50 signatures reached
To: Alan Shaw, Joe Biden, Pete Buttigieg, Mike DeWine, Chuck Schumer, Kevin McCarthy, Sherrod Brown, JD Vance, and to the American People.
FIRE Alan Shaw! - CEO of Norfolk Southern
“I can hire one half of the working class to kill the other half.” - Jay Gould, American Railroad Magnate, 1891
Alan Shaw, the CEO of Norfolk Southern, must be fired! Alan Shaw is an enemy of the people. We must stand together with the people of East Palestine and the railroad workers!
On Friday, Feb. 3rd, 2023, just before 9pm, a 149-car, 9,000 foot long Norfolk Southern train, traveling east along the railroad's Fort Wayne Line across Ohio, derailed near East Palestine. Among dozens of still publicly undisclosed chemicals on this train, there was over 100,000 gallons of vinyl chloride, a toxic chemical that grows especially volatile at high temperatures. Prompting concerns of an uncontrolled explosion, responders performed a "release and burn" of the dangerous chemical.
Because of this hazardous chemical spill, caused by Alan Shaw and Norfolk Southern's blatant disregard for safety, there are lifelong concerns about the health and safety of the citizens in East Palestine and their neighboring communities. The Environmental Protection Agency has confirmed that hazardous chemicals spilled into the Ohio River, the source of drinking water for 5 million people. No one should have to live in fear of their health because of greed.
The East Palestine Catastrophe was entirely man-made and preventable.
Under Alan Shaw's leadership, Norfolk Southern paid executives millions and spent billions on stock buybacks, boosting shareholder payouts 4,500% while the company fired 33% of its workforce. Thousands of jobs were lost despite warnings that understaffing was intensifying safety risks. Alan Shaw and Norfolk Southern executives also fought off an initiative that would have required company executives to assess, review, and mitigate risks of hazardous material transportation.
For decades, Norfolk Southern lobbied Congress and the White House to deregulate the railroad industry with great success. Washington is owned by corporate interests. The East Palestine catastrophe wasn't an accident. The tragedy in East Palestine was designed to enrich Norfolk Southern, chemical companies, their shareholders, and our government leaders at the expense of the American people.
Under Alan Shaw's leadership, Norfolk Southern, worth $50 billion, at the time of this writing, committed just $6.5 million in aid to the victims of East Palestine, which may be tied to dropping legal claims against the railroad. It was Alan Shaw's decision, instead of helping the people of East Palestine, to lay railroad tracks over contaminated soil to get his trains up and running at the expense of the people of East Palestine. Time is money.
Under Alan Shaw's leadership, the people in East Palestine have been assured by the state Environmental Protection Agency and Republican Gov. Mike DeWine that the town's municipal water has not been contaminated by the train derailment but the only publicly available data comes from testing by the Dallas based consulting firm, AECOM, a firm funded by... Norfolk Southern.
Norfolk Southern’s lobbying firm is also at the center of the largest bribery, money laundering scheme ever perpetrated against the people of the state of Ohio.
Ohio's Governor, Mike DeWine has refused to issue a disaster declaration that would send much needed federal resources to East Palestine and draw attention to the Norfolk Southern accident. In effort to bury this catastrophe, as of Feb. 24th, Joe Biden will not go to East Palestine.
In the Fall of 2022, Alan Shaw joined forces with Joe Biden and Congress to deny railroad workers paid sick leave. Since this disaster, Norfolk Southern is squashing dissent from rank and file workers by, only now, offering paid sick leave in effort to prevent a worker strike and to divert attention away from the people of East Palestine. This battle is only beginning.
In a truly scandalous exchange, the chair of the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) confirmed to Senator J.D. Vance that multi-billion dollar railroad company Norfolk Southern:
UNNECESSARILY/INTENTIONALLY detonated 5 cars of toxic vinyl chloride over East Palestine.
DISREGARDED REPEATED warnings from Oxyvinyls, the owner of the 5 vinyl chloride cars, that there was no risk of an imminent uncontrolled explosion of the vinyl chloride cars and there was no need to detonate the cars over East Palestine.
DISREGARDED the data showing all 5 vinyl chloride car temperatures were cooling and going down, providing even less justification.
Alan Shaw, Joe Biden, Pete Buttigieg, Mike DeWine, and the corporate media are colluding against the people of East Palestine. All of our leaders must be held accountable. Sign this petition to FIRE Alan Shaw.
* as of March 4th, 2023 - A Norfolk Southern train derailed in Ohio on Saturday, the second such incident involving the railroad in that state in a month, prompting local officials to order residents living near the accident site to shelter in place.
