David Goode, the retired Chairman of Norfolk Southern Railway Corp., got compensation of $24 million last year (2006). The brand new Chairman and Chief Executive, Wick Moorman, got over $12 million. Because Norfolk Southern Railroad is a public company, they are forced to disclose these obscene salaries. Our local paper here in Norfolk, Virginia pays a lot of attention to the railroad because it is one of the few Fortune 500 companies headquartered out of Norfolk. Norfolk Southern’s disclosures of salaries include 5 other executives with pay ranging from $3.4 million to $10 million a year . The pay for Norfolk Southern Railroad is very similar to the compensation of executives at CSX Corp., Union Pacific Corp. and Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corp., the other major freight railroads in the U.S. Railroad income for Norfolk Southern jumped 15% last year to $1.5 billion. Nonetheless, the railroad still tries to squeeze the rail unions about workers’ pay. The differential between the average working man and these executives is way out of proportion in my opinion. After all, it is the railroad engineers, conductors and maintenance of way workers who put their lives on the line each day to make the profit for the company.
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