPTE members like Arendt will at least be a part of the conversation, his future at the Howell Heflin Lock and Dam remains unclear.

“The bottom line is if they go remote, there will be elimination of jobs. And yes, my job could be eliminated,” said Arendt, who is also a steward for IFPTE. While Arendt expects one or two of the roughly 50 people on the Alabama river system he works on to be offered a job at one of the remote facilities, he cautioned that “we don’t even know where that may be.”

“Each family has to make their own decision, but it is quite disruptive,” Arendt said. “There’s too many what-ifs.”