Alan Shaw, the CEO of Norfolk Southern, must be fired! Alan Shaw is an enemy of the people. We must stand together with the people of East Palestine and the railroad workers!
On Friday, Feb. 3rd, 2023, just before 9pm, a 149-car, 9,000 foot long Norfolk Southern train, traveling east along the railroad's Fort Wayne Line across Ohio, derailed near East Palestine. Among dozens of still publicly undisclosed chemicals on this train, there was over 100,000 gallons of vinyl chloride, a toxic chemical that grows especially volatile at high temperatures. Prompting concerns of an uncontrolled explosion, responders performed a "release and burn" of the dangerous chemical.
Because of this hazardous chemical spill, caused by Alan Shaw and Norfolk Southern's blatant disregard for safety, there are lifelong concerns about the health and safety of the citizens in East Palestine and their neighboring communities. The Environmental Protection Agency has confirmed that hazardous chemicals spilled into the Ohio River, the source of drinking water for 5 million people. No one should have to live in fear of their health because of greed.
The East Palestine Catastrophe was entirely man-made and preventable.
Under Alan Shaw's leadership, Norfolk Southern paid executives millions and spent billions on stock buybacks, boosting shareholder payouts 4,500% while the company fired 33% of its workforce. Thousands of jobs were lost despite warnings that understaffing was intensifying safety risks. Alan Shaw and Norfolk Southern executives also fought off an initiative that would have required company executives to assess, review, and mitigate risks of hazardous material transportation.
For decades, Norfolk Southern lobbied Congress and the White House to deregulate the railroad industry with great success. Washington is owned by corporate interests. The East Palestine catastrophe wasn't an accident. The tragedy in East Palestine was designed to enrich Norfolk Southern, chemical companies, their shareholders, and our government leaders at the expense of the American people.
Under Alan Shaw's leadership, Norfolk Southern, worth $50 billion, at the time of this writing, committed just $6.5 million in aid to the victims of East Palestine, which may be tied to dropping legal claims against the railroad. It was Alan Shaw's decision, instead of helping the people of East Palestine, to lay railroad tracks over contaminated soil to get his trains up and running at the expense of the people of East Palestine. Time is money.
Under Alan Shaw's leadership, the people in East Palestine have been assured by the state Environmental Protection Agency and Republican Gov. Mike DeWine that the town's municipal water has not been contaminated by the train derailment but the only publicly available data comes from testing by the Dallas based consulting firm, AECOM, a firm funded by... Norfolk Southern.
Norfolk Southern’s lobbying firm is also at the center of the largest bribery, money laundering scheme ever perpetrated against the people of the state of Ohio.
Ohio's Governor, Mike DeWine has refused to issue a disaster declaration that would send much needed federal resources to East Palestine and draw attention to the Norfolk Southern accident. In effort to bury this catastrophe, as of Feb. 24th, Joe Biden will not go to East Palestine.
In the Fall of 2022, Alan Shaw joined forces with Joe Biden and Congress to deny railroad workers paid sick leave. Since this disaster, Norfolk Southern is squashing dissent from rank and file workers by, only now, offering paid sick leave in effort to prevent a worker strike and to divert attention away from the people of East Palestine. This battle is only beginning.
In a truly scandalous exchange, the chair of the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) confirmed to Senator J.D. Vance that multi-billion dollar railroad company Norfolk Southern:
UNNECESSARILY/INTENTIONALLY detonated 5 cars of toxic vinyl chloride over East Palestine.
DISREGARDED REPEATED warnings from Oxyvinyls, the owner of the 5 vinyl chloride cars, that there was no risk of an imminent uncontrolled explosion of the vinyl chloride cars and there was no need to detonate the cars over East Palestine.
DISREGARDED the data showing all 5 vinyl chloride car temperatures were cooling and going down, providing even less justification.
Alan Shaw, Joe Biden, Pete Buttigieg, Mike DeWine, and the corporate media are colluding against the people of East Palestine. All of our leaders must be held accountable. Sign this petition to FIRE Alan Shaw.
* as of March 4th, 2023 - A Norfolk Southern train derailed in Ohio on Saturday, the second such incident involving the railroad in that state in a month, prompting local officials to order residents living near the accident site to shelter in place.
Why is this important?
Working class Americans must join arms against the corporate and government elite. If we don't demand change, corporations and our state and federal government will continue to undermine the American people for their own profits.
How it will be delivered
I will email, print the petition and send to all relevant parties.