Very true,
Clerks, (of the few that are left) and carmen, plus MOW guys get laid off just as quickly and for mostly the same reason as T&E folks...
23 17 46 11
When you hear of these layoffs and furloughs you automatically think of train crews..
My son,who is a welder on a bridge gang for BNSF told me there will be another round in March..This recent round got several trackmen and 7 bridge gang employees..Im just praying he dont loose his job..
Lay Offs happen every day on the railroad. That term is used when a T,E or Y employee takes time off. There is Layed Off-Vacation, Layed Off-Sick etc. Furlough is like Ed and others have said. It is also referred to as being "Cut Off." When they remove jobs from a board they remove the junior people, just like "cutting" a list on a piece of paper. You can be cut off a board, out of a terminal, or off the seniority district when you can't hold anyplace on it. We have a couple of guys just finishing up their engineer's training and when they are done, they will be cut off. They don't have enough seniority to flow back to a trainman's job.
Not everyone has system seniority. We don't but in times past, if they were short somewhere else they would let you temporarily work where they were short. Back a few years ago when things were slow here in Iowa, they were short handed in Arkansas. Usually they bulletin for a "borrow out" which includes paying for lodging and stipend in addition to what you make on the job. That time they didn't bulletin the borrow out, just allowed guys cut off up here to go down there. Even though it wasn't bulletined they still paid has if it had been. There were some upset because to be able to go there you had to be cut off and down there they were making almost twice as much as those not cut off in Iowa.
One change to being furloughed is that if you have less than 3 years seniority, after 365 consecutive days without again performing service you are removed from the seniority roster and lose your recall rights. Many of the young conductors (some are set-back engineers) I've been working with say if they get completely cut off they won't come back.
Jeff
In a non union context, laid off means fired for good...if you want to come back to whatever industry/ company you were laid off from, you have to re-apply, go through the interview process, and renegotiate salary and benefits.
In the unionized railroad world, "laid off" or "furloughed" means you are moved to the furlough board...a roster of laid off employees.
Being furloughed, depending on your local contract, can mean $0 income, or a minimal income of say $1000.00 monthly, and depending on your job insurance whatever benefits that provides.
Furlough boards work just like any other roster, the "older" you are, or higher in seniority, the later you are "laid off" and the sooner you are called back, simply because it works on the same system as job bidding, older guys have the pick of the jobs first...the younger guys are laid off first, then the older guys as they work up the active roster...the older guys are called back first, oldest to youngest.
That is why your seniority date is so important; it controls every thing from what contract you work under to what arbitraries you get to when if ever, you get laid off and how soon you get called back.
My railroad has what is known as a flow back agreement with the union at the UP...if they manage to lay me off at the Port, then I can exercise my seniority date on the UP here locally... if the UP has not already laid off their local employees up to that same date, March of 96, then I can bid on any local job someone with that seniority date on the UP can bid on.
Now, because most unions on the class 1s have a nationwide agreement, then employees can exercise their seniority system wide...if they can't hold a job in say, Nebraska, but they can hold one in Houston based on their hire date, then they can bid on the Houston job...if I happen to be one day younger than that person, and they bid on my job then I am displaced and have to bid on another job...
In simplest form, first hired is last fired.
Although "fired" at the railroad is a disciplinary term, in reality, not really fired...altogether another story where the word "fired" doesn't really mean fired...
We railroaders call it furlough as that is the board you go to when you can not hold a job other than that they mean the same.
Rodney
Ok guys, help out a non railroader here...
What is the difference between furlough and laid off?
It appears your seniority applies systemwide...is that correct? What are the proceedures for transfering from one terminal to another? Does one basically look at the seniority board of a terminal and see how one measures up? How long does it take then to qualify for a district? Any testing involved?
Would there be considerations made for the geographical environment of an area, such as heavy mountain grades? How long would it take for an Illinois engineer to be qualified (for lack of a better term) in a mountain region with considerable grades?
Thanks,
ed
Rodney,
At least you can get some really goood mexican food then...
Hey pigfarmer I have 30 baby engineers under me still I do not see myself having to go to the ground.
blue streak 1Miniwyo: Are the large number of furloughs the result of bumping to Gillette and the relative junior men being furloughed???
Miniwyo: Are the large number of furloughs the result of bumping to Gillette and the relative junior men being furloughed???
Really, I don't know.... I just read the story but live in an opposite corner of the state.
RJ
"Something hidden, Go and find it. Go and look behind the ranges, Something lost behind the ranges. Lost and waiting for you. Go." The Explorers - Rudyard Kipling
http://sweetwater-photography.com/
Hey Rodney, if the terminal in Texas has showers (Odds are that it does) I wouldn't waste the money on a KOA. Set up camp in the parking lot. Your brothers and sisters aren't going to care although the management pukes might be a different story. Don't waste $25.00+ a night if you don't have to.
As someone who grew up in Western Illinois I can say that there are some things worse than ending up in Texas. Western Illinois is 16 degrees, Houston is 68. I have almost forgot what that white stuff is on the ground.
