Stand with rail workers
And Boys meant boys. Boys as young as 12 were once employed to go find crews. The agreements had limits of one to one and a half miles for how far a crew caller would be required to go from the office.
They carried a little book that the crew members would sign, showing that they acknowledged being called for a job.
Jeff
PS. The machinists voted down the carrier's contract proposal today.
SD70Dude Ulrich I think most people would understand that, but why is this an issue now? 24/7 on call has been around for many decades.. Probably it would have been even more restrictive back before smartphones, when people actually had to wait beside their landline phones. At least now one can go out and mow the grass or go for a walk around the block without fear of missing the call to work.. During that era there were actual crew callers employed in every terminal, and they might call around if they couldn't find you (you could also call in and say where you would be if you weren't at home for a bit, and they would call that place). It was also rare for missing a call or booking sick to turn into an investigation and discipline, now that is the norm.
Ulrich I think most people would understand that, but why is this an issue now? 24/7 on call has been around for many decades.. Probably it would have been even more restrictive back before smartphones, when people actually had to wait beside their landline phones. At least now one can go out and mow the grass or go for a walk around the block without fear of missing the call to work..
I think most people would understand that, but why is this an issue now? 24/7 on call has been around for many decades.. Probably it would have been even more restrictive back before smartphones, when people actually had to wait beside their landline phones. At least now one can go out and mow the grass or go for a walk around the block without fear of missing the call to work..
During that era there were actual crew callers employed in every terminal, and they might call around if they couldn't find you (you could also call in and say where you would be if you weren't at home for a bit, and they would call that place).
It was also rare for missing a call or booking sick to turn into an investigation and discipline, now that is the norm.
Back in the days of the REAL Call Boys - there were no privated telephones - the call boys would take their call list for they jobs they were calling and travel over town to knock on the doors and windows of those employees being notified.
Later when telephones were the norm, they were all, what are referred to today as 'land lines'. Telephone lines that terminated at a specific location where the employee was expected to answer it.
Today, most if not all employees, have mobile cell phones and can be anywhere in the world and still get the call from the computerized calling system.
At one time the carriers wanted to work with employees to get them to work. In the 21st Century the carrier want to get employees fired for the least transgression in reporting for work. At one point in time the overall feeling was 'we are all in this together'. Today it is US and THEM and screw THEM.
Never too old to have a happy childhood!
As an aside.. the crew callers were sometimes called "call boys". Max Ward (of Wardair) worked as one in Edmonton in the 1930s.. in his book he has a few funny/interesting stories about it..
Greetings from Alberta
-an Articulate Malcontent
UlrichI think most people would understand that, but why is this an issue now?
Because pre-PSR BS, you could actually get off when you needed to do something important. Or you could take a job that had those off days.
So much has changed in the past few years (And since the last contract), that it is hard to really understand unless you had the fun of working it.
PS. it might not be a strike. It may very well be a lockout.
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
If you have time to mow the grass.
On the extra boards, both engineer and conductor, you very rarely have to sit by the phone. It rings right at 10 hours (or if extra rest was added by being on duty over 12 hours, as soon as you are rested.) after tying up the last job.
Although better now, our conductor's road pools were turning on their rest all the time. I believe our north pools, both condr and engr, still are turning fast, if not on their rest. (I've brought in trains going to the north pool where they had to get a crewmember out of a different terminal because ours didn't have any available for hours.)
Except for the engr's north pool, all the others mentioned are guaranteed. If you don't make the pay threshold, the difference is paid out. They rarely pay guarantee. They make sure the boards are held as thin as possible. At first, it was PSR cost cutting, "sweat the assets" as EHH said. Now it's because they don't have the manpower to properly staff the boards, even if they wanted to. We've had about 20 borrow out trainmen from Chicago and Texas working in Iowa this summer. It's helped, but there are still times when everything is shot.
Shortages have happened before. In times past, they usually only lasted a few weeks or a month or two. Then things would get back to a more "normal" level. Since PSR, and the PSR-lite program we had before going full bore, the boards have been kept as thin as possible all the time.
We are allowed by contract to have a "reasonable" amount of time off. Since cost cutting on steroids as become the name of the game, the definition to the companies of reasonable has changed. The change in the respective attendence policies show that. Depending on company, it seems now like reasonable is once a month. I believe most are on a 90 day floating calendar. Work credits can be earned, but some will reset the period to earn a credit, to the point that any points for a layoff have to age out.
