Union Pacific Corp. Chief Financial Officer Robert McKnight said Thursday in a conference call with analysts following third-quarter results, that 2019 workforce levels are expected to be down "slightly more than 10%" from 2018. Given that the railroad company had 41,967 employees on average in 2018, that would imply a workforce reduction of "slightly more" than 4,197 employees to less than 37,770.
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@2any: You're correct when you point out that PSR already existed, but the current trade policies have caused noticeable damage to the transportation sector, especially freight rail. I'm not justifying what UP has done or defending them, because they have other tools available to deal with the problem; they just won't use them. Only they know why.
All of that is child's play compared to the Trump administration's current labor policy, which is the most anti-union since the 1890s. His steady stream of appointments of anti-union corporate lawyers to the federal bench is also a big part of that, as are his appointments to the NLRB and his secretary of labor. Look it up if you don't believe me. It's easy to check.
Agreement, and many non-agreement, still support him because they know PSR was a knife in our backs before any of Trump’s trade policies ever did anything to affect UP. This is a private equity money grab, plain and simple, and was not motivated by any macroeconomic factors or based on Trump trade policies. The company was making money and the wolves came to feed.
@2zts: If you believe that then tweet him and ask him to tell UP to change their personnel policy. Be sure to let us all know how it works out for you.
While you're at it see if you can ascertain why the majority of agreement employees still support him, even though his trade policies led directly to UP cutting (mostly agreement) jobs and the subsequent loss of many of their livelihoods.
He (Trump)does affect everything, on a macro level. The Large scale trade war is having a negative on one of the railroads' main source of income. Which does affect us on a micro level, being we're railroad employes.
Can we....not bring Trump into everything constantly? Seriously. The president (no matter who it is) has almost nothing to do with the daily life of the average person, and the current one neither knows nor cares anything about the nations railroads.
The last president who knew anything about the railroads was Grover Cleveland, and we know how that went....
If Trump does not deliever this trade deal PSR will be gone and the entire exec mgmt will be terminated. Lawsuits will be paid, and all employees fired and laid off will be paid. There is an Class Action Lawsuit for all employees that have been fired under level 5 from 2015 to 2017. Lawsuit is suing Union Pacific for all back wages, and lost earnings. Its amazing how Lance is not speaking on this 1.3 billion dollar lawsuit and how the attorneys keep resetting it. You will cut the check Union Pacific one way or another you will pay dearly.
Hopefully even with less employees they keep the same amount of free UP hot dogs that way we can go back for seconds. I’m making sure not to close the door on my hand so we can have another safety feed.
Well....I can tell you with certainty that they don't have enough people to handle what traffic we have left, so reducing it by another 2/3 is going to require them to drive their traffic into the ground even further to mirror the labor reduction
When UP2020 was rolled out, the stated goal was a 30% overall reduction in the UP workforce. Assuming that the 2018 workforce numbers that the OP posted are correct this equates to a final workforce of 29,377 employees. That is a net loss of 12,590 jobs company-wide, meaning that UP is about 1/3 of the way to their goal.
It is safe to say that the bleeding has only just begun, because the only way for UP to reach their stated goal is to layoff workers in larger numbers and more frequently. Their current strategy of making many small cuts isn't going to deliver the numbers that they want when they want them.
Everyone working at UP who isn't sitting in the C-suite should be actively looking for another job if they aren't already.
With all the bad news I was motivated to apply for a different job. I have an interview on Tuesday and sure I will get the job. I would like to thank the wonderful Trump for this great economy that has created many job opportunities and making it possible for us fed up workers to move on to different jobs. This RR thing is a JOKE!
Actually he said they are 13% down from 2918 with another 2% to go in the 4th qtr, First analyst ? Was man power reduction projection for 2020, CFO STARED ANOTHE 6% is expected
Actually according to third qtr cinference call Wall Street analyst the number the cfo used was 5,709, you can listen to archived call on union Pacifica investors section on their website
And yet they wonder why they can’t get anything repaired, have reliable power to pull freight, or get train consist built on time, running shops shorthanded is working out really well for them.