Yes.
To provide more predictability in road freight service, [Union Pacific] is working with the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen on the pilot program that lets engineers know when they’ll work every 15 days.But wait, as the Breathless TV Pitchman says, there's more!
Under the “11 and four” schedule, engineers know which 11 days they’ll work and which four days they’ll be off during every 15-day period, [vice president of operations Eric] Gehringer told an investor conference on Tuesday.
“It’s something we have to do through the collective bargaining agreement. We can’t just instantly put that across the system,” Gehringer says, adding that he’s excited to see what the results will be over the 60 days left in the pilot program.
UP is nearing its goal of hiring 1,400 train and engine employees this year, Gehringer says, with two-thirds of the new hires in active service and one-third in training.Let's tack on another Yes. "CSX Transportation and Union Pacific have relaxed their attendance policies in response to labor concerns." On both carriers, demerit points (did you know, dear reader, that on the railroad, "Brownie points" are not meritorious?) no longer go on the railroader's Permanent Record. Santa's list or St. Peter's Book are another matter.
But the railroad remains short of crews across its northern tier and is offering hiring bonuses of $10,000 to $25,000 to new conductors at some locations, including Cheyenne and Green River, Wyo.; Salt Lake City and Helper, Utah; Portland, Ore.; and Seattle.
“We still have those pockets where we are constrained,” Gehringer says. UP aims to hire about 500 additional conductor trainees this year.
Getting back to full strength on train crew staffing levels will improve service and help UP be more resilient when extreme weather or other events hit the railroad, UP executives say.
If the economy softens and freight demand drops, UP will use furloughs as a last resort so that it has enough crews to handle a rebound, Gehringer says. “That’s not a tool that we employ without thinking very carefully through that, because what we want to be most prepared for is when the demand shifts. We want to be able to capture that without missing a beat,” Gehringer says.
The thought of not being able to run trains for lack of people to operate them concentrates management minds, doesn't it?
3 comments:
Once upon a time the UP tried what was called “Reserve Boards.” Employees were furloughed to a reserve board where they collected 75% of their average pay as well as their benefits. Employees has up to 10 days to report once recalled. Last tried after the 2008-2009 slowdown under a different CEO who was more employee oriented. Sounds like it’s time to revive the practice.
I also recall in the late 1990s the North Platte to Cheyenne crews were complaining about days off. Especially vocal were the wives. The EVPO flew out and met with them at the time. He offered a 5 on, 2 off work schedule for road employees based off Seniority. Of course this was a modification to the labor agreement and required a vote. It lost something like 139-3. Turns out what they really wanted was to work whenever they wanted and then to lay off whenever they wanted. Doesn’t work when everyone wants the the same weekend off and you can’t run trains.
That’s the same issue they’ll run into with whatever is proposed as soon as the crews realize it will impact their paychecks. The crews can claim it’s not about money until they realize, yes it really is.
That reserve board sounds like an attempt to augment the extra board for the harvest rush. How well did it work when it was last used?
At least one of the articles I linked to suggested precisely the sticking point you raised about additional sick leave, namely that people would abuse it. Buck fever in November, and Salmon Runs, whenever those are, come to mind.
That, though, is something I wish management classes would turn to. In real life, ten percent of the employees do most of the work, irrespective of the line of business, and middle management (in civilian life) or senior noncoms (in the service) spend most of their time on ten percent of their employees. All the classroom talk about various motivations, and the various fads old (management by objectives) or newer (total quality management) and yet, not much about the art of working with people.
The Reserve Board concept was started in the late 1980s the UP was eliminating the Brakeman in favor or two man crews. Since it was voluntary at that time a lot of Senior guys jumped o.n it thinking they’d be on the gravy train for life. Within a couple years between attrition & traffic growth they were all called back. Some had gone out and found some well paying jobs they had to give up because it’s tough to lose Railroad Retirement.
When we started the big hiring boom in 2001 it was about five years before furloughs started again. First recalls maybe 50% came back and the Senior guys couldn’t figure out why. Didn’t like the explanation that RR jobs aren’t once they once were. Their attitude when it came to the ranks or even lower management was always “Plenty more where they came from.”
My last job at the UP was Training, Attendance & Discipline. UP’s policy was 3 Unexcused Absences a month put a target on you back. Three months in a row got you hearing. Third hearing meant dismissal. If an employee had real medical issues there was Family Medical Leave (FMLA) which was almost impossible to not get. They were also offered the opportunity to bring in documentation, which many seemed to have lost/misplaced. Sometimes it seemed as if every agreement employee was the only one in their family capable of taking care of their sick relatives. Said relatives usually got sick most frequently on weekends & holidays of course.
Having started out as an agreement employee gave me quite an advantage. First off having worked under the rule book it’s easier to grasp the how’s & why of things. Something managers fresh from college struggled with. It’s also easier to get employees to respect you when they know you can do their probably as well as they can. I settled many discussions with the “Let me show you how it’s done.”
I had a conference with a employee (with his Local Chairman present) who tried to claim he needed a pilot (a guide) because he didn’t know how to spot industries at a yard he switched at before. I proceeded to give him spotting instructions from every industry there including several that were long gone. Later his Local Chairman told me he’d gotten a good laugh out of it as I’d worked as a Brakeman for him some 30 years earlier. He told the newbie that was one of the dumbest things he could have said to me. Good relations with the Local Chairman also helps.
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