TE&Y work under the Hours of Service that provide if one works 6/7 consecutive jobs (no 24 hour period off between jobs) that you must have 48/72 hours off. However, that time off may not be when an employee wants or needs time off. And not all jobs are counted. Deadheading is not considered covered service, so the time before, during and after a deadhead (terminal to terminal crew reposition, which we do a lot of) usually will reset the HOS clock. It's funny how many time a person on their 5th or 6th start will deadhead and reset.
We have personal leave days in stead of holidays in road service. We can use them whenever we want. That is, when we are allowed to use them. The company can deny usage when "manpower" needs are tight. And employees don't get all the PL days at once. There are 11 (BNSF was going to give some more out and the PEB recommends adding another) but you start out with 2 or 3 and more are added as you gain seniority. (I think you have to work 17 years to get all 11.) So the youngest have the least, allowed to use when the company says it's OK. We are also allowed to convert one or two weeks of vacation to single days for use before the scheduled vacation. Again, it's at the whim of the railroad whether or not you can use them when you want or need. That's something the railroads neglect to mention when they tell of all the time off available to their employees.
I will say I have it somewhat better. I work a road freight pool. I usually get more time off between runs at home, sometimes longer than I would like. Partly because we are not guaranteed, so they think that the pools will cover for the extra board when it's used up to cover dog catching or yard/local vacancies. Partly because they have been moving work away from my home terminal in favor of the long pool. Now we relieve a lot of long pool trains because some of the junk trains can't make the long pool run in 12 hours, but that's not figured in very often. We have more eastbound traffic coming into my home terminal and that means I deadhead a lot to the away from home terminal.
Still, when things are tight, even I can start turning on or nearly on my rest at home. Pretty soon half the pool or board is in federal rest requirement and those still working get pushed to the limit and will layoff however they can. Meaning those still working get pushed harder.
I think rest days (although I don't like our proposal's cycle, I think it should be a little different) would go far to alleviate this. It won't completely solve everything. There's always going to be shortages around holidays and certain almost holidays. Still some scheduled time off, even if the time off isn't the same every week is needed.
Ulrich but why is this an issue now? 24/7 on call has been around for many decades..
I'm not a RR employee, but the impression that I've gotten is that in addition to the "always on call" aspect that has been part of the job for years.....employee pool sizes have been reduced to cut overhead, meaning there is less flex in the schedule, and draconian attendance policy to enforce more demanding schedules.
The road pool here has been as an extra board, for years...and I guess that is becoming more the norm, than the exception. The second you are off duty, you are put back into the que to be called again as soon as your legally required rest is complete...(no more slack)
So it's like the part of the job that has always been a minus, has been amplified, while the good points are shrinking.
That's the way it looks to me, anyway
PSR is about scheduling cars, not trains. Making trip plans for each car and following those plans.
At least until the train the cars are scheduled to are maxed out and something else needs to be figured out.
What the railroads expect from employees is way, way, way beyond reasonable. If there is a strike, the RRs have only themselves to blame.
Still in training.
I think most people would understand that, but why is this an issue now? 24/7 on call has been around for many decades.. Probably it would have been even more restrictive back before smartphones, when people actually had to wait beside their landline phones. At least now one can go out and mow the grass or go for a walk around the block without fear of missing the call to work.. Not that 24/7 on call is much of a life either way.. Precision SCHEDULED railroading held out the promise of more predictable work schedules.. not sure what happened to that or why that hasn't happened. In this day and age no one should have to wait around for a call to work.. something resembling a regular work schedule should be possible one would think.
A lot of people are wondering why the railroad is facing a strike. It's not money folks, that's been ironed out already...It's quality of life issues. About 50% of railroaders are on call 24/7 unless they're on personal time or already at work. We don't have a schedule, there isn't one we are on call. After 16 years I get 3 weeks vacation and 9 personal days a year. That's it... About 30 days. And the railroad wants that to be scheduled. How do you schedule a funeral in October if it's only February? Schedule to take your spouse to the doctor? Most people get 2 days a week off, with 52 weeks a year that's 104 days plus two weeks so that equals 118 days off over the year. I get 30 for the year. The railroad is trying it's best to make us look like the bad guys here but we're not, we just want to see our family and live a little.
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