Greg Regan Details Labor’s Fight on Transit Safety and Benefits

On today’s episode of the America’s Work Force Union Podcast, Transportation Trades Department, AFL-CIO, President Greg Regan laid out a clear labor case on three urgent fronts: protecting the Jones Act, strengthening aviation safety after a deadly midair collision and preserving the capacity of the Railroad Retirement Board to deliver earned benefits.

Taken together, the discussion showed how transportation policy affects job security, public safety and whether union members can count on the systems they have spent careers building and funding.

• Labor argues that suspending the Jones Act weakens U.S. maritime capacity without delivering meaningful relief on fuel prices.
• Aviation unions continue pressing for stronger safety legislation after the 2025 Potomac River midair collision exposed preventable gaps.
• The Railroad Retirement Board’s challenge is not pension insolvency but ensuring staffing, technology and field operations can keep benefits flowing.

Why labor says the Jones Act still matters for U.S. shipping

Greg Regan returned to America’s Work Force with a warning that a temporary suspension of the Jones Act may create political optics, but it does little to address the real drivers of fuel costs. From labor’s standpoint, the law remains one of the last major safeguards preserving a domestic maritime base built around U.S.-flagged vessels and U.S. crews.

The Jones Act applies to cargo moved directly between domestic ports. In practical terms, that means goods shipped from one U.S. port to another must travel on vessels built in the United States and staffed by American mariners. Regan emphasized that this narrow domestic requirement is often misunderstood in broader debates over oil and gasoline prices.

His argument was straightforward: domestic port-to-port shipping accounts for only a small slice of the factors affecting fuel costs. Energy prices are shaped by larger market pressures, not by the labor and vessel standards embedded in the Jones Act, Regan said.

What it can do, however, is weaken a strategic labor and industrial framework that has already been under strain for years. With U.S.-flagged shipping accounting for only a small share of vessel traffic at the nation’s ports, Regan believes the Jones Act is a critical line of defense for maritime jobs, domestic ship capacity and long-term competitiveness.

Regan also signaled concern that the waiver was broad enough to affect more than fuel-related movement. That matters because once exceptions expand beyond a narrow emergency rationale, labor fears the damage can spread across the wider industry. For unions representing maritime workers, this is not simply a policy dispute. The question is whether the country continues to support a domestic merchant marine or allows it to erode further.

After the Potomac collision, labor says aviation reform must go further

The conversation then shifted from maritime policy to aviation safety, where Regan made clear that transportation labor remains dissatisfied with the current legislative response to the 2025 Potomac River midair collision.

That crash, which federal investigators determined was preventable, prompted an early push for the Rotor Act. According to Regan, the bill moved through the Senate with broad support and came close to clearing the House. It fell short because it was brought forward under a House procedure requiring a two-thirds vote. By his account, the measure fell short of that threshold by a single vote.

For labor, that near passage matters because it shows substantial support already exists for stronger action. The problem now is that the alternative proposal, the ALERT Act, does not include the full set of safety measures unions believe are necessary.

Regan pointed to two central gaps. One involves ADS-B In, a technology and situational awareness tool that labor views as essential to reducing risk in complex airspace. The other concerns the operation of military helicopters in proximity to commercial traffic. Both issues, he said, are tied to recommendations from the National Transportation Safety Board and to the demands of grieving families seeking a more meaningful response to the collision.

The broader labor message is that transportation safety cannot be treated as a partial exercise. If investigators identify specific failures and recommend targeted remedies, then legislation should reflect that level of seriousness. Anything less risks turning a preventable tragedy into a missed opportunity for reform.

Labor’s position: public safety requires following the evidence

What stood out in Regan’s remarks was his insistence that transportation policy should follow evidence, not convenience. In the aviation debate, labor is not calling for symbolic action or a watered-down compromise. It is pressing to implement measures that align with the investigators' findings and the demands of frontline workers who understand the stakes.

That position reflects a broader truth about the labor movement’s role in transportation. Unions are not only bargaining over wages and benefits. They are often among the most consistent voices on operational safety, staffing standards and system accountability. Whether the issue is air traffic, rail service or maritime shipping, labor’s perspective is shaped by workers who know where systems break down in the real world.

In that sense, the fight over the Rotor Act is about more than one bill. It is about whether policymakers will act decisively when a major transportation failure exposes weaknesses that can be fixed.

Railroad Retirement Board funding is about service, not a failing pension

The final issue Regan raised involved the Railroad Retirement Board, an agency that administers earned benefits for railroad workers. Here, he drew a distinction that is often lost in public debate: the problem is not that the retirement system lacks underlying financial health.

In fact, Regan described the plan as exceptionally strong because workers, beneficiaries and railroads fund it. The challenge is administrative capacity. Labor wants the board to have the authority and institutional support needed to spend those funds effectively so benefits can be processed and delivered without disruption.

That includes modernizing technology and keeping field offices open. It also includes addressing workforce strain inside the agency at a time when experienced employees may be leaving, and operational continuity is increasingly important.

For railroad workers and retirees, this is not a bureaucratic side issue. It is about whether a well-funded benefit system can function as intended. A pension plan can be sound on paper and still fail people in practice if the agency responsible for administering it lacks staffing, tools or local access points.

Regan indicated that labor is pursuing what he described as a relatively modest fix, supported by both unions and railroads. That alignment is notable. In a sector often defined by hard bargaining, agreement on the need to preserve benefit administration underscores the issue's fundamental importance.

A common thread: labor is defending the systems workers rely on

Taken together, the three issues Regan discussed reveal a common theme. Transportation labor is fighting to protect the systems that workers and the public rely on every day.

In maritime policy, that means defending domestic shipping standards that sustain American jobs and capacity. In aviation, it means pushing for stronger safeguards following a deadly, preventable collision. In rail retirement, it means making sure earned benefits are backed by an agency capable of delivering them.

For union members, these debates shape employment, safety and retirement security in real time. And for the broader public, they offer a reminder that labor’s role in transportation extends beyond the job site. It reaches into the policies, institutions and protections that keep the nation moving.

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