I'm Esther Fung. I'm a reporter at the Wall Street Journal covering the

freight railroads and parcel carriers. And how do you like that beat?

I sometimes tell people I write about plumbing,

plumbing in the U.S. economy.

You don't read about plumbing unless you have to, right?

Yeah, plumbing is one of those things you don't want to think about unless it's broken.

When Esther started covering railroads about two years ago, she noticed that something was broken,

the relationship between the industry's CEOs and its union workers.

She remembers listening to multiple government hearings, where union officials ripped into corporate management.

My entire railroad career, I've listened to the railroads portray a message and image of safety first, but I have never witnessed or experienced that truth one single day on the property.

They have very, very harsh words for the CEOs who they say have decimated the

workforce. They would criticize CEOs as being

short-sighted, not investing enough in the infrastructure, not investing enough in

a workforce, endangering their lives. Inspections were being performed by the craft designated to do them,

and the industry goal was always take the safest course.

Fast forward to today,

and that has all now been sacrificed by the

roads insatiable appetite and longing to perform for Wall Street.

I remember thinking oh my gosh they really hate the CEOs. I'm like oh my gosh, they really hate the CEO's.

I'm like, oh my goodness, how does a company run

when your employees hate you so much?

But over the past year, at one railroad giant,

...