CSX "Diversity Express Engines"

[Anonymous]

Saw ones of these in Canjoharie NY. CSX does need some diversity because I can count the number of black engineers and conducters that I have met in my 30,000 miles of hoboing on one hand. The one I met last night was Jamacan and he was cool....They assinged him to the CN Massena runs because he could speak French

[AntonioFP45]

Sorry Trainfinder,

I'm a minority (Black Hispanic) member myself but I can't agree. [:0] As far as "Train Crews", CSX has been been making the effort to recruit minorities for years! I've met SCL and later CSX employees in the past two decades. Some tried to get me to apply as the money is there! But my family would have a lot of difficulty handling my hours away from home.

Remember also, that a lot of parents today, including minorities, actually "discourage their kids" from getting into ground transportation careers (big mistake!) as they think it's a career "dead end". [V]. I myself originally went into the banking industry back in 1981. I switched to the transit industry in 1982 and didn't look back! I went into education in 1997 and now enjoy sharing my transportation experiences with kids. [:D]

Guidance counselors in predominantly minority schools aren't much help either! Sorry if I sound like I'm stereotyping, but I'm an industrial tech teacher myself, and I would love to GRAB A LOT OF THESE PARENTS AROUND THE NECK AND YELL IN THEIR EARS:: STOP telling your kid that he's going to make it in sports, law, medicine or in the Olympics when you darn well know he's not!!!!!! Open the kid's mind to career opportunities that may be very fullfilling! Especially transportation!!!!!!

Not all, but many of the Caucasion American conductors and engineers come from "railroading families" that stretch back many generations, hence, the tradition is often passed on with pride. I've met some of these guys. They're decent and down-to-earth. [8D]

Some minorities graduate from the "Choo-Choo" schools, work, make good money, but don't stay for the long haul due to the unpredictable work locales and schedules. As those that do "dig in their feet" and succeed, they'll probably create "railroad traditions" in their families. There are Blacks, Hispanics, Women, and people from various other cultural backgrounds working locomotive cabs today and their numbers are increasing. [4:-)]

[Allen Jenkins]

Remember, You said "my family would have a lot of difficulty handling my hours away from Home." The transportaion industry, Airlines, Railroading, Ocean & Riverboat Shipping, The Trucking Industry, is the greatest distructive force against the Family Unit. As a Former Trucker, Railfan, Shipbuilder, I can tell you as an expert in the field of transportation, nothing else can give our children a "ticket," like a quality education. I am now into Medical Coding, as a student, at the age of fourty-five, after twenty-five years as a scab labor paycheck to paycheck life, doing the best job I could do in all fields, being undercut by under-acheivers, brown-nosers, and all the while I have maintained the belief in affurmative action, and EEOC, even though minority groups in Atlanta, proclammed no more AF is desired(for their minority, I guess). My Dad retired from fifty years as a Long-Distance Trucker, and was home on weekends, however I saw too many trailer doors fade down the road to help me when He was not there. Yes, somone has to do the work. But whenever I see that last piggy-back trailer, on the end of a intermodal, running sixty miles per hour, backward. I know the crew will be home, soon, and though that life takes it's toll, they've saved many a family from being away from home. Thank God for roadrailer. Allen Conway Jenkins Jr.

[CSXrules4eva]

I would have to agree w/ Mr Antonio here. CSX is diversified, I know a couple of minorities working for them. One is an engineer and the other is a Diesel Mechiniest. I also called CSX -T about their freight rail condutor program, and they said we're esp looking for women and people of color. SO this kinda gives me a hint that they do strive for diversity.

[edblysard]

Number one, they don’t assign engineers to runs, the engineer bids on the job based on his seniority...
And yesterday, all three engineers on our yard jobs were black, my helper/switchman is black, the other helper on the top end is from Honduras, his foreman is black, and the yardmaster was Mexican American...

Railroading is one of the few places where no one really looks at the color of your skin, but bases their opinion of you on your skills...

