https://www.courthousenews.com/union-pacific-and-workers-sue-each-other-over-new-attendance-policy/
Groan.
And in the end nobody wins except for the law firms. Those "billable hours" add up rather quickly.
Same issue w/ green & orange. Last yr a sample letter of threat was sent to all workers. Carrier claims that Easter, Mothers & Fathers day fall under a holiday layoff. No so. Those three days are not even rr holidays. On top of that, there are no paid holidays for pool turns. If you work 12/25, it is the same rate pay as 4/25 or 9/25. In truth, any union holiday worked is not really a holiday as there, again, is no premimum pay...This threat of harrassment ticked off the crew boards so much that this past Thanksgiving and Christmas, BNSF had the highest percentage of layoffs ever. Good for them. If the carrier(s) are so concerned on wanting to cut layoffs, then pay the pool crews a holiday rate for being out there and away from family, make an effort to get you over the road, and if at the hotel, don't leave us there to rot and get heldaway for no reason at all, either send back to work or deadhead home. Then maybe, just maybe more of the force will be willing to stay marked up and make extra $$$.
Instead of holiday pay, road crews get paid personal leave days. These are supposed to be available for the employee to use at his/her choosing. Except they can deny the them due to 'manpower issues'. In the past, your local terminal could be flush with available crews and you would still be denied. That was they looked at availability across the whole railroad. They might be short in Los Angeles, so the system denied you in Iowa. The callers could override this if they looked at the actual boards they covered. Now with the use of more automation and less callers, some of this can only be done by a CMS supervisor, if they want to. You also don't get the total number of PL days that equal the actual holidays. You have to accrue them over years of service. So many per number of years until you get the full allotment.
I think the real problem with the new policy is it cuts the number of uncompensated layoffs to 2 to 3 in a 90 day period, depending on assignment and interpretation of the policy. It also lets them count, at their descretion, what counts as a holiday or other peak period. In the past, attendence was also dealt with less drastically. If one ran afoul, you could get a second chance with probation and clear your record. Now it's once in violation, it's an automatic dismissal.
It does ease the definition of what is considered a "weekend". But there is some other language that is less clear about layoffs that crosses two calendar days.
IMO, it's about wanting more out of the work force so they can cut off more people. Either because more people stay marked up or they can more easily terminate those that don't.
The test will be when terminations go to arbitraition. If the arbitraitors see this as being too heavy handed and start returning people to work with back pay, the policy will probably be changed. Unfortunately that process can take years and to be successful one has to have all their i's dotted and t's crossed just right. If the railroad doesn't think it's working in their favor before that, they'll probably come up with something more draconian.
Jeff
jeffhergertIMO, it's about wanting more out of the work force so they can cut off more people. Either because more people stay marked up or they can more easily terminate those that don't.
That and they will HAVE to go to one-man crews since they can't find people to work. Never mind they fired them all.
It's been fun. But it isn't much fun anymore. Signing off for now.
The opinions expressed here represent my own and not those of my employer, any other railroad, company, or person.t fun any
Could't they just use the principal of Precision Scheduled Railroading to simple not precision shedule any trains on holidays and such?
Thanks to Chris / CopCarSS for my avatar.
Murphy Siding Could't they just use the principal of Precision Scheduled Railroading to simple not precision shedule any trains on holidays and such?
Customers define the level of Precision that the railroad needs to supply on Holidays.
Never too old to have a happy childhood!
Murphy Siding Could't they just use the principal of Precision Scheduled Railroading to simple not precision shedule any trains on holidays and such? Mischief
It drives our local supervisors nuts when they can't deliver cars on a holiday because the business is closed gate and doesn't order anything in or out. The dwell time! Won't somebody think of the dwell time???!
Local supervisor was trying to convince a local industry to ship cars in and out on the weekend (when they are normally closed). Industry has their own rail crews and locomotives for switching. Industry told the supervisor they would work the weekends - if the RR paid for the fuel and overtime used. Supervisor politely declined.
zugmann Murphy Siding Could't they just use the principal of Precision Scheduled Railroading to simple not precision shedule any trains on holidays and such? Mischief It drives our local supervisors nuts when they can't deliver cars on a holiday because the business is closed gate and doesn't order anything in or out. The dwell time! Won't somebody think of the dwell time???! Local supervisor was trying to convince a local industry to ship cars in and out on the weekend (when they are normally closed). Industry has their own rail crews and locomotives for switching. Industry told the supervisor they would work the weekends - if the RR paid for the fuel and overtime used. Supervisor politely declined.
