Justice for the Family of Phil Morgan and Workers Everywhere

On the streets of Des Moines and in the courtroom of the Iowa Supreme Court...

When I pulled into the parking lot I normally go to when making a trip to the Iowa State Capitol I saw protestors in front of the Iowa Supreme Court Building, which is rare. After I parked, I sat in my truck and watched the protestors mill around a bit while I checked my weather app. It was one degree above zero when I walked over to talk with them. Windy too.

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If you are a regular reader you probably know that when I see protestors I always have a deep desire to learn about the issues that concern them. I figure that if they are going to take the trouble to protest, especially on a cold and windy day like yesterday, I should probably listen to them out of respect.

Here is a recording of my brief interview, followed by a lightly edited AI-generated transcript.

What’s your name?

Ash Anderson, BMWED. It's the Brotherhood of Maintenance Way Employees Division of the International Brotherhood of the Teamsters.

Okay, and why are you here today?

So, right now there are oral arguments being heard on an Iowa Supreme Court case for the the family of Phil Morgan, who is a rail worker on the Union Pacific Railroad.

In 2018, Brother Morgan took his own life after experiencing a severe amount of pressure, intimidation, or retaliation from his immediate supervisor. Rail workers don't get worker's compensation. They don't get compensated for any illness, injury or anything that happens at all. Those sorts of compensation have been pursued through the court system under the Federal Employers Liability Act.

However, FELA is an old law, and in the way FELA is applied for instances where a worker commits suicide or takes their own life due to conditions of their work, FELA doesn't cover any potential remedy for that family.

The oral arguments being heard today on behalf of Brother Morgan's family are an attempt to get the Iowa Supreme Court and then other courts to take a look at how FELA needs to be brought into the 21st century because we know not only as rail workers but just as working people, workplace intimidation, retaliation, harassment, and workers' mental health issues are serious issues that we all need to address. We all want to have a quality of life and a dignity at work that everyone deserves.

And when the conditions of your workplace are such that you are under mental health stress or crisis, if the laws that govern how we can be made whole for those losses don't accommodate understanding that we need to make sure that the laws are updated to reinterpreted to allow for that.

Brother Morgan is no longer with us, but many rail workers, as you see here today, and our friends and allies from other places are with us today to stand while these oral arguments are being heard to stand for Brother Morgan and all the other workers out there who face intimidation, retaliation or harassment in their workplace and that's why we're here today.

Well, thank you very much.

Yeah.

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A little Googling told me that the Brotherhood of Maintenance Way Employees Division of the International Brotherhood of the Teamsters “is a national union representing the workers who build and maintain the tracks, bridges, buildings, and other structures on the railroads of the United States.” Here is their website.

Ash Anderson is the Director of Education. I can tell. He educated me real quick.

Here is the case before the Iowa Supreme Court. I’m not an attorney, so I’m not going to act like one and try to interpret it.

I couldn’t find any news stories about Phil and the lawsuit, but I did find this information about the protest yesterday.

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Right after I finished my interview with Ash, he looked over my shoulder and shouted out to other union members that someone had slipped and fallen on the ice across the street.

The person was hurt, and tried to get up, but couldn’t. Union members, including at least one who is a first responder, quickly made their way across the street to help the injured person. Someone called 911.

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As you can see, three union members have wrapped a covering of some sort over the injured person, and are tending, comforting, and cuddling him or her to keep them warm until an ambulance arrives.

Just as they stand lovingly, with their Brother Phil Morgan and his family in the cold and wind, on the streets and in the courtrooms of Des Moines, yesterday.

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