Ed

[csxns]

Yes down here most engineers on CSX and NS are minorities.

[CSXrules4eva]

QUOTE: Originally posted by AntonioFP45

Sorry Trainfinder,

I'm a minority (Black Hispanic) member myself but I can't agree. [:0] As far as "Train Crews", CSX has been been making the effort to recruit minorities for years! I've met SCL and later CSX employees in the past two decades. Some tried to get me to apply as the money is there! But my family would have a lot of difficulty handling my hours away from home.

Remember also, that a lot of parents today, including minorities, actually "discourage their kids" from getting into ground transportation careers (big mistake!) as they think it's a career "dead end". [V]. I myself originally went into the banking industry back in 1981. I switched to the transit industry in 1982 and didn't look back! I went into education in 1997 and now enjoy sharing my transportation experiences with kids. [:D]

Guidance counselors in predominantly minority schools aren't much help either! Sorry if I sound like I'm stereotyping, but I'm an industrial tech teacher myself, and I would love to GRAB A LOT OF THESE PARENTS AROUND THE NECK AND YELL IN THEIR EARS:: STOP telling your kid that he's going to make it in sports, law, medicine or in the Olympics when you darn well know he's not!!!!!! Open the kid's mind to career opportunities that may be very fullfilling! Especially transportation!!!!!!

Not all, but many of the Caucasion American conductors and engineers come from "railroading families" that stretch back many generations, hence, the tradition is often passed on with pride. I've met some of these guys. They're decent and down-to-earth. [8D]

Some minorities graduate from the "Choo-Choo" schools, work, make good money, but don't stay for the long haul due to the unpredictable work locales and schedules. As those that do "dig in their feet" and succeed, they'll probably create "railroad traditions" in their families. There are Blacks, Hispanics, Women, and people from various other cultural backgrounds working locomotive cabs today and their numbers are increasing. [4:-)]

Right on brother!!! My mom thought for years that because I was into politics as a kid that I would go to college for law, then run for an office. I did youth-in-government for 3 yeras while I was in high school, and eventually found out that public spaeking isn't for me. Also, my mother darn well knew I loved trains more than anything else, but it never occured to her that I could have a job in the railroad industry. I had to reason and tell her when I was in high school what I wanted to do and what I was GOING to do. She kind of flipped on me about it, ans as of this day we still have arugments about my career choice.

[TrainFreak409]

I've seen plenty of "minorities" at the throttle of CSX locomotives. Probably almost as much as I see caucasians in the cab.

Same goes for track maintanance crews, it is usually equal numbers when I see them.

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by CSXrules4eva

I would have to agree w/ Mr Antonio here. CSX is diversified, I know a couple of minorities working for them. One is an engineer and the other is a Diesel Mechiniest. I also called CSX -T about their freight rail condutor program, and they said we're esp looking for women and people of color. SO this kinda gives me a hint that they do strive for diversity.

Supposing that minority workers are scarce on CSX. Is it CSX's fault if a black (not politically correct, so sue me) person does not want to work on the railroad? Should CSX pay Negroes (think that is a swear word now) minority people more? That could equalize the numbers, but would it be fair? Where do you draw the line I don't see very many rich / white people out here as farm hands. Is this unfair? CSX is not refusing to hire minorities, so nothing should be done. Perhaps an equal number of women need to be employed as engineers? My point is that this is a choice by the minorities, not by CSX.
James[C):-)]
P.S. I don't hate blacks or any other race, just making side point, about political correctness, and how touchy people are.

[Murphy Siding]

Sarah: I read your profile and you're a sprint car fan! Now you don't find those all the time on a train forum.[8D]

[edblysard]

Sarah & Antonio,
Thanks,
Nice to hear that both a young person, and someone who sounds closer to my age both recognize that some of the problems black Americans face are of their own creation.