In my experience with CSX - despite the Official Calendar having a number of Holidays approaching double digits - as far as the operation of the railroad was concerned there were only two. Thanksgiving & Christmas. The company made 'shutdown plans' for these two holidays as well as 'startup plans' to resume operations after the shutdown. Those plans were made in concert with the major customers needs - some customers still need continued service during holidays as their own production processes for a variety of real world issues cannot be stopped.
This was all done in the pre PSR days. What has happened since PSR, I have no idea.
BaltACD zugmann Murphy Siding Could't they just use the principal of Precision Scheduled Railroading to simple not precision shedule any trains on holidays and such? Mischief It drives our local supervisors nuts when they can't deliver cars on a holiday because the business is closed gate and doesn't order anything in or out. The dwell time! Won't somebody think of the dwell time???! Local supervisor was trying to convince a local industry to ship cars in and out on the weekend (when they are normally closed). Industry has their own rail crews and locomotives for switching. Industry told the supervisor they would work the weekends - if the RR paid for the fuel and overtime used. Supervisor politely declined. In my experience with CSX - despite the Official Calendar having a number of Holidays approaching double digits - as far as the operation of the railroad was concerned there were only two. Thanksgiving & Christmas. The company made 'shutdown plans' for these two holidays as well as 'startup plans' to resume operations after the shutdown. Those plans were made in concert with the major customers needs - some customers still need continued service during holidays as their own production processes for a variety of real world issues cannot be stopped. This was all done in the pre PSR days. What has happened since PSR, I have no idea.
Our holiday plan used to be they would shut down everything but coal, automotive, intermodal, grain and premium manifest business. That is unless there was a service disruption that they needed to recover from or if other urgent business would develope. This meant that what was shut down was most yard jobs, locals and the junk manifests. (Except one year when they ran one of those junkers on Christmas Eve, even though it said on the line-up "held for the holidays.")
Now the holiday plans is to work as usual. Our sharehold..., er, customers demand it. Just like our customers are demanding we run 2 to 3 mile long manifests in bitterly cold weather so they have air problems (that was the main theme on the recrew report a couple of days ago) and can't get out of terminals with enough time to make it across the road. Or even to just get out of the terminal.
jeffhergert Instead of holiday pay, road crews get paid personal leave days. These are supposed to be available for the employee to use at his/her choosing. Except they can deny the them due to 'manpower issues'. In the past, your local terminal could be flush with available crews and you would still be denied. That was they looked at availability across the whole railroad. They might be short in Los Angeles, so the system denied you in Iowa. The callers could override this if they looked at the actual boards they covered. Now with the use of more automation and less callers, some of this can only be done by a CMS supervisor, if they want to. You also don't get the total number of PL days that equal the actual holidays. You have to accrue them over years of service. So many per number of years until you get the full allotment. I think the real problem with the new policy is it cuts the number of uncompensated layoffs to 2 to 3 in a 90 day period, depending on assignment and interpretation of the policy. It also lets them count, at their descretion, what counts as a holiday or other peak period. In the past, attendence was also dealt with less drastically. If one ran afoul, you could get a second chance with probation and clear your record. Now it's once in violation, it's an automatic dismissal. It does ease the definition of what is considered a "weekend". But there is some other language that is less clear about layoffs that crosses two calendar days. IMO, it's about wanting more out of the work force so they can cut off more people. Either because more people stay marked up or they can more easily terminate those that don't. The test will be when terminations go to arbitraition. If the arbitraitors see this as being too heavy handed and start returning people to work with back pay, the policy will probably be changed. Unfortunately that process can take years and to be successful one has to have all their i's dotted and t's crossed just right. If the railroad doesn't think it's working in their favor before that, they'll probably come up with something more draconian. Jeff
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