We have 74 furloughed at the terminal where I work if I can not hold a job as a engineer and can not hold the ground here I will end up in Texas I have popup camper will travle look out koa campgrounds.
I just read that in the Casper Star Tribune
Some Wyoming rail workers furloughed
By The Associated Press
GILLETTE -- Some railroad workers have been furloughed in Gillette despite record coal shipments out of Campbell County in 2008.Both Union Pacific Corp. and Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corp. are facing uncertainty about the national economy and the new Obama administration.
"Like many other companies, BNSF is being impacted by current economic conditions," said Gus Melonas, BNSF director for public affairs. "Traffic volumes have declined recently and are not anticipated to improve in the near term. As a result, BNSF railroad will furlough certain employees that are directly involved with the movement of trains in several cities around the country."Melonas said that the number of furloughed employees may vary from location to location because employees can move within the system based on their seniority.BNSF has furloughed 43 in Gillette.Omaha, Neb.-based Union Pacific started reducing its staff by 4 percent in 2008, although it hasn't announced a specific number or where those employees are located. The decision is meant to "better align ... work force with demand," said Dennis Duffy, executive vice president for operations."It is our intention to get these folks back to work in the future, but that will be driven by volume," Duffy said in the earnings report Thursday.Coal shipments out of the southern Powder River Basin comprise 70 percent of the total coal shipments for Union Pacific, and the company expects continued demand for Powder River Basin coal this year. Coal analysts predict production cutbacks in the basin.But even with such high hopes for Wyoming coal, the company still plans to continue furloughs."If you look at our coal numbers, coal had record shipments over the course of the last year. But the industry as a whole and the economy as a whole had a dramatic impact," said Tom Lange, director for railroad operations for Union Pacific.Future increases in coal shipments will depend on new jobs, but no one knows how soon that will happen with the new administration's economic plans, company executives said Thursday."With economic indicators over the past few months and uncertainty about how quickly the new administration can get their plans in place, let alone how quickly those plans will have an impact, an honest assessment of 2009 is that at this point we probably have more questions than we have answers," said Jack Koraleski, executive vice president for marketing and sales for Union Pacific. "It seems likely that an economic stimulus bill will be coming. Ultimately the key to strengthening demand is job creation."
Nothing new about this it has been going on fore the last 2 months here where I work.
In addition to UP, BNSF is laying off employees too. Unlike the news about UP I posted earlier, this article says layoffs and not furloughs.
January 23, 2009
Profits are up but traffic volume is down, so a lot of employees are being laid off by the Burlington Northern Sanfa Fe railroad – including 101 in Lincoln and 68 in Alliance.
In its fourth-quarter report issued Wednesday, BNSF said it enjoyed a 19 percent net increase in earnings because fuel was cheaper, but it was also hurt because demand for shipments dropped in the weakening economy, including the automotive sector. Revenues increased by $4.37 billion, or 3 per cent.
The railroad began layoffs about two weeks ago. On Wednesday, BNSF said it would layoff some 2,500 workers nationwide, representing 5 percent of its work force. BNSF said it has approximately 4,500 employees in Nebraska, including more than 1,800 in Lincoln, and 1,700 in Alliance.
The layoffs come at a time when BNSF is on the verge of surpassing Union Pacific as the nation’s biggest railroad in terms of revenue. BNSF reported a 23 percent increase in fourth-quarter net earnings at $615 million or 1.79 per share, up from $517 million and $1.46 per share a year ago.
The economic debacle was reflected in the railroad’s 5 percent decline in shipments of consumer products, including motor vehicles. Shipment of industrial products also declined, which covers everything from food and beverages to construction materials and chemicals, including petroleum.
According to a BNSF release:
Fourth-quarter 2008 freight revenues increased $124 million, or 3 percent, to $4.25 billion compared with $4.12 billion in the prior year. The 3-percent increase in revenue was primarily driven by improved yields and approximately $220 million from higher collection of fuel surcharges, which was significantly influenced by the two-month lag in fuel surcharge pricing affecting the majority of our business. The increase in revenue more than offset a 7-percent decline in unit volumes.
Coal revenues were up $173 million, or 19 percent, to $1.07 billion, due to improved yields, contractual economic escalators and increased unit volumes.
Agricultural Products revenues rose $34 million, or 4 percent, to $838 million for the fourth quarter of 2008. This increase was primarily due to strong yields, offset by lower unit volumes principally resulting from lower export volumes.
Industrial Products revenues of $919 million were $7 million, or about 1 percent lower than the fourth quarter of 2007. Improved yields in the Industrial Products business group were more than offset by lower unit volumes due to soft economic conditions and continued weakness in the housing market.
Consumer Products revenuesdecreased $76 million, or 5 percent, to $1.42 billion, driven by a decline in unit volumes as a result of lower demand due to the weakness in the consumer economy. Increased fuel surcharges benefited each of the business units.
Operating expenses for the fourth quarter of 2008 were $3.26 billion, a 1-percent reduction compared with fourth-quarter 2007 operating expenses of $3.30 billion.
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