I caught a speech by Bill Cosby, and the theme of his presentation was basically that, as long as black people continue to sell themselves short, so will everyone else.
Taking responsibility for your actions, being a parent first, and then a black parent second, sounded pretty good to me.

Before anyone jumps on my opening statement...I think that as long as school counselors, parents, teachers and popular entertainers continue to impress on minority children that the only way out of the projects is to become a sports player, rap singer or comedian, then that is all these kids will aspire to.

And I don’t think that Mr. Cosby was only speaking to black parents and black kids, I felt he was talking to all the parents in the audience, and there were quite a few "whites" there.

When I went to work for the State of Texas, in the Office of the Attorney General, take a wild guess what race the Attorney General was....Dan Morales...Mexican American.
I worked for a Mexican American female office supervisor, with a black female team leader...in a division managed by an openly gay white guy!

Talk about diversity....

Fact is, although racism is still present in America, I have noticed that our kids are, by design or just by sheer indifference, slowly doing away with it.

Which gives proof to the adage that racism has to be taught, it’s not an inherent attitude.

At the railroad where I work, we have a Hispanic trainmaster, a Hispanic yardmaster, a black female engineer, over half of our engineers are black, and at least half of the T&E guys are black or Hispanic...some of them have college degrees, and still choose to railroad.

Twenty years ago, most T&E folks were white males, and most MOW guys were black...and you just about had to have "kin" working at the railroad to even get an interview, much less get hired.

Dads brought their son into the industry, so the black guys in the MOW brought their son into the craft, and the white T&E guys did the same.
But a funny thing happened, without any court order, or a lot of press...black males began to transfer out of the MOW and into T&E, and no one cared!

Because I trust my life every day to a black engineer, and a black switchman helper, who in turn trust their lives to me, middle aged white guy...after a few weeks of counting on each other that much, we forget to worry abut the color of our skins, and concentrate on working as a team.

We are lucky, because I think by the time my grand kids are old enough to vote, there will not be any boxes on job applications asking about race.

Remember, we live in a nation that was not founded on any one religion, race, or party; rather, it was built around a living document, one that makes no concession to race or religion, sex or nation of origin.

Read the Preamble, its part of an amazing document, one that you can read beginning to end in less than ten minutes, but lays out the framework for one of the few nations in the world where, if you are willing to work hard, you can become whatever you want to be.

I think when you label yourself; you limit your possibilities, and allow other to label you too.

What is sad is that we still seem to need the race labels, I note that both Sarah and Antonio used the qualifier “black”, and that I felt the need to refer to others as both black, Mexican American, white and Hispanic.

But there is a ray of hope here…I had to explain the term Hispanic to my middle daughter, Elizabeth hadn’t heard it before, or didn’t pay attention when she did, and it never occurred to her that her best friend, Maria Negrete, was “Hispanic”, she doesn’t label her friends by their skin color, or their race, she truly doesn’t see any difference.

My grandfather, who was a German Jew immigrant, impressed upon all of us that we were not German, nor Jewish, but Americans first and foremost, and that alone was all we needed to build the life we wanted.

Ed

[AntonioFP45]

Lotus, chll amigo.

No one here has jumped on the race card bandwagon demanding minorities be paid more. Pay is based on the job itself and raises pay increases come as specified in ratified labor contracts. Cut and dry. I agree that working for a railroad is a choice, not a political correctness mandate. I read a few years back where CSX, NS and other railroads went on recruiting drives-----targeting women and minorities. I became irritated when back in the 90s I saw that NOW, NAACP and ACLU groups were blow torching the railroads. The impression that I got from those events was that the real purpose was to enhance a left-wing political agenda. Yes, there's always some subtle form of discrimination and "reverse-discrimination" in corporations. Does the glass ceiling exist in SOME companies still? Yes! I've experienced it! But it's nothing on the scale that these groups were crying about. Eventually these political groups "moved on". Don't get me wrong, these groups have helped a good deal on legitimate discrimination cases, but today especially they do damage with some of their Hollywood "extremist" views and seem to want to "divide" this country. An example being that Colorado college professor who stated that the Twin Tower workers that died in the 9/11 attacks were oppressors and deserved it.---------------------- Sickening, indeed. Islamic terrorists are getting plenty of help from our soil.

