Thread regarding Union Pacific Corp. layoffs

As posted before, they're going to cut until they nick an artery and bleed out. When that happens, Fritz and Vena will walk away with millions. Anyone that might be left will be responsible for turning the company around.

@fkw they are already starting to contract out departments. MoW has zero job protections and are already seeing it. So are Supply, Facilities, Car, Intermodal. UP has facilities everywhere that they own but are 100% contracted. Contracting may not always be cheaper but it reduces headcount and some liability.

About half as many as autonomous with no crew.

If you take at look at CN and CP who have both gone through this process I think you get a good idea of where the remaining cuts would be coming from. Both CN and CP cut management to the bone. Just look at what Hunter did when he took over the CSX he cleaned out the Headquarters.

@fkw: That's a good point. Contractors (in any industry) are rarely a more cost-efficient option, at least if anyone is looking beyond quarterly labor expenditures. In many instances, such as for specialized repair and maintainence work, they could end up costing the company even more money for the services rendered over the long term.

One problem among many with UP seems to be that nobody with any real power is thinking much further ahead than the next fiscal year. For a company with such a large and expansive infrastructure that makes up a major component of a critical sector of the US economy, such short-sightedness will likely prove disastrous.

They want to make things more efficient and save money. Contracting out will not make thing efficient, however it may reduce risk but I don’t think reducing risk is what they are after. If they contracted out all the locomotive maintenance, how many Electricians or contractors are available or capable of troubleshooting or fixing Locomotives or PTC problems that are not already working? Easy on the grammar Pirates ! I am a machinist

I could see them contracting out all the mechanical work. Also how many jobs are gonna be lost to 1 man train crews.

@wug -They want to contract out the work 100%. (Scabs are picket line crossers even though it sounds better) Wait until this round of contract negotiations. They are going to go for the jugular. I’ll bet we lose almost all of our job and work rule protections that deal with employee numbers.
Op- I think they are already more more than 33% there because there was a sizable reduction in 2017 as well.

@oeg.... no I think you misunderstood what I was saying. Try reading it again.

@wug: that isn't what the OP said. The post says they are 1/3 of the way to their goal of cutting 30% of the total workforce company-wide. The numbers all are broken down in plain form. Try reading the post again.

If they cut another 2/3 of their workforce, they're gonna have to scab out the work or there won't be enough employees to keep up. Ain't happening period.