In the end, it's actually the individual that makes the difference! Two of the worst bosses I've ever worked for: one a black female, the other a man who was white mixed with a native American group. Their races meant nothing to me----they were both JERKS with self confidence problems and very poor people skills. They didn't like the fact that I could see that. So do I condemn their ethnic groups or races? No.

Sarah CSXRule4eva - Hey Amiga, you stirred up some strong memories!

(btw: I'm 42). My parents, understandably, wanted to see me and my sister with doctor/lawyer/banker type careers. My mom had a hard time accepting that I was interested in railroading. While very loving, they didn't realize that their words had an affect on me. Made me feel ashamed.

After high school I went to work at a bank while I attended a junior college. I was bored and uncomfortable with the snobby employees I worked with. After I got laid off I went to the local transit bus company and after bugging them for 1 month straight, I was hired in the maintenance shop and stayed 15 years! Did I make good money? Well, I bought my first house at age 24.

So, stick with your dream. Don't buy into the "Status Trap" that so many people fall into. Yes, white, black, and hispanic. Don't fall deep in debt either. If your friends drive Lexus's and Escalades and you can only afford a Taurus good for you. Think long run. A friend of mine who is a mechanic worked hard and saved carefully while in his 20s. Today, he owns a gorgeous house in a quiet, pristine area. He still owns the silver Gran Marquis he bought 14 years ago. Still in tip-top shape! Now, as for his status concious friends? Fancy cars every 2 years, live in small apartments, and are deep in debt!

Peace!

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by Murphy Siding

Sarah: I read your profile and you're a sprint car fan! Now you don't find those all the time on a train forum.[8D]

There might be more of us racing fans out there than you think. I'm a sprint car and drag racing fan too! Of course You're from South Dakota and Sarah's from Pennsylvania, so y'all at least live somewhere where they have sprint car racing.
Most of this part of Texas is stock car country.



mike

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by AntonioFP45

Lotus, chll amigo.

No one here has jumped on the race card bandwagon demanding minorities be paid more. Pay is based on the job itself and raises pay increases come as specified in ratified labor contracts. Cut and dry. I agree that working for a railroad is a choice, not a political correctness mandate. I read a few years back where CSX, NS and other railroads went on recruiting drives-----targeting women and minorities. I became irritated when back in the 90s I saw that NOW, NAACP and ACLU groups were blow torching the railroads. The impression that I got from those events was that the real purpose was to enhance a left-wing political agenda. Yes, there's always some subtle form of discrimination and "reverse-discrimination" in corporations. Does the glass ceiling exist in SOME companies still? Yes! I've experienced it! But it's nothing on the scale that these groups were crying about. Eventually these political groups "moved on". Don't get me wrong, these groups have helped a good deal on legitimate discrimination cases, but today especially they do damage with some of their Hollywood "extremist" views and seem to want to "divide" this country. An example being that Colorado college professor who stated that the Twin Tower workers that died in the 9/11 attacks were oppressors and deserved it.---------------------- Sickening, indeed. Islamic terrorists are getting plenty of help from our soil.

In the end, it's actually the individual that makes the difference! Two of the worst bosses I've ever worked for: one a black female, the other a man who was white mixed with a native American group. Their races meant nothing to me----they were both JERKS with self confidence problems and very poor people skills. They didn't like the fact that I could see that. So do I condemn their ethnic groups or races? No.

Sarah CSXRule4eva - Hey Amiga, you stirred up some strong memories!

(btw: I'm 42). My parents, understandably, wanted to see me and my sister with doctor/lawyer/banker type careers. My mom had a hard time accepting that I was interested in railroading. While very loving, they didn't realize that their words had an affect on me. Made me feel ashamed.

After high school I went to work at a bank while I attended a junior college. I was bored and uncomfortable with the snobby employees I worked with. After I got laid off I went to the local transit bus company and after bugging them for 1 month straight, I was hired in the maintenance shop and stayed 15 years! Did I make good money? Well, I bought my first house at age 24.

So, stick with your dream. Don't buy into the "Status Trap" that so many people fall into. Yes, white, black, and hispanic. Don't fall deep in debt either. If your friends drive Lexus's and Escalades and you can only afford a Taurus good for you. Think long run. A friend of mine who is a mechanic worked hard and saved carefully while in his 20s. Today, he owns a gorgeous house in a quiet, pristine area. He still owns the silver Gran Marquis he bought 14 years ago. Still in tip-top shape! Now, as for his status concious friends? Fancy cars every 2 years, live in small apartments, and are deep in debt!

Peace!

I was just proposing a possible solution. I don't think that we should look at race when people are hired, like you said it is the person that matters. You have an excellent point.
James[C):-)]

[adrianspeeder]

Exellent posts Antonio, Ed, and Sarah. Couldn't agree more.

Adrianspeeder

[Anonymous]

Well....Now that I am thinking about it perhaps what I mean here is that the former Conrail-Penn Central-New York Central I see very few blacks.
I am just reporting what I see or dont see. I have seen 3 Blacks in 10 years of hobing on the NYC waterlevel route. Now I am sure there cold be more.. but....
thats all I have seen from Chicago-Albany-Boston

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by Peterson6868

Well....Now that I am thinking about it perhaps what I mean here is that the former Conrail-Penn Central-New York Central I see very few blacks.
I am just reporting what I see or dont see. I have seen 3 Blacks in 10 years of hobing on the NYC waterlevel route. Now I am sure there cold be more.. but....
thats all I have seen from Chicago-Albany-Boston

I don't see how that equates into an automatic assumption that the railroad is necessarily to blame.

The NS recruitment session I attended in march for the position of Train conductor had 65 applicants, 2 were black, 3 latino, 5 were women.

So, 55/65 applicants were white males...is THAT the railroads fault?

[Anonymous]

Once you hire out, it don't matter what color you are. It is all seniority! Antonio, you are a breath of fresh air to me! I'm so tired of "the white man is keeping me down," mentality, I could scream. It is very unfasionable to be white and racist today. It is accepted for people of ethnic desent to be biased though. I've seen this alot...........Not cool! It is accepted to have a Miss "latino," or "black," America Pagent. But if there was a Miss W.A.S.P. America pagent. The crap would hit the fan brother! The only colors that should be recognized in this country are red, white and blue.....Period!

[AntonioFP45]

Thanks Ironken.

I can't stand the hypocrisy that exists. I may be wrong, but to me, today's very slanted news media helps pu***his country's divisive attitude. Yes, both extreme left and right. Though IMHO, the extreme left does far more damage. Had these media people today been around in the 1940s we, no doubt, would have lost WWII.

I honestly hate to think this, but it seems that this country will be united if we (or when) we undergo another major terrorist attack.

[Anonymous]

I am just grateful that I grew up in a diverse neighborhood on the south side of Chicago. I had friends of various backgrounds and the color of one's skin has never been an issue for me. As a kid you don't look at the world in stereotypes and I belive it gave me a great advantage over people who live in very isloated enviornments. In my experince I have found CSX to be very diversified, and like several of the RR's have mentioned folks on the RR are judged by how they do their jobs not what they look like. Unfortunately, ignorance is what prejudice feeds on. Those people among us who don't know, don't understand, won't listen, don't care are the problem.

[AntonioFP45]

Right on the money, N_Stephenson!


Antigates:
Have to say that the BNSF train you're using as a signature is absolutely neat!

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by AntonioFP45

Right on the money, N_Stephenson!


Antigates:
Have to say that the BNSF train you're using as a signature is absolutely neat!

Glad you like it...thanks.